Pizza Dough

Here is a recipe for pizza dough that can be mixed by hand or in a 1½ lb breadmaker. This has been cobbled together from various recipies and some experimentation...

1 c. very warm water (hot tapwater)
3 c. white flour
1½ T yeast (yes, that's 3x what you'd use for bread)
4 T olive or canola oil
2 T liquid honey or sugar
1 t. salt

Mix as you would do bread (water+honey/sugar+yeast, let bloom well; add oil; add flour and salt; turn out on a floured board; knead) or use the breadmaker on a 25-minute dough cycle. You'll have time to get the toppings ready while the dough proofs. This recipe will make one thick or two thin 16" round crusts.

Top and cook at 400-450F (200-230C) for ~13 minutes on pan + ~3-4 minutes directly on the rack, or freeze and then later cook from frozen for ~15 minutes on pan + ~5-10 minutes on the rack (times will vary).

Ideas for toppings:

• Cook a couple of slices of bacon for flavor, remove the bacon, drain most of the fat, cook some chicken breasts in the same pan with some thin-sliced onion and onion chunks. Slice up the chicken breasts. Spread a nice spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce with oregano on the crust, then top with the bacon, chicken, onion, and some thin-sliced sweet peppers. Top with grated mozzarella and a sprinkle of sharp cheddar or some parmesan. Pineapple is optional -- I like the way its flavor interacts with the sweet peppers.
• Same as above, but substitute a thick alfredo sauce for the tomato sauce and use a sparse quantity of blended grated white cheeses (jack, emmenethal, gouda, white cheddar, whatever you have on hand -- experiment!). For thick alfredo sauce, either make a traditional alfredo sauce and then thicken it, or use an alfredo sauce mix with 1/2 to 2/3 the normal amount of liquid.
• Mix 1/2 C BBQ sauce with a little bit of liquid honey and use that as the pizza sauce. Top with BBQ chicken, raw sliced red onions, diced tomatoes, bell peppers, sliced mushrooms, and cheese of your choice.