Sweet Potato Caramelized Onion Pesto Pizza

Okay, so the iPhone photo is terrible. Don't worry, summer is coming. Which means I will have natural light with which to photograph my dinners. For now we're stuck with the light above the stovetop. Yikes.

Just trust me, this pizza was super tasty!

No-Knead Pizza Dough


3 3/4 unsifted cups all-purpose flour, plus more for shaping the dough
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
11/2 cups water


In a medium bowl, thoroughly blend the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and, with a wooden spoon and/or your hands, mix thoroughly. Start with the spoon, then switch to your hands.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and allow it to rise at room temperature (about 72°) for 18 hours or until it has more than doubled. It will take longer in a chilly room and less time in a very warm one.

Flour a work surface and scrape out the dough. Divide it into 3 equal parts and shape them by folding four edges toward the center. Shape each portion into a round and turn seam side down. Mold the dough into a neat circular mound. The mounds should not be sticky; if they are, dust with more flour.

If you don't intend to use the dough right away, wrap the balls individually in plastic and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Return to room temperature by leaving them out on the counter, covered in a damp cloth, for 2 to 3 hours before needed.



(in depth instructions and photos for dough found here.)


Sweet Potato Caramelized Onion Pesto Pizza

1 ball of no-knead pizza dough
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup prepared pesto sauce (i like costco brand or a quick homemade in the blender)
fresh mozzarella cheese (shredded is fine too if that's what you have)
olive oil
salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 450°.

Start the onions by heating 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet.  Place onions in skillet, sprinkle with salt and saute slowly over medium-low heat, stirring somewhat often, for about 15-20 minutes, until the onions have turned a rich, caramel brown.  Remove from heat and set aside.

While the onions are caramelizing, line a cookie sheet with foil. Place the sweet potato slices in a bowl and drizzle lightly with olive oil.  Toss, then place in a single layer on the prepared cookie sheet and season with salt and pepper.  Roast for 6 minutes, then flip and roast another 3-4 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Dust your hands and work surface lightly with flour.  Working from the center of your ball of pizza dough, gently stretch & shape it to the desired size.

Bake the shaped pizza for about 5 minutes, then take it out for topping. Spread pesto sauce on pizza, then layer sweet potato slices, caramelized onions, and torn pieces of mozzarella cheese. Season with a little salt and pepper, and bake an additional 7-10 minutes, until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly.

Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before slicing.

Veggie Pizza

I love making pizza, but I wanted to try my hand at a more healthy version and try to get a few more vegetables in for the day. I was worried this wouldn't be that yummy since it was all veggies, but it was actually really delicious! We both loved it.

This is my favorite pizza dough recipe, I always make it on a weekend when I have extra time to let it rise, and then freeze half the dough to be used mid-week. When pulled out of the freezer in the morning, it makes the quickest dinner to throw together. All you have to do is wait for the oven to preheat, roll it out, top it, and bake!

Veggie Pizza

Dough:
½ cup warm water
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
1½ tsp. salt
1¼ cup water, at room temperature
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Toppings:
3/4 cup to 1 cup marinara sauce
6 oz Fontina Cheese, grated
2 handfuls baby spinach leaves
1 small-medium zucchini, sliced
1 small-medium yellow squash, sliced
handful grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
fresh basil (or dried, which is what I used), sprinkled on top

Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle the yeast over the top. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flours and salt, mixing briefly to blend. Measure the room temperature water into the measuring cup with the yeast-water mixture. With the mixer on low speed, pour in the yeast-water mixture as well as the olive oil. Mix until a cohesive dough is formed. Switch to the dough hook. Knead on low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 1½-2 hours.

Press down the dough to deflate it. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball. (If freezing the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze at this point.) Cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.

To bake, preheat the oven and pizza stone to 500˚ F for at least 30 minutes. Transfer the dough to your shaping surface, lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Shape the dough with lightly floured hands. Brush the outer edge lightly with olive oil. Top as desired. Bake until the crust is golden brown, and cheese is bubbling, 8-12 minutes.

Pizza dough recipe from Annie's Eats.

