Receta Thin Crust Ham and Cheese Pizza
A terrific leftover baked ham recipe that turns it into this crispy, chewy thin crust pizza with garlic and 3 cheeses. Simple but very delicious.
Thin Crust Ham and Cheese Pizza
So when Easter Sunday has past, a delicious recipe for those baked ham leftovers is what you need. We have done a number of these recipes over the years from Newfoundland Pea Soup with Doughboys to Toutons Benedict. A recent success though, was an incredibly simple but absolutely delicious thin crust pizza using leftover ham, garlic oil and 3 different cheeses; Parmesan , cheddar and mozzarella.
I make pizza dough in batches and freeze it in balls so that it’s easier to have homemade pizza with not a lot of advance preparation. Some leftover garlic oil and baked ham were the inspiration on this day and it turned out great. The pungent garlic, salty sweet glazed ham and gooey cheeses all work perfectly together with the chewy, crispy thin crust.
I later made them for a party, as smaller 6 inch pizzas. I cut them into 8 tiny slices as finger food and everyone raved about it. Try that idea at your next get together too.
I like to use cubes of cheese under these high heat conditions because it tends not to brown quickly as grated cheese does, before the bottom is adequately browned. You can buy ready made garlic oil for this recipe or use my method for making garlic oil here.
Thin Crust Ham and Cheese Pizza Prep time 1 hour 30 mins Total time 1 hour 40 mins
4 cups flour ½ tsp instant rise yeast 1 & ½ cups lukewarm water 2 tsp sea salt Garlic oil black pepper grated Parmesan cheese thinly sliced ham part skim mozzarella cheese cut into ½ inch cubes cheddar cheese cut into ½ inch cubes
Makes sufficient for 6, 12 inch pizzas Add all ingredients except 1 cups of the flour to the bowl. Using the dough hook on your electric mixer, mix together well and allow to run on low speed for about 10 minutes. Start adding the rest of the flour a little at a time until a soft dough forms. The dough will be a little sticky but don’t worry about that, just allow it to rise in a warm spot for a couple of hours or more before turning it out into a bread board and kneading by hand, adding more flour if necessary to firm up the dough. You may have to use a little more or a little less flour depending factors like local humidity. Just use as much as it takes to form the dough, adding only a little at a time as you knead. Form into 6 balls and allow the dough to rest at least a half hour before rolling out or stretching it to 12 inch circles. NOTE: I think that pizza dough should be made a day or even two in advance and cold proofed, covered, in the fridge. It has better flavor and texture after this long proofing period. Preheat your pizza stone in middle rack of your oven for half an hour at 450 degrees F. Place the circle of dough on a wooden peel that has been well sprinkled generously with cornmeal. The cornmeal will allow the pizza to slide off the peel (I’ve even used a thin piece of cardboard in a pinch if you do not have a peel. You can also prepare the pizza on a pizza pan and when it has been baking for 4 minutes, slide it from the pan, directly onto the pizza stone to crisp the bottom crust well.) Make sure your pizza is sliding on the cornmeal base before adding your toppings. Brush the pizza crust with garlic olive oil and sprinkle on some freshly ground black pepper. Sprinkle on a little Parmesan cheese. Top with the ham and scatter the cheddar and mozzarella cheese cubes evenly over the surface. Never pile toppings onto a thin crust pizza, keeping them in a single layer always works best for quickly cooked pizzas. Shake your peel to make sure the pizza is not stuck. Slide the pizza onto the hot stone, shaking it slightly in a back and forth motion as you slowly retract the wooden peel. Bake for about 8- 10 minutes or until the bottom is evenly brown. Remove from oven and allow to stand for a couple of minutes before cutting and serving. 3.2.2925