If you’ve always wanted to make homemade pizza but are afraid of the complexity, it’s time you tried it. It’s not that difficult. Plus, you get to fine-tune all the flavorings just right.

Here’s a recipe you can try.

Ingredients

  • Pizza dough (enough for two 12-inch pizzas)
  • Olive oil (2 tsp)
  • Sugar (2 tbsp)
  • Water (warm, 1 and ½ cups)
  • Salt (1 tsp)
  • Dry yeast (2 teaspoons)
  • Flour (3 cups)

For the toppings:

  • Cornmeal
  • Mushrooms
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Tomato sauce
  • Peppers (use red chili if you like)
  • Sausages
  • Onions
  • Chopped basil
  • Ham
  • Onions
  • Pepperoni

You’ll also need a baking sheet and a pizza stone. A pizza wheel isn’t necessary when cutting homemade pizza. But it will make slicing easier.

Create the Dough

Put the dough in the electric mixer bowl. Pour in the water. Add some yeast. Stir until the yeast has melted.

This should take about 5 minutes. Put the mixing paddle on the mixer. Put in the salt, olive oil, sugar and flour.

Turn it to low and mix for a minute. Take off the paddle and put a hook in place. Knead the dough at low speed. Keep going until the mix becomes smooth. This should take 10 minutes.

Put some olive oil in another bowl. Make a ball of some of the homemade pizza dough and put it in this bowl.

Roll the dough in the oil. Wrap the bowl and dough with plastic.

Set the oven to 150 degrees and shut it down. Put the bowl there. Let it rise and grow twice in size.

Making the Pizza

Insert the pizza stone into the oven rack (at the third). Preheat the oven (450 F for an hour). Take off the plastic from the bowl.

Press the dough until it deflates. Cut in half and make two balls. Put them in separate bowls.

Wrap plastic around it and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Adding the Toppings

Get the ball of homemade pizza dough. Put flour in the cooking area. Press the dough.

Make it half an inch thick. Stretch it. Let it rest for 4 minutes and stretch again.

Keep repeating until it gets to 12 inches in diameter. Level the edge of the dough with your hand.

Add the olive oil to the dough. Make a few dents on the dough as you spread the oil. Allow it to rest for five minutes. Add some cornmeal. Put the dough on the baking sheet.

Sprinkle the tomato sauce. Add the cheese, pepperoni, onions, and other toppings. Put some cornmeal in the baking stone.

Slide the pizza from the sheet into the baking stone.

Baking

Bake for 15 minutes. A sign that it’s baked is when the crust turns brown. By this time the cheese will have a golden hue as well.

You can also spray some more cheese a couple of minutes before the pizza is baked.

That’s it; you just finished making a homemade pizza. Just repeat the process for the other dough.

Soon enough, you’ll be adding other kinds of toppings and sharing them with your friends.