Homemade pizza a la toddlers

Yes, I found another great bread machine recipe yesterday. Bread Machine Pizza Dough. Oh my gosh is this stuff so tasty and so simple! Have I convinced you to find a bread machine yet? (Check Craigslist for used machines).

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup flat beer
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

DIRECTIONS

1. Put beer, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting, and press Start.
2. Remove dough from bread machine when cycle is complete. Roll or press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan. Brush lightly with olive oil. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Spread sauce and toppings on top of dough. Bake until crust is lightly brown and crispy on the outside, about 24 minutes.

I decided to make up this bread dough this afternoon and have the kiddos "make" their own pizza for dinner. You know, be the "cool" mom who lets her kids get really messy. Yeah, I loved cleaning up shredded cheese all over the floor! But the kids had fun, so that's what matters, right? Anyway, I put a bunch of toppings in individual cups in a cupcake pan. This was fun because Lucy discovered she actually did like pineapple. It must have been the novelty of eating it out of a cupcake pan!Since my kids are sensitive to tomato products, I used Alfredo sauce as the base. Lucy ended up with a cheese pizza with a glob of mushrooms in the middle and one piece of pineapple (most got eaten prior to baking) and Evan ended up with a cheese pizza as well, but in the middle of his was a glob of olives. I guess my kids have to learn how to "spread the toppings out!" That's why mommy is here to help!

As you can see, I had the more refined pizza pictured above. Alfredo sauce, tomato slices, onion and green pepper with a dash of garlic. My apologies, but only the tomato and green pepper were local, but at least the crust didn't have a million different added ingredients!

We ran around in the backyard enjoying the rain-free weather while the pizzas cooked. Once they were out of the oven the kids were ready to eat! And I must say they did eat the pizza for the most part. Lucy wasn't too keen on the mushrooms, but she did try them. And Evan was happy as ever. (My big boy who will be TWO in eight days!)

So yes, this is a fabulous recipe! And don't tell anyone that my can of beer held 12 oz. and I only needed 8 oz. Gee, I wonder where the other 4 oz. went... :)

I went on ahead and made another batch of dough to see about freezing up a bunch of dough balls to have on hand. It's in the freezer now so we'll see how it thaws and rolls out. Oh yeah, and I recommend using an actual rolling pin and not a rolling pin designed for Play-Doh! Add that to my "kitchen needs" list.

So sorry for the long-winded post, but I had to share the cute pictures and the fabulous recipe! I hope you enjoy making some homemade pizza dough. Have a fantastic Friday!