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It’s pizza week here at TT, but as in any other week, I’ve got a limit of four ingredients. How do you make pizza or anything like it with that few ingredients? I wondered, till I realized I’d been doing it for years.
Like most parents, I’ve dealt with picky eating in my own ways. One of them turned out to be making my own version of pizza (based on the crust recipe from The Joy of Cooking) with no sauce or toppings, just cheese. Mozzarella is a little too mild to stand on its own this way — besides, we seldom have any just lying around — so I used cheddar cheese, which has plenty of flavor and is always on hand.
But it’s a matter of taste. If mozzarella works for you, go for it. If you want to go in the opposite direction and use smoky cheddar or some cheese with little bits of jalapeño in it, that would be very good too. If you want to try this with bleu cheese . . . I never have, but it’s worth a shot.
Just stay away from cheeses that are too soft (anything that has to be spread instead of shredded and sprinkled; IOW, any cheese that comes in a jar) or too hard (grated Parmesan, for example — though if you want to sprinkle a little on top of your base cheese, it boosts the flavor and helps it brown).
If you don’t have a bread machine, combine the yeast with the water and mix it by hand with the other ingredients. It will take awhile, but eventually the dough will come out smooth and non-sticky. Follow the directions on the yeast label for letting it rise.
And if you’re counting the ingredients and coming up with more than four, remember I never count water or salt. Yes, I did set that rule before this week!
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons quick yeast
- 1 cup shredded cheese (your choice; cheddar is good)
- Set bread machine on dough cycle.
- Put in all ingredients except cheese. (Water and oil first, yeast last.)
- When dough is done, roll out into a rectangle to fit a (10 x 15) cookie sheet.
- Grease cookie sheet and place dough carefully on it.
- Sprinkle with cheese to cover.
- Bake at 350℉ for about 15 minutes, or until cheese is toasted and underside of crust is lightly browned.
- If you’d like the cheese browned too, put the pizza under the broiler for just a few seconds.
