Give me Pizza!

I know summer time is a time for eating light salads and such but every now and then you just gotta eat

PIZZA!  

And I'm not talking about the kind you buy in a box (unless of course you live in Chicago, then go right ahead and pick up the phone!); No, I'm talking about homemade delicious pizza!

A few years ago I developed a recipe for pizza that my family and I love:  Iron Skillet Pizza.  It is a thick crusted pizza but because of baking in an iron skillet the crust is just perfect!  I shared the recipe on my friend's recipe blog but I decided it was time to share it here:

Ingredients:
Pizza toppings of choice
1 cup shredded pizza cheese or mozzerella cheese
1/4 - 1/3 cup bottled pasta sauce (such as Prego)

2/3 cup warm water 

1 Tbsp Oil (I use canola oil)
1/2 tsp Salt 

1 1/2 cups all purpose or bread flour
1 tsp SAF Yeast (or any quick rise yeast)

Combine 3/4 cup flour, salt and yeast. Add water and olive oil. Stir to make a smooth batter. Gradually add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface for a 2 minutes. Let dough rest approximately 20 minutes (unless you are in a hurry as I often am then just skip ahead to rolling out the dough and putting into a hot skillet). 

While dough is resting, heat oven to 450 degrees. Once oven is hot, put about 1 to 2 Tbls vegetable oil into iron skillet and place skillet into oven to heat up. Once skillet is hot remove it from oven and make sure hot oil is spread evenly around pan. "Roll" dough into a circle. I don't use a rolling pin, I just push and pull it out by hand.   Once dough is the size of the skillet, place dough into skillet and push sides up slightly. Spread pasta sauce across dough, add toppings and cheese. Bake in 450 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes until crust is golden. Remove pizza from skillet, cut and enjoy!

One pizza will serve two people so I usually quadruple the dough recipe and make four pizzas so we can have leftovers.   At least one pizza is always pepperoni, one is vegetarian with mushrooms, zucchini, and fresh tomatoes,  one will be ham and pineapple and the fourth usually ends up with whatever I have left.  However if I really planned ahead then one or more of these pizzas will have sweet Italian turkey sausage on it.  So delicious!  

I only own two iron skillets so 2 of the pizzas must wait while the first two bake and the dough never has any trouble waiting the extra 15 minutes.  These pizzas are worth cranking the AC a little and heating up the kitchen!

And for those reading this who sew, there are still a few days left to enter here and win a Sidewinder of your very own.