Valentine's Day Meal

To start this Valentine's Day meal, I used my favorite pizza dough recipe. (Courtesy of http://www.laurenslatest.com/fail-proof-pizza-dough-and-cheesy-garlic-bread-sticks-just-like-in-restaurants/  ---Found on Pinterest)

For the pizza dough-
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
3 cups flour {give or take 1/2 cup)

In a stand mixer, stir yeast and honey into warm water. Sit for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form and mixture starts to foam. Pour in salt, oil and half the flour and mix. Once that flour is incorporated, start adding flour in bit by bit until you get the pizza dough to the consistency you want: slightly tacky, but when you touch it it doesn't stick to your hands. Once you reach this stage, turn the mixer on high to knead for 6 minutes. The dough should be smooth and easy to work with. And the bowl should be clean! Lightly grease the bowl & the dough so it doesn't dry out, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1 hour. (I turn my oven on 170 degrees for about 30 seconds and then place the bowl in warm oven) When it doubles in size, punch the dough down and roll out on a pizza stone dusted with cornmeal. (If you don't have a pizza stone, spray a pizza pan with cooking spray and place your dough on that.)

Place your sauce, cheese and toppings on and bake at 500 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

For this meal, I shaped the dough into a heart and cut the pepperoni to "resemble" hearts.

For the cheesy bread.
Use the pizza dough recipe above. (If you want to do pizza and cheese bread, double the recipe above)

After the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and place on a pizza stone dusted with cornmeal.
Spread 2-3 tablespoons of butter on top of the dough. Drizzle a little olive oil over that.
Chop up 3 cloves of garlic and spread on the top. If you don't have fresh garlic, sprinkle with garlic salt. Top with about 1/4 cup parmasean cheese and 1-2 cups of mozzarella cheese. Bake at 500 degrees for about 12 minutes.

I also put this in the shape of a heart.

If you double the recipe above, there is enough dough to make a large pizza, a large cheese bread, and 1-2 small personal pizzas for the kids.

 

For dessert, I baked chocolate cupcakes. (Yes, just the box kind :) )

After they cool, use a serrated knife to cut the top off each cupcake. Place the tops off to the side.

 

Tint your frosting (Just used Betty Crocker whipped vanilla frosting for this with a couple of drops of red food coloring)

 

Cover the cupcake with the frosting.

 

Take the cupcake tops and, using a small heart cookie cutter, cut a heart out of each top. Plae the top back on the frosting and sprinkle on Valentine sugar or sprinkles.

  We also cut small hearts out of our chocolate chip banana bread. (Recipe coming soon in another post.)