Valentine's Day: Heart Pepperoni Pizza

I saw this idea for heart shaped pizza for the first time here.  I've since seen it around the net on other sites, in other forms, so I don't know what came first, the chicken or the egg, but it's cute, and I'm glad I saw it.  It just so happens that I saw this post last Sunday, and acquired the pepperoni for the above pizza Monday morning, which turns out to be a really good thing because the biggest, baddest ice storm of my life time (and when I say 'life time', I mean, as far back as I choose to remember).  But really, it iced, and they called school off because we don't have those snow plow thingies here in Texas....they bring in sand, and they sand the main roads, and they usually only have enough for one day of sanding, and that's usually good enough. 

...and then they called school off again...and then they called it off again...and again (which I KNOW has never happened in my life time, and that's a legitimate statement, check my school record), and this is one of approximately 567,876,654 projects I completed while I was at home, in between rolling power outages, snuggling with dogs, and playing words with friends.  The pepperoni I punched out with a mini heart cookie cutter. 

I chose to make pizza because you turn the oven up really high (425), and I figured that would help me heat the house a little.  I usually don't plan these things well, and I make pizza in August.  Hot ovens, August, and Texas are just about the worst combo I can think of...  Enough on that.  One more thing, I used Martha's basic pizza crust (recipe below) for this guy, and it's really great.  One recipe makes six individual size 6 inch pizzas.  If I had been really into the 'heart' thing I could have shaped the dough like a heart too, but I'll leave that to the professionals, the overachievers, or people that don't need to get back to Family Feud-Wrestling week episodes. 

Pizza Dough Recipe

Combine 1/2 c. milk and 1/2 c. water-heat to 120 degrees and add a package of yeast, and 1/4 t. of sugar.  Let sit for 5 minutes. 

Mix 2 1/2 c. flour, 1 T olive oil, 2 t. coarse salt.  Add yeast mixture. 

Knead for 10 minutes.  Place bowl, drizzle with oil, turn to coat completely.  Let rise until doubled in size (about 3 hours, you can also put this in your fridge over night).  Punch down, and divide. 

Bake with favorite combo of toppings at 425 for about 15 minutes.