Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Homemade Pizzas for BYOB: Buffalo Chicken and Spinach and Artichoke














I blame my newfound love of baking solely on Tyler Florence! Why, oh why do his baking recipes have to be so good that they inspire me to make my own creations? Ever since I made Tyler's parker house rolls, I have had an obsession with making yeast breads. I started making sandwich breads, soft pretzels, brioche, etc. After awhile, my husband requested homemade pizza dough. I'm sorry to say that I did not use Tyler's recipe. Instead, I used this recipe from the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/pizza-dough-recipe3/index.html. I chose this recipe simply for its rating and it does not disapoint. I have wanted to try new recipes for pizza dough, but I just don't think you could improve on this recipe. It takes 1.5 hours in total and makes 2 - 14" pizzas or 4 small individual pizzas. This pizza dough rivals that of any fast food pizza and is better because you can make any topping you'd like, along with dipping sauces, and flavored crusts.
My husband loves the buffalo chicken pizza. We both love spicy food and thought it would make a great pizza. We always have leftover chicken in the fridge, so we just shredded it up and tossed it with some store bought buffalo sauce. This pizza can be topped with mozzarella or monterey jack or you could even put little bits of blue cheese on there.
The spinach and artichoke pizza was solely my idea. I had some spinach and artichoke dip in the fridge and kept wanting to eat it on a sandwich. Since this pizza dough recipe makes two pizzas, I decided to just slap it right on the pizza dough. It turned out fabulous and I was really proud. I had just cleaned out my fridge and made my own creation! If you love spinach and artichoke dip, try this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hot-Artichoke-and-Spinach-Dip-II/Detail.aspx. It was all the rave this past Thanksgiving. Everyone agreed it was restaurant-worthy. I usually add a clove or two more garlic to this recipe and it is much better after it has sat in the fridge for a day and the flavors have mingled.
This pizza dough is getting such rave reviews that we are dreaming up new toppings all the time. The problem is that all the toppings we've made are so tasty that we can't get away from them! We want to make a taco pizza, a meatball pizza, and several others. We are having so much fun with this one. I'd love to hear what you all put on your pizza too. Please share!!

5 comments:

  1. LOVE this, Kim, looks great. Perfect flavorings and cooked perfectly!

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  2. You might like this recipe from Cooks' Illustrated as well: http://tinyurl.com/c4naks

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  3. This looks so good....I make a bbq chicken pizza, that's not really a "pizza" by NYC standards, but it's still delicious!

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  4. Well now I am gonna have to make those Parker House rolls if they inspire baking like that. Love Buffalo Chicken pizza. I haven't ever made my own but maybe I should try with the CEiMB group's recipe for buffalo chicken. You mentioned the group - you post on your own blog every Thursday. You don't have to email but there is a selected recipe we all make. Just make two a month. I think the group helps me to mix in a little healthy which is a great thing.

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  5. Question: do you use a pizza stone when making pizzas. My pizza crusts never look like these.

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