Beer Crust Pizza!

Well, by now you must have guessed that I'm working down the list of favorites(and there are so many!) that I missed while away. And pizza is definitely on the top of that list!

I was a t a party last year where they were making pizzas for the guests. One of them, was a beer crusted pizza. I took one bite and was hooked. That yeasty, chewy taste took the pizza to another level.

So, I googled it and came up with a recipe I was happy with. It has now become my go-to pizza crust recipe whenever I have a yen for pizza.

 So, this week I took out my pizza stone.

 Made my dough and set it to rise, spread around the toppings...

 and voila! Here's my pizza before baking.

 and here it is after 10 minutes in the oven! Yum, perfection.

It's an easy, simple dinner that you can adapt in many ways depending on your toppings. Here's the recipe:

Beer crusted Pizza(makes two)

Ingredients
Crust
3.5 cups of all purpose flour( I include a 1/4 cup whole wheat)
1/4 cup warm water
8oz beer
2.25 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
2 tbspn olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
Topping
1 cup marinara sauce
1/2 lb sliced mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup sliced red pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbspn grated parmesan  cheese

Heat oven to 170 and turn off.

combine warm water, yeast and sugar in a cup. Let it foam for a few minutes.
Add the flour and salt to the bowl of your mixer outfitted with the dough hook.
Pour in the yeast mix and process on medium until mixed. Slowly add the beer and knead for 5-8 minutes. If the dough is sticky, add a tbsp or two of flour.
Turn out the dough on a floured surface and kneed a couple of times.
Divide dough into 2 pieces. If you are making two pizzas place both in separate oiled bowls, cover loosely with a tea towel and place in oven to rise for an hour. Make sure the oven is off!
If only making one pizza, place one half in the oiled bowl to rise as above, and either refrigerate or freeze the other half to use at a later time. Make sure you take out cold dough and let come to room temperate before set to rise.
After an hour your dough should have doubled in size. Punch down and kneed a few times to get the air out.
Place on a pizza pan and using your fingers pull and shape to the size of the pan. I usually put semolina on the bottom of the pan so the pizza doesn't stick.

Place your pizza stone(if you have one, optional) in the oven. Heat oven to 550 degrees fahrenheit.

Top the pizza by spreading the sauce all over the dough. Place pieces of the mozzarella cheese around the pizza and sprinkle the sliced peppers or any other topping over the cheese and sauce. Then, sprinkle the parmesan cheese around the edge, drizzle with olive oil and place in the preheated oven.

I bake mine for 10 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and the cheese and sauce are bubbling.

Enjoy!

Maria