I must admit I was inspired by an episode on Kelsey’s Essentials where she made grilled flatbread topped with goat cheese, beets, bacon, and arugula.

Normally, I avoid this Cooking Channel show like the plague because I find it irritating.  However, I pretty much took off running because I couldn’t wait to make my own homemade pizza dough for the first time and top it with a similar beet, greens and bacon topping.

I searched on Google for a pizza dough recipe one could make by hand since I do not own a stand mixer and found a pizza dough recipe from Bread & Honey, adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance.  We also grilled the pizza dough which produced a crisp, cracker crust.

Pizza Dough
1 cup of warm water
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 packet of dry active yeast
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
3 cups of flour (I just used unbleached all purpose)
1 teaspoon of salt (I’d recommend adding a touch more)

Pizza Dough Directions
In a bowl, add the yeast packet and sugar to 1 cup of warm water and stir for at least 10 minutes.  The yeast should “bloom” in the water and it should become cloudy and clumpy.

Next, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the bloomed yeast mixture and oil to the dry ingredients and combine until it turns into a doughy ball.

Remove the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until it develops elasticity and firmness.  If the dough is too sticky, you can sprinkle in more flour.  Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl.  Cover the surface of the dough ball with more olive oil and and cover with a damp towel.  Place in a warm location for about an hour.  I placed the dough on top of my oven.

After an hour, punch the dough down, and knead again for about 10 minutes.  You can dust with flour if it still feels to sticky.  The dough should still feel firm and elastic since kneading will develop the flour’s gluten. Form into a ball and place back in the bowl.  Oil the top of the dough ball and cover with the damp towel.

I let my dough proof for another 2-3 hours.  Alice from Bread & Honey says you can use the dough after a short 10 minute proof but also recommends you let it proof for at least another hour or two.

After the final proof, divide into sections and roll into pizza dough.  I found that this batch made two, very large, cracker crust pizza’s.

I topped one of my pizzas with beets, beet greens, caramelized onions, bacon, and goat cheese.

I bought beets at the Kingsfield farmers market.  I removed the tops, scrubbed, and boiled for about an hour.  Then, I peeled off the skins and diced.  These beets tasted especially sweet.

To the left is crisped applewood smoked bacon and to the right are beet greens.  I love beet greens almost more than the beets themselves.  I prepared the greens by blanching in boiling water and immediately shocking in ice water.  I squeezed out the excess water, chopped, and sauteed in the bacon fat along with squeezes of lemon juice until the stems were tender.

I spread a second pizza with a garlic butter made from melting butter, minced garlic, cilantro, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.  After flipping the dough on the grill, I spread the garlic butter on the dough and topped it with monterrey jack cheese, halved cherry tomatoes, bacon, and caramelized onions.  I also topped my pieces with spicy banana peppers.
My favorite pizza was the goat cheese and beet pizza above.  I grilled the dough on both sides and then topped with the cheese, vegetables, and bacon.

Jake’s favorite pizza was the garlic butter infused pizza topped with monterrey jack cheese.

All in all, a successful and delicious project.  The pizza dough was simpler to make than I expected, although I may try different versions in the future for comparison.   Next time, I might roll the dough a little thicker and add a pinch more salt.  We can’t wait to experiment with different topping combinations.