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A Quick and Easy Pizza Crust Recipe

It’s always nice when you can plan ahead and have some healthy sourdough pizza crust ready for your baking needs, but sometimes you just need to make a meal right away without all of the prep work. This pizza crust recipe is basic, simple, quick, and still full of delicious and healthy ingredients. It is enough for one large pizza, 2 small pizzas, or 2 trays of pizza muffins.

Ingredients:

1 c. Hot Water
1 t. Raw Honey (You can use regular honey or sugar too. The yeast just needs something to “eat” so it can rise.)
2 T. Coconut Oil (I like to buy my coconut oil in bulk here. You could use olive oil.)
2¼ t. Active Dry Yeast (one package)
2½ c. Freshly Ground Flour (I get my wheat berries here and grind them. You can find some similar here too.)
1 t. Real Salt (I buy my Real Salt in bulk here.)
1 t. Aluminum Free Baking Powder or Baking Soda

Directions:

Water: Get the water as hot as you can and put it into a large bowl.
Coconut Oil, Honey, and Yeast: Add the coconut oil first so that it will melt, then add the honey, yeast, mix, cover with a towel, and let sit for 10 minutes. It should be nice and bubbly when you uncover it.
Water, Honey, Coconut Oil, and Yeast After 10 Minutes
Flour, Salt, and Baking Soda: Stir in the flour, salt, and baking powder or baking soda. (You definitely don’t want to add the salt earlier as it will prevent the yeast from fully activating.) *To give the dough extra flavor, you could also add some garlic powder, onion powder, basil, and oregano at this time.
Notice the Consistency When All Ingredients are Mixed Together
Knead: Grease your hands with coconut oil, and knead the dough until all of the ingredients are mixed together. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky. If it’s too stiff and crumbly, add some water.
Knead Into a Ball
Flatten: Start to flatten the dough.
Flatten the Dough with Your Hands First
Roll the Dough: Make sure there is a nice coating of flour on the countertop and that your dough isn’t too sticky before you start rolling. Start from the center and roll out until your dough is bigger than your pan.
Roll the Dough
Put in Pan: Carefully lift up the dough and place it on your baking sheet allowing to hang over the edges.
Place the Dough on the Baking Sheet
Pinch the Edges: Use your fingers to pinch the edges of the dough until it’s nicely formed.
Form the Edges
Toppings: Add your sauce, cheese, and toppings. For more info on these steps, check out my blog: How to Make a Homemade Pizza.
Add Toppings
Bake: Bake for 15-20 minutes at 450º F (18 minutes usually works for me). Time can vary depending on your oven, number of toppings, etc. When the edges are brown, it’s a good indication it’s done, but if you cut into the middle and it’s still doughy, cook for a few minutes more.
Bake and Serve

In Conclusion

Pizza is a family favorite in this household and when it’s made from scratch, it can be a very healthy addition to any diet. If I have time, I prefer using my sourdough pizza crust to make a pizza, but in a pinch, this quick easy recipe works for me. You might also like to check out my recipe for pizza muffins, which are a really big hit with the kids!

April 25, 2018/by Stacey Maaser

Sort of Sourdough Pancakes

General, Grain, Recipes

Typically, when you make things with sourdough, you need to prepare them well in advance, but what if you wake up one Sunday morning and you’re just craving pancakes? This is a good recipe to make some quick pancakes that are “sort of sourdough”. (If you’re looking for more of a real deal sourdough waffle/pancake recipe, check this recipe out, and if you just want some whole wheat pancakes, go here.) My kids always love this pancake recipe, and we sometimes even eat them for dinner!

Read my article about phytic acid if you want to learn why eating sourdough is so important!

Ingredients

1 c. Sourdough Starter
2. c. Milk (Raw is best.)
2 c. Flour (I get my wheat berries here, but you can find some similar here too. I use this grinder. You could also just buy some organic sprouted grain flour here.)
3 Eggs (Preferably pastured)
6 T. (¾ stick) Melted Butter (You can add room temperature butter and it should mix alright though.)
2 T. Cinnamon (Buy some here.)
2 T. Vanilla Extract (This vanilla would be best, but on our budget, I buy this.)
½ t. Real Salt (I buy my Real Salt in bulk here, you can buy a shaker here, or a refill pouch here.)
1 t. Baking Soda (or Aluminum Free Baking Powder)
2 T. Coconut Oil (This coconut oil would be best, but on our budget, I buy this.)

