Another Go-Round with Pizza Dough

I sure can't thank my sister enough for purchasing a bread maker for $5 from Goodwill and donating it to me. You see, where she lives, she can buy things at GW and return them if they don't work. Same was true when I lived in Wisco. But not here folks. Big, bold print at the bottom of the receipt states ALL SALES ARE FINAL. Makes me leery about buying anything that might not work, because regardless, I'd be stuck with it. So here's a big shout out to my sister for my free bread machine! I'm making quite a habit out of using it!

The first pizza dough recipe I tried with the bread machine was from allrecipes.com and had great reviews. I really like it, but variety is the spice of life. I decided to go to the bread machine manufacturer's website and see what kind of recipes they have, and that's where this one come from.

Pizza Dough
Slightly adapted from the Regal Breadmaker Guide and Cookbook

7.5 oz. water (between 100F-110F)
3/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. garlic powder

Measure all ingredients and add to the bread pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the 'dough' setting and press the start/stop button. When the display reads 00:00, press the start/stop button again and remove the dough.

Preheat your oven to 425F. Pat dough into 2 greased cookie sheets to the thinness you desire. I'm a pretty thin crust kinda gal, but Buppy stops me short of turning it into a cracker. Prick the dough with a fork in various spots and pop into the oven for 3+/- minutes. I like this par-baking technique because it keeps my dough from being soggy. Once you remove one pan, repeat with the other sheet of dough. From here, top with your favorite pizza toppings and return to the oven for 10+/- minutes, until the cheese gets all bubbly and beautiful and golden. A word to the wise here: because of the short cooking time, things like fresh veggies don't really have much chance to cook through. Onions would probably still be rather crunchy, so if you have toppings like onions, mushrooms, green peppers, etc., I suggest sauteing them a bit first to soften them up. Or, if you like crunchy veg, by all means don't. The other reason this is helpful is so your pizza doesn't get soggy when all the veggies start to release their water. Totally up to you though.

My most recent creation, which looks surprisingly like a brain to me, was topped with turkey bacon, a small amount of pepperoni, some deli ham, green olives, black olives, onions, mushrooms, fresh spinach, sauce and cheese. Olives on pizza have really grown on me the last couple years; the saltiness they lend is the key. Mix it up, throw on whatever toppings make your skirt fly up and have some homemade pizza for dinner tonight. Enjoy!