"Homemade Pizza"

If anyone knows me, they know I could eat pepperoni pizza every meal for the rest of my life. Or, at the very least, those meals that aren't substituted w/ a homemade half pounder burger, topped w/ rotel cheese dip and homemade BBQ, toting a side of home fries.....though, I digress.

As I was saying, I love pizza. It's a fault according to Megan, but I'm cool w/ it.

Given my propensity to enjoy pizza, I started trying to perfect my own. While Domino's is good stuff in a bind, the pizzas found at pizzeria's across the country are the one's I've tried to emulate.

As such, I thought I'd share my dough recipe with ya'll. The dough makes or breaks the pizza, IMHO, though a lot of credence should still be allowed for the right red sauce and cheeses - both of which are beyond the scope of this thread, and quite secret I might add.

This isn't perfected, yet, but I like it enough to tell ya'll about it. It's forever evolving I guess, but started with a bread recipe my mom serves w/ homemade BBQ ribs of all things. It's grown (or, regressed would be more appropriate) from her recipe.

Crunchy Pizza Dough:

- 2 cups of All Purpose Flour
- 1 1/4 cup of luke warm water
- 1 package of Fleishman's yeast
- 4 heaping TBS of EVOO
- 3 heaping TBS pure honey
- pinch of salt (hard to say, small bit in hand)

In a small bowl, whisk the water and sugar until dissolved. Much like making a beer, you need to feed the yeasts. Once dissolved, add package of yeast, EVOO, salt, stir all in, and let sit for 15 min (or more if you can).

Once done, you should see what's called a "starter". Add flour to this and stir in. I'm not good at the water - flour ratio, so I go off feel. If I think it's too thin, I add more flour, too thick, a bit more water.

Cover with a towel and let sit overnight -- yes, it takes planning.

Next day, turn oven on BAKE to 450. This temp gives a crunchy finish, if you like a bit more "fluff" to your crust, cook at lower temps. While oven is heating, knead in a few handfuls of corn mill. Cover cooking surface (either a stone or pizza pan) with a little EVOO and corn meal, and flatten.

While the dough is cooking, melt some butter - REAL butter not that margarine crap - in a sauce pan. Around the 12 minute mark, give or take, take the crust out and wash the entire thing w/ the butter. Place back in the oven until cook through and golden brown - usually at least another 10 minutes.

Once cooked to crisp, add toppings and enjoy.....My version of a perfect pepperoni pizza: