Pillsbury Refrigerated Thin Crust Pizza Dough ... With Hot Peppers

I always keep a tube of Pillsbury's refrigerated pizza dough in the refrigerator for a quick and easy pizza.  I usually buy the Classic crust, but this time opted for Thin Crust - it had good flavor, except that ... yes, I burnt it again.   Just as I was about to take the pizza out of the oven, the dog jumped over the fence and ran off down the street.  By the time we got back to the house, it was overdone.  (The photo is from the "good end".)

I had another little mishap with it, too - when I was unrolling it, one side of the crust stuck to my hand and I ended up sticking my fingers through it, which made a huge hole.  I patched it back together, but it was not as beautiful as I wanted it to be.

What I was really excited about was that I used the first banana pepper from my Pizza Garden to use as a topping!

For what it's worth, here's the recipe:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
One Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crust (we used the Thin Crust)
1 cup of pizza sauce, or to taste (we used Mid's)
1 hot banana pepper, cleaned and sliced very thinly
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese, or a pizza blend (we used Organic Valley)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Prepare cookie sheet or pizza pan with a layer of olive oil.  Unroll crust and place on cookie sheet.  Spread pizza sauce over crust, decorate with sliced pepper, and top with grated cheese.  Bake for approximately 14 minutes and try to prevent your dog from running away while cooking.

Remove from oven and let cool for several minutes.  Slice and enjoy!

Savory Breakfast Pizza Recipe from the 2010 Pillsbury Bake Off

I recently bought a container of Maison Le Grand's wonderful pesto from McGinnis Sisters and needed to find some recipes using pesto - I came across this recipe for Savory Breakfast Pizza when looking for ways to use it.  Bake-Off finalist Adrienne Davis of Highland, Maryland, calls her recipe a breakfast pizza, but I think it would be good any time!   Adrienne's recipe uses basil pesto, bacon, provolone cheese, eggs and tomatoes to create a pizza that sounds good ... and looks absolutely beautiful in the photo.    The only change I think I might make personally is to use a small amount of my leftover ham from Easter instead of the bacon.

Emily Harper's Stuffed Pizza Pretzels Recipe from the 2010 Pillsbury Bakeoff

Emily Harper's recipe for Pizza Pretzels is a finalist in the 44th Annual Pillsbury Bake Off to be held in Orlando, Florida, April 11-13, 2010.  Emily's Pizza Pretzels are Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crust that is cut into portions, then stuffed with traditional pizza toppings (Emily uses pepperoni, sauce and cheese).  She then shapes the portions into pretzel shaped pieces - and the result is excellent! 

The next time I make the Pizza Pretzels, I plan to stuff them with vegetarian ingredients - I'm thinking of mushrooms and hot banana peppers, which are two of my favorite toppings.

Good luck, Emily!