Cheesy bread

This is great to enjoy alongside pasta, or it's a yummy stand-alone appetizer/snack to eat with a football game. (Today it was an after-school snack that was running a little late coming out of the oven, so I had two hungry munchkins anxiously waiting for it to get done. They weren't thrilled when I said, "Wait, I have to take a picture first!", but they smiled anyway when I included them in the picture.)

I adapted the recipe after eating cheese nuggets from a wonderful pizza place here in DeKalb. Theirs are greasier and scrumptious. Mine are more fluffy than greasy, so I have to think mine are healthier! :)

This is so easy and so delicious, you're not going to believe it!

It's the same as my pizza dough - except I make a little less than for a big pizza.

1.5 c flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
(other spices & goodies... optional)
less than 1 c hot water

Follow the same instructions for making pizza dough, except for this, I make it a little softer/stickier. So that's just a little more water, or less flour.

Fun stuff in the dough: This time, I chopped up one of my last garden tomatoes - it was about 1/2 green, so I chopped it up into small pieces. They cooked up nicely in the dough and added a touch of red & green color &  nice flavor. I also added diced onion, Italian spices, garlic powder, & black pepper.

Smoosh your dough down into a greased round pan. I use a pampered chef round stone, but you could use a quiche pan, a round cake pan, or probably even a square pan (though the corners might get overdone in order to cook the middle well-enough). In a pinch, you could just flatten it out (into whatever shape you wanted) on a pizza stone or cookie sheet.

For plain cheesy bread, just sprinkle on enough mozzarella to cover the bread (really, as much or as little as you want!) and sprinkle a little oregano.

I can never make the same thing the same way twice! This time, I scattered a few slices of pepperoni & cheddar cheese - because I was out of mozz!

Pop it in a cold oven and set it for 500 degrees! Yes, really, 500 degrees! If you can adjust your oven racks, try to have it just a smidge below the center of your oven. You don't want the cheese getting too cooked & brown before the dough is cooked.

Set your timer for 15 minutes and come check it then. It may need up to 5 minutes more. Right when you take it out - sprinkle it with a little grated parmesan cheese and garlic salt.

Then I just pop it out onto a chopping block & cut into squares. When it's plain cheesy bread, we dip it into warmed up marinara sauce (Merrick doesn't because he doesn't like the tomatoes, so he eats them plain). Today, we just ate the little puffy cheddary pepperoni breads plain. They were delish!