Hawaiian Pizza

I finally used up the last of the ham in this pizza.  (Actually I couldn't get all the ham on the pizza so the dogs finished the very last scraps. Just so I don't have a Mayor Ford sometime in the future.) The cheese is fresh made mozzarella and I made the crust as well. The cheese was my first batch with the microbial rennet and I didn't get it quite right because the taste was good but the texture was not quite right. So I won't document the cheese yet. The pizza crust was wonderful though. 

Pizza Dough

1 1/4 cup flour (I use all-purpose with 1/8th cup exchanged for wheat gluten)

1/2 cup water - luke warm

2 tsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp yeast

Mix together salt and flour. Combine water, honey and yeast, let stand a few minutes. Pour liquid into flour and mix with dough hook or a fork. If it's sticky add flour, if it's too dry add a teaspoon of water. Form into a ball and kneed for what seems like 5 minutes. Swab the inside of a bowl with olive oil and put the dough in it.  Place in a warm spot for an hour or until the dough doubles in size.

I had limited success tossing and spinning the dough but pulling and stretching it by hand worked just fine. Once it's pulled into shape brush the inside with olive oil.  Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the olive oil.  Spread thinly sliced ham around and a layer of pineapple bits (from a can, fresh is too acidic). Finally, generously spread grated mozzarella over everything. Bake at 400ºF for twenty minutes or until the cheese is browned. 450ºF might be better if the cheese texture is correct. I'm still experimenting. Fern bought me a pizza stone from All-Clad and a wooden pizza paddle. The two tools together make baking pizza a lot easier.

The pizza was terrific.