Directions

Mix the sourdough starter and milk. Try to let it sit out for as long as you can. If you let it sit out for 8 hours, all of the phytic acid will be broken down, but if you can at least let it sit out for half an hour to an hour it will be better than nothing. (*Eating sourdough is an acquired taste. It might be a good idea to slowly get your family used to the sour taste of these pancakes by letting the batter sit out for increasing amounts of time.)
Preheat your cast iron skillet (make sure it’s cured properly) by setting it to a 2 or 3 for about five minutes.
Add a dollop of coconut oil to your cast iron skillet (or whatever cooking pan you choose).
In a separate bowl, mix the eggs.
Add the cinnamon, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. Stir well.
Add the flour and mix together. Add about a ½ c. to a cup more flour if you like poofier pancakes. This mixture is pretty thin, but it makes some deliciously thin pancakes that we all love. (*I find that my kids really like it when I cook pancakes one way for awhile, that I mix it up and make it a little different. So I’ll go from thick to thin and less sour to more sour quite often.)
Sort of Sourdough Batter
Turn the heat dial to 4 and pour a ladle’s worth of batter into the skillet. (The oil should be bubbling around the pancake.)
Sort of Sourdough Batter Starting to Cook
Cover and let cook for about 2-4 minutes. (By the time I get a few pancakes in, the heat is sometimes too high and needs to be turned down temporarily. You’ll know if the heat is too high if you get hit with splattering coconut oil!)
When the edges are slightly browned and the top is bubbly, you’ll know it’s time to flip. (Stand back as you do this so you don’t get hit with splattering coconut oil.)
Sort of Sourdough Pancake Ready to Flip
Cover and cook for about 1 minute on the other side.
Sort of Sourdough Pancake Almost Done Cooking
Cook the rest of pancakes and add more coconut oil as needed. When you rock the pan back and forth, there should be enough oil to generously coat the bottom. This batter should make about 5-6 pancakes.
Serve with butter and maple syrup. (I like to smear the butter all over the top, then cut it up, and finally add a very modest amount of syrup.)
Sort of Sourdough Pancake
Sort of Sourdough Pancake Cut Up and Ready to Eat

April 5, 2015/by Stacey Maaser

How to Make the Best Grilled Burgers

Beef, General, Recipes

Making hamburgers seems like such a simple meal, why even write a recipe for it? Well yes, hamburgers are simple, but the way that I make mine are just so dang good that I had to write it down! If you make this recipe, I guarantee that you will get compliments!

A good hamburger first of all starts with some high quality grass-fed beef. (Cows are meant to eat grass, not grain, by the way.) We get ours from a local farm for $5/lb, but you can also buy it here.

Ingredients

1 lb Ground Beef (Preferably grass-fed)
2 t. Real Salt (I buy my Real Salt in bulk here, you can buy a shaker here, or a refill pouch here.)
1 t. Pepper (Buy it here.)
1 t. Garlic Powder (I buy mine here or you can buy it here or here.)
1 t. Onion Powder (I buy mine here or you can buy it here.)
2 t. Bragg Liquid Aminos (Buy it here.)

Directions

Start the grill and set it to medium/high.
If the meat is frozen, fill up the sink (or a bowl) with warm water, and let soak for about 30-40 minutes.
Divide the meat roughly into fourths, then eighths.
Sprinkle generously with seasonings. (I don’t measure, just shake.)
Beef Divided Into Eighths and Sprinkled with Seasonings
Mix the seasonings in with your hands as you form patties.
Seasoned Hamburger Patties
After the grill has had a chance to heat up, scrape it off with a grill brush.
Put the burgers on and turn the heat down to low/medium.
Cook for 8 minutes. Flip and cook for 4 minutes. (After you flip is a great time to add cheese if you want it melted.)
Serve and enjoy!
Grilled Hamburger Patties