BIG Pizza Crust!!

The other day I was in the mood for a big. thick. pizza...John and I have a few places around town that we eat pizza at, but I knew this was going to be an "eating at home" night...So I went online and searched for "pizza hut crust recipe" and my afternoon began.

I have a good crust recipe, it's simple, it's healthy and it always turns out.  But I wanted a BIG one!  I remember my mom often made us pizza using a 9x13 cookie sheet.  And since our little family of 3 can pound a large pizza in one sitting, I thought this would be the way to go.  I found a website with a lot of variations and with a couple of tweaks, the following recipe has made it onto a permanent recipe card filed away in my recipe box!

I know it looks like a lot of steps, but once you've made it once you'll be super confident!  I start this at about 3ish to have a 5:30 dinner.  About 20 minutes of hands on time.

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

1 packet of yeast

2 Tbsp oil (I use evoo)

1 cup of milk (warm)

1/3 cup of water (warm)

4 cups of flour 

1. Mix salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl

2. Add water and milk, wait 2 minutes for yeast to dissolve

3. Stir in oil

4. Add flour 1 cup at a time and stir until dough forms

5. Knead dough on a floured surface for 10 minutes (this is where I throw some freshly chopped rosemary into the dough, you can add anything or nothing!)

6. Lightly coat ball of dough ball in oil and put in a bowl, covered with a towl, to rise in a warm spot for about an hour or until doubled in size.

7. Get your pan ready, pour in enough oil to coat the bottom.  I used 1 9"X13", but you can use 3 9" rounds.

8. When your dough is ready, work it into the pan, it won't quite reach the edges, so after you've done what you can, throw the towel back on and let it rise for another 5-10 min.

9. Spread it to the edges and top as desired!!
10. Cook on 450 for 10-15 minutes, keep an eye on it towards the end till you find out what works in your oven.  450 is h-o-t and it can burn in a flash!

This makes a giant pizza with nice thick crust.  It was deeee-lish!

 This is how big the dough gets after about an hour in the window of the hottest room of our house.

 This was after I spread it out, but then I set it in the garage (covered) for about 10 more minutes to let it get just a little fluffier.

And this was our dinner!!!  It was so yummy...and totally customizable!  Go nuts!