Pizza Night

I know pizza is not necessarily "baking" like my other posts, but I have a fondness for bread baking that I would like to share. Pizza dough is easy - somewhat fast - and able to be made in large enough quantities to feed your friends (or family). It has become something of a tradition to have our friends over for pizza night, and though it is a lot of work, I love to do it because it makes our friends happy. The dough we make is pretty delicious. Michael's family has been making it since his dad got the recipe in college (which is where I learned to make it). Michael and I have been making this recipe for a few years now, and though it was tough to replicate Dana's mastery in the beginning I think we have done a pretty good job. I had been wanting to write about pizza night for a while now and this past Friday was a good opportunity. I think there were only 8-9 of us eating and they are all seasoned pizza making professionals. I only made 2 dough recipes and halved them to make 4 smaller 10" pizzas. I've included a lot a pictures this time to narrate the night. We also made dessert pizza which doesn't happen enough (another dough recipe split in two) thanks to Rebecca and her love for Nutella.

Some tools I recommend are the dough scraper/cutter and the Zyliss brand pizza slicer. The pizza slicer works really well, much better than the traditional wheel cutter and it's easier to hang onto and clean.

We nominated the boys to turn the pizza -Jay's landed on the ground so he and Emily had to eat the "dirt pizza."

Michael makes perfect rounds. He has had a lot of practice though. We have found it easier to pre-bake the crusts before adding toppings because they cook faster - and since the dough is fairly thick they don't end up doughy in the center if there is too much sauce etc.

Michael and Christina make mashed potato pizza and Ryan and Katelyn make pepperoni with half mozz. and half soy cheese.

Sarah is really artistic when she makes pizza - and although she uses more sauce than most of us her pizzas are really tasty (and pretty).

Waiting for pizza to cook.

The pizzas: pepperoni, and mashed potato with bacon and broccoli.

The "dirt pizza" turned out well with salami, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese. Also pretty.

Rebecca wanted to make dessert pizza like I said before. I usually make the dessert pizza with a sugar cookie base and cream cheese/fluff sauce with fruit, but Rebecca wanted to use Nutella and I didn't want to make a sugar cookie base (it was easier just to make another dough). So we came up with two - one with fruit and one with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and orange zest. They were both delicious though the one with chocolate chips was so sugary it made me feel sick after eating a slice.

We all had a good time. Thanks friends for always making delicious pizzas! If you want to see the rest of the pictures from pizza night you can go to my picasa page. If you are interested in knowing the secret dough recipe email me.