Thursday, February 5, 2015

The Best Pizza I've Ever Made

I love pizza but when I make it at home, I don't always love it as much.  I think it is the crust that I don't like because I'll be honest, I've been taking the easy way out and buying a prepared crust or rolling out the refrigerated version.  Or perhaps the problem is that I don't have a pizza oven at my house.  Maybe I need one. 

Anyway,  I started looking at pizza crusts I could make from scratch.   Pizza crusts require yeast which requires rising and perfect temperatures for such and oh my goodness, I just wasn't sure about all of that.  But then I was perusing the All Recipes website and found this  and it said "Quick and Easy Pizza Crust."  Well, I'm all about quick and easy so I decided to try it and it was in fact, quick, easy and delicious.  Score!

I just wanted to share with you my recipe for the Best Pizza I Ever Made.  In the interest of full disclosure, I am a work-in-progress when it comes to pizza making.  Do any of you have any great pizza recipes you would like to share?  Feel free to leave me a comment. I'd love to know!

The Best Pizza I've Ever Made
** Quick and Easy Pizza Crust - adapted from All Recipes.com
Ingredients:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2.  Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.  Let sit for about 10 minutes until creamy.
3.  Add flour, olive oil and salt.  Beat with electric mixer until smooth.  Let rest 5 minutes.
4.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll or pat into a round.  Transfer crust to a pizza stone dusted with cornmeal.
--I deviated from the All Recipes recipe at this point --
5.  Brush the crust with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal.  Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until crusted is lightly browned.
6.  Turn oven heat down to 425 degrees.

Ingredients for Pizza:
1 (28-ounce) bottle Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, original
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

2 small packages fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
4 cups mozzarella cheese
Sliced black olives, to taste
Directions:
1.  In a medium bowl, mix together 3/4 cup BBQ sauce and chicken; set aside.
2.  In a medium skillet, drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil and turn to medium-high heat.  Add mushrooms and onions; cook until tender about 15 minutes.  Add tomatoes and cook about 5 more minutes, just until tomatoes are soft.  Remove from heat.
3.  To assemble pizza:  Spread remaining BBQ sauce on the warm, partially cooked pizza crust.  Brush edges of crust with olive oil.  Add 2 cups mozzarella cheese and then the chicken.  Spread evenly with the mushroom/onion/tomato mixture, then remaining cheese.  Sprinkle with black olives.
4.  Bake for about 10 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese is melted.





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