Quick and easy pizza crust (that can really handle it’s toppings!)

Quick and easy pizza crust (that can really handle it’s toppings!)

July 6, 2011, 2:58 am
Filed under: Cooking | Tags: Pizza

 

On a whim I decided to make pizza tonight. I had some fresh spinach and baby bella mushrooms waiting to get used and it’s a combo I can’t resist!

I scoured the net for a bit looking for a quick and easy pizza crust recipe that could stand up to the loads of spinach, chicken and mushrooms I had planned for this pizza but I didn’t want to make a crust that was going to take forever to make and wear me out in the process. I found a few and fused them into this one, taking tips and tid bits from here and there. It really turned out yummy! I’m going to include a rough version of what I did for my toppings.  I rarely measure when I’m cooking something savory so feel free to make adjustments to suit your tastes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dissolve yeast and sugar and let it get foamy

add salt and flour and let it rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Form it into 4-5 pieces and let soak in an olive oil bath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about an hour it’ll look like this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spread it out on your pan, poke it generously with a fork and pop it in the oven.

 

 

 

 

 

Top as desired and bake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed this delicious crust topped with chicken, mushrooms, spinach, fresh mozzarella  and a white garlic cream sauce.

 

For the crust:

2  1/2 tsp active dry yeast

2  tsp light brown sugar

2 tsp sea salt

2 cups warm water

5 cups flour

(About 3/4 cups olive oil for ‘bath’)

 

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Allow to sit about 10 minutes until foamy. Add flour and mix well (add a little extra if the dough is too sticky, but mine wasn’t at all) Form the dough into a ball and let it rest about 30 minutes.

Punch the rested dough down and cut into 4-5 pieces. Pour olive oil into a mixing bowl, add the dough balls and spoon oil over the top. Cover loosely and let it rise about an hour. Lift the dough out of the bath and allow excess oil to drip off.

Press desired amount of dough into pan or pans. Bake for 7-10 minutes in a preheated oven at 475.

Remove from oven and let it cool off a little. Lower oven temp to 350. Top as desired and bake an additional 10-12 minutes.

 

For the toppings I made:

3 chicken breasts

1 bunch fresh spinach- leaves only

6-8 Baby bella mushrooms- sliced

1 cup white garlic sauce (recipe below)

1 cup shredded mozzarella

6-7oz fresh mozzarella (sliced)

 

To prepare toppings:

Saute’ mushrooms in about a tablespoon of olive oil for a couple minutes and add spinach. Season with a little garlic powder and some sea salt. Saute’ until barely soft, remove from pan and set aside. (Remove any liquid from pan)

Pour a little olive oil in the pan and heat to medium-high.

Slice chicken breasts into bite sized pieces, season to taste (I used garlic and onion powder and a garlic/red bell pepper seasoning from McCormick)  Cook in pan until slightly browned and just done (this won’t take very long). Remove from pan and set a side.

 

For the white garlic cream sauce:

4 tbls butter

2 cloves fresh garlic-minced

3 oz cream cheese

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp sea salt

Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute’ 3-4 minutes. Add cream cheese and stir until melted. Whisk in heavy cream, parmesan cheese and sea salt.  Continue cooking about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool a few minutes before topping the pizza.

 

To assemble the pizza:

Spread white sauce over pizza. Add half of the fresh mozzarella, layer with about half of the chicken, add shredded mozzarella and top that with spinach, mushrooms, and remaining chicken. Add the rest of the fresh mozzarella on top.

 

 

 

 

 

11 Comments

11 Comments so far
Leave a comment

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI