Fresh Picks Pizza No. 2

My avocado ripened a lot more quickly than expected! I was puttering around my kitchen last night trying to figure out what to make for dinner when I gave it a squeeze and decided… hey, why not?! Earlier in the day I had been planning to make it into a calzone, but once I began working the dough I realized that was just not a possibility. There’s something about frozen dough that makes it stubborn… uh, probably the fact that its been frozen. I would probably be better off if I allowed it a chance to sit and rise a bit after thawing it, though I’m not even sure if that’s possible. Does the freezer kill yeast?

Anyway, so the dough ended up overworked and over floured but I finally got it into a square shape when I decided I’d rather just make another pizza than a sloppy calzone! Given my oversoppy attempt the day before, I was more conservative with the BBQ sauce this time. Again, however, I made my impromptu pesto from the other night using rainbow kale, green onions, sesame seeds, garlic powder, paprika, and much less olive oil. I decided to forgo the thyme and basil tonight since it didn’t sound like it would go well with BBQ sauce and avocado.

Since I had baked two chicken breasts the night before (and seasoned this one with some chipotle ) this pizza came together a lot more quickly as all I had to do was chop up the chicken, buffalo mozzerella balls, bacon bits, and avocado and add them over top the sauce and pesto.

Now, just in case anyone reading this doesn’t know how to dice an avocado let me explain because its super easy! First thing you must know is that there is a huge pit (hard round ball) in the middle of it that you need to cut around. By cutting down towards the pit with a large knife (keeping your hands/fingers out of the way) and using that pit as a central point to cut around, you can easily halve the avocado and if it is the right amount of ripeness it should just pull apart. Getting the pit out can be tricky, but I usually just poke it with the knife and give it a good flick. Then you score the inside of the avocado into cubes while its still attached to the skin, but not cutting through the skin itself. Then you can either squeeze or invert it and the little cubes just pop right out! CLICK HERE for a good video explanation!

I baked the pizza on 375 degrees tonight just for a change and as a result my crust was a little under done. This was probably due in part to the fact that the avocado cooks/browns so quickly in the oven and it didn’t have a chance to cook as long. Also, since I was trying to go lighter on the oil I didn’t oil the edge of my crust… this combined with my over-flouring made it a bit different. Not bad, mind you, but not conventionally crusty. I’m thinking of playing with the crust more in the future as well as trying my hand at making my own crust.

-Kate

In the oven at 375

... fresh out of the oven!

Lessons Learned:

• If I could change anything about how I made this pizza I would first, have actually made the chicken itself BBQ (as I have a really great recipe for that ).
• I would have used monterey jack cheese instead of mozz.
• I would have ground some chipotle over the pizza itself.
• I would have remembered to put the avocado on before the chicken and cheese.
• I would have used a combination of green and red onions.
• If I had them, I would have added some broccoli sprouts.
• I would have added some cilantro to the impromptu pesto.