Home-Made Pizza

Cooking is something I love to do. I find it relaxing, creative, and you are typically left with something yummy to eat! I love to bake too, although I admittedly do less of this, and when I do bake it’s with chocolate in some form or another. Now that Mr. Milk and I are living in the same location, I’ve found that I enjoy cooking that much more. Let’s face it, it’s not a lot of fun cooking for just one!

This past weekend Mr. Milk and I went on a bike tour of the Fraser Valley with Slow Food Vancouver. We biked from farm to farm in the beautiful countryside tasting cheeses, ice-cream, salmon, baked goods, and fresh fresh produce! We were lucky and had great weather on both days. One of the “slow stops” was Anita's Organic, selling organic flours, whole grains, legumes, bran, and flakes. While we were there, I got the idea to buy some flour and make home-made pizza from scratch. We bought the “White Whole Wheat, Fresh Fine Grind” flour, and last night we made some pizza. I decided to be a little creative with it and use mostly non-traditional toppings. Here’s the recipe for the dough and our toppings, although you can put pretty much whatever you choose on it :)

Dough

 ½ teaspoon sugar
1 package dry yeast
½ cup warm water
1 ½ cups flour + extra for flouring surface (we used the white whole wheat flour)
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
Cooking spray

1. Dissolve the sugar and yeast in warm water in a bowl and let it stand for 5 mins
2. Add the flour, salt, and oil to the yeast mixture and stir until it forms into a dough. If it sticks to your fingers add some more flour.
3. Knead for 5 mins
4. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray (or spread a small amount of olive oil if you don’t have cooking spray) and place the dough in the bowl, coating it with the oil
5. Cover and let it sit in a warm place for 45-60mins
6. Punch dough done and form into a ball, and let it sit for another 30mins, covered.
7. Place some flour on your countertop to prevent dough from sticking and roll it out into whatever shape you prefer.
8. It’s ready for toppings!

So now the fun part! I made the pizza on a large baking sheet and decided to top it with roasted eggplant, roasted yellow peppers, roasted asparagus (cut thinly, place on a cookie sheet, add salt and pepper to taste, olive oil, and bake for 15mins at 400°F. Let cool before placing on pizza), mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes, prosciutto, fresh basil, red onions, shredded mozzarella cheese, and dried oregano sprinkled on top. For the tomato sauce base, I bought a can of crushed tomatoes and used that.
Place your pizza in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 40mins or until crust is golden brown and cheese has melted.

Here are the end results. Enjoy!