Dutch Oven Sourdough Pizza

I wanted pizza, but I didn't want to heat up the whole house. So I tried something bold and daring. I made pizza outside in the dutch ovens. Here's how I did it:

You will need:
12" dutch oven
aluminum foil
charcoal briquettes or firewood
tongs and a spatula

Sourdough Pizza Crust:
1 cup sourdough start
2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
6-7 cups of flour

Mix water and sourdough start, sprinkle with yeast and let stand for five minutes. Add salt, olive oil, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 10 minutes, then let it rise until double.

While the dough is rising, go start the coals for the dutch ovens.

When the dough is doubled, punch it down and divide it into eight pieces. Tear off a square of aluminum foil and tuck it into the bottom of the dutch oven to shape it, then pull it out and grease it lightly. Roll one piece of dough out on the foil until it forms a 12 inch circle. Repeat with remaining balls of dough.

Make pizza sauce. Here's my recipe: 2 cans tomato paste, equal amount of water, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, 1/2 tsp salt.

Spread sauce on the pizzas, then add cheese and any other toppings. The fun part about doing small pizzas is that everyone gets to "decorate" their own.

By now your coals should be ready. Preheat the dutch oven with enough coals to heat it to 450 degrees F. Using the corners of the foil square, lower one pizza into the dutch oven. Bake for five minutes with top and bottom heat, then remove the oven from the bottom heat and cook for another 5 -10 minutes with top heat only. When the crust is lightly browned and the cheese is bubbly, use the tongs and spatula to remove the foil and pizza from the dutch oven. Repeat with remaining pizzas.

This recipe makes 8 small pizzas. We had two dutch ovens so I could bake them all in under an hour.

My clever plan was to make pizza without heating up the house. BUT I had to work outside with an OPEN FIRE in 110 degree weather. So I would have been a lot cooler if I'd stayed inside and turned on the oven.

Oh well. At least I've got a new trick for the next time we go camping!