Double Crust Stuffed Pizza

This is a fantastic hardy pizza!

Everyone in my family loves this and you can adjust the ingredients to your families tastes!

I found the original recipe here.  You can make your own Italian sausage too; try my recipe here.

Ingredients for the Dough:

-1 cup warm water

-1 1/2 tsp sugar

-1 tbsp olive oil

-1/2 tsp salt

-2 cups flour {white or wheat}

-1 1/2 tsp yeast

Sauce/Topping Ingredients:

-8 ounces crushed tomatoes

-1 tbsp brown sugar

-1/2 tsp garlic powder

-1 tsp olive oil

-1/2 tsp salt

-2 large fresh tomatoes, thinly sliced

-olive oil, for drizzling

Stuffing Ingredients:

-3 to 5 cups shredded mozzarella, divided

-1/2 to 1 pound Italian sausage {I make my own; you can find the recipe here.}

-4 ounces sliced pepperoni

-8 ounces canned mushrooms {you could probably use fresh too, but they should be cooked first}

Additional Optional Ingredients:

-1/2 sliced red bell pepper

-1/2 sliced green bell pepper

-sliced black olives

Or anything else you like on your pizza!

Process:

1. Combine crust ingredients in the bread-maker in the order listed, set to dough setting; allow the cycle to run.

2. Meanwhile, combine the sauce ingredients (except fresh tomatoes and olive oil for drizzling) in a small saucepan and let simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes.  Then, allow to cool.

3. Once dough is completed you are ready to go; grease an 8 or 10 inch spring form pan.

4. Remove the dough from the bread-maker pan onto an oiled surface.

5. Cut the dough into two equal pieces.

6. Roll one piece into a 12-14 inch circle.

7. Carefully place the circle into the prepared spring form pan. {You can see that mine was very thin.}

8. Put 1/2 of the shredded cheese into the bottom of the crust.

9. Form the Italian sausage into a large patty a little smaller than your pan; I pressed mine onto a dinner plate...

 You can see that the sausage patty is a little bit smaller.

10. Place the sausage patty on top of the cheese in the crust.

11. Top the patty with pepperoni.

12. Top the pepperoni with mushrooms.

13. Top with the other half of the cheese.

14. Roll out the other piece of dough to about the size of your pan.

15. Place the dough on top of the last layer of cheese.

16. Pinch the edges of the bottom and top crust to seal.

 17. Spread the sauce over the top of the pizza, to about 1 inch of the edge.

18. Spread the sliced tomatoes over the top of the sauce.

19. Cut several vent holes into the top of the crust. {You can't see the cuts but they are cut between the tomato slices.}

20. Drizzle tomato slices with olive oil.

21. Bake pizza at 450 degrees for 1 hour.

22. Remove the pizza from the oven and allow to cool in pan for at least 10 minutes.

Its awesome how the tomato slices get beautifully roasted on the top.

23. Carefully, remove the sides of the spring form pan.

24. Then slide the pizza off of the bottom of the pan to a large cutting board.

25. Cut pizza into wedges using a large knife.
26. Enjoy!  

* We enjoyed ours with lettuce salads and parmesan.  {My kids also really enjoyed ranch dressing with the pizza too!}

You can also use wheat flour for the crust, this is what the wheat crust looks like...