First Pizza Oven Party

My sweet, talented and wonderful son is still editing my pics from our special Saturday, but I wanted to blog of the wonderful things that happened, and so, here we go.

We invited the whole family to celebrate Doran and Danyel's special day. I went back and forth on what we would eat, and decided that it was a perfect chance to try out our pizza oven on a large scale. So, Friday night, I began, KitchenAid Mixer a mixin'. I used the following recipe for my whole wheat pizza dough (remember, three of my dearest treasures, Adam, Grace, and Joshua, were here, so I have to maintain some semblance of health!)

Pizza Dough

5 cups whole wheat flour (my son, Morgan, spent a long time grinding my wheat into the best flour, and I store it in our fridge for such an occasion. So, though job kept Morgan away from us today, his spirit lives on in our pizza crust!)
1 Tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 Tablespoons olive oil...good ol' Costco stuff
2 1/2 cups tap water

Put the honey and yeast, with 1 cup of the water in the mixer bowl and let stand for 5 minutes. Then, turn on the mixer and add the oil, salt, and flour-1 cup at a time. Then add the water. Start with 1 additional cup, and then add till your dough pulls from the side of the bowl, but still is moist. Then, stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Start the mixer again for about 5 minutes, adding water or flour as needed to make a nice dough. It needs to be a little wetter than bread dough usually is. It should be able to come out of the bowl, but be a little sticky.

The recipe said to divide in four portions, I divided into five, and, I think next time, I will make it into six or seven. I put each portion into a zipper sandwich bag that had a little olive oil in it. Put the bags into the refrigerator (or if baking later, the freezer- they should be good for almost a month)

Remove them from the refrigerator about an hour or two before you need them, to let them come to room temperature. Then, let everyone have their own bag and have at it. Some rolled their dough with a rolling pin. Most added flour. Then top as you like. Grace wanted a macaroni and cheese pizza, so the dough was pressed by a kind Aunt Danyel, and then covered with Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Otherwise, top with your favorite sauce, cheese, etc. These were baked in our wood pizza oven for about 20 minutes.

There you have it...and all seemed to like them, though, as I said, next time, less dough per bag!