I adore pizza. It’s bread, melted cheese, meats and vegetables (or fruit), all in a package you can hold with one hand while holding a cold beer in the other. I’ve been having fun with the daring bakers challenges up until now, but when I saw that this month’s was for pizza crust, I knew that it would not only be a challenge — it would be an event.

Running the risk of embarrassment and starvation if my crust failed, I invited a group of friends by to help me make pizza. I started the dough the day before and let the pizza dough rise in the fridge overnight. Everyone brought their favorite toppings, and took charge of one of the six balls of dough.

Part of the challenge was also to toss the dough. Although I made attempts to educate myself via YouTube the day before, I’m hardly ready for the pizzeria (if you really wish to see my attempts, you can visit the album). But at toppings, I can say that we all were masterful.

The first pizza started slow with the basics. A nice red sauce, pepperoni, orange peppers, shredded mozzarella with a sprinkling of parmesan.

Next, a vegetarian delight — red and white sauce, spinach, roasted red peppers and goat cheese. Then, an elegant seafood pizza with white sauce, clams and anchovies, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil as soon as it came out of the oven.

Pizza number four was the International — teriyaki chicken sausage, onions, peppers and Mexican blend cheese. Then, the Everything: mushrooms, peppers, onions, pepperoni — and all the cheeses left on the table.

The last pie was our attempt at dessert — a sweet pizza with ricotta cheese and cinnamon-sugar apples. This was meant to be served alongside my first attempt with my new ice cream maker — a creamy quart of molasses ice cream, recipe courtesy of Alana of Kitchen Parade.

Now that I know how simple a process it is to make my own pizza, I will have to do so more often. The most difficult thing was keeping my small apartment cool while the oven raged at 500F for about 2 hours, but the fall weather cooperated. (Had the Steelers also cooperated by winning the football game that evening, it would have been perfect, but hey — at least there was pizza.)

Thanks to Rosa of Rosa’s Yummy Yums for hosting the challenge. You can see the complete recipe we used at her blog.

(This post also appeared on Cookthink)