Naan Pizza

I'm up visiting my college friends in St. Paul, MN and for dinner our second night we  did made-your-own naan pizzas. So simple, genius, and delicious. This is something I might just keep on hand at all times (freeze some shredded cheese and naan and keep a jar of sauce in the pantry).

Naan Pizza

Ingredients:
1 piece of naan bread
handful of cheese (mozzarella, goat, etc)
pizza sauce (to taste)
1 - 2 toppings (bell peppers, olives, spinach, etc)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Prepare naan pizza: spread sauce over the naan, top with cheese, and place all desired toppings on that.
3. Bake for 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and turning golden-brown on the top.

Pizza Cups

Cute dinner item, and quick to make (especially if you're lazy like me and used the boxed pizza dough mix X.X) I also made little sugar cookie-based desert pizzas to go along with this, but they did not have structural integrity. I'll work on that recipe and post it one day : )

Pizza Cups
adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
Dough for 1 pizza crust
sauce
cheese
toppings

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 F
2. Spray a 6-cupcake tin with oil
3. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces, flatten out into circles that fit perfectly into the cupcake tin, and place in tin.
4. Fill dough with all the fillings that will fit. Don't worry if they pile over, they'll cook down in the oven.
5. Bake for 15 mins or until dough is golden brown and cheese is melted

Alfredo Pizza Boats

In keeping with my pizza-theme....



Similar to my grilled zucchini pizzas, but less messy

Alfredo Pizza Boats
adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients:
1 zucchini
1/3 cup mozzarella (or other cheese you wish to top your pizza boats with)
2 t. bread crumbs
1.5 oz. Alfredo sauce
1/8 t. Italian seasoning
2 t. Parmesan cheese
small amounts of desired toppings

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Cut off stem of zucchini, cut zucchini in half length-wise, and scoop out as much of the insides as possible without breaking through the outside of the zucchini.
3. Place zucchini halves hollowed-side up in an oven safe pan with a lip. Place zucchini insides in a bowl, and try to squeeze out as much moisture as possible with your hands, pouring it out into the sink.
4. Dice zucchini bits into small pieces, and place back into bowl. Combine with bread crumbs, Alfredo, Italian seasonings, and Parmesan cheese. Put this mixture evenly into the zucchini.
5. Top zucchinis with shredded cheese and toppings, then bake for 20 mins.

Apple Dessert Pizza

My brother came up for the weekend, and I asked him if he wanted pizza. He said yes, and we went to the local pizzaria. While there, he wanted a slice of dessert pizza. $2.50 a slice! Outraged and unwilling to pay such fees, I told him, I will make you a dessert pizza. And here it is. : D

Turned out deliciously. Took the leftovers to a party the evening I made it and it got good reviews.


Apple Dessert Pizza
from cooks.com

Ingredients:
2 9-inch pie crusts, uncooked
6 or so apples
1 cup sugar, divided
3/4 cup flour
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 cup butter

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Roll out pie pastry into a circle to fit on a pie pan.
3. Core apples, and cut into thin slices (1/4" thick or so). Layer on top of pastry.
4. Combine half sugar with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and pour evenly over apples.
5. Combine flour, remaining sugar, and butter. Mix together until a nice grainy paste is formed.
6. Layer as evenly as possible on top of the apples.
7. Bake for 40 minutes making sure not to burn the dough on top.

Vegan Pizza

Alas! Another pizza post. But, this one's vegan! So it's different and interesting... right? I wanted to review some vegan products. So, this pizza gave me a chance.


Daiya: This cheeze was very interesting. If you're expecting the taste/texture of mozzarella, you're not going to find it. It has an almost sour taste, and a thick creaminess when it melts. It's not bad, but not my favorite. Worth a try. I can see myself buying this again when I try a month of vegan-ness (next school year!)

Yves pepperoni: I greatly enjoyed this product. I placed it on top of the pizza, and it got nice and crunchy. It has good flavor, and I see myself buying this product in the future.

