Homemade Pizza is easy and fun to make, and can be a healthy meal…

…For a yummy, tasty choice, what more can you ask for?

You can make a healthy wheat, thin crust, thick crust, or airy crust like these…

Plus, you can make your pizza from start to finish, faster than you can order a pizza and have it delivered.

And, who doesn’t love pizza? 

It puts a smile on most faces.

And we all can use more happy LIVING in our practical lives 😊… so in that spirit, I’m gonna lean on my fun side today.

Fast, fresh, healthy, save money, fun to make… are you in?

If you are, then keep reading, and I’ll walk you through homemade pizza-making with healthy ingredients. 👇

First, you don’t need a kit. To make homemade pizza, you just need two simple ingredients you already have in your house (or can easily get) to make the dough. And 4 ingredients if you want a bigger crust rise and a little salt.

Homemade pizza needs no long prep time like pulling out ingredients in advance, like in other baking recipes. It also has an advantage over bread making: you don’t need to wait for hours for the dough to proof.

Making homemade pizza dough needs only a few minutes. You can simply prepare, bake, and enjoy in less than an hour.

If you’re not a planner this can be a winner. But then again, you’d probably buy store-bought or order delivery. …but then that would be no fun, and you wouldn’t get the healthy, homemade pizza. 🎉

So I’ll assume you’ll give it a try at least at some point.

Here’s how to make homemade pizza…

Before you do anything, there is one area to plan. You should consider what you’ll add on top of your pizza crust.

If you load with gobs of cheese, then you’ve added fat and dairy (…that isn’t always a bad thing as cheese has vitamins, calcium, other minerals, and satisfies cheesy craving…).

But this recipe is healthier so we’ll go with fresh or buffalo mozzarella cheese, like on a Margherita pizza. It’s one of the healthier (less greasy) cheeses.

Now you’re ready to start and pull out all your homemade pizza ingredients.

Instant yeast. I buy the small Red Star packets. The yeast balls look like microscope-tiny, perfectly round khaki brown color beads.

Water. 1 cup warm or room temperature tap water is fine. You may want to experiment as you know what they say about the famously delicious New York pizza crust (the rumor is that it comes from the water).

I’ve used seltzer and filtered water for pizza crust, and I find tap is still the best all-around.

Flour. You have options.

How to choose which flour to use:

If you use a mix of regular all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour, then your dough will be less sticky. And if you use semolina flour for your bench flour, then that will help your dough from sticking to the metal pizza pan you use. Another reason to choose whole wheat flour is the slightly higher, healthy fiber content. There are also gluten-free options.

In total, use about 2-1/2 flour total, but you will need more when you’re working with the dough. You get better with practice and experience. You may be able to later eyeball how much you need.

…Can you tell, I’m not into measuring (more fun) unless it will be a disaster otherwise. In the beginning, measuring is always advised.

Salt. 2 teaspoon table salt. You can use a little more salt if you use sea salt or if you plan to use fresh mozzarella (or buffalo mozzarella) that doesn’t have as much salt as some other cheeses.

Optional: 1 tablespoon EVOO (helps with adding taste and less sticky dough)

Here are the 5 easy steps (broken down in detail):

Step 1: Make the pizza dough.

 

Add the yeast to water and let it settle/dissolve for about 5-10 minutes. The mixture will have a milky color and consistency. Set aside.

Separately, add the flour or mixed flours of choice to your mixing bowl (I like half and half whole wheat and regular or all-purpose flour). Add 1 teaspoon salt or you can use 1-½ teaspoon sea salt (if you want to use non-iodized salt as I use). Then add EVOO if you’re using, and the water-yeast mixture.

Dough by hand method: You can make the dough by hand, and if you do it that way, I’d recommend creating a neat flour mountain on a shallow baking pan where the flour won’t stick to everything (like glitter) and cleanup is fast. Can you tell I was a Martha Stewart student? 😉

…Or if you prefer, just be yourself (always the best option!) and have fun with making a mess with flour all over your kitchen counter. You’ll get there all the same.

Then add a dip in the middle of the mountain where you would add the liquids, like you may have seen or done at home making pasta the old-fashioned way (except there are no eggs needed in pizza making).

Dough with machine (recommended): It’s easier to use a mixing machine with the dough hook, like the Kitchen Aid mixer (I have a pink Cadillac color one… Paris Hilton and I have something in common, lol).  

With a machine, in a few quick minutes, the dough should be ready. You’ll know when it’s done when it’s not too dry, and not too wet, and has some good elasticity. Pizza dough is forgiving and is only part of the pizza pizzazz (say that 10 times).

Remember to scrape down the flour from the sides of the mixer. As you’re waiting for the dough to finish mixing, generously flour your pan. I recommend a mix of coarser semolina flour and regular all-purpose flour for the bench flour.

When it’s ready, pull the dough out of the bowl. You’ll be able to form a small ball with the dough, and you may need to add more regular flour on the outside if it’s too sticky. Form a dough ball and let it rest on the pan you’ve floured. Leave it sitting or resting at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Note, you don’t even need a plastic wrap or another container you’d have to clean like in bread making!

Step 2: Prep the toppings and the sauce.

While the dough is still resting, I get the topping ingredients ready.

I open the tomato sauce can (many restaurants use San Marzano tomatoes that I recommend), and I add finely chop anchovies with a serrated knife to the sauce as my secret ingredient (that’s not a secret anymore). It adds salt and another flavor dimension (or you can just add a teaspoon of salt to the sauce if you prefer a saltier-tasting pizza). Tomato sauce is usually too sweet, or at least I think so. I like my sweets, sweet, and my salt, salty. Not going to ask you to repeat that. 😊

If you are using fresh cheeses like buffalo mozzarella, slice the cheese into smaller bits. And if you use basil leaves, wet them a little like with a wet paper towel as they will settle a little better on the pizza. Alternatively, you can use spinach leaves like I use as healthy-alternative inspiration.

For any other wet ingredients like black olives, drain any excess liquid and dry them with a paper towel if you need to (as that would be a damper to your pizza… sorry, I couldn’t resist. Today is a fun day.).

By the time you finish this step, your pizza dough should be ready to work with.

A quick back story: I used to be a pizza maker (or pie maker as they referred to) as a teen, and for the busiest Domino’s Pizza not in the country, but in the world (yes the world! that is becoming smaller every day). So, I make the dough the way I learned from the modern pros! We used to crank out 300 or so pizzas in an hour as a team during the busy football nights, and during the 30-minute guarantee years (you probably don’t remember!). Our heads were down but it was fun energy in the shop! [OK back to the business of making your homemade pizza]…

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