[Moose]

If there's been one nemesis in our kitchen, it's been pizza. We've made some pretty decent pies over the years, primarily using Trader Joe's premade pizza dough, but it's always left us wanting more...

So, for my birthday, some friends of ours who happen to know how much I love pizza, got me a breadmaking machine. I did some searching for pizza dough recipes specific to breadmakers, and found one that was not only highly rated, but included both butter AND beer. If it's got butter and beer in it, it's got to be good, right?

So, the missus put the ingredients together and let the breadmaking machine do its magic. Meanwhile, I made up a batch of my homemade sauce using San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, fresh oregano, and onion, threw it all in the blender, and then cooked it on the stove for about 15 mins.

A few hours later, when it came time to roll the dough, the missus said it was very pliable and she had a very good feeling about it. This was encouraging!

We decided to make two pies: A classic pepperoni, and a sausage, mushroom, and fresh sage.

Here's a shot of the pepperoni after we pulled it from the oven:



And here's the sausage, mushroom and fresh sage:



I put one of each on everyone's plate, topped with a bit of freshly grated parmesan:



So how was it? It was freakin' GREAT! The salty pepperoni slices contrasted nicely with the sweet aromatic taste of the sausage, mushroom and sage slices. The ice cold beer we enjoyed in frosty mugs was the perfect palette cleanser between the two different pizzas.

The crust had a nice crisp on the outside, with a good inner texture. I decided to give my new pizza screen a try, but next time will try it on the stone and see if there's a difference.

Thanks for checking out my pizzas!

Oh, and here's the dough recipe:

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 1 cup flat beer
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

Directions

1. Put beer, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting, and press Start.
2. Remove dough from bread machine when cycle is complete. Roll or press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan. Brush lightly with olive oil. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F
4. Spread sauce and toppings on top of dough. Bake until crust is lightly brown and crispy on the outside