I visited home this weekend to start moving things out of my dorm room and to see my boyfriend and my puppies. For me, one of the best parts about being home is a REAL, AWESOME kitchen. Seriously, it's wonderful.
Anyway, I always take advantage of that to test out some new recipes, and today was Pull Apart Pizza bread, which I discovered over on Stick a Fork in it and adapted a bit. I chose this one because Pizza is Brian's favorite food. I'm a good girlfriend. Plus, pizza is a super simple dish to make.
I made my own dough, using my mother's recipe which is loosely adapted from the Betty Crocker cookbook, mostly out of laziness.
Just throw all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add yeast to very warm (not hot) water, and add the water mixture and olive oil and mix! Then let it rise, knead, and refrigerate until you are ready to use it! It's the easiest thing ever. I think people overestimate how simple pizza dough is.
I made my own sauce, too. I used two 8-oz cans of tomato sauce, and sprinkled in whatever spices sounded good from the spice cabinet that I vaguely remember watching my mom use growing up. I ended up using sugar, salt, italian seasoning, parsley, basil, pepper, and possibly some others.
Then you roll out the dough, add the sauce and 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, slice and stack, bake and walla! I did it in two halves, because the original recipe called for 1/2 of a pizza crust, but that really wasn't enough. I barely filled my bread pan.
So anyway, here's how it goes in a much less confusing way.
Pull Apart Pizza Bread (original recipe here.)
Ingredients
1 Pizza Crust (I made my own, but you can also use a storebought one.)
1 cup pizza sauce (again, I made my own, but you can use premade.)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
Any toppings of choice.
Pizza Crust (Adapted from the Betty Crocker cookbook)
2 1/2 - 3 cups all- purpose or bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package regular or quick active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup very warm water
In a large bowl mix together 2 1/2 cups flour, the sugar, and the salt. Measure out the water and add the yeast. Add the oil to the dry ingredients and stir in the water mixture. Slowly add more flour (about a teaspoon at a time) and knead the dough, until it is smooth and springing. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for around 30 minutes.
Once the dough is risen, roll out the dough in a large rectangle and add the sauce, cheese, and your toppings. Using a pizza cutter or a very sharp knife, cut the dough into long strips, then into squares, so you end up with about 20 squares. Stack the squares onto of each other, and stack into a greased loaf pan. (For pictures of how to do that, go here or here.) Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes, then bake in a preheated oven at 400ยบ for 20-25 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan.
Yum.
