Homemade Pizza ~ Chicago Style Thin Crust Pizza

Saturday night is usually pizza night for us. We either go out to our favorite little spot which has pretty good pizza or we stay home and I make a pizza. The thing that makes our favorite little spot is really the people we’ve made acquaintances with there that bring us back. It’s always the same group of people on Saturday night so it’s almost like having a gathering with friends. You start to care about these folks.

Last night we decided to stay home, though. I make the crust from scratch. The recipe I use says to divide the dough in half to make two pizzas but I use the whole thing for one crust so it’s a little thicker than a thin crust pizza. I also make my own sauce. I’m not going to share the recipe on my sauce yet because it seems like I make it different every time depending on the taste as I’m making it. I also use the tomatoes I canned from my garden.

Last night, Allan couldn’t stop telling me how delicious it was and that this was the best pizza I have ever made. I’ve been making pizza for a long time and I also felt like it was particularly good last night. We have left-overs for today, too!

Look at the yeast! I found a lot of satisfaction in how my yeast turned out, LOL!

This dough is made in the food processor ~ easy!

Time to cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1.5 hours

Makin’ the pizza sauce!

I’m using Crimini Mushrooms ~ I slice them real thin so the water from them evaporates while cooking and doesn’t make our pizza watery.

I always shred my own cheese because it melts better than the pre-shredded stuff in a bag. There are additives to prevent clumping in the bags that affect how it melts.

Oh no! More dishes ~ I must pause and clean this up!

I have a dish washer, but I never use it…..

The dough has risen! Quite nicely, too!

My crust is never totally round, we’ll just call it artisan 🙂

Top with my sauce

Walmart gave me the wrong pepperoni, it was suppose to be turkey pepperoni to match the little bit I had left from last time but they gave me real pepperoni which actually tasted pretty good!

Cooking at 500 degrees and I’m going to cook it for 5 more minutes….

Voila!

Here is the recipe, it’s from Cook’s Country:

Pizza Crust:

• 2 ½ cups (12 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Cornmeal

1. Process flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in food processor until combined, about 3 seconds. With processor running, slowly add cold water and oil and process until dough forms sticky ball that clears sides of bowl, 30 to 60 seconds.
2. Transfer dough to lightly oiled counter and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Shape dough into tight ball and place in greased bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature until almost doubled in size, 2 to 21/2 hours. One hour before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, set baking stone on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees
3. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter, divide in half, and gently shape each half into ball. Return 1 dough ball to bowl and cover with plastic. Coat remaining dough ball lightly with flour and gently flatten into 8-inch disk using your fingertips. Using rolling pin, roll dough into 12‑inch circle, dusting dough lightly with flour as needed. (If dough springs back during rolling, let rest for 10 minutes before rolling again.)
4. Sprinkle pizza peel with cornmeal. Transfer dough to prepared pizza peel and carefully stretch to return to 12-inch circle. 
5. Top with your sauce, cheese and toppings
6. Cook on the stone for 10-15 minutes

Just some quick notes on things I did a little differently:

• I use the entire dough, I don’t cut it in half.
• I punch down the dough before I transfer to a piece of parchment paper on the counter (lightly floured).
• I don’t roll the dough, I shape it with my hands/fingertips on a piece of parchment paper.
• Once the dough is shaped how I want, I brush with olive oil, sprinkle with cornmeal, take a second piece of parchment paper, put it on top, put one hand underneath and one hand on top and FLIP so the olive oil/cornmeal side is on the bottom (makes it crispy) and remove the layer of parchment that is now on top that used to be on the bottom.

Now, I must go and finish up my English Muffins from yesterday!

I am looking for some inspiration on other toppings I can put on our pizza. We also like bacon/mushroom/jalapeno pizza. Let me know in the comments about your favorite pizza toppings!

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We are participating in the Inspire Me Monday Blog Hop over at Create With Joy where there are all kinds of inspirations going on. Check it out!