Last night, after I made a batch of no-knead pizza dough (recipe at the end of the post),
I sent out a tweet looking for topping inspiration. I would pick a winner, make their pizza, and post about it here on my blog. I have dubbed the creation tonight my first Tweetzza!
Thank you all for the great suggestions!! Can I get a drumroll please??
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The winning suggestion was Angie's creation!
@oikology101 My fave is artichoke, chicken, and garlic...with the garlic clove and artichoke hearts cut into chunks and scattered around mmmAngie blogs at
Homemaker Chronicles. You can follow her on Twitter
here. I met Angie during an
iHeartFaces Twitter party. She takes gorgeous photos and has a beautiful family! Please go say hi and congratulate her on a SCRUMPTIOUS TWEETZZA!!!
I peeled and chopped four cloves of garlic, cut the breast and thigh off the rotisserie chicken and chopped it into bite size pieces, and drained and chopped two jars of artichokes into slightly smaller pieces.
I knew I wanted to cook the garlic before I put it on the pizza. Given more time, I would have roasted it. But tonight, I just gave it a quick saute.
I did add one ingredient to her creation--mushrooms. I figured as long as I was going to saute the garlic for a quick second, that I might as well add mushrooms!
Oh, wait! I added a second ingredient (because you know me--I can never leave well enough alone). Fresh Basil! Mostly because I had it and because it's delicious!
In addition, I used 1/2 cup of prepared pizza sauce, 1/2 cup of mozzarella (go light on the cheese to save calories), and a tablespoon of real parmiggiano reggiano grated on the microplane.
So what do you think of my first Tweetza??
The pizza dough recipe was given to me by my friend, Jessica, and I've made just a few modifications. It is super delicious and so EASY!! You just mix it up, let it sit, and that's it! It doesn't have a single bit of fat in it and gives you a big puffy and chewy crust. The recipe makes two pizzas, so you can make a huge pizza for dinner and make another one an entire week later!
You MUST let this dough sit (total time needed to develop is at least 10 hours). The reason it doesn't need any kneading is because the glutens have TIME to develop! Because it can sit up to a week, you can make it and wait a few days to make your pizza(s). I promise that you'll want to have this in your fridge at all times!
No-knead Pizza Crust1 1/2 Tbs granulated yeast (or 1-1/2 packets)
1 1/2 Tbs kosher salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
3 Cups Lukewarm Water (NOT HOT)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for the pizza stone or cookie sheet.
Your choice of toppings (pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni etc.)
In a large plastic bowl with a fitted lid (at least 18 cup capacity--I use my 4.3 litre Tupperware Impressions bowl), mix salt, yeast, and Italian seasoning. Add water and minced garlic; stir. With a stiff spoon, incorporate the flour into the water mixture until well combined.
Place the lid over the bowl, but do not seal (some of the gasses need to escape or the container could burst). Leave out on counter for two hours or until at least doubled. Seal bowl and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
When you are ready to make your pizza, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Spray the baking stone or cookie sheet with cooking spray then sprinkle with cornmeal. Your pizza will stick big time if you skip this step.
Sprinkle flour on top of the dough, while it's still in the bowl. Rub your hands with flour to prevent sticking. Take out half of the dough for one pizza. Use a serrated knife if necessary. Put the remaining dough into the refrigerator (covered with the lid). You can keep this for another seven days if you can wait that long to eat more of this delicious pizza!
Drop the dough into a bowl of flour to coat both sides, shaking off the extra. To form the dough ball, roll the dough down and under itself, with a tucking motion. Turn and repeat two or three more times, until you achieve a nice round mound of dough.
Roll or stretch out the dough almost to the edges of the large baking stone or cookie sheet. If your dough resists rolling, let it rest for about 5 minutes and try again. I use my fingers and gently press the dough out to the edges of the cookie sheet.
Spread sauce on pizza. Top with your desired toppings and bake at 450 degrees. Set your timer for 10 minutes and check your pizza. I use the large Pampered Chef baking stone. It took 23 minutes on the bottom rack to cook the pizza to perfection this evening. If you are not using a stone, you will most likely need to place your pizza up higher to avoid burning the bottom of the crust.
Yields two pizza doughs, eight HUGE pieces each. Crust only--3 WW points per piece. To reduce the topping calories, bump up the amount of sauce, use less cheese, and do mostly vegetables and a little (or no) meat. Turkey pepperoni is actually pretty good and only adds a few points to the entire pizza.
Come on! You know you want a bite!!!!
