Prep Time to Get Pizza Dough Ready:  15 minutes  

Letting the Dough Rise Time:  The more hours the better…minimum of three hours  

Prepping the Toppings Time:  15 minutes

Throwing dough to make a pizza:  about 5 minutes   

Adding the toppings time:  ‘Bout 3 minutes

Cooking Time in the oven:  9 to 12 minutes

Total prep and cooking time to amaze your friends and family (also known as hanging out time and impressing time):  Making the dough is lonely time…do it earlier in the day or even the night before your Homemade Pizza Party.

The fun time is when you start rolling out dough in front of all your friends, slapping the toppings on and sliding fresh pizzas into your oven…each Pizza is good for about 12 to 15 minutes of drama, followed by an hour or so of stuffing your face.

Experience Level needed to pull off WOW Factor:  You can be a newbie though getting the dough throwing will take a couple of practices to perfect.  It is OK to grab the rolling pin!

How many people can you serve:  One batch of the dough recipe below will make 2 thick crust Pizzas or 4 thin crust Pizzas.  They will be from 8 inches to 12 inches in diameter…when you get really good at the pizza dough thing and want even thinner crusts…you can get 6 to 8 pizzas from this recipe…it’s a gluten thing…the looser the gluten…the skinnier you can get the crusts.

Tools Needed:
To make Homemade Pizza…you’ll need a couple of tools you may not have around the house if you have never made pizza before…one is a pizza stone and the other is a pizza paddle.  Everything else, you should have.  It’s good to have 2 Pizza Stones, one to leave in the oven, and one to have to transfer and cut hot pizza on before you serve it.  One paddle is plenty.  You can get both from just about any kitchen and bath store or local big box retailer…or a used restaurant equipment supplier might have them for a couple bucks each.

Dough Ingredients:

2/34 cups +/- Whole Wheat Flour…we want a nutty flavor and texture from our BBQ’s Pizza!

1 Tsp Honey

1 Yeast…some of that yeast that comes in those little square packets

1 cup Warm Water

1 Tbs Olive oil

1 Tsp Kosher salt

Toppings Ingredients:
The world is your Oyster!...Wait…I’ll have to try oysters on our next Pizza! 

Seriously, use any toppings you desire for your BBQ Pizza…Chicken, Bacon, Ham, Apples, Pears, Peaches, Caramelized Onions, Fresh Tomatoes, Goat Cheese, Asiago Cheese, Salmon, Sun dried Tomatoes, Pine nuts, hot sausage, Oatmeal..yes, I said oatmeal, Jalapenos, Roasted peppers, black olives,  chunks of Yellow Squash, slices of Pumpkin…have enough of each topping you want to spread on each pizza before they go in the oven.
Hopefully…you get the gist…I think dirt will taste good on BBQ’d Pizza so try that too.

You are going to need some  Yellow Corn Meal…couple of teaspoons should do….Corn meal is to put on the Pizza paddle so the Pizza slides off right onto the hot Pizza stone…it acts like little corn ball bearings.

And of course…the Coup- de-grace…Sweet Life BBQ Sauce from Sweet Life Sauce Company as your sauce…no tomato sauce on this pizza!

Directions:
Pizza dough making:
You’ll have to get the pizza dough going first.  This is a great “Get your Kids involved” part of the Recipe... they will have a blast.  So here goes…at least 3 hours before your big event prepare your dough.  The recipe we have provided can be doubled quite easily, though let each batch do its own thing in a separate bowl.  Mix the warm water…like 70 to 75 degrees, yeast, olive oil, and honey in a glass bowl and mix it all up with a fork or stirrer thingy.  You want the yeast to start getting “active” and preying on the sugars in the Honey.  Let it sit for a few minutes.  Look for a bit of foaming to start on the surface…this is an indication that the yeast is doing its job.  If you don’t get the foaming, the yeast may not be doing what it is supposed to do and your dough will come out quite dense.  We don’t want that.

Mix your dry ingredients together while the yeast is getting it groove on.  You can sift it if you like, though not necessary.  Start with 1 ½ cups of flour in a bowl.
Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff and take it slow, stirring and mixing the water wet and dry together until you use up the rest of the flour until it gets all doughy and gooey and pulls together in a ball of sorts.  Your hands should be covered in sticky dough at this point and your kids should be running around the house with sticky dough all over their hands and body, touching every nook and cranny in the house.

Put a little flour out on your counter so you can roll the dough and get it formed up into a nice ball.  Once you have it formed up, pour enough olive oil in a bowl to coat the inside of the bowl, place the dough ball in here and cover loosely with a clean hand towel.  Be sure your bowl is big enough to handle this glob of dough growing to double its size as it rises.

