Apple & Blue Cheese Pizza

More apples on pizza! I'm still not over it, almost two years after I first made the apple & cheddar pizza, which is still a favorite. I actually haven't made pizza at all in the new apartment because I lost my jar of yeast in the move. I still have not gotten around to buying yeast, so this pizza was made on a Trader Joe's dough. Not as good, but definitely good enough.

I eat a lot of blue cheese, especially on salads, and Twilly always thinks he wants it since it is cheese, but I don't think he actually likes it.

We've been here since mid-July, but I'm still getting used to my new kitchen here. For the first time ever, I'm using an electric stove! Where's the fire?? I think I'm pretty accustomed to it now, but for the first few weeks I kept turning on the wrong burners and wondering why my pan wasn't heating up. As the weather starts cooling down, I'm starting to feel more like cooking again, so I'll get more use out of this apartment's kitchen in the next few months.

Also: look what Kate found.

Apple & Blue Cheese Pizza

1 pizza dough (I used Trader Joe's this time but see this recipe for my homemade dough)
1 cup mozzarella, grated
1 small apple, thinly sliced
2 tbsp blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 white onion, sliced
honey, drizzled
pepper

Martha's Cornmeal Pizza Dough

I've been using the same pizza dough recipes for years, occasionally trying out some whole wheat ones but always using the same one for normal white dough. I still love that recipe and will use it sometimes, but now it's got competition: Martha's cornmeal dough. 

It's still a white flour dough (which I usually prefer over whole wheat doughs), but it's made a bit richer with some cornmeal. And I love cornmeal (best example of cornmeal wonderfulness: Cranberry Maple Cornbread). To try out this dough, I made a gorgonzola and butternut squash pizza, a lot like the delicata squash pizza Michelle posted about last year. 

I tried frying sage for a cool topping, but they weren't that amazing. I just fried them up in some veg oil for a few seconds until crispy. I still like the idea and want to try it again, but mine didn't keep much sage-y flavor after being fried. Michelle/general public, do you know the best way to fry sage leaves so they're crispy but still sage-y?

MARTHA'S CORNMEAL PIZZA DOUGH
From Martha Stewart

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Pinch of sugar

2/3 cups warm water

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 cup cornmeal, plus more for pizza peel or baking sheet

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl

Cheesy Delicata Squash Pizza

This pizza was made for Laura's friend's goodbye party. She moved all the way to Russia for a couple of years. We made lots of kinds of squash and had dirt cake for dessert. Pretty much the perfect dinner party.

Ingredients:
1 pizza dough
goat's milk yogurt or ricotta
roasted delicata squash
shredded mozzarella
blue cheese
fresh sage

Start by roasting the delicata squash. You can slice it into cubes and then season them with salt and pepper and roast at 375 degrees until tender. I sliced the squash in half, scooped out the seeds, and roasted the halves until soft. If your squash is smaller, you can eat the peel. I then scooped out the squash to put on the pizza.
To make the pizza: Roll out the dough. Spread a layer of goat milk yogurt onto the dough. Sprinkly mozzarella all over the pizza. Then add the squash cubes, some blue cheese sparingly, and some sage leaves. Bake until golden brown and bubbly at 400 degrees.

Cast Iron Skillet BBQ 'Za

This is the way I will be making pizzas from now on! Probably for breakfast, lunch and dinner, everyday.

There are so many great things about this pizza: I can still use my normal pizza dough but it's a billion times better than the normal baking way, it's so light and fluffy but a little charred for good crusty flavor. It's FAST - about 3 minutes once it goes in the skillet. It'll be easy to make several personal pizzas in just a few minutes. I took the method from How Sweet It Is, where she did a brussel sprouts and bacon pizza that sounds really good!

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CAST IRON SKILLET BBQ PIZZA

Makes 1 big pizza or 2 med, 4 small... 

1 pizza dough 

1/3 cup ricotta

2 tbsp ranch dressing

1 cup cooked shredded chicken

1/3 cup BBQ sauce

1/4 cup onion, diced

1/2 cup shredded cheese, like fontina or provolone

dried basil & oregano

Mediterranean-ish Veggie Pizza

This is an everything-in-the-fridge pizza, so you can just leave things out if they aren't in your fridge or add in things that are. I happened to have a lot of Mediterranean-y things in the fridge and so they all go together very well! This would also be great just with the garlic, cheese, olives, and roasted red peppers for a much simpler 'za. Maybe with roasted garlic! I love this pizza recipe with roasted garlic and ricotta.

Roasted red peppers are the best. To make roasted red (or any color obviously) peppers, slice a pepper in half longways and clean out the ribs and seeds. Put it on a baking sheet lined with foil and coat in olive oil. Then broil on low for about 7-8 minutes or bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes. Then put the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let them sit for about 15 minutes. Then peel the skin off and rip into strips or slice with a knife.

"I'm so sick of winter."

