In the Mood for Pizza?

Sometimes you just want a pizza.  Everyone likes pizza, and everyone also has their own opinions about it.  Besides the thin crust versus thick crust debate, you can probably debate on hundreds of other issues.  Meat lovers or veggies?  White sauce, red sauce, pesto sauce - hell I've even heard a case for no sauce!  I do have a soft spot in my heart for no-frills, cheap, Papa John's cheese pizza - but last night I was in the mood for something a bit fancier and perhaps not quite so bad for you.

I made my own pizza dough from Martha Stewart's recipe from Everyday Food.  I don't actually own this book but I found it online here.  I'd like to know if this is legal?  Publishing peoples recipes for all to see on the internet without paying for them... Maybe this will be the next of the big internet copyright issues... like Napster for foodies.  Anyways until I hear otherwise this is what I did....

How to Make Martha's whole wheat pizza crust:
In a large bowl, combine 1.5 cups warm water with 2 packets of yeast.  Let it stand for about 5 minutes, then add 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 cup of olive oil - whisking it together.  Then slowly add 2 cups of whole wheat flour, and 2 cups All-purpose flour.  Wow you just made dough!  But its not ready yet - let it sit for an hour.  The recipe suggests transferring your dough to a bowl greased with olive oil, and then greasing the top of your dough as well - I did follow this step but I have a feeling it just created an extra dish to wash.

After your dough has doubled in size knead it on a well floured surface for a minute until smooth.  I then used a rolling pin and rolled it to fit a baking sheet.

Then you get to the fun part - putting on your fave toppings!  We made a half and half pizza.  On the first half we put some store bought pesto, sliced tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella.   Then on the second half we put tomato paste (I know totally generic - should've made my own sauce), shredded cheddar and mushrooms.

Then we baked it at 400 F or 200 C, for approximately 13 minutes.  And we got this...

Yum.  The dough was pretty thick so if you fight for the thin crust team then you could obviously just use two baking sheets and roll it out to your desired thickness (and cut baking time down a bit).  Making your own pizza is easy and fun and best of all you can make it exactly the way you want it.  What's not to love?