This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was to make your own pizza dough. I was very excited, but a bit nervous. I was looking forward to coming up with different topping ideas, but was apprehensive about the requirement to toss the pizza dough.
This past Saturday I started on the first step of the dough making process, and let it refrigerate over night. Then on Sunday I stretched the dough (see the picture below), and made two pizzas. Anna made the third, and she'll eventually post the results on her blog.
My first pizza was inspired by a slice of pizza I had last year in San Francisco: Arugula pizza with fresh corn, cherry tomatoes and shredded mozarella.
Step 1: Microplane a few garlic cloves and mix with oil. Cover the stretched pizza dough with garlic/oil mixture, and lightly sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese.
Step 2: Add arugula (make sure you wash it very well and get rid of all the extra liquid; you can also use spinach if you want)
Step 3: Add fresh corn, cherry tomatoes, and top with more shredded mozzarella. Remember to season tomatoes with salt and pepper.
Step 4: Bake the pizza at a preheated 500F degree oven for about 10 minutes. I baked mine on a cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. The final results are below: I was very happy! Jenn, who came over for the feast, said her mouth was very happy :)
The second pizza was inspired by my Plum, Gorgonzola, Red Onion and Pine Nuts Pizza. Unfortunately, turns out plums are out of season, so I had to make a few substitutions. Here are the pictures for Granny Smith Apple, Red Onions, Gorgonzola and Walnuts Pizza. 
Step 2: Add thinly sliced Granny Smith Apples, Gorgonzola and toasted walnuts on top of the onions.
