homemade pizza and a few tricks

friday night is pizza night at our house
it's the best darn tradition we've got
because, well it's pizza. delicious, addicting and fun to make
and if you're like us and have tomatoes coming out your ears
this is quite a delicious way to savor those garden-fresh babies
(or store bought too)

{Pizza Dough}

Whisk 3 3/4 cups flour and 1 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a well (i stick my 1 cup measuring cup and make a little hole in the center of the flour/salt mixture) and add 1 1/3 cups warm water, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 packet yeast. When foamy mix in 3 tablespoons of olive oil; knead until smooth, 5 minutes. Brush with olive oil, cover in a bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour 30 minutes.

now this dough recipe is pretty big and easily makes 2 really large pizzas, we usually make 2 smaller ones for the kids and 2 medium-sized ones for the adults. so if 4 adults are eating, perfect. if more, than double the recipe. {recipe found in food network magazine}


{Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza}

3 chicken breasts
about 1 cup crumbled bacon
1-2 large tomatoes
1 medium yellow onion
ranch
minced garlic
mozzarella cheese
and here's the kicker...asiago cheese (a little pricey but it lasts thru easily 50 pizzas, no joke)

here's the way we make pizza at our house...

take an old cookie sheet, that is now your pizza "stone", toss it in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees.
throw some flour and cornmeal on your preparation surface and roll out your dough (not too big, it has to fit on a cookie sheet) we like our pizza pretty thin, but if you like thick pizza than go for it. we have a pizza peel, but any type of surface will work, just make sure you can transfer it to the oven. put your dough on a floured surface, pizza peel, and make sure the dough can still slide around. if not, keep putting flour under the dough. and no it doesn't have to be a perfect circle, we always make a funky square shape and it's perfect. now you're ready for your toppings.

{Directions}

cook chicken in olive oil and a little garlic salt, chop tomatoes and onions, set aside. spread ranch on your pizza dough along with your minced garlic. coat evenly and generously. place chicken on ranch and then sprinkle mozzarella cheese across the entire pizza. toss your onions, tomatoes and crumbled bacon across the cheese. and for the best part of the entire pizza...shred some asiago cheese on the very top, this is killer.

now before attempting to transfer the pizza from "peel" to oven, make sure it can still slide around.
toss that beautiful pizza into the oven and about 10 minutes later, when the cheese is golden brown. it's done!


bon appetit