Apocalypse Pizza

I've blogged about home made pizza before, haven't I?  Of course I have.  We've been making homemade pizza for years, often on Family Pizza Night where it's a social event as well as dinner.

Here's the story behind Apocalypse Pizza.  We were driving to Atlanta for a craft show and stopped at a random exit looking for a specific kind of restaurant.  Then we drove by a place called Apokalypse Pizza and I decided that that was epic enough to cause us to eat there even if it wasn't what we were looking for.  And there, we had an amazing Greek pizza. I don't know if we could even find that place again.

So here's my version.  You make the dough in your bread machine (allow about 2-3 hours), and at least in our house, each family member gets to make their own personal pizza.  When one of my adopted kids comes home from the military, this is what he asks for :)

Apocalypse Pizza

Place the following in your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer (usually wet, then dry, then yeast):

Dough:
2 Tb olive oil
1 to 1 1/4 cup of water
3 cups of bread flour (can sub up to a third with wheat flour)
1 Tb sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
I also sometimes throw in some parmesan or crushed dried basil or oregano.

Set to your machine's dough cycle.  Watch at the end of the knead cycle; sometimes you'll need to add more flour.  Should be a smooth ball.  When the cycle ends, take it out and divide in 2-4 balls.  Drizzle a little olive oil into an equal number of bowls, roll your dough in the oil to grease it a little, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and let rise for an hour.

 Topping:

olive oil
garlic

sliced tomatoes
Gyro meat
kalmata olives, halved
pepperoncinis
artichoke hearts
thinly sliced baby bella mushrooms
crumbled feta cheese
thinly sliced onion (saute if desired)
a handful of pizza cheese (better than mozzarella)
coarsely chopped fresh oregano and/or basil

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.  Yes, I said 500.  Grease a baking sheet a little (nonstick spray works but seems to smoke in the oven a bit) and then sprinkle with cornmeal (optional).  Spread out your dough on the sheet.  This dough does not rise much, so it'll be about as thick as you spread it, so if you like a thick crust leave it thick (and it's soooo good thick).

Saute the garlic in the oil to give it a little flavor (helps to do this when you first take the dough out of the machine so that it has some time to infuse the oil with the garlic flavor).  After you spread out your dough, drizzle with garlic oil, and top as desired with the toppings listed above.  We generally stop by our local Greek/Italian (is this a southern oddity?) restaurant to pick up the Gyro meat since I've never seen it in a grocery store, but enough for the whole family is $2.95 there.  The only topping that is not optional is the feta.  There must be feta.  I find that you don't need a lot of pizza cheese with these toppings and the feta and oil, but if you're a bigger cheeseaholic than I am, go for it.

If you like, hit the edges of the crust with a little parmesan or (YUM) fresh grated Asiago.  Drop those babies in the hot hot oven for 7-11 minutes depending on your crust thickness.  Let cool a bit so the cheese doesn't slide off, if you can wait, cut... and mangia!  Or whatever the Greek word is for "Eat!"