Any pizza can be a personal one if you cry while you eat it.

Aparna Nancherla

There are two things in this world I am almost 100% sure about: 1.) that my dog completely owns my existence, and 2.) that all pizza is good pizza.

Ok, so I know pizza is a contentious topic. People arguing over Chicago or New York style, pineapple yes or no, what kind of oven you need to use to bake it. for me though, I’ve never had a pizza so horribly bad that I couldn’t finish it. May it be bagel or pocket, thin crust or thick, deep dish or Neapolitan, delivery or DiGiorno. I like all styles and I’ve had bad versions of each, but I still always eat it.

Ok, so this might be a personal bias since my brothers all worked in pizzerias one point in time

I think a lot of people can actually agree with that. Who hasn’t been helping a friend move or be at some undergraduate dorm event and just mindlessly ate some mediocre pizza. Like, humans just love pizza. We’ve been eating versions of it since ancient times (I’m looking at you flatbread with cheese and topping on it! You’re just pizza without sauce!)

The best part about pizza is that you can literally make it homemade super easily. Not in less time than delivery (well, depending on the recipe) and but it will taste better than frozen. No shame if you eat a lot of frozen pizza, though. I eat a lot of frozen pizza. A LOT. I recommend thin crust DiGiorno or the fancy Publix store brand, cause I’m from Florida and I love Publix. Go to Publix.

So. Pizza dough. What’s it’s deal?

Pizza dough is a lean dough, meaning its got minimal ingredients, very little fat, and don’t require a lot of kneading. It gives you a crusty exterior and a light and airy interior. Sound familiar? Pizza dough! or bagets or no-knead bread.

Enriched dough is the opposite. It gets a lot of attention kneading and rising wise, has more fat, and results in a softer crust and a tender dough. Think sandwich bread or cinnamon roll dough, which I recently made.

Now, the basic requirements for a pizza dough are:

1 pack active yeast, sugar, water, and flour. That’s it. Maaybe some cornmeal for the bottom of the pizza and a little olive oil in the dough for flavor.

For specifics you can find a lot of great recipes online. For a quick, 30-mintes or less option look here at Joy Food Sunshine. I used this one recently, it takes literally 30 minutes to throw this one together. My dough came out a little bready and a bit thick, but it made a sturdy and reliable crust.

If you want a recipe that let’s the dough rise and makes a less bready and a more flavorful, at least in my opinion, crust try out the always reliable Sally’s Baking Addiction

This pizza was kind of a last minute thing. I used the Joy Food Sunshine recipe because it was already 7:00pm and I knew it would make a good quick crust. Sadly, the mushrooms I had in my fridge had already gone bad, so I made the unique zucchini and onion pizza, haha.

A few days later the bread-making bug struck again, so I made pizza for the second time this week. Don’t judge. For this one I used the dough recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, since I had more time to let it rise. I also remembered I had a pizza pan. and had time to buy actual normal pizza toppings.

~win~

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So crispy. So cheesy. So pizza. I went with a spinach garlic mushroom pie, cause vitamins. The crust is definitely less bready than the first, but that quick recipe is no slouch! I’d definitely recommend giving both a try!

So yeah. It was a pizza kind of week. The drop cookie challenge of the week is coming, just got a bit sidetracked this week!