Friday Night Pizza Night

Traditions are funny things.  Have you ever wondered how a tradition became a tradition in the first place?
In this instance, I already know the answer, but I still find it fascinating.

Two years ago we started remodeling our house; with a heavy focus in the kitchen.

Trying to prepare meals for a family of 6 is arduous even in the best of times.   Add in a DIY remodel that we were devoting essentially all our free time to and it balloons into a nightmare.

In the thick of the remodel, I resorted to running down the street and grabbing a few frozen pizzas every week.

This quickly morphed from an occasional thing into a weekly expected thing.
However, there is only so long one can survive on crappy pre-processed food before you start to rebel.

I tried several different crust recipes before I came across one which replicates Pizza Hut deep dish crust.

It is both a blessing and a curse!  Now we can have homemade pizza for MUCH cheaper than we could buy but the curse is that my family doesn't even like frozen pizza or pizza from a restaurant anymore!  They all want this.

The good news is, the recipe is very simple!

Copy cat Pizza Hut pan pizza crust

1 envelope of active dry yeast

1/4 cup powdered milk

1 Tb sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1 1/3 cup warm water (105 F°)

2 Tb vegetable oil

3.5-4 cups all purpose flour

Pour yeast, powdered milk, salt and sugar into a large bowl (preferably a stand mixer) and stir together.  Add warm water and wait 2 minutes to activate yeast.  Add oil and stir.  Then add 3.5 cups of flour, put on your dough hook attachment and turn on low.  Once all ingredients have been incorporated, turn mixer to medium (I have a KitchenAid stand mixer and set it to level 4). Allow dough to knead for a few minutes and then check it.  

If it is still sticking to the bowl, add a little more flour and knead again.

Remove dough from bowl and form into a rough log.  Divide dough into 3 separate balls.  

Using a rolling pin, roll each dough ball roughly into an 8 inch round.

Take your 8 inch round pans and pour a little vegetable oil in the bottom, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

Place your dough in each pan and spray the outer edge with cooking spray.

Take your pans and place them in a cold oven.  Put a small pan of boiling water in the bottom and turn the oven on to 400°F for ONE minute!!

After one minute has passed, turn off your oven and leave the door closed.  You have just turned your oven into a proofe!.  Allow dough to rise for an hour.

Remove dough and heat oven to 475°F

Assemble pizza with your preferred sauce, cheese and toppings and bake for 10-12 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Remove, slice and enjoy!!