Pizza Dough Recipe - If you have a bread machine you should try this!

February had been cold and good time to try out my bread making skill and sometimes lack there of... the oven will help warm the house. 

Pizza was last night . I will get to the recipe in a bit. 

The rustic bread the other day turned out fabulous and Dude has now requested it as his sandwich bread from now until he gets sick of it. This is a no- knead bread that you bake in a dutch oven. 

A fail this week would be the dinner rolls.  It started out just fine...

I put them behind the woodstove to rise from the heat... but what happened was the dog figured they were there for the taking and ate 3 of them. 

Yep, when I yelled he spit one out on the floor, silly chap. 

Now the Pizza Dough. I had never used the dough cycle on my machine and it was time I learned.  It turned out so well, now, I want to make cinnamon rolls!

Preheat oven 450*F

Put the ingredients in the machine in this order (I know it sounds weird and reverse but it works). 

2 teaspoons dried granulated yeast

3 cups bread flour (I am using this more and more instead of regular all purpose flour)

1 teaspoon salt 

2 tablespoons sugar 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup warm water

plus 2 tablespoons water

Select dough cycle, on mine it was #9 or 10.

Let go through the cycle. 

Then I just left it in the machine for 20 more minutes and it had risen to the top.

Remove, knead a little. Then flour an area and roll out into your shape. 

I sprayed a baking sheet and sprinkled some cornmeal on it. 

Transfer rolled out dough to a baking sheet.

I like my crust thin and crispy so I poked the crust with a fork and baked for 5 minutes first. 

Then add a tiny bit of olive oil over the top,  I used our homemade canned pizza sauce next and add whatever cheese and toppings  you like. 

We used up leftover cheeses , all kinds... cheddar, provolone, pepperjack, swiss and cream cheese. It tasted great.  Dude added pepperoni on his and mine was kalamata olives, onions, and sundried tomatoes (from the garden last year) . There are so many variations swimming in my head!

Then bake the whole thing for 10-12 minutes.

Sooo good and filling!

peace --pizza!

Canning Day and Finding a Treasure in Storage.

With an abundance of apples and cranberries on sale I knew it would be a canning day. 

I made a big batch of strawberry lime tea to get me through the day. 

I decided to make cranberry apple jam.

Apples were peeled , cored and chopped. Then it was cranberries turn. 

Everything into the pot along with 2 cups of water. 

Then cooked until tender. 

I did mash mine.  Then pectin was added to a fourth of a cup of sugar, mixed and set aside. Cook again until a rolling boil then add 4.5 cups of sugar.  Cook until a rolling boil plus one minute.  

It jelled up very well.  Water bath for 25 minutes. 

So pretty and very festive for Christmas. 

This morning it was cold but comfortable.  By the afternoon we could see the snow coming in over the mountains.  

Next up I wanted to finish up those yellow tomatoes. 

Someone gave me a canning pouch of spices for pizza sauce. I thought I would never use but I thought I'd give it a try.  It cooked down and tasted so good I could see using it for many things!

I got 4 1/2 pint jars made. 

In between I love doing word searches.  Smile. 

Dude was busy going to the feed store, feeding the lambs and chickens, getting their water filled so we would not need to go out tomorrow in case it snows, bringing in firewood and Christmas boxes from storage and he found his old cast iron pans!

He got so excited , he cleaned them up . 

And is making dinner for us!

Oh, and I did get my paperback tree finished. 

Simple, it won't win any prize  but I like it.  Monday I hope to get pictures of the others who created this year. 

peace