Jalapeno Popper Pizza!!

Homegaters!

If there's one thing I can make week after week without boring the Gameday Gang, it's homemade pizza. They can't get enough of it. It's relatively quick and easy to make. Once in a while I shake it up and make something different from your garden variety cheese pizza. Last week I whipped up a Jalapeno Popper Pizza.

The gang is really into all-things-spicy, so I knew they would be on board with this one. As soon as I told them what was in the oven, their eyes lit up. The pizza is basically a riff on your standard jalapeno popper: cream cheese, cheddar and jalapenos - all laid out on pizza dough.  What you get is a nice bite of creaminess offset by spicy, vinegary jalapenos all on a crisp crust. It's pretty cool  -  or should I say, hot?

For this recipe I used pre-made pizza dough. Sometimes when time allows (or I'm just in the mood), I'll make the dough from scratch. But for the most part I go the easy route and buy the dough. I rolled this pizza into a sheet pan, but you can create it freestyle also. Since this recipe doesn't use pizza sauce, the cream cheese replaces the tomatoes, so I needed to thin out the cream cheese in order to make it spreadable. I used whipped cream cheese, brought up to room temperature and then thinned it out with some milk.  Once my base was set, I sprinkled a shredded cheddar jack combo over that and then topped it with the pickled jalapenos. I popped it into the oven and 8 minutes later we were in spicy pizza nirvana...

Jalapeno Popper Pizza                                          

(serves 4-6)

1 package pizza dough
(brought to room temperature)
16 oz package shredded cheddar-jack cheese
8 oz container whipped cream cheese
(brought to room temperature)
3 tbs milk (or more)
Fresh or pickled jalapenos
(it's up to you how much you want to use)

Method:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 525-degrees.

2.  In a bowl, thin out the cream cheese with milk until it reaches an easily spreadable consistency.

3.  Roll dough out to desired size and spread cream cheese on top.

4.  Sprinkle shredded cheddar-jack over cream cheese.

5.  Top with jalapenos.

6.  Place in oven and bake until cheese is melted and dough is golden (approx 8 minutes). Oven temps vary, so start checking the pizza after about 5 minutes (or earlier if your oven runs hot).

And there you have it! Hope this inspires you to try it. If you have a crowd that's into hot and spicy, this one will definitely fit the bill. Make sure to have a lot of ice cold beer on hand to wash it down.

Until next week, keep on homegating!!