Pesto Chicken Pizza

I will admit, I was real proud of this one. I needed to use up the last of this jar of pesto sauce from Costco and what do you know, I ended up making one of my favorite homemade pizzas of all time. (The winner would be a classic sausage margherita with homemade pizza sauce, fresh sliced mozzarella, fresh basil and spicy italian sausage, in case you were wondering.) This pesto pizza tasted like something from a restaurant. The oil from the pesto sauce sort of soaked into the crust during baking, making it brown up nicely and taste amazing. This smelled so divine coming out of the oven. I am a big fan of pesto and I just loved this pizza.

Pesto Chicken Pizza

1 batch perfect pizza crust
1/2-3/4 cup prepared pesto sauce (I get a great deal at Costco)
1 1/2 cups fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 small jar artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
2 chicken breast halves, grilled and sliced
1/2 sweet yellow onion, sliced


Preheat the oven to 500° F. (If you have a pizza stone, preheat it in the oven and use a pizza peel or parchment paper to transfer topped pizza to stone before baking.) Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Gently roll out the pizza dough into a large circle on a lightly floured counter top, leaving a thicker ring around the edge for the crust. Spread the pesto sauce in a thin layer evenly over the unbaked crust. Sprinkle with half the shredded mozzarella. Top with chicken, onion and artichoke hearts. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and browned. Let pizza cool for a couple minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Pizza crust from Annie's Eats.

BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza

Klane loves barbecue pulled pork, but every time I make it we have a ton of leftover meat that we have to figure out how to use. This recipe was born out of a need to use up leftover pulled pork. I've done a barbecue chicken pizza before, and this is basically a twist on that. It felt like a gamble throwing pork on a pizza, but it turned out to be a winning combination. We loved this!

BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza

1/2 recipe perfect pizza crust
leftover pulled pork
1 small green pepper, sliced
1 roma tomato, seeded and diced
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2-3/4 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce (I like Sweet Baby Rays)
1 1/2 cup fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 500° F. (If you have a pizza stone, preheat it in the oven and use a pizza peel or parchment paper to transfer topped pizza to stone before baking.) Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Gently roll out the pizza dough into a large circle on a lightly floured counter top, leaving a thicker ring around the edge for the crust. Spread the BBQ sauce in a thin layer evenly over the unbaked crust. Sprinkle with half the shredded mozzarella. Top with pulled pork, tomato, onion and green peppers. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and drizzle a little more sauce on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and browned. Let pizza cool for a couple minutes before slicing so the toppings don't fall off!

Perfect Pizza Crust

I have used a couple pizza crust recipes, but this one is far and away my favorite. I love it. It's so easy to make, and so easy to work with, and it tastes great. I love that I have the option to freeze some for a quick weeknight dinner later on if I want. It's the best.

Perfect Pizza Crust

For the crust:
½ cup warm water
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
4 cups (22 oz.) bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1½ tsp. salt
1¼ cup water, at room temperature
2 tbsp. olive oil

Measure the 1/2 cup warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle the yeast over the top. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour and salt, mixing briefly to blend. Measure the room temperature water into the measuring cup with the yeast-water mixture. With the mixer on low speed, pour in the yeast-water mixture as well as the olive oil. Mix until a cohesive dough is formed. Switch to the dough hook. Knead on low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 1½-2 hours.

Press down the dough to deflate it. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball. 

(If desired, wrap one of the balls of dough in plastic wrap, put in a freezer bag and freeze for later. When it's time to use the frozen dough, put it in the fridge in the morning, then take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you're ready to use it.) 

Cover ball of dough with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 500° F. Sprinkle a large baking sheet lightly with cornmeal or lay down a piece of parchment paper to prevent dough from sticking. On a countertop lightly dusted with flour, gently roll out the pizza dough into a large circle, leaving a thicker ring around the edge for the crust. (If the dough doesn't want to stretch and roll out, let it rest for a few minutes and come back to it. If it's been frozen and thawed, it's a little harder to work with, but letting it rest a bit usually helps make it more workable.) Carefully transfer the dough to the baking sheet (on top of the parchment paper or dusted cornmeal) and top with toppings and cheese as desired. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and browned. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Makes two medium pizzas.

Recipe from Annie's Eats.

Chicken Ranch Pizza

Lately I haven't made a whole lot of new recipes. I'm still cooking a lot, I've just been making tried and true favorites from my files (this blog). I feel like I should apologize for not posting anything new. But if you're anything like me, you can still make good use of this blog and all that the archives have to offer.

