We’re nearing the end of the month and that can only mean one thing… no no no, not “time to pay the mortgage/rent” (though it’s probably time for that too! LOL)… it’s time to reveal the Daring Bakers challenge!!! This one was certainly a little different since people usually associate cakes and pastries with “baking”. But think about it… all sorts of things are baked, cakes, cookies, pies, bread, crackers, potatoes, chicken… the list goes on and on. Savory or sweet we Daring Bakers are up for anything!! Our challenge for October? Pizza and toppings – in a word… yum!
The host for this month was Rosa of the blog Rosa’s Yummy Yums and the recipe choice was pizza dough. I’ve made pizza many times at home and it’s always a big hit with the family so I was really looking forward to making this recipe. This being a Daring Bakers challenge, I knew the stakes were going to be high. Gourmet foodies abound in this group and I wanted to create pizzas worthy of such standards… toppings that were unusual or noteworthy. But… reality came back to into play when I recalled my family isn’t into high-end, unusual, noteworthy pizza toppings. My family likes it best when the pizza is topped with pepperoni and cheese – lots and lots of cheese. So that’s what I made – a traditional pepperoni and cheese pizza cuz, well, yanno, sometimes ya gotta let go of lofty aspirations and just be who ya are ;-)
We were supposed to toss the pizza… like real pizzaiolas in Italy… and get pictures of it. But, try as I might, it was not about to happen for me. You see, making the dough from this recipe is a two day process and when day #2 rolled around, DH and the kids were out and about doing their thing. I planned it that way so I’d have some peace and quiet and not have people underfoot trying to distract me (laugh at me?) trying to toss my pizza dough. I thought that was a fantastic plan. The only problem was… d’oh!… I had no one to snap the photos! LOL. But it was actually a good thing because I’m sure I looked rather ridiculous doing it :) But no worries, the crust came out fine. I didn’t want a cracker-thin, crispy crust so I tried to leave the dough as thick as I could… and on the edges I made a very concerted effort to fold / roll the crust over sufficiently so that it would be more like having something to hold on to. I stacked and rolled and folded that dough over and over again to get it how I wanted it… and I think I succeeded! My family came home and smelled a delicious home made pizza baking in the oven and boy were they excited. But then again, it was pizza and that’s all it takes :)
If you’d like the recipe, it can be found on Rosa’s blog. Please take a moment and check out the pizza’s created by the rest of the Daring Bakers - while I can’t guarantee it, I bet they have pictures of successful dough tossing :)
Have a delicious day!
