Making homemade pizza is easy and healthy. This crust is sweet and delicious, with a rolled edge crust. I make it special using Indian flour. Durum atta flour is an ethnic wheat flour from India, whole wheat but with a light, golden, delicious flavor. You can find it at any Indian grocery, or most any ethnic or Middle Eastern grocery store, too. It is very affordable. I store it in the freezer for optimum freshness and longevity.
You can make your pizzas your own way with your choices of toppings, a fun activity to do with the kids. You can make two 12″ crusts from this recipe, or make smaller crusts for everyone to have their personal pizza to “decorate” with toppings. (My youngest once decided to top his pizza with broccoli and cheerios!)
Mixing the dough
Pizza Mia Homemade Pizza
- 4-4.5 c durum atta flour
- 2 T bread machine yeast (it rises faster)
- 1 c milk
- 3/4 c water
- 1/2 c oil (I use sunflower oil)
- 4 T honey
- 1 t salt
- Pizza Sauce or buy a can or jar premade pizza sauce (amount to your choosing)
- Shredded mozzarella cheese (amount to your choosing)
- Toppings of your choice, if desired.
Preheat oven to 400* F.
Heat milk, water, oil, honey, salt in a saucepan on stovetop, at medium-low heat. Meanwhile, mix together 2 c of the flour with the yeast in a large bowl (I use my KitchenAid). Once the milk mixture is the temp of very warm bath water add it to the flour mixture. Mix for 3 minutes with KitchenAid on “Stir”, or about 100 strokes by hand for each minute by electric mixer. Add remaining flour and use the kneading hook for about 30 seconds or so, just until it is a blended dough (or knead by hand). Place the bowl with the dough ball on the back of the preheating-stove, the bowl covered with a damp dish towel, for about 10 min. Punch down dough on a floured surface and separate into two balls. Roll each ball out to about a 14″ circle of about 1/2″ thickness. Place each crust on a 12″ pizza pan, or use around or rectangular stoneware pizza stone. Roll in the edges about 1″ to make crust edge. Pierce the middle of the dough a few times with a fork. Place the pans back on the stovetop to rise for about 20-30 minutes.
dough rising
adding the cheese
Spread pizza sauce on dough. (I just drop a few spoonfulls onto the dough and then smear it around with the back of the spoon.) You can also use pesto sauce or a white sauce, if you prefer rather than traditional red sauce. Top with shredded cheese and your toppings. Bake at 400* F for about 12 minutes, or until golden. The crusts will puff very slightly. I bake them one at a time. You can sprinkle with a bit of oregano before serving. Slice and enjoy! Sorry there isn’t a photo of the finished pizza…it was eaten too fast! ; )
