Cheese up your crust!

Vegan version available here.

Making stuffed crust pizza is fun for all ages. Involve your kids! It turns making your pizza into a crafting experience. Let them help you form the crust. There is something very special when we have a hand in preparing the food we enjoy so much, and especially when that is shared with the ones we love.

Having everybody hang out in the kitchen helping out is a great bonding experience. It’s also fun to make this pizza if the only company you’re keeping is a bottle of wine.

The only thing more fun than making this pizza is eating it.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 14 – 18 minutes

Ingredients

Pizza dough

1 cup pizza sauce

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

7 – 8 pieces string cheese

1 – 2 Tablespoons olive oil

your choice of toppings

1/2 cup flour for rolling out dough

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Using your flour and a rolling pin, roll out your pizza dough to a diameter of about 16 inches, or the diameter of your pizza pan. Add flour as you go so the dough does not stick. The dough should remain about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. If you are unsure of how much dough to use, use a dough ball about the size of a softball.

3. Lay your dough over your lightly oiled pizza pan (this is what the olive oil is for). Lightly stretch the perimeter of the dough over the edge of your pan so it hangs off about 1/2 inch. It likely won’t be even all around and it doesn’t have to be! This excess will be used to fold over the cheese in the crust.

4. Lay your pieces of string cheese into the perimeter of your crust. If they are still cool you may microwave them for 10-20 seconds to give them some flexibility to be able to curve around the pan. You may have to break the last one into a smaller piece to fit just right.

5. Begin to fold back the dough and over the cheese. You want to use your fingers to press down and slightly into the bottom of the cheese. Try to seal the dough as well as you can or the cheese will leak out while baking. Don’t worry if this happens – I always end up having at least one leak! Go all the way around until it’s all sealed up and looks good.

6. Add your sauce, then cheese and toppings. I chose red onions, green peppers, and sliced cherry tomatoes for this pizza! Feel free to lightly brush or dab on some of my homemade garlic butter over the crust now to really take it to the next level.

7. Bake at 475 degrees Fahrenheit on the middle rack for 14 to 18 minutes. I like to bake mine for the 14 minutes, then take it off of the pan and place it directly on the rack for the remaining 4 minutes.

8. Once the pizza is out I like to brush the crust once again with the garlic butter and serve. Enjoy!