Amazing Beer Crust Pizza

We are officially back from the holidays! Well, actually we've been back for over a week, but we've been busy resettling in after being away for almost 2 weeks. It's good to be home!

Today I've decided to post a recipe. I was asked on Facebook about it, but I decided to make a blog post to make sure there is something interesting here to keep readership up. Nothing like some good "food porn" to do that, right?

I tend to not buy pizza out. I am not fond of delivery pizza (although Papa John's pizza isn't so bad) and I for the most part avoid frozen pizza like the plague. Mostly because ingredients are questionable and the nutritional value of any of these pizzas is terrible. However, I used to rarely make pizza because I didn't have a good crust recipe. The recipe I had tasted fine, but it took forever to make and wait to rise. The non-rising recipes I tired were terrible, until I stumbled upon this one on pinterest. I found this on the Plain Chicken blog to give credit where credit is due, although her version is made with white flour (I've made it with white flour, but try to avoid that ingredient as well). This has become a dinner we (and by we I mean the monkey boys and I) make probably about once a month.

Amazing Beer Crust Pizza - Pesto, cauliflower, and turkey pepperoni (today's topping selection)

Dough
- 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 Tsp sea salt
- 2 TBS cold butter 
- 1 cup of beer (my personal favorite for this dough is Red Stripe Jamaican Lager, but use whatever you love or have on hand)

If you have a cast iron pizza stone, use it (it does make a difference!). Place the pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 475 F (strangely, I do not know where to find the degree symbol on my computer!).

Get out your trusty food processor with a metal blade. Add the flour and salt. Pulse until mixed.

Add in the cold butter and pulse until combined.

Add the beer and pulse. I found with the whole wheat flour I had to add a smidge (probably not more than an additional splash) of beer, but do this after the beer and flour are mixed and you can see if it is wet or dry. The dough will appear slightly wet and a tad sticky.

Remove from food processor and place on parchment paper cut to the approximate size of your pizza stone (as you can see in my photo, my paper is bigger than my stone). Roll the dough out to the size of your pizza stone with a rolling pin (it really is easier than using your hands, trust me). My pizza never comes out round. My stone is 15" across and rolling the dough out to be this big makes the perfect thinness for baking.

Poke holes in the dough with a fork (don't forget to do this as it also makes a huge difference!). If you do forget, you can poke holes after you add the toppings.

Top with whatever you like! We have done everything from hawiian pizza (canadian bacon, pineapple), BBQ chicken (BBQ sauce, chicken, red onions, and mushrooms), veggie/pepperoni (turkey pepperoni, mixed frozen california veggies, mushrooms and red sauce), and pesto cauliflower (pesto sauce, fresh cauliflower, and turkey pepperoni). Really any topping would be amazing on this pizza!

Slide onto your pizza stone in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. The recipe says 12-15 minutes, but I've found that if I leave it in for less than 15 minutes the dough is not as crisp and is not done in the middle. So sometimes my toppings come out with a little char on the top, but are never burnt. I wouldn't go over the 15 minutes though!

Enjoy!