Pear and Blue Cheese Chicken Pizza on Porter Pizza Dough

I so needed this weekend to be just what it was: relaxing! We were not only pretty lazy, but we were very “green”. With the price of gas, we decided to only do things close to home — dinner, groceries, etc. It will be nice to not start Monday morning on an empty tank!

I normally have a hockey game on Sunday nights, so I work dinner around that commitment. Last night, I didn’t have a game and so I made Mr. Prevention happy with homemade pizza 🙂 I’m going to safely assume it would win out, hands-down, against any of the 4-for-$10 Tombstone pizzas he threw into the grocery cart yesterday.

Of course I should probably mention that the pizza dough recipe to follow makes two pizza doughs. So while one was Pear and Blue Cheese Chicken Pizza, the other was 1/2 turkey pepperoni and 1/2 BBQ chicken. Leave it to Mr. P!

And as I’ve mentioned before, leftover pizza doesn’t go to waste in this house — it’s the one thing Mr. P will always take as leftovers for lunch.

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Pear and Blue Cheese Chicken Pizza inspired by Cooking Light

1/2 Porter Pizza Dough recipe (or 14″ pizza dough)
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup (4 ounces) part-skim mozzarella, shredded
1 cup cooked chicken breast, diced
1/3 cup (1 1/2 oz) blue cheese, crumbled
1 medium pear, sliced
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup lightly packed arugula

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500 F.

Roll out pizza dough to 14-inch diameter. Drizzle with olive oil and spread with a pastry brush over the entire surface of the pizza dough. Pre-bake the dough for 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, simmer balsamic vinegar over medium heat until thickened and reduced to about 2 tablespoons, or 10 minutes.

Remove pizza dough from oven and sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, pears, blue cheese, and chicken. Top with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella. Bake an additional 11-13 minutes. Check on pizza during the last few moments of cooking to prevent burning. Pizza should be slightly browned and cheese bubbling.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with arugula and drizzle with balsamic vinegar reduction. Cut into 8 pieces and serve immediately. Yield: 8 slices.

Nutrition Information (per slice): 244 calories; 8.1 g. fat; 21 mg. cholesterol; 316 mg. sodium; 29.5 g. carbohydrate; 1.6 g. fiber; 12.8 g. protein

Result: Delicious, unique pizza! Since peaches were MIA, I went with pear and paired it with bleu cheese. Don’t go light on the balsamic vinegar — you’ll think it’s too much, but it adds so much flavor and marries the sweet of the fruit and salty of the cheese perfectly! Enjoy!

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Homemade pizza tempts me to try new pizza dough recipes. This one caught my eye seeing as it includes one of my favorite things: beer! We had one leftover porter which I generally consider to be a cold weather beer, but I figured it would be perfect in this dough.

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Porter Pizza Dough inspired by and adapted from King Arthur Flour

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
12 ounces porter beer, at room-temperature

Directions:

Mix and knead together all of the dough ingredients by hand, mixer or bread machine until you’ve made a smooth, soft dough.

Cover the dough, and allow it to rise for 30 minutes, or for up to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500 F with the pizza stone (if you’re using one) on a lower rack.

Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a 14″ round.

Place the rounds on parchment paper, if you’re going to use a pizza stone. Or place the dough on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.

Transfer the pizzas, parchment and all, to the baking stone. Or place the pans in the oven.

Bake for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the oven, top as desired, and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the bottom crust is crisp and the cheese is bubbly and browned.

Remove from the oven, and serve hot. Yield: two 14-inch pizza doughs.

Nutrition Information (for 1/4th of one 14″ dough): 261 calories; 4 g. fat; 0 mg. cholesterol; 431 mg. sodium; 45.8 g. carbohydrate; 2.3 g. fiber; 3.8 g. protein

Result: Very good pizza crust! The beer and whole wheat pastry flour gives it a warm brown color without the heaviness that many whole wheat doughs result in. The dough puffs up and is thin, but not flimsy…perfect! Enjoy!

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A huge thanks to Newman’s Own Organics for sending me both olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I used both in this recipe and as with all Newman’s Own Organics products, I was very impressed with the quality and flavor.

A 4-day work week and I’m back off to Chicago! Tonight is exam #2 for my students which means an easy night for me 😀 Speaking of my students, one of them quoted the movie Step Brothers last week and the joke went completely over my head. All of my students roared at the quote and then insisted I see the movie. Being all too curious, I rented the movie this weekend and was less than impressed. Sure, parts were funny, but I didn’t think it was worth all the rave reviews!

Question: What’s one “popular” movie or TV show you don’t enjoy as much as others?

Off to strength train before work! 😀

Have a great week!