Ready for a round of refrigerator roulette winner takes all? What’s at stake? Pommes de Terre Dauphinoise (cheesy sliced potatoes) from the other night and 2 slices of ham…. The gamble, that I can create a pizza in Tom Douglas’s likeness. At his restaurant, Serious Pie, (seriously awesome), he serves up a pizza with potatoes on a near magical crust. My other constraint – time – dear hubby is hungry and not too hot on waiting a long time. I found a quick thin crust pizza dough recipe, promising no rise time. I think it will take me a few more tries to perfect and doesn’t hold a candle to Tom’s crust, but satisfactory vehicle. I also had some snafus with the crust but pulled it out in the last minute. I have adjusted my instructions from the original to save you the headache. Just don’t skip the parchment. All in all this turned out pretty darn good and it is all gone! I love sage and thyme – they are like comfort herbs to me, luxurious even. Basil and cilantro are tasty but more refreshing and energizing, if you know what I mean.

Thin Crust Pizza Dough

Ingredients (dough for 1 pizza, 2 if you are extra skilled at stretching)

• 0.25 oz. pkt. active dry yeast
  
• 1/4 tsp. sugar
  
• 3/4 cup 110 degree water (actually check the temperature, so you don’t kill the yeast)
  
• 1 3/4 – 2 cups all-purpose flour + extra for flouring surface, hands and kneading
  
• 1 tsp. salt
  

Instructions

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water; allow to rest ( or really more like wake up) for 8 minutes
   
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt with a fork.
   
3. Pour yeast mixture over flour mixture and mix well with a heavy spoon. Before pouring, give it a quick stir so the good stuff doesn’t stick to the bottom.
   
4. Turn dough onto a floured surface, flour your hands and knead for 2 minutes.
   My dough was really sticky
   
5. Tear off a piece of parchment paper big enough to cover your baking sheet. I tried to use my pizza stone (sans paper) and that is where it all when horribly wrong
   
6. Put kneaded dough onto parchment paper, on the counter.
   
7. Working from the edges to the center, press dough into your best 12″ circle or oblong or blob.. You can also hold it up and stretch it. Tried this too and didn’t work for me…
   
8. Slide the dough circle on the parchment paper onto the baking sheet. This step corrected one of my problems – you just can’t pick this dough up once it is stretch and expect anything to work or stay.
   
9. Once you have devised your pizza theme. Add the sauce and toppings. Some people may want to cook crust naked for a minute or two before putting on toppings. Spread sauce over crust and top with cheese and desired toppings.
   
10. Bake in a 500 degree oven for 8-12 minutes, or until edges are golden. I finished with a few minutes under the high broiler to burn up a few edges.
    
11. You are correct, there is not step for the dough to rise. It’s thin crust so not necessary AND makes this so much quicker.
    

Potato Ham Pizza

Ingredients

• Thin crust pizza dough from recipe above
• Cheesy Potato Slices left over from this recipe Pommes de Terre Dauphinoise
• 2 slices ham (you could use bacon, prosciutto etc)
• Sage
• Thyme
• Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Gruyere cheese, or Parmesan, Romano, combination etc
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Start with sauce. In this case olive oil and garlic. Spread it all over the dough
2. Add the herbs a bit torn up but nice chunks
3. Add the ham, after slicing it up. My two slices was just a little more than I needed. Just use what you have until it looks proportional
4. Add the potatoes, because this recipe had an eggs/milk mixture in it, I chose the potatoes that were more on the top with less egg (or wiped off) and some Gruyere from the other dish. I broke them up with my hands into smaller pieces. You could probably get away with using left over baked potatoes, hashbrowns etc. There really isn’t a wrong quantity, just what you have and looks good proportionally
5. Grate a little more Gruyere, or parmesan, over the pizza with your favorite mini grater… my dear hubby hates these things. I love them. They are so cute!
6. Bake 8-12 minutes at 500 F; finish under the broiler for a few minutes to crisp it up on the top. Add some pepper and touch of salt if you want (just remember the cheese, ham and potatoes have salt too)