Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Mama's Pizza




In my spare time, I make homemade pizza crusts not just for myself, but also for my children and my ex. I make them personal pan size so they are just right for a quick lunch, supper, or snack. I have found the tastiest pizza sauce at Food Lion called "Mama Mary's." Then I buy the pepperoni and cheese at Sam's Club in the 5# bags and freeze in containers. Pop one in the toaster oven at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. That's all there is to it! I tell you, these are really good!!! When dieting, I substitute one of these for a roll, as that's all the dough there is in one of these crusts, really no more than a roll or slice of bread. (Plus, we all cheat a little when dieting!)

I love to bake most everything except cookies, but bread is my favorite thing to bake. My son gave me a Breadman bread machine a few years ago, and I just love that thing! I don't care to actually bake the bread in it, though. I use it strictly for making the dough. From start to finish, it only takes me a little over an hour and a half to make a batch of these crusts. I would like to share my recipe for the dough with you.

1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt (optional)
2 Tbsp. oil
4 cups flour
1 pkg. Fleischman's Dry Yeast

Heat first 4 ingredients in small mixing bowl on High in microwave for 1 minute. Pour into bread machine pan. Add the flour. Make indentation in top of flour with spoon. Pour dry yeast in center of flour. Set machine on dough setting. 1 hour 20 minutes later, the dough is ready to be made into crusts. Divide dough in half, and make 6 balls of dough from each half. On Air-Bake cookie sheets, lightly sprayed with Pam, form each ball of dough into a pizza crust. I make mine bread-and-butter-plate size. Bake at 400 degrees in preheated oven for approximately 8 minutes. I bake one sheet while I form the remaining 6 on another sheet. Cool thoroughly on cooling racks. Store in plastic storage bags in refrigerator. They freeze well, too. Yield: 12 crusts. ENJOY!!!

3 comments:

Diane said...

Yum! I can tell everybody first hand that these pizzas are incredibly good! Of course, Nancy bakes THE best bread in the world. I never want to learn to master bread because I wouldn't be able to get out the front door! LOL It's one of my weaknesses. I get a "fix" occasionally from Nancy.

Mississippi Songbird said...

Thanks for sharing. I love the idea of the personal pan size. I'll have to do that. Have a wonderful day...

hippo chick said...

I'll have to give that information to Jim. He's the baker in our family. You are amazing.