Want something different for dinner? How about these babies? They were SUPER easy to make and tasted delish! The kids were smitten by them which makes me look like a rock star. No complaints here. You can go crazy with the fillings on these pizzas. I used chicken and sweet peppers for the adults and turkey pepperoni and cheese for the little people.
This post is a 2-fer. Not only am I posting the recipe for these mini pizzas but I’m also giving you my top secret, super fast, pizza dough. Shhhhhh!!!
This blog post will self destruct in T-minus 5 seconds…4 seconds…3 seconds…2 seconds….
Ok, I lied. :)
The dough recipe works great for personal pizzas and is a great base recipe to let your culinary juices run wild with. I’ve used it to make dinner rolls by omitting the rye and cornmeal and adding fresh herbs and brushing with butter before baking. The possibilities are endless. Go crazy!
Let’s get to it, shall we?
In your food processor you need to add 1 3/4 cups flour (I used 1 cup all-purpose and 3/4 whole wheat here) 1 tablespoon rye flour, 1 tablespoon cornmeal, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1 package of yeast.Note: don’t have rye? Don’t fret, just add an extra tablespoon of flour.
Give it all a whirl.
With your processor running add 3/4 cup of warm tap water mixed with 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Once it forms a ball let it continue to process for 1 more minute. This is the processor doing the kneading for you.
This is what it should look like. A big lovely mass of gluten!
Lightly dust a cutting board or your clean counter with flour and give your dough 1 or 2 turns worth of kneading. Just enough to coat it with the flour. Cover it with a large bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes at room temperature.
Now is a great time to go prep your toppings for your pizzas.
This is 10 minutes later. Almost doubled in size. Now cut it into 6 equal pieces.
On your floured cutting board, flatten out the 6 pieces into circles. Or squares, or rectangles, or oblongs, or a rhombus. Ok, I’m back. Don’t overthink this, just flatten them out with your hands and then fit them into a large muffin tin that’s been sprayed with cooking spray.
See…not perfect. It all tastes the same.
Add some pizza sauce to the bottom, or conversely you could add a little olive oil, fresh garlic and fresh tomatoes, if you have them.
Add some mozzarella cheese and then go crazy with your fillings. I used broiled chicken breast, yellow peppers, fresh garlic and feta cheese. The kids were’t so adventurous and one had cheese only and the other had turkey pepperoni.Funny thing was that my 9 year old, who is going to be 8 feet tall, ate all of his pepperoni pizza and was still hungry. So he had half of one of the chicken and pepper pizzas and LOVED IT. He’s already staking claim to the remaining one for tomorrow’s school lunch.
Add all dry ingredients to your food processor. Process a few times to mix.
With the processor running add the wet ingredients. Once it forms a ball continue to process for 1 minute.
Flour a cutting board or a clean counter top with a dusting of flour. Knead your dough 2 times to coat with the flour and then cover with a bowl and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
For Pizzas:
Preheat the oven to 450. Grease a large muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.
Cut your pizza dough in 6 equal parts and flatten on a floured surface. Fit into the muffin cups making sure to get the dough pressed in to the sides and bottom.
Add a teaspoon or more of pizza sauce inside the cups and a couple teaspoons of mozzarella. Begin layering your toppings and do a final layer of mozzarella and any other spices or cheeses that suit you.
Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the dough is brown and cooked.
Let them cool for a minute and then serve em up with a giant salad and extra pizza sauce for dipping
