My Life in Paragraphs

Pizza for our family is a family activity where we spend time together making homemade pizza together. Using our pizza stone we can bake or grill our pizza which I love. It made sense to try our hand at making pizza dough that incorporates our love of herbs in a yummy and easy recipe.

Dough or specifically my grandma’s Thanksgiving croissant rolls are really complicated which is why I was really nervous about trying my hand at pizza dough. One Thanksgiving I made them successfully but have failed miserably to replicate the yumminess ever since. I was surprised at how easy it was to make pizza dough.

I make a double batch of the dough with each batch making 3 dough balls for a large pizza and freeze the extra. This recipe is a slight alteration to Paula Dean’s.

5 cups of all purpose organic flour

2 packages of active dry yeast

2 cups of warm water

1 tablespoon of honey (Paula uses 2 tablespoons of sugar)

3 tablespoons of flavored olive oil (garlic and basil olive oils are my favorites)

3 teaspoons of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

4 tablespoons of assorted herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme and oregano)

Add your warm water and dry yeast to a large mixing bowl. Let your yeast sit for a few minutes until it’s foamy. While you wait, chop your fresh herbs. We pull these directly from our herb garden off of our patio (seen above in the cover photo).

Add in your honey, salt, pepper, herbs and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Once your yeast is foamy, add in your flour using your bread hook on your mixer. Add in small batches over time and knead together. Pick up your dough with your hands. Make sure it can be rolled into a ball. Add up to 1/4 cup of flour if needed, if the dough is still too sticky.

Once your dough is in a ball, coat it with the remaining olive oil to give it that additional blast of flavor. Place your dough back in your mixing bowl, cover it with a clean towel and leave it in a warm place for 1-2 hours allowing it to rise. We use our kitchen griddle and turn it on 150 degrees for 5 minutes allowing the bowl to get a little warm. It makes the dough rise higher and quicker.

Separate the dough into three sections. Each batch will make 3 large pizzas. I place the extras in plastic baggies and store them in the freezer for later use. This makes for quick and easy pizza making with your guests or family.

The honey is a great way to limit your sugar intake. I substitute it for sugar in things like our french toast and homemade smoothies.

We like to label our dough balls and have fun trying new herb combinations. Just this week we made a batch of garlic olive oil with basil, chives and thyme. It was so tasty!