I want to share a recipe that is a family favorite here in the Farmer home. This recipe was given to me by a dear friend and we have been making it every week since. Chances are if you have ever come to our home for dinner you have eaten this pizza with us. We think "pizza bar" as we call it is a fun way to share a meal with friends or a great way to get your kids involved in the kitchen. When we have people over we usually set out any topping you could think of to put on a pizza and then allow the creator to create their unique meal. Pizza is also a great way to morph leftovers into something exciting, for instance we had honey baked ham for Christmas and we were tired of eating it as is so I brushed the dough with BBQ sauce rather than pizza sauce spread fresh mozzarella, pineapples and ham for a Hawaiian inspired pizza and you can do this with just about anything.

Pizza Dough

2 1/2 C Flour
1 TB Sugar
1 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp garlic powder
1 Pkg Yeast

Mix dry ingredients in a Kitchen Aid with the hook attachment and then add
1 Cup warm water
1 TB olive oil
1 tsp. honey

It should clump into a ball around the hook but if it doesn't don't be scared to add a bit more flour to help it ball up.
Next take it out of the mixer and put it on a piece of wax paper that has been dusted with flour, knead it for a few minutes and then separate it into two balls. Place each ball onto the pizza sheet you will baking it on and put a little bit of oil down, stick it in the oven on warm for a few minutes and then turn the oven off and allow it to rise in there for 45 minutes. Once it has risen take it out of the oven, put a bit of corn meal on the sheet and then roll it out evenly over the sheet. Put pizza sauce down, freshly grated mozzarella and then whatever your hearts desire.
Bake @415 for 20 minutes.

* We freshly grate our cheese because packaged cheese has cellulose and that's just nasty! I promise there is a big difference. Go ahead and grate all the cheese and place what you don't use in a freezer bag for later use.
* We have our pepperoni freshly sliced at the deli. It is far different from the thick and chewy packaged pepperoni.
* We use Pastorelli Gourmet Pizza Sauce
*Another style I like to make is brushing the dough with pesto and then places Mozzarella balls and freshly sliced tomatos and once it is done baking top it with fresh basil.