Hawaiian Pizza

Pizza has always been my families all time period, especially my better half. I ever ask him this question "If you are put on a deserted island and you can only choose one kind food to survive on, what will it be?" Without hesitation, he said "Pizza, pizza, pizza." :) I do enjoy a good slice of pizza sometimes, it's sort of my comfort food too. So for today's lunch, I decided to make this Hawaiian Pizza (my girl's favorite) to curb my family's "craving". :) I got the pizza dough recipe from the book "Essentials of Baking" from William Sonoma. I only made 1/2 of the dough recipe, it's already enough for 3 adults. The tomato sauce topping that I made can be used for spaghetti as well, but you can add cooked minced chicken or pork to it.

For the tomato sauce:
2 can of crush tomato
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small carrot, diced small
1 small onion, diced small
1 package of white mushroom, sliced
1 tbsp granulated sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Tomato sauce:

• Heat up some oil in the pan. Add garlic, onion, carrots and stir fry for 1 minute. Reduce the temperature to minimum, cover and let slow cook for 5-7 minutes until onions and carrots are soft.

• Add mushrooms, stir fry until the moisture is released. Then add can tomatoes. Add sugar, salt and pepper. Stew the sauce for 10 minutes.

For the Crust:
2 packages (5 tsp) active dry yeast
21/4cups (18 fl oz/ 560ml) warm water
2 tsp maple syrup or sugar
1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) olive oil
5 cups (25 oz / 780 g) bread flour, plus extra as needed
1 tbsp salt

For the topping:
1 cup (4 oz/125g) grated Parmesan Cheese
4oz of mozzarella cheese (grate or shred)
1/2 can of cube pineapple (cut half)
6 oz of sliced Honey Baked Ham, cute small bite size (or any kind of meat of your liking)

To make the dough:

1. In a bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the maple syrup, oil, flour and salt and stir till well mixed and forms a rough ball.
2. Using a pastry plastic scraper, scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough until soft, smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Add up to 1 cup of flour for kneading to prevent sticking.
3. Form the dough into a ball, transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with kitchen towel and let proof for 1.5 to 2hrs, until double in volume.
4. Preheat oven to 220°C. Punch down the dough, cut it into half. Flour the work surface and roll the dough into a round 30 to 35cm in diameter. (Or you can press down into a baking pan like me) Repeat the other half of the dough. Let dough proof again 30 to 40 minutes, cover with kitchen towel.
5. Bake pizza for 20 minutes before putting any topping on it. This prevents the pizza center to be soggy.

Assembly of the pizza:

1. Spoon tomato sauce over the pre-bake pizza dough. Spread enough sauce to cover all the way except the sides.
2. Sprinkle half of the grated Parmesan cheese on top of pizza. Add sliced ham, pineapple and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle more Parmesan cheese over the top.
   
3. Place in the preheat oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cheese turns golden brown.
   

Left over pizzas is still good the next day if kept in the fridge. :) Just toast it up for 10 minutes at 140°C. Yummy yummy!