Pizza!

I realized this afternoon, as I'm getting dinner ready, that I have never posted about pizza. Silly me! I've made that more often than any of the other things I've written about. I make the dough from scratch in my KitchenAid, which doesn't take more than a few minutes. Recently I had to alter the recipe a little, as my family's appetites have grown. This amount makes 1 pizza that fills the 5 of us pretty well.

The version I make most often is BBQ Chicken Pizza. Sometimes I do pepperoni or Hawaiian, but my favorite is the chicken one. It uses ingredients I normally have on hand, and my whole family loves it.



The dough, just before baking


Pizza
Printable version here

Mix in a stand mixer:

1 tbsp. instant yeast
2 cups flour (I use 1 cup each of white & wheat bread flour)
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
4 tsp. oil (1 tbsp. + 1 tsp.)
3/4 cup water (120-130º)

Knead with dough hook for 8 minutes, or until soft & pliable. Rest in bowl, covered, for 10 minutes.

Roll into desired shape on cornmeal-covered baking stone. Cover with plastic wrap (that has been sprayed with nonstick spray); rise in a slightly warm place for 30 minutes, or until doubled. Toward the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 400º. Poke the dough all over with a fork.

Bake crust for 10 minutes, then remove from oven. Top with desired toppings, then bake 10 more minutes, or until done. Slice & enjoy!

BBQ Chicken Variation:
After crust has baked for 10 minutes, top with barbecue sauce, grated cheese (cheddar and/or Monterrey jack), diced chicken, and garlic powder. Garnish with sliced green onions after baking. Sometimes I add a little well-drained canned pineapple. Be sure to cover the chicken with some of the cheese, and don't cut the chicken too small, otherwise it'll dry out easily in the oven (tip from a reader- mix the chicken with some BBQ sauce to keep it moist!).

Make-ahead tip: I haven't tried freezing this dough yet (it's so quick to make that I haven't needed to), but one thing that saves time is making up batches of the dry ingredients. One batch will fit in a ziploc sandwich bag. After making the dough today, I made 3 of these bags for later.

Why I love it? It's easy, yummy, inexpensive, customizable (as opposed to frozen or take-out pizza), and healthier than "regular" pizza. The wheat flour adds fiber, and I limit the amount of cheese to save on calories. Oh, and not to mention- it's fresh!! You could probably make this on a metal pan, with a little modification, but I just LOVE how it turns out on a pizza stone. The crust is soft inside, but perfectly crisp on the bottom.