Crazy Crust Pizza

Remember that bookstore date I told you Blake and I went on? Well on that date, we both found a recipe that we wanted to give a shot. And the first one was a definite keeper.

The trial run for this recipe wasn't perfect--there is some tweaking I want to do--but it was so tasty that we wanted to share it with you. The crust is a batter that you pour into a cookie sheet. Very fun! It also means no waiting for dough to rise (or rise twice, for some recipes). What you save in rise time, you spend a little in baking time, so I guess it's about sixes, but give this pizza a shot sometime.

Crazy Crust Pizza

Batter:

1 c. flour (I used wheat with great results)
1 t. salt
1 t. Italian seasoning
1/8 t. pepper
2 eggs
2/3 c. milk

Topping:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef OR 1 cup pepperoni
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 (4 oz.) can mushrooms
1 c. pizza sauce
1 c. mozzarella cheese

Make batter--mix until smooth. Pour into lightly greased 15x10 cookie sheet, covering the bottom of the pan. Arrange meat, onions, and mushrooms on crust. Bake on the low rack at 425 for 25-30 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown. Drizzle sauce and sprinkle cheese on the pizza and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is nicely melted. Serves 3-4.

My notes:

• I measured my cookie sheets (you know, the normal beloved jelly roll pans we all have) and they are actually 11x16. This meant that the already-thin pizza crust became very, very thin in my cookie sheet. I think next time I will try doing 1 1/2 times the batter recipe. I think if you doubled the batter it might be too thick to cook well underneath a mountain of toppings (see subsequent note), but I'll play with it and alter this post as needed.
• Also, with the crust, it says to lightly grease the cookie sheet... This could have been a problem due strictly to the thinness of my crust, but if I did the recipe again as is, I would grease the heck out of the cookie sheet!! I was able to get the pieces off, but it certainly wasn't an easy, convenient scoop onto the plate. I'm hoping that a thicker crust next time will solve that problem.
• Toppings. The recipe seemed a little light on the toppings to us. We were also feeling adventurous that night so we piled toppings on with reckless abandon. Half of the pizza was pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, and roma tomatoes; the other half was ham, pineapple, and slivered almonds. Both were seriously divine. (And I don't even like mushrooms!) I was worried that the crust wouldn't cook underneath all those toppings, but the thinness may have compensated for that. I'll try a loaded-toppings pizza with a thicker crust and let you know how it goes.
• Although it made a full cookie sheet, I thought the serving estimate was pretty fair. Mom Hull, if you wanted to do this for dinner I'd do at least two pans, maybe three depending on how ravenous Jace was that night. ;) Next time I'll also serve it with a green salad to round out the meal a little bit.
• I'm a sauce-lover and there were several bites on my pizza that I wished had more of the pizza sauce flavor. Next time I'll be a little more liberal with the sauce. Or you could just have sauce on the table as a dipping option for those who wanted extra.

Like I said, I'll update the recipe on this post as I get things figured out. Blake requested it on the meal plan this week so I'll give it another shot. (I'll try to remember to take pictures!)