Homemade Pizza Night

I've been wanting to try these two new recipes for a while, I got them from my friend's blog (Thank you, Jesse!) When Lauren helped me plan the meals for this week, she asked for a homemade pizza night. We decided to make both the regular pizza for dinner and a fruit pizza for dessert. This was the result:

Regular Pizza Crust
*Makes one large or two small crusts.

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Combine water, yeast and sugar and allow the yeast to develop for a couple of minutes. Add oil, salt and flour. Knead for 7-8 minutes until smooth. Let the dough rest for 8-10 minutes. Roll out onto a greased  pan, and spread with sauce, cheese and your favorite toppings. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-13 minutes, or until crust is light brown and cheese has melted.

*We really liked this pizza crust! It's so simple. The dough is easier to work with than my previous recipe, and it was very tasty. I used a double batch to make this cookie sheet sized pizza, but the dough was a bit too thick. The kids loved it anyway, but next time, I'll try a 1 1/2 sized batch.

Fruit Pizza

*Makes at least 12+ slices

• CRUST
• 1 Yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup,) melted

Mix these ingredients and roll out dough onto a pizza pan that is covered with wax paper and sprayed with cooking oil. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Allow to cool before adding frosting and fruit.

• FROSTING
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cups powdered sugar
• 4 oz whipped topping

Whisk these ingredients together and spread over cooled crust.

Add your favorite FRUIT TOPPINGS: Bananas, mandarin oranges, kiwi, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc.

*I liked these ease of this crust, but it was EXTREMELY rich. Lauren & I couldn't finish our slices because it was too rich. Some good things about the crust were it's flexibility, it sliced easily, served easily and didn't fall to pieces when you took a bite. I loved the frosting and the toppings we used, but I think I might experiment with the crust. I'll either try replacing some of the butter with water next time or try a different sugar cookie recipe.

Overall, the pizza night was a big hit.