BBQ pizza and caramel pecan cheesecake!

I was a little ambitious this week and decided to make 2 homemade dishes! I made the pizza for my parents and decided to make homemade crust. I haven't ever made homemade crust, but I figured it couldn't be that hard. I found this awesome recipe on The Pioneer Woman's blog. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/03/cpks-bbq-chicken-pizza/ I made the crust in the morning and let it rise around 5 hours. If I did this recipe again, I would have let it rise overnight. I just got really excited about the recipe and jumped the gun. The pizza turned out good, but the crust wasn't very crunchy (which I like). Like I said, I should have let it rise overnight. Other than that, the pizza was really good. Here is the recipe....


Recipe: Basic Pizza Crust
Prep Time: 5 Minutes | Cook Time: | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 12

Ingredients
1 teaspoon Instant Or Active Dry Yeast
1-½ cup Warm Water
4 cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
⅓ cups Olive Oil

Preparation Instructions
Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water. Let stand for a few minutes.
In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined, and the dough comes together in a sticky mass.Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set it aside for 1 to 2 hours, or store in the fridge until you need it.
Note: it’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.
When you are ready to make the pizza, grab HALF the pizza dough (recipe makes 2 crusts) and squeeze the dough toward thebottom to form a nice, tight, pulled ball. You can roll out the pizza with a rolling pin if you’d like, but sometimes it’s just as easy to throw it around and pull and stretch till it feels right. And when the crust is nice and thin, lay it on an oiled baking sheet or pizza pan. Drizzle a little olive oil on the dough and spread it with your fingers. Very lightly sprinkle some salt on the crust.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Top your crust with your toppings of choice. Then bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.

Recipe: CPK’s BBQ Chicken Pizza
Prep Time: 2 Hours | Cook Time: 15 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 12

Ingredients
1 whole Recipe For Pizza Crust (mine Makes Two Crusts)
2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
½ cups Barbecue Sauce
Olive Oil, For Drizzling
Salt For Sprinkling
16 ounces, weight Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, Sliced Thinly
½ whole Red Onion, Cut In Half And Sliced Very Thin
Chopped Cilantro, to taste
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Salt chicken breasts on both sides, then place in an ovenproof dish. Pour BBQ sauce over the breasts and turn them over to coat. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. Remove from oven and cut into a fine dice. Set aside.
Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees.
Roll/stretch out one pizza crust. Lay it on a sheet pan drizzled with olive oil. Drizzle a little olive oil on the crust, then sprinkle on a little salt.
Spoon a couple of tablespoons of extra BBQ sauce on the crust and spread it evenly. Top sauce with half the sliced mozzarella. Sprinkle on half the diced chicken and thinly sliced red onion.
Sprinkle again with a little salt, then bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle on plenty of chopped cilantro. Cut into squares and serve immediately. Repeat with other crust and other ingredients, or save for another time.


I made the caramel pecan cheesecake for a Thanksgiving dinner with my Sunday School class. It turned out delicious and my mom didn't even wait to cool it before she dug in. I was excited about this one. Also mine made 2 cheesecakes! Heres the recipe. Once again I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/pecan-pie-caramel-cheesecake/ So heres the recipe.
Pecan caramel cheesecake

FOR THE CRUST:
3 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
½ cups Butter, Melted
½ cups Granulated Sugar
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FOR THE FILLING:
3 packages (8 Oz. Package) Cream Cheese, Softened
¾ cups Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 whole Large Eggs
½ cups All-purpose Flour
¾teaspoons Cinnamon
¼ teaspoons Nutmeg
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FOR THE TOPPING:
1-½ cup Pecan, Halves, Lightly Toasted*
2 cups Good Quality Caramel Syrup (homemade Is Best)
Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients for the crust until moist. Press into a 10-inch springform pan and set aside.
For the filling, in a stand mixer, whip cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. With the mixer on low, stir in vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and stir again. Whip in flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Scrape sides and stir again if necessary. Pour filling into prepared crust and smooth the top. Bake for 40-45 minutes until cheesecake is set and hardly jiggles, if at all, when moved. Remove from the oven and cool completely to room temperature.
Arrange pecan halves on top of the entire cheesecake in concentric circles. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Once ready to serve, run a knife around the edges of the cheesecake and remove the sides of the springform pan.
To serve you can either drizzle 1 cup of caramel syrup over the entire cheesecake and cut (with extra syrup to serve along with) or cut first and drizzle individual pieces.



Thanks again Pioneer Woman for 2 great recipes!