Pizza & Beer {Quick Beer Pizza Dough & BBQ Chicken Pizza}

I love pizza!  But not just any pizza.  I prefer homemade.  For years, I have used my favorite pizza dough recipe.  I've tried others, but none have come close.

While I was waiting for my oven to be fixed, I looked through the pile of recipes I have found online but never got around to baking.  Determined to start baking again, I had a new "to bake" list.

On the top of my list, I had a recipe from King Arthur Flour for a Quick Beer Pizza Dough.  BEER!  I had a gut feeling that this recipe would be a good one, because beer and pizza go together like bread and butter.

It was such an easy recipe to follow.  The original recipe does call for semolina flour, but as usual, it's a hard to find ingredient in my small town.  But that wasn't a problem.  The recipe also stated you could substitute all-purpose flour for the semolina.

One ingredient that did catch my attention was the addition of baking powder.  If it can give tempura batter an extra crunch, then I'm sure it has the same effect on this pizza dough.

And best part of all is that there is no need for a thermometer or heating any liquid.  All you need is a room temperature beer.  I know heating water or milk to just the right temperature can be a little intimidating, so this is the perfect recipe to try if you've never worked with yeast.

All that is fine and dandy, but how does it taste?  Oh wow!  It is SO good!  The beer flavor is not too strong, but not too mild either.  This dough would be great for breadsticks.

I have made this dough 3 times in the past couple of weeks and haven't been disappointed yet!  This could very well be my new "Go to" pizza dough recipe.

Quick Beer Pizza Crust (from King Arthur Flour)

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1-1/2 cups room-temperature beer

Directions:
Combine the flour, yeast, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Pour in the beer and oil; mix well.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic.

 

Place dough in a greased bowl; turn greased side up.  Cover dough and let set until double in size. (This could take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes.)

Divide dough and turn onto lightly floured surface.  Roll out to desired thickness.

Place the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake at 425ºF for about 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and top with your favorite toppings!  Enjoy!!!

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Now that we have our pizza dough, it's time to have some fun.  Deciding what to put on your pizza is the best part.  We all have our favorites, but why not be little adventurous and try something new.  When I make pizza, I love to raid my fridge and pantry to see what creative pizza I can come up with.  It's a great way to use up any leftovers.

This week, I happened to have all the ingredients to make BBQ Chicken Pizza.  The BBQ flavor of the sauce is perfect with the Quick Beer Pizza Dough.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:

• Quick Beer Pizza Crust
• 1 to 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded into large chunks
• BBQ Sauce (Use your favorite)
• Onion Slices
• Fresh Cilantro
• 2 cups Oaxaca or Mozzarella Cheese, shredded or sliced

Directions:

Combine the shredded chicken with a couple tablespoons of your favorite bottled bbq sauce; mix well.

Spread 1/3 cup of bbq sauce over slightly baked pizza crust.

 

Top with shredded chicken, onion slices and fresh cilantro leaves.

 

Top with cheese.

Bake in 425ºF oven for 20 minutes or until cheese has melted and started to bubble. Enjoy!!!

With Love,