Pizza, a Success Story (FINALLY!!!!)

I love pizza.

It hasn't always loved me back.

And I'm not just talking about the extra pounds around my mid-section... I've tried, many, many times over the years, to make a homemade pizza. I've mastered deep-dish using pre-made dough, but any other pizza has just been a huge fail.

Until yesterday.

Friday is typically the day I force myself out of the office at lunch time, and get something to eat.

Now that I'm home, I'm going to try to make Friday a day that I make something very nice for myself for lunch.

For some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted a Thai-ish pizza. My mom gave me some pre-cooked Asian chicken breasts that she bought ages ago and couldn't eat due to sesame seeds (Trader Joe's frozen product) and I thought they'd work nicely on a pizza.

Hit the web, did some searching, and ran across a Thai pizza recipe that looked pretty do-able. For the crust, I turned to Sara Moulton's Quick Pizza Dough.

Got in my morning workout, and decided to make the dough.

Dry goods, in the food processor...



Add the first addition of water....



Added olive oil and salt...



Um, my... that's awfully crumbly.....



Added some more water, and it started to behave more dough-like...



Have a good rest, little ball of dough!



And much to my amazement, it actually did what pizza dough is supposed to do!



So, I started on the sauce. Melted some peanut butter in thr microwave....



Added coconut milk, curry paste, and a little honey...



Totally forgot about the lime juice. Ooops.

Mixed it all together for a nice little sauce....



Punched down the dough....



And then started to work it into something pizza-shaped.

Aaaaand promptly punched a huge hole right in the middle. D'oh dough!

Luckily, I was able to knead it together a little and then started working it from something very rectangle shaped to something more pizza-like...



Chopped up the chicken, some scallion and carrot...



Topped dough with some sauce... I was worried about over-saucing, but in the end I probably could have used a little more....



Added some reduced fat cheese...



Added chicken, onions, and carrots...



More cheese and some bean sprouts....



And threw that into a 500 degree oven for ten minutes, fully expecting a failure in the end.

Boy was I surprised when I pulled this out...



Not only did it look like pizza, it actually tasted like pizza. Perfect dough... not too thick and cakey, nice and crispy, just perfect.

By far, the most successful attempt at pizza I have ever had.

Which I should have figured, since no one was around to enjoy the moment of tasty triumph with me, and there is no way I can even get the hubby to try the leftovers so he'll believe me.

But it was tasty... so tasty, I might try again next Friday with a nice, simple margarita-style pizza.

I can't wait.