Pizza Recipe

I love this combination for pizza!  This was a recipe I found sometime ago and since we are having some friends over for dinner tomorrow we decided to bust it out along with California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken pizza recipe. 

Arugula Pizza on homemade dough with a white sauce

Pizza dough

         

Bread machine pizza dough recipe

            1 c Water, 80- 90 degrees

            ¾ tsp Honey or sugar

            1 ½ tsp Salt (sea or kosher)

            1 ½ T Extra virgin olive oil

            2 2/3 C. Bread flour

            9 T Whole wheat flour

            1 ¾ tsp. Yeast, active dry, instant or bread machine

            Put in pan in the order listed here.  Turn on in pizza dough cycle.

White sauce (enough for 2 pizzas)

2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbsp fresh basil, minced
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, shredded (or Kraft parmigiano)

Heat the butter in a small saucepan. add the flour and stir until thoroughly mixed. slowly whisk in milk, adding gradually. stir in remaining ingredients. the sauce will thicken upon standing.

Topping

            Caramelize onions in Balsamic vinegar

            Tomatoes, sliced

            Mozzarella

            Arugula (put on when it comes out of the oven)

About 45 minutes before making the pizza, preheat the oven to 500 F (or higher if your oven goes that high) with your baking stone or tiles on the lowest shelf or directly on the floor of the oven. If you don’t have a stone, you can bake on the back of a large baking sheet, but don’t preheat the baking sheet.
To shape the pizzas, dust a pizza peel or the back of a sheet pan with cornmeal or semolina flour. dip your hands in flour and pick up the dough round. Very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands. keep it across your knuckles and it will slowly stretch as you bounce it. If it sticks, gently put the dough down and re-flour your hands. Eventually, you can move to a full toss instead of a bounce, and the dough will quickly shape into a large thin round.
Lay it on the pizza peel or pan and top lightly with your favorite sauces, cheeses, veggies and meats. keep in mind that this is a pretty thin crust, so a little topping goes a long way. slide your pizza from the pizza peel directly onto the hot baking stone or place the sheet pan in the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes. The edges will puff a little bit, brown and crisp up.  Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Wait a few minutes for the toppings to set before slicing and serving.