Pizza Dough

For the last six years our so we have been really into making our own pizza. However, we were not so ambitious as to make our own crust until very recently. We found a recipe and thought we would give it a shot but had little expectations it would turn out well on our first try. It ended up turning out so well and was surprisingly easy to make. I don't think we will be able to go back to making pizza using Trader Joe's premade crust. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups water

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup water. Stir in a 1/2 cup of flour and mix well. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let it rise until it's foamy, about an hour.

Mix in the remaining water, flour, and salt and beat well.

When the dough starts to form as you're mixing, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and supple, about 15 minutes.

Place the dough in a large bowl, dusted with flour, and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise until doubled, about 2 or 3 hours.

Deflate the dough and separate it out into two equal pieces. Bring one piece out to a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to half of its final size. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Stretch out the dough with your hands or a rolling pin until it is slightly larger than your pizza pan (room for the crust). Put dough on the pan, evenly spread some tomato sauce around, and form the crust. Add desired toppings, and bake for about 10 or 15 minutes, or until the crust becomes crispy.

For an even tastier crust, once it has been formed but before you put pizza in the oven, brush some olive oil and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on the crust. It's super easy but really brings the pizza up a notch. 

Side note - we often play around with different toppings but our favorite toppings are normally goat cheese and olives.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 26 oz can spaghetti sauce

1 14 oz can petite diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups ricotta cheese

1 egg

9 whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (divided)

1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese (divided)

In a large skillet brown the ground beef. Once browned, drain any excess grease.

In a large bowl stir together the spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, salt, ricotta cheese and egg. 

Add in 1/2 cup of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of Parmesan. 

Add about a half cup of meat sauce to the bottom of the slow cooker (or however much it takes to cover the bottom of the slow cooker). Top with a layer of lasagna noodles. You will likely need to break up some of the lasagna sheets to make them fit. Continue layering this way until you have used all of the noodles. Top with the remaining sauce.

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 5 hours or until noodles have reached a desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Cheddar Potato and Broccoli Soup

With the weather changing I have been loving soup lately. I found a recipe for potato, broccoli and cheese soup and decided to make it with some modifications. I was surprised how easy it was to make. It was very hearty and delicious and was perfect accompanied with some homemade pretzel rolls.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 1/2 - 3 pounds cubed potatoes

5 cups boiling water

4 cubes chicken (or vegetable) bouillon

3 cups fresh broccoli

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz block of cheddar cheese, shredded (we used white)

In a large pot or dutch oven, saute the onion in the olive oil. After a couple of minutes add in the garlic and saute. 

Add the potatoes, water and bouillon cubes. Cover, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. When there is 8 to 10 minutes left on the potatoes, add in the broccoli and recover the pot.

Once the potatoes and broccoli are cooked, spoon them into a food processor, blender, or Vitamix. Blend until desired consistency is reached.

Put soup back into the pot and season with salt and pepper. Add in the cheese and serve once it is melted and mixed in.

Enjoy!

Homemade Pretzels

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make a snack to eat while we watched an ASU game. We had been talking about making homemade pretzels for a while so when I found this recipe and knew it would be a winner. It was so good and fairly easy that I ended up making a second batch a couple of weeks later.

Ingredients

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (not warm enough to burn your finger if you put it in the water for 5 seconds)

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oils

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

kosher salt, for topping

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and the teaspoon of sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand for about 10 minutes. The mixture should be foamy (see picture below).

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, the rest of the sugar, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. You will likely need to add a few tablespoons of water while mixing.

Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 or 8 minutes. Put dough in a lightly greased bowl and flip dough around so both sides are lightly greased. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about an hour.

Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape or a knot.

In a large bowl, dissolve the baking soda in 4 cups of hot water.

Dip each piece of dough in the baking soda solution and place on either a greased or tin foil covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle with desired amount of kosher salt.

Bake at 450 degrees between 8 or 10 minutes or until brown.