Pepperoni & Ham Pizza

Years ago my parents gave us a Bread Maker machine for Christmas. I can tell you that this is one great gift and it has gotten a lot of use! We’ve made all kinds of breads, specialty breads, pretzels & cinnamon rolls…but by far, everyone’s favorite and the most-often thing to come out of our Bread Maker machine is pizza dough! In just 120 minutes we’ve got two ready-to-go pizza dough…thick or thin, your choice…toppings, your choice. But always a winner! I’ll be sharing a meatless pizza on Friday – so stay tuned!

Pepperoni & Ham Pizza
Pizza Dough
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons fast rise yeast
cooking spray & cornmeal
Pizza Toppings
8 oz tomato sauce
6 oz package sliced Pepperoni
4 oz sliced deli ham
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

To the Bread Maker pan: Add the water and oil. Add the flour, sugar and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the yeast. Program the Bread Maker for dough and press the start button. (Follow your Bread Maker’s instructions) – 120 minutes later: Remove the dough from the pan and place on a floured surface. Knead for one minute and then allow to rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 450 °F.

Roll out the dough to fit desired pizza pan (rectangular or round), making sure to use plenty of flour to keep the dough from sticking to the surface or the rolling pin.

Now is the time to decide if you want a thin pizza or a thicker pizza. If you want it thin, then go ahead and spray the pizza pan with a little cooking spray and a sprinkling of cornmeal. Fit your dough into the prepared pan and layer with tomato sauce, pepperoni slices, ham slices, shredded mozzarella and a sprinkling of garlic salt. If you want a thicker pizza then spray the pan with cooking spray, dust with cornmeal and fit the dough into the prepared pan but do not add the toppings yet: allow to rise in a warm area for 20-30 minutes; then add the toppings.

Bake in the heated oven 15-20 minutes until done. Slice and devour!