Fig Pizza

This is an amazing recipe.  My favorite.  There are still children in my household who refuse to try it.  It's okay...leaves more for me.

Takes awhile to prepare so start early in the day.

 

A closer photo:

 

For starters, I had lunch out with a girlfriend last week and had the best pizza crust I've ever had.  

That's saying something.  I have made a LOT of home made pizza over the years plus dined out on pizza.  I rarely meet a pizza I don't like.

I set out to create a pizza crust like that one.  Not too thick or dark or heavy.  It was thin and slightly chewy.

Thin Chewy Pizza Crust 

Started with a pizza crust recipe from "Gourmet" and adapted to my taste.

Makes two 12 inch pizzas.  

2+1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 + 1/2 cups 115 degree water

2 + 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 + 1/2 cups + 2 Tablespoons all purpose white flour (Wheat Montana)

3 teaspoons avocado oil  (olive oil would work too)

Combine, yeast, 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 cup warm water and let stand for 5 minutes to proof yeast.

Combine 2 1/2 cups flour, salt, oil, proofed yeast.  Mix together.  It will be soft and sticky.

Knead by hand, adding flour to my fingers as needed to keep it from sticking.  About 7 to 9 minutes of kneading should do it.

Let it raise for an hour or more, covered.

Roll out into two 12 inch rounds and let raise about a half hour to an hour.

I put them on a clay pizza stone.

Bake at 425 degrees for 8 minutes.  Oven was preheated.

Pull out of oven and add toppings.  See below.

Bake another 6 to 8 minutes with toppings.  Serve hot.

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A few weeks ago, I stumbled across an idea for an unusual pizza.  I liked it and wanted to try it with this new crust idea.

 Toppings for Fig Pizza

Started with a Taste of Home recipe and adapted it to my own taste.

Do ahead all these steps so ingredients are ready to quickly add to precooked crust:

Mix first 3 ingredients together and spread over crust

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

1 tablespoon oil

Saute one Walla Walla Sweet Onion in one tablespoon oil

add 2 cloves, minced garlic at end of cooking and cook another 2 minutes 

Chop 9 ounces dried figs in small pieces

Thin slice and chop 2 cups of cooked ham

2/3 cup pine nuts

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup parmesan cheese

Add the ingredients to the pizza in the order given.