Caprese Pizza

I have to admit there is always a moment of shear nervousness when the Recipe Swap recipe comes into my mailbox.  When I read the What's For Dinner Posts, I feel sometimes that the cooking skills of the women on the board are light years beyond the skills that I have.  But, it is something fun to do and how do you grow as a cook if you don't try new things, right?  Plus, everything I've made has turned out really good so far, so maybe I should start approaching the swaps with confidence and not be so nervous every time a recipe comes in.  The theme to this swap was Italian, and I received Lindsay's Caprese Pizza from Life and Kitchen which turned out great just like I thought it would.

Jacob LOVES making dough.  He gets super excited every time I ask him to make it for me.  He had never made whole wheat pizza dough though and so to challenge him, I asked him to make it.  He readily took on the challenge and all I had to do was pick up the ingredients.  :)


Wheat Pizza Dough
adapted from allrecipes.com
Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes.

Now it was time for the pizza.  I read the instructions from Lindsay's blog and got a little cocky.  I figured I could read the recipe in my computer room and make it in the kitchen with no problem since my printer is out of ink.  So I messed some things up.  But it still turned out great, so I guess no complaining.

Caprese Pizza

(messed up...haha) using the recipe from Life and Kitchen

Ingredients 

• 1 pizza dough (you can make your own, buy fresh from a pizza shop/grocery, or just do a premade crust like Boboli)
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 tomatoes, thinly sliced
• ~ 1/3 – 1/2 pound of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced (or you could do about 1 cup of shredded, but it’s not as good)
• 1/4 cup fresh basil

Directions

• If using a homemade crust, pre-cook the crust for about 5 minutes at 425 degrees.
• Reduce the vinegar on the stove so that it has a syrup consistency.
• Once the crust is preheated and the vinegar is at the right consistency, assemble the pizza.  Use the vinegar as the sauce, then place your mozzarella, the tomatoes, and the basil.

The pizza tasted great.  I do think that it would have been better if I used the oil as the sauce and then drizzled the vinegar on the top as a "finisher" instead of drowning the crust in it.  But Jacob liked it a lot.  So I think it'll make it's way back into the rotation with half of it having some type of meat on it next time though.  Lesson learned: Don't assume you know the recipe after you've read it once.  Haha.