Easy, Tasty Pizza Crust

After going through dozens of recipes for pizza dough, and having nothing but pizza problems, I finally came up with a good recipe that works and it's easy with little kneading!

To further ease the pizza problems, sprinkle your baking pan liberally with cornmeal so it doesn't stick.  And for a tastier crust, sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the crust after you brush it with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
I'll also be showing you my recipe for my awesome pizza sauce! Don't waste money on the stuff in the store! It's so easy to make at home and really not much more trouble than opening a can and your herb bottles!

I piled mine high with ham, pineapple, cheddar and mozzarella! YUM

In this recipe, I DO use the parmesan in the plastic tubular containers. (crowd gasps) I know! But really! The stuff DOES seem to add a certain tang and flavor to the crust that I can't seem to get with real parm.

This makes 2-12-inch pizzas, I made three personal size and two child size pizzas

On to the recipe!

• 1 pkg or 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast
• 1 cup hot tap water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• Extra virgin olive oil for brushing
• parmesan cheese in a tub
• cornmeal for dusting your baking sheet
• my easy, yummy pizza sauce 

Run tap water in a large glass bowl until water is hot. Dump out and put 1 cup of hot water into the bowl. I find warming the bowl helps.
Dissolve yeast in the water and let sit a minute.

Add sugar, salt, oil and whisk well.

Add half of the flour and beat well (use a wooden spoon or your mixer with dough hooks), until there are no lumps.

Gradually add the remaining flour.

Mix with dough hooks or kneed 5 minutes, or until dough starts climbing up the hooks, pulling away from the bowl, and isn't sticky.

 Dust your hands a bit with flour and your board. Separate dough into balls according to how many and what size pizzas you're making.

Sprinkle your baking sheet liberally with cornmeal and press the dough into rounds:

 Put onto baking sheets and press down a little.

Let rise about 20-30 minutes or so. Press down if you want a thinner crust and brush your pizza crusts with olive oil and sprinkle with real parmesan cheese, if you wish.

Then slip into a preheated oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.  I like to precook my crusts to ensure they'll be done in the middle.

You can cook them until done and freeze for later use, or start topping your pizzas! 

ohhhhhhhhhhhh mama! I made mine a Hawaiian! I was just missing some olives!
I baked this about 15 minutes or so, until it was hot and bubbly!