How to Host a Hot Homemade Pizza Party

It’s been a little over a year since I’ve blogged about one of my favorite foods: pizza! I can safely say that I eat pizza at least two or three times a month and sometimes more.  There are so many great places to get pizza in Chicago, but there is nothing like making your own.

Melinda and I enjoy having friends and family over for dinner, and we’ve found that it’s always fun to be able to have our guests participate in creating or building their meal. It’s interactive, they get the exact pizza they desire, and the ingredients serve as beautiful décor.

Through trial and error, I now have the process down of how to pull off a pizza making party for 6-8 people with only one oven and one pizza stone. Parchment paper is essential! Inevitably, we make Melinda’s pizza first for demonstration purposes and she doesn’t mind if hers isn’t uber hot when she eats it. I typically make mine last so that everyone can begin eating while mine is in the oven.

I put the first pizza on the top rack in the oven while we roll the dough and build the second pizza. Once the second pizza is ready to go, I shift the first pizza to the bottom rack and place the second pizza on the top rack.

There's a couple of reasons for this:

1. Rotating the pizzas ensures a more evenly cooked product.
2. The bottom rack of my oven is hotter, so the crust gets crisp quickly but doesn’t burn from being on the bottom shelf the whole time.
3. I know which pizza has been in the oven the longest and needs to come out first.

If you feel you will be crunched for time the day of the party, you can always make your pizza dough the night before and let it proof in the refrigerator overnight. Just make sure you have the dough in a bowl that is large enough to contain it as it will almost double in size. That’s a mess you don’t want to clean up!

About 30 minutes before the guests arrive, I divide the dough into individual portions, place them on a tray and cover with a damp towel so that they won’t develop a dry, crusty layer on the outside.

Get crazy with the toppings! Here are some of my ‘go to’ ingredients and the last whole wheat pizza dough recipe I used.  Toppings: garlic grapeseed oil, pizza sauce, pesto, ricotta cheese, fresh mozzarella, shredded mozzarella, parmesan, fontina, pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, black olives, spinach, artichokes, green peppers, red onions, caramelized onions, fresh basil and oregano.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Yield: 4 – 12” pizzas, or 12 individual pizzas

3 cups warm water (105° - 115°)

4 ½ t active dry yeast (or 2 packets)

3 ½ cups whole wheat flour

3 ½ cups bread flour

4 T olive oil

1 T salt

2 t sugar

1. In a bow of your electric mixer, add the warm water and yeast.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes until the yeast has dissolved and is slightly bubbly.
2. Add the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar to the bowl of your electric mixer.  With the dough hook mix the ingredients on low to medium speed until all ingredients are incorporated and the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
3. Transfer the dough to your work surface and knead by hand for another minute.  If the dough is sticky, dust your work surface with extra flour and continue to knead until the dough forms a ball.
4. Rub the dough with a small amount of olive oil and place back into the bowl, and cover with a clean towel.  Let the dough rise for approximately one hour in a warm place.
5. Once the dough has risen, punch the dough down and divide into appropriate portions.
6. Dust your work surface, dough and rolling pin with flour and roll to desired shape and thickness. Transfer dough to a sheet of parchment paper dusted with cornmeal.
7. Add ingredients to dough and bake for approximately 10-12 minutes at 425°.

*If you like a crispier crust, you may bake the dough for approximately 8 minutes before topping with desired ingredients.

What's your favorite homemade pizza topping?