Homemade Food Processor Pizza Crust

We had a Valentines pizza party at home with the boys tonight! Asher wanted to watch the karate kid so we rented a movie (very rare for us) and I made homemade pizza.  I've been experimenting with making pizza dough in my food processor using the dough hook and the last few batches have been tasty but haven't risen all that well.  I was pretty sure the water I was using was a bit too hot so I made sure to use just warm water and the result was perfect pizza dough!  

I mix it all up in the food processor and then let it rise in a covered bowl for an hour.  My trick to getting it to rise is to turn on the oven and let it preheat to 350 then turn it off and put the covered bowl into the oven leaving the door slightly open.  Let it rise inside the oven for the full hour or more.  

We actually went out and came hope to perfectly risen dough.  Yes!!  

For the boys, I rolled out the dough and cut it into large hearts since it's valentines day weekend. The size turned out to be perfect for them to hold and eat but smaller hearts would be cute too!    

You could top them with anything you like but my kiddos wanted plain cheese/ham pizzas so that's what they got! Asher picked out some natural ham which I cut into slices and then cut out with a smaller heart shaped cutter.  He actually picked the ham hearts off and ate ;)

Put them into the oven at 450 for about 7-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.  

Tip:  Save any left over pizza crust because it works great for making a few mini doughnuts!  After dinner I made the boys heart shaped strawberry mini doughnuts too, stay tuned for the recipe this afternoon. 

This crust works great but I also have a recipe on the blog for a Bread Machine Pizza Dough which is awesome if you want to put it all together and run out the door or if you set a timer you can leave for the day and the dough will start to mix and will be ready in time for you to arrive home and make pizzas!  That's a great Friday treat after a long work week.  

Homemade food processor pizza crust

2.5 tsp dry active yeast

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp honey

1/3 cup warm water 

1/4 cup olive oil 

2 cups whole wheat flour or half whole wheat and half Pizza flour

Place yeast, salt, honey and water in processor and blend with dough blade for 10 seconds. 

Add in oil and flour,blend until dough is smooth. Transfer dough to lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour. 

Note: If you use Pizza or Pasta flour for half or all of the dough recipe your dough will be stretchier and easier to work with.  This time i used half and half and it turned out great!