A couple of times a month, usually Friday or Saturday night, my family has make your own organic pizza night. The mister makes the dough, prepares the toppings and helps everyone get those perfect round pizza dough shapes. He also makes me my very own homemade organic focaccia – it is amazing. Eben has a lot of fun spreading the pizza sauce and decorating his pizza with all of the different toppings. His favorite toppings are organic cheese, onions, green olives, black olives and tofu pepperoni. Sometimes he likes to make his look like a face which just makes me smile. It is a super fun tradition that we all look forward to and enjoy. It is so popular that whenever Eben has a friend spend the night, one of the first questions that they ask is, “Are we going to make our own pizzas tonight?” Shortly followed by, “Are we having Root Beer floats?” On family pizza night, we usually rent a family movie or watch a Nature program while enjoying our yummy homemade pizza.
Want to start your own Family Pizza Night?
What you will need:
- pizza dough recipe (see below)
- organic spaghetti sauce
- cheese of choice
- pizza toppings
- rolling pin
- pizza stone and pizza cutter
- stand mixer (not necessary, but highly recommended)
- 1 tbsp organic cornmeal (to sprinkle on the pizza stone before adding your dough)
- cooling rack
What you will need for the pizza dough:
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 package organic yeast
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 tsp. organic olive oil
- 3 cups organic whole wheat flour
- garlic salt, oregano and basil (if you are making focaccia)
Preparation:
1. If you have a pizza stone, heat it on the bottom rack in the oven at 500° for 1 hour. {If you don’t have a pizza stone, preheat the oven to 500° and cook your pizzas on a cookie sheet.}
2. To make the dough, dissolve yeast in warm water (105-115°), add salt and olive oil in a mixing bowl.
3. Let dough sit for 5 minutes then add the flour.
4. Mix the dough (we use a stand mixer, on low/medium speed with a dough hook) until it makes a firm but elastic ball. When you poke it with your finger, it should be pliable but not sticky. If too wet or too dry, add flour or water in 1 tsp. increments until you reach correct consistency.
5. Put the dough in a lightly greased and covered bowl to rise until it doubles in size. approximately 50 minutes)
6. Divide into 2 dough balls and roll flat with a rolling pin, then place on pizza wheel covered in cornmeal, add your sauce and all ingredients.
7. Bake the pizza at 500 degrees until hot and gooey (approximately 7-8 minutes)
8. Place the pizza on a cooling rack to cool.
Sweet Greens FocacciaThe above pizza dough recipe, drizzle organic extra virgin olive oil all over a pizza dough round, sprinkle with garlic salt, dried oregano and basil. Bake at 500° for approximately 7-8 minutes.