Anyway, I made something new today! I decided to try a new recipe for pizza dough and the one from Annie's Eats looked and sounded amazing. I was excited to try it out since she suggests freezing the dough for later use (which I did, and it worked wonderfully). I actually made the dough earlier this week while my husband was working late and I had extra time on my hands. Usually I'm in such a hurry to get dinner ready that I wouldn't use a recipe that requires the dough to rise for 2 hours. But making this ahead of time and freezing it for when I needed it was the perfect solution. I just took it out of the freezer in the morning for dinner that night.

This dough was really simple but yielded awesome results. Annie did a whole post all about pizza, and I found her tips extremely helpful in making my pizza so much better. Short of buying a scale and measuring my ingredients by weight, I followed all her instructions and my pizza turned out amazing! I will be using this dough for all my pizza from now on.

Chicken Ranch Pizza

For the crust:
½ cup warm water
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
4 cups (22 oz.) bread flour, plus more for dusting
1½ tsp. salt
1¼ cup water, at room temperature
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

For the toppings:
¼ cup Ranch dressing
¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
½-1 grilled chicken breast, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 tomato, seeded and diced
2-3 green onions, chopped
¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle the yeast over the top. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the bread flour and salt, mixing briefly to blend. Measure the room temperature water into the measuring cup with the yeast-water mixture. With the mixer on low speed, pour in the yeast-water mixture as well as the olive oil. Mix until a cohesive dough is formed. Switch to the dough hook. Knead on low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 1½-2 hours.

Press down the dough to deflate it. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball. Wrap one of the balls of dough in plastic wrap, put in a freezer bag and freeze for later. (When it's time to use the frozen dough, put it in the fridge in the morning, then take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you're ready to use it.) Cover ball of dough with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven and a pizza stone to 500° F. Allow the stone to heat for at least 30 minutes. In the mean time, cut a round of parchment paper the size of your pizza stone. (Alternatively, use a pizza peel.) Sprinkle lightly with cornmeal or semolina flour. Gently roll out the pizza dough into a large circle, leaving a thicker ring around the edge for the crust. Brush crust with olive oil to help it brown while baking. Spread the Ranch dressing in a thin layer evenly over the unbaked crust. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella. Top with grilled chicken, tomato and green onions. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar. Once assembled, carefully transfer the parchment round and pizza to the preheated baking stone and return to the oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and browned. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Makes one medium pizza.

Recipe from Annie's Eats.

Favorite Pizza

Fresh mozzarella makes the biggest difference. I will admit, I doubted. But then I partook. And I don't know that I can ever go back to the other stuff. It made it taste like a restaurant, like Lombardi's or something. Very yummy.

Favorite Pizza

Dough:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water {110 degrees F}
2-3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil

Toppings:
marinara sauce
sliced roma tomatoes {drain extra moisture and seeds between paper towels}
pepperoni
fresh mozzarella {This made a HUGE difference.}
dried oregano
extra shredded mozzarella {optional}

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed, adding flour as needed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, 1-2 hours.
Heat oven to 375. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. {I roll it out right on a flat cookie sheet or pizza stone sprinkled with flour or cornmeal to prevent sticking.} Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven. Top with favorite sauce, slices of fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, pepperoni, and extra shredded cheese if desired. Sprinkle with oregano. Brush crusts with olive oil if desired. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until crusts are just starting to brown and cheese is bubbly. Makes 1 medium pizza.

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

BBQ Chicken PIzza

This is SO EASY.

9 Rhodes Texas Rolls, thawed and risen
Bottle of your fave BBQ sauce
Shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 red onion, sliced
sliced mushrooms
diced green peppers
roma tomato slices
1 Chicken breast, cooked and diced

Preheat oven to 350. Squish the dough together into a big ball and roll it out into a circle. Bake for 10 min. Top with BBQ sauce, then cheese, then toppings, then a little more cheese, then little drips of BBQ sauce over the top. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Then EAT IT! YUM! If you want a parmesan crust, lightly butter the crust when it comes out and sprinkle parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning on it. Easy as pizza pie.

The lovely thing about pizza is you can put whatever you want on it. We like having all kinds of random pizza. Get creative, this is fun!