Sweet Honey Ham Pizza with Fig Jam and Carmelized Shallots

Like many in the South, we had a delicious spiral-cut honey ham glazed in a honey mustard mixture for our Easter dinner.  I look forward to it every year, mainly because there are lots of leftovers and since Easter was at my house this year, those leftovers were mine all mine!  I did (begrudgingly) share with my husband this time around and with his love of all things pizza and my love of new recipes, we came up with a good use for the mounds of ham left in the fridge.  Honey ham pizza, who knew?!  I added a few other items that have become staples in my house because they are tasty and can help to create some pretty fantastic dishes:  fig spread and shallots.  I first had fig spread smeared over a hard, sharp Parmesan and served with wheat crackers.  It is perfectly sweet with a melt in your mouth texture which compliments lots of cheeses.  Shallots are a no-brainer.  They are a little milder than a regular onion and truthfully, I think I like them most for their compact size.  Usually one or two are the perfect amount for any dish which means no leftover, diced up, ready-to-dry out onion pieces to store.  But I digress...onto the pizza compilation!


Homemade pizza dough:

1 1/2 cups water (80°-90°)
1 1/2 tsp honey
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tbsp active yeast

Mix, knead and rise in a bread maker or add the above ingredients in a stand mixer with dough hook.  Mix until combined, cover with a damp towel in warm spot to rise.  Deflate dough and form into rounded disk.  Cut in 1/2 for two 12" pizzas.  To make a pizza round, form back into rounded disk on a floured surface.  Using fingertips. press edges out all the way around the outer edge, rotating the dough as you press out.  Push the center out and repeat pressing edges out until large enough to cover pizza stone or pan without going over.

Toppings:
extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp fig spread
1 medium to large shallot, caramelized in olive oil and butter and deglazed with dry white wine (sauté until cooked out)
1/2-1 cup cubed honey ham
3/4 cup pizza cheese blend
2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan

Transfer formed pizza round to stone or pizza pan.  Add 2 turns of extra virgin olive oil and smooth over entire dough surface, including crust.  Spread fig jam over pizza, add caramelized shallots, honey ham and cheese.  Bake at 400° for about 10 minutes until bubbly in the center.  I like to flip the broiler on at the end and get it nice an browned on top...but that's really up to you and your desire for under or over!

Market Pie - Tomato and Goat Cheese Pizza

We saved this week's Farmer's Market treats for our last possible holiday weekend hurrah, Labor Day dinner.  After a few days of grill favorites, we wanted to turn to another staple - pizza.  Fortunately, our market supplies us with wonderful products outside of the produce stand.  We picked up prebaked pizza dough from the Countryside Bakery's table. Each week they have a great deal on two pizza rounds for only $6. Buying it prebaked saves time and a mess to clean up. We also wanted to savor those heirloom tomatoes a little longer, so we stopped by Amy's Garden and got a basket of varietals. The last stop for this go-round was at a favorite, Sullivan's Pond Farm, to pick up fresh made, straight-from-the-farm, tangy goat cheese.  We've sampled most they have to offer but since I was planning to combine this with other flavors, I went with a plain Isabel-Moonshine chevrette wrapped in corn whiskey macerated corn husks.  Their cheese never disappoints and can be used in a number of different ways, aside from just being enjoyed own its own. Delicious! 

We took these ingredients and put them together for one half of the pizza and for the other half, we used a store bought alfredo and topped with grilled chicken.  Here's how we put together the Farmer's Market pizza (measurements below calculated for a full pizza):

1 Countryside Bakery pizza round

3 tbsp pesto (leftover from last weekend's recipe)

8-10 Roma or cherry tomatoes depending on size

3-4 tbsp Sullivan's Pond goat cheese

Since the dough is prebaked, the ingredients go right on the pizza dough and it bakes in half the time.  Start with a layer of pesto spread thinly over the entire round, add sliced tomatoes and top with crumbled goat cheese.  Bake at 375° for about 8 minutes and if baking in a standard oven, hit it with a LO broil at the end for about 3 minutes to really get the edges brown and the cheese smooth.  Serve it warm and watch out, those tomatoes hold some heat!  I burned the roof of my mouth with the first bite, but it didn't stop me from devouring the entire half! 

These are market vendors we will definitely be visiting again for quick, easy, tasty weeknight meals.

Comforting Calzones

[caption id="attachment_171" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="After."]

Before the bake...