(in breakfast cereal commercial voice) Part of this complete vegan meal!


Vegan Pizza: vegan cheeze, pepperoni, spinach, and walnuts

Ingredients:
Yves vegan pepperoni
daiya mozzarella style shreds
hy-vee (or any other brand that makes a vegan crust) pizza crust
any vegan pizza sauce
3 T. toasted walnuts
small handful spinach

Instructions:
1. Heat oven according to crust package instructions
2. Use entire bag of cheeze, pepperoni to taste, pizza sauce to taste, and all walnuts and handful of spinach.

Pizza Dough

This is the first time I've made pizza dough. Usually, I use the 5-minute rise dough from a mix. Quite convenient and time (and cost) saving, but ultimately not the premium. This recipe is out of The Bread Baker's Apprentice, a classic in bread literature.

I used an abridged version, since I was short on time and did not prepare well. It turned out pretty tasty, but I would still suggest in the future to use the full version.

(An action shot!)


Note: I also halved the recipe.

Pizza Crust (abridged)
adapted from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 + 1/8 t salt
1/2 t yeast
1/8 cup olive oil
3/4 + 1/8 cup cold water

Instructions:
1. Combine flour, salt, and yeast.
2. Add oil and water, and mix as if using a dough hook (or use one, if you have), for 5 minutes.
3. Sprinkle flour on a counter, place dough on, and cut into 3 pieces of equal size. Shape all into a sphere.
4. From sphere, use fists to shape into 6 inch rounds. Dust rounds with flour, place onto wax paper, cover with saran wrap, and let rise for 2 hours.
5. For cooking instructions (specifically grilling... stay tuned!)

Pizza 2-ways: Vegetable and Carmalized eggplant

So for my out-of-town friend David's last meal here, we made pizzas!


We both made a different kind. David made the veggie pizza, I made the caramelized eggplant pizza. Both were delicious. We used this super easy crust mix.

Here's the recipe to the vegetable pizza:


Vegetable pizza
Ingredients:
1 package pizza crust
1/2 tomato
1/3 medium white onion
1 green chili pepper
1 red hot chili pepper
2/3 cup tomato sauce
4 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
a dash of dried basil
a dash of salt

Instructions:
1. Make pizza crust and pre-heat oven according to package directions.
2. While the crust is rising, dice the tomato, onion, and both peppers.
3. Oil pizza pan (or jelly roll sheet for square pizza), and spread the crust around. It helps if you oil your hands and/or the dough, since it's pretty sticky.
4. Spread the sauce evenly over the spread-out dough.
5. Sprinkle all the mozzarella cheese over the sauce.
6. Evenly place all the diced vegetables over the cheese, and then sprinkle the basil and salt on top.
7. Bake according to the pizza crust directions.

Caramelized Eggplant pizza
Ingredients:
1 package pizza crust
3 cloves garlic
1/2 white onion
1 small eggplant
olive oil
4 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1 oz. Brie cheese

Instructions:
1. Heat up 2 skillet with a generous amount of olive oil in each, on medium heat.
2. Peel and slice into circles the garlic. Place in first pan to start caramelizing.
3. Slice the onion into thin strips, and place into first pan.
4. Slice the eggplant into circles, and place in second pan.
5. Cook the onions and garlic in the first pan until golden, about 15 minutes, and the eggplant until mushy/darker brown, about 15 minutes as well.
6. Make pizza crust and pre-heat oven according to package directions.
7. While dough is rising, dice the Brie cheese.
7. Once crust has risen, oil pizza pan (or jelly roll sheet for square pizza), and spread the crust around. It helps if you oil your hands and/or the dough, since it's pretty sticky.
8. Place about 2 T. of olive oil on the top of the dough, and spread evenly.
9. Sprinkle all the mozzarella cheese over the sauce.
10. Evenly spread the Brie cheese over the top of the pizza.
11. Place the eggplant over the top of the cheese, so they are evenly spread and not touching.
12. Evenly spread the caramelized garlic and onion strips.
13. Bake according to package directions.