Recipe: Dessert Pizza

Sandy: Here is a recipe that might help
get you the pizza you want. This was
previously posted on TKL.

You will find many more dessert pizza
recipes if you do a TKL search of "all
boards" for "dessert pizza". You will
find dessert pizzas using strawberries,
apples, almonds, blueberries, chocolate,
M&Ms, to name a few.

Have fun!
________________________________________

DESSERT PIZZA SHELLS

1/2 oz Active dry yeast
2 tb Nonfat dry milk powder
1 c Very warm (120-125'F) water
1 tb Sugar or honey
1/2 c Apple juice
1 ts Salt
5 c Flour
1/2 c Lukewarm water (or more)

Dissolve the yeast and the skim
milk powder in the water. Add the
sugar or honey and stir well to
dissolve. Let this sit for
about 10 minutes. Add the apple
juice and combine well.

Put all of the flour in a large
mixing bowl. Add the salt and
combine. Add the liquid mixture
to the flour along with enough
additional water to make a soft
but not sticky dough. Knead the
dough for 4 minutes if using a
stand mixer; 8 minutes if kneading
by hand. Divide the dough into balls
of about 4 ounces each, put them on
a floured sheet pan, cover the pan
and allow to rise for 1 1/2 to 2
hours, until doubled in bulk (or let rise,
covered well, in the refrigerator
overnight).

Thickness: To make a dessert pizza
shell, the dough should be rolled
thicker than that for a thin-crust
pizza IF it will be holding more
weight. Go with a dough shell that
is at least 1/8-inch thick.

Forming: Pull up the sides to form
a crust cuff or a well to hold the
dessert toppings. The pizza shell
should like like a pie or tart shell.

Size: A four- or five-inch diameter
pizza seems to be the best size,
because it can be served as an
individual dessert or as one for two
people to share.

Preparation: The best way to go
from this point is to form the crust
and bake it completely. This baked
crust will then be ready to
take various toppings.

In a few situations you might want
to only par-bake the crust...when
doing a baked apple pizza, for example.

Toppings:

Cheeses: For the sake of simplicity and good taste,
cheeses can be narrowed down to three: ricotta,
mascarpone and cream cheese.

Fruits: Just about any fruit will work. Using fresh fruit
will control the moisture.

Nuts: Walnuts, pecans, almonds, and pine nuts are
favorites.

Miscellaneous: Spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and
cloves with sugar work well.

Crushed or ground amaretto cookies make a great
topping over cheese and fruit. Chocolate chips,
raisins and zest of oranges,lemons or limes
can be used most effectively to pump
up the flavor.

A dusting of confectioners' sugar looks good
and goes a long way in the taste department.

Brushing or layering fruit preserves or a
fruit glaze on the crust before the toppings
go on adds a lot of flavor and offers a
wide range of taste possibilities.