Pizzaholic

When I purchase my calendar for 2018, I need to make sure it comes with every national ”food” holiday. If we are going to have national holidays for food, we need to make sure they are labeled just like all the other holidays we have on our calendars, no exceptions.  

In any case, this past week was National Pizza Day, and ironically enough I was making homemade pizza that evening. Therefore, I made it much more of a meal than I expected it to be.

What did I make? Spinach pizza, of course! Spinach pizza is the king of pizzas in my personal opinion. Of course I love meat, mushrooms, peppers, and the other creative fixings on top of my pizza, but nothing can beat a spinach pizza with the right combination of ingredients. You don’t want it to taste like you’re eating a salad, but you also do not want it to taste too much like spinach dip either.

I am an addict of purchasing Dr. Oetker’s frozen pizzas, but I recently decided to go back to family’s recipe and make our pizza dough. The recipe derives from Wolfgang Puck’s bread maker recipe book so if you have a bread maker, this recipe is ideal.

Some notes to this recipe:

1. Place the bread maker setting on BASIC and have it in there for about 2 hours and 5 minutes or just before it goes into the “bake” phase.

2. Make sure that you give the dough some time to rest after it is finished. I recommend around 30 minutes. Also ensure that you place a paper towel over the dough when it is resting.

3. If you are making this the night before, place the dough in a bowl, cover it tightly with plastic wrap and place it in a refrigerator. This will allow the dough to rest and expand. This can be in the fridge for up to 2 days so if you plan to use any remaining dough for another time, I recommend placing it in a plastic bag and into the freezer.

Alright, here is the fun part: the recipe!

Serves up to 6 people or makes 3 personal pizzas.

Ingredients

1 C room temperature water

2 T olive oil

1 T honey

1 t kosher salt

3 C unbleached bread flour (organic works really well too!)

2.5 t bread machine yeast

Instructions

Place all ingredients in order above into a bread maker

Place setting to BASIC and press START

Take out before BAKE phase. Dough will be warm but not extremely hot.

 Cover dough with a paper towel and let rest for 30 minutes

Prepare pizza peel with breadcrumbs

Shape dough as desired and place on pizza peel

Top with desired toppings and place in oven over a pizza stone (I like 450 degrees Fahrenheit but its up to you).

 Remove from oven, cool for about 5 minutes, serve. Enjoy!