Pour ½ cup of warm water into your mixing bowl. It should feel like warm bath water when you dip your finger in. Not hot. Not cold. Just warm.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of instant yeast on top of the water. Give it a little stir with your fork. Now wait 5 minutes. You should see it start to bubble and foam. That means your yeast is alive and hungry. If nothing happens after 5 minutes, your water might have been too hot or too cold. Try again with fresh water.

Pour 2 teaspoons of olive oil into your yeast water. Then add ½ teaspoon of salt. Give it a quick stir.

Scoop 1¼ cups of all-purpose flour. Add about half of it to your bowl and stir with a fork until it gets thick and shaggy. Then add the rest and keep stirring. When the fork stops working, it's time for your hands.

Dust your clean table or countertop with a tiny bit of extra flour. Dump your dough out and start kneading. Push it away from you with the heel of your hand, fold it back toward you, turn it a quarter turn, and do it again. Keep going for about 5 minutes. Your dough should go from rough and sticky to smooth and a little stretchy. If it sticks to your hands, add just a tiny pinch of flour. Don't go crazy with extra flour, a little sticky is normal.

Put a tiny drizzle of olive oil in your bowl and roll your dough ball around in it so it doesn't dry out. Cover the bowl with a clean towel or plastic wrap.

Set the bowl somewhere warm. Near a sunny window, on top of the stove (not turned on), or just on the counter. In about 45 minutes to 1 hour, your dough should be about twice as big as when you started. It'll look puffy and soft.

In a bowl, combine 1¾ cups crushed tomatoes, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon dried oregano, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon sugar. Stir it up. Done. Each pizza needs about 3 tablespoons of sauce.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add 2 minced garlic cloves (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder) and stir for 30 seconds. Don't let it burn. Add 1¾ cups crushed tomatoes, ½ teaspoon dried basil, ½ teaspoon dried oregano, ½ teaspoon sugar, and ½ teaspoon salt. Stir, lower the heat, and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Let it cool before using.

Make a fist and press it into the center of your risen dough. You'll hear the air hiss out. That's satisfying. Now pull the dough out of the bowl and set it on a lightly floured surface.

Using your fingertips, press the dough out into a flat circle. Start from the middle and push outward. Turn it as you go. Don't worry about making it perfectly round. Real pizza isn't a perfect circle. It should be about as wide as your pizza pan, roughly 10 inches across.

Lightly oil your pizza pan or baking sheet. Carefully lift your dough and lay it on the pan. If it shrinks back, let it rest for 2 minutes and try again. The gluten just needs to relax.

Use your fingers to push up a small rim around the edge, about half an inch. This becomes your crust border. Some people like a thick crust, some like thin. You decide.

Spoon about 3 tablespoons of sauce onto the center of your dough. Use the back of the spoon to spread it in circles, leaving about a half inch at the edge for your crust. Don't drown it. A thin, even layer is all you need.

Sprinkle ½ cup of shredded mozzarella evenly over the sauce. Try to get it all the way to the edge of the sauce, but not on the crust rim.

Now the fun part. Lay your toppings on top of the cheese. Pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, olives, whatever you like. Don't pile them too high or the center won't cook through. Spread them out evenly.

An adult should preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). The oven needs to be fully hot before the pizza goes in. This takes about 15-20 minutes. If your oven goes higher, 475°F (245°C) is even better.

An adult places the pizza in the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 12-15 minutes. You're looking for the cheese to be melted and bubbly, and the crust edges to be golden brown.

An adult takes the pizza out with oven mitts. Let it sit on the pan for 3-5 minutes before cutting. The cheese is lava-hot right out of the oven. Waiting a few minutes keeps you from burning the roof of your mouth.

Set your dough on a lightly floured surface. Press your fingertips into the center and push outward, rotating as you go.

Pick the dough up and let gravity help stretch it. Hold it at the edge with both hands and rotate slowly, letting it hang. Lay it on the oiled pan when it's about 10 inches across.

Push up a small border around the edge with your fingertips, about half an inch high.

There's no wrong shape. Square, oval, heart, dinosaur. Just keep it about the same thickness all over so it bakes evenly.

Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C) for at least 15-20 minutes. If you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven while it preheats.

Place pizza on middle rack. Bake 12-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden.

Remove with oven mitts. Let cool on the pan for 3-5 minutes before slicing.