Recipe - Dessert Pizza Shells

One half ounce Active dry yeast
2 tablespoon Nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup Very warm (120125'F) water
1 tablespoon Sugar or honey
One half cup Apple juice
1 teaspoon Salt
5 cup Flour
One half cup Lukewarm water (or more)

Dissolve the yeast and the skim milk powder in the water. Add the sugar or
honey and stir well to dissolve. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. Add the
apple juice and combine well.

Put all of the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and combine. Add
the liquid mixture to the flour along with enough additional water to make
a soft but not sticky dough. Knead the dough for 4 minutes if using a stand
mixer; 8 minutes if kneading by hand.

Divide the dough into balls of about 4 ounces each, put them on a floured
sheet pan, cover the pan and allow to rise for 1 One half to 2 hours, until
doubled in bulk (or let rise, covered well, in the refrigerator overnight).

Thickness: To make a dessert pizza shell, the dough should be rolled
thicker than that for a thincrust pizza because it will be holding more
weight. Go with a dough shell that is at least 1/8inch thick.

Forming: Pull up the sides to form a crust cuff or a well to hold the
dessert toppings. The pizza shell should like like a pie or tart shell.

Size: A four or fiveinch diameter pizza seems to be the best size,
because it can be served as an individual dessert or as one for two people
to share.

Preparation: The best way to go from this point is to dock the crust and
bake it completely. This baked crust will then be ready to take various
toppings. In a few situations you might want to only parbake the crust
when doing a baked apple pizza, for example.

Toppings: Cheeses: For the sake of simplicity and good taste, cheeses can
be narrowed down to three: ricotta, mascarpone and cream cheese. Fruits:
Just about any fruit will work. Using fresh fruit will control the
moisture. Nuts: Walnuts, pecans, almonds, and pine nuts are favorites.
Miscellaneous: Spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves work well.
Crushed or ground amaretto cookies make a great topping over cheese and
fruit. Chocolate chips, raisins and zest of oranges, lemons or limes can be
used most effectively to pump up the flavor. A dusting of confectioners'
sugar looks good and goes a long way in the taste department. Brushing or
layering fruit preserves or a fruit glaze on the crust before toppings go
on adds a lot of flavor and offers a wide range of taste possibilities.

Source: Pat Bruno Jr., Pizza Today, June 1992.

Date: 20 Jun 96 02:16:36 EDT

From: Linda 72752.746@CompuServe.COM

MMRecipes Digest V3 #171

From the MealMaster recipe list. Downloaded from Glen's MM Recipe Archive,
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