Alli 'n Son » recipes

It’s bee a tradition in our house for the last, oh, 9 months or so that every Friday we make homemade pizza. Dough from scratch. Pizza sauce prepared in a few different ways. The only thing store bought (other than the ingredients) is the cheese, peperoni and other toppings that strike our fancy.

We’ve tried a variety of pizza dough recipes, and settled on this whole wheat version for a long time. Or some variation of it, depending on how wheat-y we want go to. Or we just resort back to Mom Advice’s Pizza Hut Clone Recipe.

That is, until I found a new recipe. I’m in love. It’s Beer Batter Pizza Dough. Like I said. I’m in love.

This recipe originally came from the most recent Penzie’s catalog. I was so excited, that I ran out for beer the next day, to make the recipe right away. I was gathering the ingredients, putting things together, when I noticed that one very key part of the recipe was missing. It included the amount of beer to use, but it never actually said to use the beer. It just totally skipped over that part.

Hmmm, maybe the beer was just for drinking while making the recipe? No, no that doesn’t make sense, there’s way too much flour for the amount of liquid called for.

So I made it up. It worked. And now I’m sharing it with you.

P.S. This makes a HUGE batch. Enough to freeze half and use the next week. With the remaining dough, we have been dividing it into 3 balls, baking two for eating that night, and creating our own frozen pizza out of the third. Of course I will share with you how to do this.

In a separate post. At a later date. Because I like to build suspense.

Beer Batter Pizza Dough

2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
7-8 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
12 oz can/bottle of beer – room temperature is best

Mix the yeast, water and honey in a small bowl. Let rest until it becomes foamy.

In a large bowl, combine 4 cups of flour and the salt. Add the yeast mixture, stir to combine. Slowly add the beer. Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time, stirring until the dough isn’t sticky (an additional 3 cups).

Turn the dough out onto a floured tabletop and knead for a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Add flour as needed to keep it from sticking – you may not need the entire 8 cups. Once the dough is soft, smooth and elastic, place it in a greed bowl and let rise for 45-60 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Divide the dough in half (this is a LOT of dough). Put half in a freezer bag, and freeze for a different week. The remaining dough can be divided into 2 large pizzas or 3 medium pizzas.

Preheat the oven to 425º. If using a pizza stone, heat it while the oven is heating up. Roll dough out to desired size. Bake on pizza stone for 5-7 minutes. Take out, add desired toppings, then back for an additional 10 minutes. Or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Meal Plan

Toddler Lunches

Monday: Peanut butter and banana grilled sandwiches (Wholesome Toddler Food)
Tuesday: Tortilla Roll Ups (Snacks for Toddlers)
Wednesday: Grilled cheese and corn
Thursday: Bagels with cream cheese and jelly
Friday: Homemade crackers, hummus, cheese and carrots
Saturday: Pasta Salad with veggies and low fat Italian dressing
Sunday: Leftovers

Dinner

Monday: Leftover buffet
Tuesday: Slow cooker BBQ chicken
Wednesday: Black Bean and Mango Chicken Salad (Kraft)
Thursday: Spinach and Bacon Frittata ($5 Dollar Dinners) – I swear we will make it this week
Friday: Pizza with my beer batter pizza dough and homemade sauce (AllRecipes.com)
Saturday: Leftover pizza
Sunday: Chicken sausages on the grill with fresh veggies from the farmer’s market