Bessie cooks a pizza (gasp!) from scratch

Feeling rather domestic lately, I decided to make pizza from scratch for Mr. Bessie and Junior. I found a lovely recipe for pizza crust. Now I admit, bread making is not my forte. All that kneading and waiting and kneading and waiting is just too much for me. Happily I found just the right recipe for bread maker pizza dough.

Once the dough was ready, I coated it with olive oil, minced garlic and tomato sauce, then combined red pepper, tomato, cilantro and freshly rubbed oregano over it to make a hearty veggie pizza.

This pizza was more than filling for three of us. We were stuffed to the gills with homemade goodness. My! Bea's going to be proud of me, cooking real food like this and all. Who knows, next thing you know I'll be making Yorkshire Pudding or Jambalaya. No, no ~ Jambalaya's Bea's specialty! We'll leave that delicacy entirely up to Bea dearest.


Bessie's Hearty Veggie Pizza

Put ingredients in bread maker in this order:

1-1/2 c. water
2 T. olive oil
2 tsp. each salt and sugar
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 T. rubbed Oregano
4 tsp. fast rising yeast
2 T. cornmeal

Select dough setting on bread maker. When timer beeps, remove the dough to lightly floured surface. Cover with clean dish towel and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes. Sprinkle cornmeal on large pizza stone and press dough into pizza shape. Let rise another 30 minutes, unless you're like Bessie and can't wait that long.

Spread dough with tomato sauce, toppings and seasonings ~ you pick!

Bake 425 for 20-30 minutes. Once out of the oven, let cool for 5 minutes because it will be very, very hot. Enjoy alone or with a leafy green salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Love,
Bessie