Pizza Crust Loaf

I like to watch the Food Network and other cooking shows.  A lot of what I see I would never make as the ingredients are a little too adventurous sometimes.  I usually look for things that have been lightened up a bit if possible as well.  Usually if I am making a recipe I will make all of the components from scratch but from time to time it's OK to use some helper ingredients.

This is an example of that...it calls for store bought pizza dough.  The recipe that was shown on TV used the pizza dough to make a braided dough around some ground beef and other ingredients.  I thought I could take the same concept and put my own fillings inside.  

Take a roll of pizza dough, like the Pillsbury kind.  Open it up and roll it out a bit more.  Leave a section in the center about three inches wide for filling and cut slits on both sides.  Then put in your fillings.  I used some dijon mustard and then a nice smoked lunch ham.  I caramelized a bunch of red onions and dropped those in.  Then I put some montery jack cheese and some herbs or whatever floats your boat. 

I then folded the sides over the center to make a kind of braid.  You can brush the dough with some egg wash and then put some poppy seeds on it for extra pizazz.

Bake it for about 20 mins in a 400 degree oven.  It is really yummy and would be great to serve for a games night. You could use almost anything inside for filling.

So that's my easy cheat recipe, give it a try.

(Challenge Post Day #7)