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

I love pizza!  Delivery is nice and easy, but there's really nothing like a homemade pizza. I make homemade pizza for my family at least 3 or 4 times a month. For years, I've only used my old standby recipe for pizza dough because even though I've tried others none have cause too great of an impression.

While waiting for my oven to be fixed, I looked through the pile of recipes I've found online that I wanted to try but never got around to trying any of them.  Determined to start baking again once my oven was fixed, I compiled a new "to bake" list. On the top of my list was a recipe I found on the King Arthur Flour website for Quick Beer Pizza Dough. Beer + pizza = a match made in heaven. So I just knew that this recipe was going to be good.

The first thing that really stood out to me about this recipe was how easy it was to follow with just a handful of ingredients. But my favorite part, aside from the taste, is that there's no need to heat any liquid to a certain temperature. All that's needed is a room temperature beer.  If you've ever found working with yeast to be a little intimidating, this is the perfect recipe for you to try.

As for the taste, it was better than I had imagined. The beer really enhances the flavor of the yeast, which makes for a much tastier pizza dough. I've already made this recipe 3 times in the past couple of weeks and fall in love with more ever time I try it. The dough tastes even better when made a day in advance. This Quick Beer Pizza Dough is quickly on it's way to becoming my new go-to recipe. And did I mention that this dough also makes really great breadsticks?

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 in two and turn onto lightly floured surface. Roll out to desired thickness. Place the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet. Top with your favorite toppings. Bake at 425ºF for about 20 minutes or the crust is golden brown and the cheese has melted completely. 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,

09 February 2010

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

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Pizza Dough

I realize that my previous post was a yeast bread recipe, but I wanted to share with you one of the first recipes I prepared upon moving to Mexico.

I love pizza and so does the rest of my family. One of the first things that my husband and I noticed when moving to Mexico, was that the pizza wasn't up to our standards. Nothing that we tasted here came close to the pizza that we were used to back home in the States.

Then I remembered making pizza from scratch on a few occasions. All I had to do, was find my recipe for pizza dough and then head to the local bakery to buy some yeast. One of the panaderías (bakery) is owned by my husband's godfather, Don José. I had hoped to find packages of quick active dry yeast, because I had never used any other kind, but was told by Don José that his bakers only used fresh yeast. Don José reassured me that using fresh yeast was no different than using the quick active dry yeast, and that maybe, one day, I'd prefer using the fresh. Don José gave me (he refuses to charge us), the amount of fresh yeast that I would need for one kilo of flour. (One kilo is just a little over 2 pounds.)

Needless to say, we were able to enjoy a delicious pizza. And on a very happy note, packages of instant yeast are now readily available at one of the local cremerías (shops). Here is my recipe for pizza dough.

Pizza Dough


Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 envelope instant yeast*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup very warm water (120ºF)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:
In large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, undissolved yeast and salt.

Stir very warm water and olive oil into flour mixture.  Beat 2 minutes by hand or with an electric mixer on medium speed.

Stir in 1 cup of remaining flour; mix well. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Knead on lightly floured surface for 8 to 10 minutes, until dough feels smooth and elastic.

Place dough in a large bowl that has previously been sprayed with vegetable spray; turn greased side up. Cover with plastic wrap and let set 30 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.

Shape dough into smooth ball. Divide and roll dough to fit desired pan(s). Top pizza with your favorite toppings. Bake at 400ºF for 20 to 30 minutes.  Enjoy!!!

*Note: You can also use quick active dry yeast for this recipe.  Just dissolve it in the hot water and let it set for about 10 minutes before adding it to the flour.

With Love,
Leslie Limon

23 April 2009

Pizza Dough

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