Pretzel Pizza

I don't know about you, but every Friday here at the Millet house it's pizza and smoothie night. It's an easy tradition, the kids (and adults) love it and basically it's a no-brainer for me menu planning wise. Over the years we've experimented with several different types of pizza crust recipes, methods for baking (using a stone or not etc.) all in search of the best possible pizza. Recently we struck gold when I combined this divine pretzel recipe with the goodness of pizza toppings in a moment of culinary brilliance. Thus the Pretzel Pizza was born!

Friday Night Pretzel Pizza

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup very warm water

Combine dry ingredients in a mixer and add water slowly. Knead in a machine or by hand (yikes!) for at least 5 minutes until dough is nice and soft. Transfer the dough to a greased gallon-sized ziploc bag. Allow to rise in a warm spot for at least an hour or until double.

Once dough has risen, punch it down and roll out into a 11"x16" rectangle. I bake ours on a silpat mat so to make my life easier I just roll it out on top of the silpat; essentially just a little bit smaller than the mat. If you don't have one of these amazing inventions, you could also use parchment paper to the same effect. It mostly helps when you are trying to transfer the pizza from the counter to the pan which can be tricky without something underneath the dough.

My helper. I don't know why he's wearing a helmet -- probably because cooking can be dangerous!

Excuse my grainy phone pictures, some child of mine had colored with permanent marker on the lens of our camera.... 

 Place toppings longwise down the middle of the rectangle of dough. Using a pizza cutter, make diagonal slices to the toppings (about 1/3 of the way to the middle) every 2 inches on both long sides of the rectangle. The boys like pepperoni and cheese but I like to throw on whatever veggies are hanging out in the fridge.

Starting at one end overlap the cut edges over toppings, alternating sides. It'll sorta make a lattice top. Braid all the way down. Brush the finished pizza with egg whites and bake at 500 degrees for 12 minutes until nicely brown. Slice and serve hot with marinara sauce for dipping.

The kids love it...

 And Travis loves it (mostly because he doesn't have to deal with that pesky pizza sauce). 

A new Millet family tradition. Enjoy!