Buttermilk Crust Pizza with Pepperoni and Four Cheese Topping

Do you keep buttermilk in your fridge?  I do.  Sometimes I make my own, sometimes I find it marked down at the grocery store and buy it.  Once I saw a half gallon for 15 cents (on the sell-by date).  You bet I snagged that bottle in a hot minute. 15 cents!
What do I do with all this buttermilk? I'm glad you asked.  I use it in a bunch of different muffin recipes.  The key recipe is here, and there are many more variations to the right ------> in my Recipe Index by Category.  I also use buttermilk in waffle batter such as this one.  I'm encouraging my son to pick up the skill of biscuits, so he'll be following this recipe.  And this summer, once all the bottles on the door of the fridge are used up, I am going to make this Buttermilk salad dressing.  But today, because it is Friday, I want to talk about pizza dough.
Buttermilk in dough makes a tender crust.  It's also got subtle tang that works great with sweet (ok, more like sweeter, I have yet to make a dessert pizza) and savory toppings, as you'll see today and in the future.  My recipe is from my favorite pizza book, The Best Pizza Is Made at Home (Nitty Gritty Cookbooks), by Donna Rathmell German.  I kept it basic this time, but there are more variations on tap (and currently in my fridge!  Check my FB page for the pizzas we're eating tonight using a whole wheatier Buttermilk Pesto Dough).

Generally, when I am sharing a new dough variation, I tend to keep the toppings pretty normal.  I mean I didn't want to freak you out like I did with the beet crust dough for vegans, vegetarians, or omnivores.  Today is no exception--as you can see by the title, it's a pepperoni pizza.  Like my Not So Simple Cheese Pizza, this pizza uses the wonderful Fresh Tomato Pesto I discovered when Heather put it up on In Her Chucks.  Since I spent fall and winter figuring out how to make, put up, and subsequently use many variations of that pesto, it has earned its own "how to" blog post which will be coming out next week.  Around these parts, that's before the fresh tomatoes show up--but don't run out and buy a well-traveled tomato.  Wait.  Patience is a virtue. Local tomatoes, like local strawberries and local celery, just taste better.  Life is too short to eat tasteless food.

Buttermilk Crust Pizza with Pepperoni and Four Cheese Topping

crust recipe adapted from The Best Pizza Is Made at Home (Nitty Gritty Cookbooks)

Please follow my Pizza Primer for pizza dough making instructions as well as general tips and notes on making pizza at home.  I like my dough to hang out for at least a day and up to three in the fridge, since old dough doesn't talk back like my teens do fight me, so start this at least a day before Pizza Night.

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 cups (8 ½ ounces) bread flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 Tablespoon olive oil

Place buttermilk and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer, and allow to hang out together and dissolve while you're getting the rest of the ingredients together.  I do pour the buttermilk straight from the fridge, without warming it up, because I figure I'm not really asking the yeast to go bonkers just yet, so if the dough is a little chilly it's OK by me.  Add the rest of the ingredients (love my kitchen scale!) and mix with the paddle slowly for a few minutes.  Stop and scrape the sides, then mix at a higher speed for a few minutes, before turning down the speed to medium-low.  When the dough is stretchy, with mare's tails trailing out (a meteorological reference, anyone?) you're good to go.  Transfer to an oiled bag or bowl and refrigerate until you're ready to use it.  You can also freeze this dough if you're not going to be using it within a week--if so, please label the bag so you know what kind it is.  Trust me.

On the day of baking, set the dough out on the counter about 2 hours before you're ready to bake. An hour before you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with a pizza stone inside (yes, I wrote a poem to my pizza stone). If you don't have one, use a cookie sheet until you can hit a thrift shop up and snag one.

1 recipe Buttermilk Pizza Dough (above)
1 cup Fresh Tomato Pesto (link will be live next week here!) or your favorite red sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded four cheese Italian blend
1/2 cup giant pepperoni or the size of your choice

On and oiled piece of parchment paper stretch the dough into a shape that floats your metaphor.  Spread with Fresh Tomato Pesto, licking your fingers with the excess because it truly is awesome. Or red sauce.  Top with cheese and pepperoni.  Take a few pictures.  Bake, on the piece of parchment on the stone, for 5-8 minutes, then shimmy like your sister Kate the pizza off the parchment and directly onto the stone or cookie sheet.  Bake another 3-5 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbly.  Slice and serve.  Then get some fancy vinegar because the variation I made with another batch of this dough is a Raspberry and Goat Cheese with Pomegranate Reduction on Buttermilk Crust Pizza.  Too high falutin' of a name for me.  Maybe I'll call it Bubba Pizza.

This pizza is linked with the From The Farm Blog Hop, The Clever Chicks Blog Hop, What's Cookin' Wednesday,  Tasty Tuesdays,  What's In The Box and Food on Friday

Yep, there's a hole in my crust.  I do feel stretched kinda thin these days.