Week 25 - Taco Pizza

I feel somewhat unsophisticated with my unfettered desire to combine tacos and pizza. Whenever I am looking at a pizza menu, my eyes immediately scan to see if there is a taco pizza. I rarely ever deviate if one is available for the choosing.

• 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons warm water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/2 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1/2 (16 ounce) can fat-free refried beans
• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons salsa
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 1/4 pound ground beef
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• lettuce
• 1 tomato
• black olives, sliced

Oh, how nice it is to have a bread machine. I was quite amused watching my pizza dough through the kneading and resting stages. The pizza crust turned out quite well. It is by far the best crust I have ever had on a homemade pizza. On second thought, I don't know if I have ever had a true homemade crust... I think that's one element that people tend to cheat on. I think it might be a good idea to bake the pizza crust for about 5 minutes before putting on the toppings. I was too fearful of burning my toppings, as a result, my crust never turned golden brown.

The pizza sauce turned out quite well. I was actually a bit surprised that it turned out as well as it did given my aversion to tomato paste. The water, paste and spices turned out to be an ideal consistency. If I were to make it again, I probably would cut down on the chili powder and the cayenne pepper. I think the sauce was a bit overloaded with spices and could benefit from a bit more conservative application.

The original recipe did not call for tomatoes, lettuce, or black olives. I put those on after 10 minutes of baking. I should have waited even longer on that. The lettuce was a bit wilted when removing the pizza from the oven. I should have put the lettuce on a minute before removing the pizza, so that the verdant green would remain but still have a bit of warmth to it. Nothing disrupts a warm pizza experience more than a couple cold ingredients.

Overall, I really liked this recipe. The leftovers have been enjoyable as well. I will give this recipe 8.5 stars out of 10. It's definitely something that I'd like to make again. What's even better is that I can take the dough and sauce technique from this recipe and use it for various other homemade pizza attempts in the future.