Quick & Easy Homemade Pizza Crust

I'll be honest, any time the word yeast pops up in a recipe, I immediately move on. In my mind, yeast translates to waiting around, and if you lack patience - which I always do when I'm hungry - 'waiting around' isn't an option.

Lucky for me, the hubby has a bit more patience, and decided to whip up this crust one night for supper. I was shocked at how easy it was to make, anddddd the fact that it only takes 20 minutes. I mean really, it'll take you that long to prep the toppings! For this recipe recap, I topped our pizza with pesto, chicken, mini heirloom tomatoes, artichokes, shallots and mozzarella - but the possibilities are endless. Definitely one of the best tasting crusts I've had. Apparently, 'yeast' isn't such a bad word after-all!

FYI this is yet another delicious recipe, courtesy of the Looneyspoons!



Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour (I substituted Multigrain Flour)
• 2 tbsp Flax Meal or Ground Flaxseed (I used ground flaxseed) 
• 1 pkg (8g) or 2 1/4 tsp Quick-Rising Yeast
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2/3 cup very Warm Water
• 2 tsp Olive Oil
• 2 tsp liquid Honey
• 1 tbsp Cornmeal
• Olive Oil cooking Spray

Instructions:

1) In a medium bowl, combine both flours, ground flaxseed, yeast and salt. Mix well.

2) In a measuring cup, add warm water, then stir in the olive oil and honey.

3) Pour oil mixture over dry ingredients and mix using wooden spoon to form a ball.

4) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 minutes.

Look at me go!

5) Clean your bowl (or get another medium bowl), coat it lightly with oil and place dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until double in size, approximtely 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, spray a 12-inch pizza pan with olive oil and dust with cornmeal. Then get moving on those toppings!

20 MINUTES LATER 

6) Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. When dough has risen, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and, using a rolling pin, roll dough into a 12-inch circle.

Ta-da!

7) Quickly/carefully transfer dough to the prepared pizza pan. Make any necessary adjustments so the pizza dough fits perfectly in the pan.

8) At this point you can top your pizza and bake it for 15 minutes (this was the option I chose) OR prick the crust in several places, bake untopped for 6 minutes, remove from oven to add toppings, then bake for an additional 8-10 minutes directly on the rack.

So many tasty possibilities!!

Side view of the yumtastic crust!