BLT Pizza

When I saw this recipe on Joelen’s site, I thought the hubs would love it.

He’d mentioned he was hungry for BLT’s, so I asked if we could do this instead — and he was up for it.

Two things: the dough AND the pizza were fantastic, but for different reasons.

The dough was fantastic because it had really good flavor and it only took me 30 minutes from start to pizza. My traditional pizza dough recipes takes 2 hours.

This means more pizza-on-the-fly in our house. BONUS!

The pizza was fantastic because of the two layers of bacony flavor. And I really think the colby jack at the end was essential. Gave it just the right amount of flavor.

I did buck the system a bit, though. I was weirded out by Joelen’s instructions to put the lettuce on the pizza and then bake it. I have weird textural issues with hot lettuce. Gross. 🙂

So I made the pizza sans lettuce (I did include the tomatoes in the cooking though) and then topped the pizza with shredded lettuce and thinly sliced avocado before eating.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of it with the cold toppings, though! Oops!

Making it my way, instead of Joelen’s, makes for a much messier pizza…but it was worth it to have that nice cold lettuce/avocado (in my opinion!)

BLT Pizza

(Joelen’s Culinary Adventures)

Crust:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 package quick-rising yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2-2/3 cup hot water (120-130°F)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon cornmeal

Toppings:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 whole romaine heart, shredded
4 oz sliced canadian bacon, cut into quarters
1 plum tomato, sliced
1/4 cup crumbled or chopped, crisp cooked bacon
1/4 cup shredded colby jack cheese
ranch dressing for dipping

Directions

– Combine flour, yeast, salt and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer to mix fitted with a dough hook.

– Combine hot water and oil in a measuring cup. With the stand mixer is running, gradually pour in enough of the hot liquid until the mixture forms a sticky ball. The dough should be quite soft. If it seems dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons warm water; if too sticky, add 1 to 2 tablespoons flour. Continue mixing until the dough forms a ball, then process for 1 minute to knead.

– Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Coat a sheet of plastic wrap with cooking spray and place it, sprayed-side down, over the dough. Let the dough rest for 10 to 20 minutes.

– Preheat oven to 500°F or highest setting.

– Sprinkle the cornmeal on the baking sheet (I used my 12 inch cast iron skillet) before placing the pizza dough on the sheet. Press the dough to create the crust and place on prepared baking sheet. Brush the top of the crust with olive oil.

– Top the pizza with 1/2 cup of mozzarella, followed by the shredded lettuce. Place the Canadian bacon on top of lettuce layer and top with slices of tomato. Sprinkle the other 1/2 cup of mozzarella over the tomatoes. Bake the pizza in the preheated oven for 10-14 minutes, or until the bottom of the pizza is crisp and golden. Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the crumbled or chopped cooked bacon and return to the oven to bake for another minute to heat up.

– Just before serving, sprinkle the colby jack cheese and serve with ranch dressing if desired.

Deep Dish Cheeseburger Pizza

This was a great weeknight meal – very tasty, and very quick to throw together!

I used a raw pizza dough ball purchased at a local pizzeria for my crust, but if you had pizza dough on hand in your freezer, that works too!

Deep Dish Cheeseburger Pizza

(Real Simple)

1/2 lb. ground beef (or turkey, or chicken)

1/4 cup barbeque sauce

1 lb. raw pizza dough (thawed, if frozen)

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded/grated

Directions

-Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

– Brown 1/2 lb of ground meat, add barbeque sauce and stir to mix

– Oil an oven-safe 10″ skillet (I used a cast iron skillet) and press the pizza dough into the bottom and up the sides of the skillet

– Top with the ground meat and cheese

– Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown

– Top with arugula, sliced red onion, sliced tomato, and a drizzle of olive oil (We skipped this step and had a side salad instead)

Pizza Hut Pizza – At Home

Messy plate picture! We were hungry! LOL

DH loves, loves, LOVES Pizza Hut pan pizza, but, their heavy, greasy pizza doesn’t exactly agree with me.

As a result, we NEVER eat it. Poor DH sacrifices his love of Pizza Hut to ensure my belly doesn’t hurt 🙂

So when I was this on your home based mom, I was anxious to try it. Making it at home, I had a little more control over the “grease factor” that keeps us away from the place.

Now, here’s the dilemma: *I* thought it tasted nearly exactly like pizza hut…but less greasy. The sauce tastes DEAD ON to me, and the oil in the pizza pan really makes the dough taste “correct”. DH, however, claims he doesn’t think it tastes like Pizza Hut at all, but acknowledges it’s been so long since he’s had it, he could be wrong.

This recipe also had a lot of “Advice” with it from Real Mom Kitchen, were LeighAnne apparently saw the recipe. I’m going to just copy that advice here, so you can take it into consideration when you make your pizzas. I did use her advice to only use enough oil to coat the bottom, to use glass (I thought I had 3-9″ cake pans and I did not….so I used her suggestion of 1-9″ pie plate and a 9×13 pan), and to pull the cooking temp down to 450. Next time I’ll bump that back up to 475, though, because I think it’ll do a nicer job on the pizza at a higher temp.

Real Mom Kitchen advice:

“I did have a couple of problems with this recipe the first time I made it. The recipe calls for 3 oz of oil per pan. I didn’t even put in the full amount and it was still way too much. When I put the dough in the pan, oil started to come up the sides and get on top of the dough. The other problem was with the pans I used. I have 2 (8 inch) dark non-stick cake pans, so two of the pizza went in there. Then for the third pizza, I used a 9 inch glass pie plate. I cooked them just like the recipe said. The two in the dark non-stick pans turned out burnt on the bottom. So the second time I made this, I put just enough oil in the bottom of the pans to coat them, that solved the oil problem. The second thing I did was lower the oven temp to 450. That work well. Then I used my glass pie plate for one of the pizzas, then I used a glass 9×13 dish for the remaining dough. I love glass, because you can see the bottom of the pizza and make sure it’s not getting burnt. After the changes I made the second time, the pizzas turned out perfectly.”

