Garlic Bread Pizza Dough with Homemade Pizza Sauce

Homemade Pizza

    Fridayor Saturday nights around here are usually pizza nights. I didn't feel like calling out for pizza so I decide to try making my own pizza crust and pizza sauce. I've tried a few different pizza crusts and they were just never very good until now.

    This crust is made in the bread machine. I love my bread machine! You just throw everything in, plug it in, press a few buttons and you are done. The machine does all the work for you. No kneading to checking the temperature of the water so the yeast won't die. If you don't have a bread machine, seriously you should consider getting one.

     Anyways this crust is a garlic flavored crust. It also has Parmesan cheese in it. It smells divine while baking and tastes even better. The crust has such a great texture. It's not doughy nor is it crispy. It has an almost bread like quality. I know that we will be making this crust again.

Yum,yum!

     I also experimented with making my own pizza sauce, because of course I never have pizza sauce on hand unless I specifically know I'm going to make pizza. This time I was making pizza on a whim, so I need pizza sauce without having to run out and get some.

     I just used a can of diced tomatoes, tomato paste and some seasoning and tada! I had pizza sauce. Of course I had to get the blender out to puree it in, but it worked great and it even tasted better.

     As far as toppings go, put anything you like on the pizza, just remember that pepperoni goes on top of the cheese. Also I found baking the crust on a cookie sheet to work the best. I tried it on a stone and not so good results. The center of the pizza was not cooke all the way through.

Garlic Bread Pizza Dough
1 1/4 C water
3 T vegetable oil
1 t salt
4 C all purpose flour
1/4 C grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 t garlic powder
2 T Italian seasoning
1 pkg of rapid rise yeast

Put all the ingredients in the bread machine pan in order. Make a little well in the flour for the yeast. Select the dough cycle on your machine and let it do it's thing.
Once it is done mixing remove from the pan onto a floured surface and knead it a few times. Divide into two even pieces and roll out each into a pizza. Once you have the desired size place it on your pizza pan or cookie sheet and add sauce and toppings. Bake at 400 for about 17 minutes.
Recipe from thetipgarden.com

Homemade Pizza Sauce
1-14 1/2 oz can of diced tomatoes
1- 6oz size can of tomato paste
1 t sugar
1t oregano
1 t basil
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t lemon juice

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour sauce on pizza crust and add your toppings.