Bacon Ranch Pizza

Well hellooooo there and welcome to Frugalicious Friday! What is a Frugalicious Friday you ask? It's my attempt at fun resturaunt-inspired recipes. We were eating out way too much due to both the convenience factor and fun food factor. So, in order to pinch a few pennies for bigger projects, I decided to try my hand at making tasty, fun, resturaunt-type fare at home. Some of these posts are actual resturaunt knock-offs and others are just inspired by resturaunt fare. And by resturaunt, I mean family-friendly type spots like Applebees, Friday's and the like. So here's my first post: Bacon Ranch Pizza with Tomatoes, Caramelized Onions and Shallots

I tried making my own pizza dough for the first time in January. Fortunately, I read a review on AllRecipes.com that said, “use the dough hook on your mixer”. OMG. It’s so easy - the mixer does all the work! And the beautiful thing about making your own is that you control what goes into it! Oh how I love control (yes, I have issues).  Ok, enough of my ramblings....

Bacon Ranch Pizza

 Dough Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
3 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon white sugar
1 + 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons fresh cracked pepper 1/4 teaspoon dried dill

Topping Ingredients:
8 slices bacon, cooked and roughly chopped
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 large shallot, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 large tomato, chopped
shredded italian blend cheese
1/2 cup pizza sauce 1/4 cup ranch dressing


Directions For the Toppings:

1. Saute onions and shallots in 2 tablespoons of butter until carmelized
2. Combine pizza sauce and ranch dressing

Directions For the Dough:

1. Combine yeast with water in a large mixing bowl and let stand for 10 minutes
2. While yeast is proofing, combine sugar, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, dill and fresh pepper
3. After 10 minutes, add the flour, olive oil and spices to the bowl
4. Mix/Knead dough for 10-12 minutes - dough should be elastic and smooth
5. Put dough in oiled bowl; Cover and let stand for 1 hour

Assemble Pizza:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Divide dough into 2 equal parts
3. Roll/Stretch dough into two pizza crusts of desired thickness (I use jelly roll pans)
4. Prick holes in the dough with a fork
5. Prebake dough at 375 for 5-7 minutes
6. Remove prebaked shells and top each with 1/2 pizza-ranch sauce, cheese, bacon, onions and shallots, and tomatoes
7. Return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and crust is crispy