pizza saturdays

it's standard practice at our house to have homemade pizza on saturdays when we can. it's one of my favorite things about the weekend, and i look forward to it all week. mom used to make pizza nearly every saturday, and i remember learning how to make dough, and helping to chop toppings and "decorate" the pizza. i make mine with whole wheat crust, and we each get to decorate our own with our toppings of choice (veggies for me, pepperoni for mike). yummm.

whole wheat pizza dough
(makes enough dough for two round pizzas)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp dry active yeast (or one package)
1 T olive oil (mom used oil, but i skip it and don't notice a difference)
1 cup lukewarm water
3 cups flour (you can use all white, but i use 2 cups all-purpose and 1 cup whole wheat flour. more than that seems to make it too dense and hard to stretch on the pans)

directions: put salt, sugar, yeast and water into a large mixing bowl, and allow yeast to activate (about 4 minutes). add oil and flour and mix until it forms a ball. cover and let sit in warm place until double (45 minutes or so). *note: i use mom's trick of turning on the oven at 350 degrees for 1 minute and then turning it off - this makes a nice warm place for the dough to rise.* remove cover and divide dough into two balls. spread on pan and allow to rise (this is when i normally do my topping chopping). top, bake (20 minutes at 405 degrees is what i've found i like best), and enjoy!