Last night I decided to make pizza for dinner. I had some leftover little grape tomatoes that were looking a little puckery, so halved them, sprinkled kosher salt, pepper, and olive oil over them, then stuck them in a 350 F oven for about 40 minutes – until they looked browned around the edges. In the meantime I got my bread machine out, put the ingredients in for my pizza dough, then I set the machine for the “dough” cycle. When the dough was ready, I made it into three small roundish, flat, but not too thin pizzas. I like the look of an odd-shaped pizza, it appears very humble and homemade. You can make yours perfect, if you like. I spread on the dough a mixture of half mayonnaise, half ranch dressing (about 1 TB of each), then I covered that with shredded jack and parmesan cheese, as that’s the only cheese I had in my fridge. I sprinkled the then cooled tomatoes over one pizza – my girls didn’t want any, silly girls - along with some thinly sliced Basil leaves, a handful of sliced green olives, and some red onion circles. I put the pizzas in a 400 F oven and baked them for 12 minutes. I served the pizzas with carrot sticks leftover from Saturday’s Farmer’s Market run, and tada! super-easy, but very tasty dinner. My teenage daughter proclaimed these, “Your best crust, yet!”
Bread Machine Pizza Dough
1 package dry active yeast (2-1/2 teaspoons)
3 teaspoons honey
1 cup warm water
2-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups of flour
Layer the ingredients according to how your bread machine maker suggests. Mine goes water, honey, oil, salt, flour, then I make a little indent in the side of the flour and I pour the yeast in there. Set your machine for the “dough” cycle, which mixes the dough, but does not bake it. My machine runs this cycle for 90 minutes. At that time, I pull the dough out, make it into a ball – or balls, I usually do individual pizzas because my kids like that – then I roll it out as close to a circle as I can get. I let it set and rise for about 5 minutes, then I cover with whatever toppings I have available. I bake it on a pizza stone or a cookie sheet in a 400 F oven for 12 minutes.
If my toppings have not browned enough at that point, I stick it back in for a couple of minutes, keeping a close on the progress. Sometimes a lot of vegetables take longer, because of their water content.
