Pizza Dough, Pizza Sauce, Cheese

Pizza Dough

3 cups warm water 2 TBS yeast 2 TBS sugar 2 TBS oil 2 tsp. salt 8 cups flour

Combine warm water, yeast and sugar. Allow to soften for 5 minutes. Add oil, salt and flour and mix until the dough is no longer sticky. If needed, add additional flour 1/4 cup at a time. Knead for 5 minutes and then rest the dough for 10 minutes. Don’t rise, just make and bake. Roll out onto a greased pan and bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes. In a sun oven at 275 degrees, this dough bakes in about 45 minutes

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

8 cups water 1 1/2 cups Thrive Instant Powdered Milk 1/3 cup lemon juice or white vinegar 1 tsp. salt, optional 1 T. oil or butter, optional

Mix the water and milk powder in a large saucepan. Heat over medium heat up to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit (or just before boiling). The milk will get foamy and start to steam. As soon as it starts to boil, remove from heat and add in the lemon juice and salt and butter if desired. The oil/butter can be helpful to encourage the curds and whey to separate better since the powdered milk is a non-fat milk. Let the mixture sit for 10-20 minutes. You should see the milk separate into curds (white clumps) and whey (yellowy liquid). Once it all seems to be separated, strain the curds using a strainer with small holes and/or a cheese cloth or clean t-shirt. I just used a strainer and it seemed to be fine. I like to make things easy. I let it strain for about 30 minutes and then squished out as much of the excess whey as I could by pushing against the curds with a spoon.

Pizza Sauce

1 15 oz. can tomato sauce 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 2 tsp dried oregano 2 tsp dried basil 1 tsp granulated sugar 1/2 tsp fine sea salt (omit if you use a salted tomato sauce)

Add all ingredients to a small sauce pan and stir to combine. Heat over medium low heat until warm. Use immediately or cool and refrigerate until ready to use