In a pinch

Today I had the kids all pumped up to make pizzas for lunch, I had a tube of refrigerated pizza dough that had to be used up, and with NO other groceries in the house, pizza was our only option. I peeled back the corner wrapper on the can and a much louder than normal explosion occurred (does anyone else hate opening those things? Scares me every time) well, this time it really popped loudly and sprayed little bits of pizza dough shrapnel around the kitchen. I took one whif of the remaining dough and declared it unfit for human consumption. It was nasty and sour smelling. I tossed the dough in the trash can and wondered what in the world I could do with 3 hungry kids and a less than an hour before the kindergarten bus arrived. Pizza was my only option, so I ran to my computer and found a recipe for quick pizza dough. Normally I like to use whole wheat in my pizza dough (this is coming from the lady that was just about to use dough from a tube, so take that for what it's worth) but I found this recipe and just went with it. I made several modifications to the recipe and have to say I was really pleased with how it turned out. The dough was ready to bake in 10 minutes! It was pretty tasty for a 10 minute pizza dough, and infinitely better than the dough in a tube, I'm keeping this recipe on file for the next time I'm looking for a quick easy lunch.

Quick pizza Dough (adapted from cooks.com)

Makes 4 12" pizzas. Or enough for me an my 3 hungry kids for lunch.

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450 degrees.

Scant tablespoon of instant yeast

1 cup lukewarm water

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 tsp. salt (the cooks.com recipe didn't contain any salt, it definitely needed it)

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Mix all the ingredients with a bowl and wooden spoon until everything comes together, turn dough out onto clean counter and knead for 2 minutes, adding a bit of flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking. Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces, use a piece of parchment (not waxed!) paper, and press one of the pieces of dough onto the parchment paper, press it as thin as you like, I prefer thin crust pizza, but if you like a thicker crust, it's good that way too. Spread with sauce and add cheese and toppings. My kids love to make their own pizzas...

(my dessert pizza)

Slide the pizza onto the hot stone to bake and check after 10 minutes, you want the bottom of the dough to brown, or the pizza will be soggy (yuck!) These pizzas turned out better than I had anticipated for a 10 minute dough. The original recipe had you use a regular cookie sheet for the pizza and not a pizza stone, but I made the first one this way and was not pleased with how soft the crust was, It definitely needed to be baked on a hot stone.

Oh, and the last pizza I make is traditionally my "dessert pizza" I dot the top with butter and cinnamon sugar. I probably used 2 Tablespoons of butter and 2-3 Tablespoons of cinnamon sugar. YUM, sometimes when I'm feeling really crazy I'll make a cream cheese dip, but it's really good just like this.