Pizza Hut Style Pizza – At Home

(your home based mom)

Makes 3-9″ pizzas, or one 9″ pizza-in-a-pie-plate and a 9×13 rectangular one!

Dough:

1 1/3 cup warm water (105 degrees F)

1/4 cup non-fat dry milk

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 package dry yeast (regular kind — not rapidrise)

2 tbsp vegetable oil (for the dough)

9 oz vegetable oil (3 oz per pan) for the pans — I only used enough to coat the bottom of the pan

Cooking spray

Directions

– Put the yeast, sugar, and dry milk in a large bowl, and add the water; stirring to mix well. Let sit for 2 minutes. Add oil and stir again.

– Add flour and stir until dough forms and flour is absorbed. Turn out onto a flat surface and knead for about 10 minutes.

– I won’t lie — I used my kitchen aid for the entire first two steps. I mixed the dough into a ball with my mixer paddle, and then switched to the dough hook and let it knead the dough.

– Divide dough into 3 balls. In 3-9″ cake pans (or 1-9″ pie plate and 1 9×13″ dish), put 3 oz. of oil in each, making sure it’s spread evenly (I only used enough to coat! Not the full 3 oz)

– Using a rolling pin, roll out each dough ball to about a 9″ circle and place in the cake pans. Spray the outer edge of the dough with cooking spray, and cover with a plate. Place in a warm area and allow to rise for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Pizza Sauce

*I doubled the sauce recipe below — I was afraid it wouldn’t be enough. Plus, it gave us extra for dipping!

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 tsp dry oregano

1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp dry basil

1/2 tsp garlic salt

Directions

– Combine and let sit 1 hour while dough rises

Cooking Directions:

For each 9″ pizza:

-Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F (Again, 450 was reccommended, but next time I’ll bump it up to 475)

– Spoon 1/3 cup sauce onto dough and spread to within 1″ of the edge

– Distribute 3 oz shredded mozzarella cheese on sauce

– Place toppings of your choice on in this order: pepperoni or ham, vegetables, meats (cooked ground sausage or beef).

– Top with 3 oz mozzarella cheese

– Cook until cheese is bubbling and outer crust is brown; about 15 minutes

Mmmm..pizza….

Your standard pepperoni above…
And the deliciousness of salami pizza. Seriously…if you’ve never had it, I really highly reccommend you try it. Mmm!

On Pizza and ‘Pizza Stones’

I received a double pizza oven (makes two pizzas) for Christmas. It’s awesome.

BUT

I really really don’t get making pizza with pizza stones. And that’s what this oven came with.

Any advice?

My DH grew up working in a pizzeria, and when I asked him for help, me told me the stones are crap, and I should buy screens to use in my oven.

But I see food bloggers EVERY.DAY. using pizza stones successfully. So how?

Here’s what I had trouble with:

1. My dough recipe (included below and FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC) says to ‘make’ my pizzas on parchment covered in corn meal, and slide the pizzas onto the hot stones.

– Yeah. This is epic fail waiting to happen. I had plenty of corn meal — those puppies weren’t sliding. Is there another trick?

2. DH claims you must make a pizza on the surface you’re baking it on — because the dough is too hard to transfer. This probably goes with #1. I can’t exactly heat up a pizza stone and then build pizza on it!

3. If the stone isn’t hot (i.e., I build the pizza on it then pop it in the oven) the purpose of it being a stone is lost, correct? It’s just a really heavy cookie sheet at that point.

4. Finally, my pizza oven goes up to 800 degrees Farenheit. And the heating element is on the top portion of each oven…does this affect how I make my pizza?

Any answers would be truly awesome.

You’ll see my cheese is a bit burnt — this was our first go in the oven and it was a bit of a trial by fire. 🙂

Awesome, Best-Pizza-Dough-Ever Recipe
( Yum.)

Super easy to work with, and deliciously light in texture. Yum!!

1/2 cup warm water (about 110 degrees F)
2 1/4 tsp breadmaker instant yeast (Can use 1 envelope instant yeast)
1 1/4 cups water, room temperature
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 tsp salt
olive oil or nonstick cooking spray to grease the bowl

Directions
– Measure the warm water in a large (at least 2 cup) liquid measuring cup and sprinkle in the yeast. Let stand 5 minutes, or until yeast dissolves.
– Add the room temperautre water and oil; stir to combine
– Place the flour and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle and briefly combine your dry ingredients using low speed
– Slowly add your liquid ingredients and continue to mix on low sped until a cohesive mass forms
– Stop the mixer and replace the paddle with the dough hook
– Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic; approximately 5 minutes
– Form the dough into a ball and put it in a deep, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap
– Let the dough rise until doubled in size (should take 1 1/2 to 2 hours), then press the dough to deflate it
– Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide the dough into two equal pieces
– Form each piece into a smooth, round ball and cover with a damp cloth for 10 minutes (but no longer than 30 minutes)
– Working with one piece of dough and keeping the other one covered, shape the dough and transfer it to a pizza peel or round of parchment dusted with semolina or cornmeal
– Top as desired
– Use other ball of dough, or freeze for later use

**The original website includes instruction about heating your pizza stone in your conventional oven and cooking times for conventional ovens. Since I used my ‘pizza oven’ all of this was thrown out the door.