Find a nice and warm, humid if possible, place for the bowl to sit.  If you don’t have a lot of humidity around like we do in Florida…just pour a little water on the towel you are using to cover it so it gets a little damp…not dripping wet…just damp.  Now…just wait and go do some other stuff.  Leave the dough alone.

After an hour or two…go punch your dough.  Not because you are mad at it, but because you want the dough to relieve the air it has in it from the yeast expelling air as it eats the sugars.  Punch it down, give it a little mix in the bowl again, ball it up again, slide it around in the olive oil and leave it.  Leave the dough alone again.

You’ll get another good rise out of the dough…you can do this a few times before your guests arrive.  The last time you do it, you will be in prep mode to start making Pizzas!

PIZZA MAKING TIME!
Put a Pizza Stone in the oven on the middle rack and heat your oven to 500 degrees…seriously, 500 degrees.  You are going to leave this stone in the oven the entire time and simply transfer pizza to and from it while you cook and entertain.

Place the other Pizza stone on the counter near the oven so you can transfer hot pizzas to  it as they come out of the oven.

Set your Toppings off to the side where you can get to them. 

Take your punched and beaten Pizza Dough and drop it onto a flour covered countertop.  (Be sure to clean, sanitize, and dry your counter before)  Knead the dough a few times in and across and around itself, mixing the flour in from the counter as you go.  Get you a big knife or an Ulu Blade and cut the dough in half for 2 thicker crust pizzas and into 4’s for 4 thinner crust pizzas. 

Take the cut dough and ball them up, flour them up good, and set them aside to do a little rising of their own in front of you…5 to 10 minutes is plenty.

Grab your first victim!  Roll the dough ball around a little…let it form into a ball in your hand and throw it on the flour covered countertop.  Now, start mashing the dough ball down with the heel of your hand.  This will begin flattening out the dough.  Grab a rolling pin to “encourage” the dough in this part of the process if you wish. 

Continue flattening out the dough until you get it pretty flat on the countertop….make sure it is well floured and pick it up off the countertop and spin it in the air a few times like you see at your favorite Pizza joint. 

You will probably hit your light fixtures, your ceiling, maybe a kid, and drop a few on the floor as you perfect this process…once you try it a few times…you’ll get the hang of it.  This is the part you’re friends will be really amazed with....3 second rule is in effect if it hits the floor.

Once you have the dough to the shape and thickness you want place it on the Pizza Paddle that has had about a teaspoon or two of corn meal spread on it. 
Now…lightly wet the perimeter of the crust and sprinkle with some Kosher salt and a little oatmeal or Panko Bread Crumbs…or some Parmesean cheese…just on the edges. 

Get your Sauce!  Sweet Life BBQ Sauce is perfect.  Spoon about 3 or 4 tablespoons onto the center of the pizza dough and spread towards the edges by using a circular motion with the back of an ice cream scoop or spoon or ladle.  Spread it on so it is evenly spread around the entire crust…leave the edges alone…stay about ½ to ¾ inch away from the edges.

Put your toppings on!  Place them in any form or fashion you so desire…this is a fun way to tie in the Kids again and your guests can help too.  Again, this is your piece of food art…decorate it as your taste buds see fit!  You can go to our Pizza Toppings Favorites Link at www.sweetlifesaucecompany.com for some rather interesting combos of toppings for your Pizzas. 

These pics are chunks of chicken, caramelized onions, and Asiago Cheese…YUMMY!

When you have the toppings ready to go, it is time to transfer the pizza to the oven.  Use the Pizza Paddle…jiggle it back and forth ever so slightly to assure the pizza is sliding around the paddle and not sticking…this will be important when you stick your face near the 500 degree oven!  Slide the pizza onto  the hot Pizza Stone and set your timer for 8 minutes.  The corn meal that is outside the edge of the pizza will burn up pretty quickly and also be cautions not to get any of the cheese you use to spill onto the hot Pizza Stone…keep it on the pizza!

When the buzzer goes off…look at your Pizza…if it needs more time…set your timer for another minute or two. 

It should be ready to go when you see the cheese browned up and the crust a light crusty yummy caramel color calling your name.

Transfer the finished pizza to the pizza paddle and deposit it on the other Pizza stone you have on the counter.  Let the pizza rest for about 3 minutes before you cut it up.

Cut it up and transfer it to the middle of your friends so they can start digging in.  Grab a piece for yourself and go make another pizza…with some different toppings this time.

Ohhhhh…I forgot to tell you at the beginning of Pizza making time…wear an apron.  This is messy.

For the rest of your guests, it is time to serve them up!  Enjoy!  ALL will be well in the land!