Pizza!!!

PIZZA!!!!

Want some?

 It was guy day again and the budding young chef decided we were going to make some pizza.  We normally use Naan bread as the base that we purchase at World Oasis in Blacksburg.  I think I have mentioned this store before.  Love it!!!  We discovered the Naan bread last year when my darling husband/best friend and I were wandering around the store trying to think of things to do with what we saw.  You can't just pick up stuff without having a plan or it will just sit there and go bad.  We saw the bread in the cooler and immediately thought...pizza!!!  Unfortunately, we have not been to World Oasis for some time now.  No time to go, it's a little over an hour to get there and then you have to have shopping time and then the trip home...just no time.  So, Nick and I went on a crust search.  I had bought Naan bread at Kroger one day, and even though it was not as good as what we bought at World Oasis, I thought it might do for today,  They didn't have it.  The nice girl that worked there in the bakery said it was an occasional item.  Darn.  We then went to Walmart because I had seen Naan in the Bluefield Walmart bakery, but, no luck.  The Princeton Walmart does not carry as much specialty bread as the Bluefield store.  We proceeded to buy two ready made crusts and a pack of crust mix.  I also decided I would go online to see if I could find a recipe for the dough that did not require a stand mixer or bread maker.  I found one.  Alex Guarnaschelli, thank you very much.

Pizza Dough
2 1/4 tsp yeast (one pack)
1 1/2 cups of water at 110 degrees
combine and let them sit for at least 5 minutes

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
and we added 1 Tbs red pepper flakes and 1 Tbs italian seasoning

(I can tell you after haven eaten the pizza, we will do more "spicing" of the dough next time we make it.  We are big fans of flavor and it was just a bit too bland.  More of the red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning and a bit more salt too.)
add half the flour to the yeast mixture and mix.  Add the seasonings and mix.  Then add the rest of the flour gradually.  It will get sticky and hard to mix.  You want to drizzle in some olive oil and maybe add small amounts of water until you get it all incorporated.  Turn it out onto a floured board and knead it for 5 minutes.  Make it smooth and well incorporated.  Turn the ball into a well greased bowl and cover it with saran wrap for 1 1/2 hours.  It will more than double.  Turn it out of the bowl and split it into 2 or 4 pieces depending on the size pizza you want to make.  Roll each piece into a loose ball and allow that to sit about 15 minutes.  We got impatient and only waited 10 and it worked out fine.  Make sure you oil you pan well and then just take your time and stretch the dough out to the thickness you like.  We baked it off for 5 minutes at 425 degrees and then topped it.

The topping for the pizza are always the same.  We have made them enough that we know what we like.  We take about two pounds of ground sirloin and add three cloves of chopped garlic and one tablespoon of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and cook that up.  Sliced green peppers, I used what was left of the tri-color peppers I had and two cloves of garlic chopped and two onions sliced thinly, cook that up in olive oil.

Instead of pizza sauce we use roma tomatoes sliced as thin as you can get them as the base.  You want to salt them and let some of the moisture out of them before you put them on the pizza crust.  I have olive oil with red pepper flakes in a spray dispenser so we sprayed the crusts with that so the toppings wouldn't make it too mushy and then put the toppings on.  The final ingredient is shredded mozzarella cheese.  Yummmm

 Just a small note about breakfast.  We didn't take any pictures today but the menu was almost exactly the same as the last time we talked about it.  The only difference?  I found some apple fritter bread at the Walmart bakery (dang that bakery...) and made some french toast with it.  It was too good.  And I mean that.  Too good for my own good.  Dang that bakery!!!  And yes, we will probably do that again.  Dang!!

All in all, a very good food day.  Happy camper!!!