Spider Pizza

We are pizza fanatics in our house. Ever since the kids were small we have had pizza night on Fridays and it is almost always homemade pizza. This has slowed down in it's regularity since the kids aren't really here any more, but Aaron and I still will make a pizza now and again. We decided to have pizza this last weekend and I thought: "Why not make up some extra dough and  make a spider web?" Why didn't I think of this idea like 15 years ago?! It turned out awesome!!

Here is my Cheney famous pizza crust recipe. Have fun this Halloween having a make your own pizza night!

Ingredients

1 cup water

2 Tb. olive oil

1 Tb. honey

3 cups flour*

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1-2 Tb. garlic (depending on tastes)

1 pkg. or 1 1/2 tsp. yeast

*I use freshly ground whole wheat in my crust. If you decide to do this, instead of using white flour, it really helps to add 1/4 cup of vital wheat gluten in with the flour.

Directions

I have an awesome bread maker... I LOVE it. I just throw all of the ingredients in there in the order listed, set if for when I want my bread dough ready, and walk away. So nice and easy. If you do not have this luxury, here is how you make bread:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water, that is warmed to a point where you can just barely keep your finger in it, but not hotter (if it's hotter it will kill your yeast. Add the oil, garlic, salt, Italian seasoning and honey and continue to stir until honey is dissolved as well.
2. Add your flour a little at a time, to your mixing bowl, using the dough hooks on your mixer. Continue mixing and adding flour until your dough is easy to touch, without being too sticky.
3. Sprinkle four on the counter and dump the pizza dough out on the flour. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed, until it becomes very elastic and bounces back when you push it in.
4. Cover and let rise for an hour, or  until double.
5. You dough is now ready for pizza making. This will make one regular pizza, or several mini-pizzas if you decide to let everyone make their own.
6. If you want to make the spider web, double the recipe and use the extra dough to form your web with.