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MEDITERRANEAN-ISH VEGGIE PIZZA

1 Pizza dough

1 cup tomatoes, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp lemon zest
olive oil
salt & pepper
1/2+ cup ricotta
1/2+ cup provolone or mozzarella - or feta if you want to go more Mediterranean with this
1/4 cup pitted olives
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup red onions, either raw or sauteed
1/2 cup artichokes
dried basil & oregano

1. Mix the tomatoes, olive oil, lemon zest, garlic and salt & pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

Pierogie Pizza

Pierogie pizzas are quintessential Pittsburgh. The only requirement is that they need to have lots of butter! (Sometimes when my friends and I go out to get this pizza, we even order it with extra butter.)

You will need:

Pizza dough (I like Trader Joe's refrigerated pizza doughs)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
7 small red potatoes
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
LOTS OF BUTTER!

First make the mashed potatoes by boiling in a pot full of water until fork tender, about 15 minutes. While the potatoes are cooking, caramelize the onions by cooking them over medium heat until golden brown in plenty of butter. Once the potatoes are done, drain them and then mash them with (again) plenty of butter.  I like to keep the potato peels on but if you don't like them, peel them after boiling. Roll out the dough and spread the mashed potatoes thickly over the entire surface. Cover with the caramelized onions and then sprinkle the cheese on top. Dot the pizza with pats of butter to melt in the oven and make a crispy crust on top of the pizza.

Cook the pizza at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes until the cheese is as lightly browned as you like!

2 Pizzas: Cheesy BBQ Ranch & Cheesy Lemon

I made two pizzas for dinner since I was feeling indecisive. I wanted to use up the last of the crock pot BBQ beer chicken that I made after Julia posted about it (after I did sandwiches, I'd been using it on crackers). I also wanted to try a lemon pizza since I'd never done that before and I love lemons. So I made two smallish pizzas. 

I used half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose for the pizza dough for the first time, using my normal pizza dough recipe. It's tasty but it didn't come together as well when I was mixing. It was a bit harder to form into pretty pizzas. I think I need to experiment more. 

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CHEESY BBQ RANCH 'ZA

1 pizza dough

ranch dressing

grated cheddar

shredded BBQ chicken (try Julia's easy recipe and use leftovers!)

thinly sliced onions

Spread out the dough, spread on a layer of ranch dressing. Cover with a thin layer of grated cheese. Then spread out your BBQ chicken in another thinnish layer. Top with sliced onions and bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes.

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CHEESY LEMON 'ZA

1 pizza dough

(estimating) for half pizza:

1/2 cup ricotta

1 egg

2-3 cloves crushed garlic

1 tbsp grated romano (or parmesan)

1/2 cup grated monterey jack or provolone

some pepper

some chili pepper

some paprika

some oregano

very thinly sliced lemon

a little salt

Mix together everything but the lemons and salt in a bowl. Spread out the dough and cover with the cheesy mixture. Top with VERY thinly sliced lemons (mine could have been more thinly sliced - most of them were easy to eat but the slightly thicker ones had to be torn apart). Sprinkle with salt and bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes.

For another lemon pizza recipe, look at A Cozy Kitchen's. I didn't follow their recipe but that's where I got the idea for a lemon pizza. Also, I think their blog header thing is really cute. 

Apple & Goat Cheese 'Za

This pizza is a close cousin to the Apple & Cheddar 'Za I posted about last month. Remember that? Actually, I just checked, and it was EXACTLY one month ago... Weird pizza coincidence.

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APPLE AND GOAT CHEESE PIZZA

Here's the pizza dough recipe my family always uses. I'm not sure where it came from originally but we've used it for a long time. Many, many pizzas.

INGREDIENTS:

1 envelope active dry yeast or two teaspoons

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

at least 1/4 cup olive oil

Apple & Cheddar 'Za

Like pretty much everyone, I love pizza. And even my mom, who's normally hesitant about my pizza creations without tomato sauce, likes this one.

Everything goes together really well - apples, caramelized red onion, cheddar, sage, bacon...

He's kind of mad that I've been taking credit for all his blog posts.

APPLE & CHEDDAR PIZZA

Adapted but almost exactly from the recipe on How Sweet ItIs

white or wheat pizza dough

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large apple, very thinly sliced

5 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into squares

1 small red onion, sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup freshly grated cheddar

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

8-10 sage leaves

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Slice onions. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, then add onions with a sprinkle of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, soft and juicy. In the last minute, add garlic and cook for 60 seconds, then set aside off heat.

3. While onions are cooking, cut bacon. Place on a paper-towel lined plate, and cover with another paper towel. Microwave for 3-4 minutes, just until the fat is rendered so the pizza is not incredible greasy. Set aside.

4. Remove pizza dough from the bowl and throw on a floured surface. Using a rolling pin or your hands, roll and shape it into your desired shape. Brush with remaining olive oil and sprinkle with nutmeg.

5. Slice apples (either do this now or, if earlier, preserve with lemon juice), then add about 1/4 cup cheese onto the dough. Place a layer of apples on the cheese, then add the onions and garlic. Add the remaining cheese evenly over top, then finish with bacon and another layer of apples. Lightly coat the sage with olive oil and place on top.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cheese is golden brown and bubbly.

Sage from now-abandoned Duquesne Community Garden from DYEP!!