BLT Pizza

Here is a fun twist on making homemade pizza: the BLT pizza! It is surprisingly really, really delicious! It basically tastes like an open-faced sandwich, but it's in pizza-form, which excites the little ones. I found that I very much am in favor of how this recipe does the dough and it was so much easier to do it this way, then to roll out the pizza dough into a rectangle or circle. Much faster! Check it out...

For the dough, you will need:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 cup olive oil

For the toppings, you will need:

• 9 strips of bacon
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 4 ounces Jarlsberg cheese, shredded (I didn't have this, so I just used Mozzarella!)
• 2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 medium tomatoes, halved-seeded-diced
• 1 Tbsp mayo
• 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups finely shredded romaine lettuce

You can make the dough in your bread maker if you have one (just add the wet ingredients and the salt first then put the flour and sugar and yeast on top) or you can make it in your mixer. Combine the water, yeast, sugar and salt and set aside for 5 minutes until foamy. Add flour and oil and stir until dough forms. Knead for 10 mins. Oil a bowl and set the dough ball inside, covered, to rise for 1 1/2 hours. Meanwhile, slice the bacon into 1/2-inch pieces and lightly brown it on the skillet for 6-10 minutes (don't cook all the way to crispy). Heat the oven to 450 degrees. When the dough is done, grease a baking sheet and press the dough into a dimpled circle on the sheet -- about 12 inches across. Spread the mustard over the dough and sprinkle with the cheeses, the tomatoes, and the bacon on top. Bake the pizza, rotating the pan halfway through, for 20 minutes (or until melted and crispy). While it's baking, toss the lettuce, mayo, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Take pizza out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes. Top with lettuce mixture. Slice into 8 pieces and enjoy!

From Family Fun Magazine, March 2011