Whole Wheat Dough

so, i made pizza again tonight.  but i forgot to take pictures - which shouldn't make too big a difference since i still haven't figured out the posting of the pictures.

anyhoo...

i hadn't planned on making pizza tonight.  but greg came home from work early and i needed something quick and easy.  i had to work with what i had on hand and improvise my toppings.  but i decided i would try a whole wheat crust.  though i had an actual recipe for a whole wheat crust, the recipe made enough dough for 6 crusts.  and cutting the recipe in half was too much math.  and i didn't have "whole wheat pastry flour" - just plain whole wheat flour.  in fact, i'm having a heck of a time finding whole wheat pastry flour.  but that's neither here nor there.

so i decided to stick with the same recipe, just sub the white flour for whole wheat flour.  and actually, i used graham flour instead of regular whole wheat flour.  i got the graham flour in hopes of making a particular bread recipe because it said the graham flour has a better taste to it than regular WW.  i still haven't made that bread recipe.  but i've used the graham flour in other stuff so far and i quite like it.  i also added some ground flaxseed (1/2 cup) to the flour mix.  i think since i did that (and perhaps also because of the graham flour), i needed a bit more water than last time.  i just added water a little at a time until i thought it was a good consistency.

of course, being WW, it didn't rise nearly as much.  still, i cut the dough in half and saved the other half for another pizza.  i'm very glad i did that.  it would have been way too much crust to topping ration otherwise.  i happen to have some pork sausage, leeks, and mushrooms that we bought at the farmer's market last week.  so i sauteed all that up.  i cut some basil and sage from the garden and put that on after the sauce (just used jarred spaghetti sauce).  i had to make do in the cheese department.  no mozz.  so i put some provolone, farmhouse cheddar (white), and parmagiano regiano.

all in all it was a good pizza.  i don't think i've found my WW crust recipe.  but it wasn't bad.  the topping was really good and there was a lot leftover.  i thawed some puff pastry the other day that i didn't use.  i'm thinking about trying to make a version of birrocks with all that left over stuff.  and of course, i still have another pizza crust to use!

pizza is fun!

MMMM Pizza

Finally, I made my pizza. I had been craving it all month. So I really wanted to make a deep dish pizza and decided on a cast iron skillet. Julie's crust recipe seemed perfect because it was thick. It really did rise, almost too much. I punched it down and rolled it out to put into the skillet and pulled some off, so there would be a top crust. Within five minutes, while I was creating my assembly line to put the filling in, the dough rose again, almost too much. I'm not very good at kneading dough and stretching it out and did not want to pull it out again to deflate it. So, I tried to push it down as much as I could and then began to fill with the good stuff. 

I made my own tomato sauce. I started by roasting in the oven 10 roma tomatoes. I put the tomatoes on the stove and added red wine, a considerable amount of garlic, red pepper flakes and a little less than a tablespoon of sugar. I thought about adding a dash of cocoa powder to bring richness to the sauce, but somehow forgot. I had it boil down, so that it would be thicker. I mashed the tomatoes and stirred in increments and I almost forgot salt. I tasted it and its so crazy how much a dash of salt brings out the flavor. 

In another skillet (which I'm not sure why I didn't think of using the cast iron skillet to do this, to prevent dirtying up too many dishes) i sauteed spicy Italian chicken sausage, already cooked, red peppers, mushrooms, and garlic. The sausage was already cooked so just kinda wanted the flavor to meld with the veggies. I threw spinach in at the very end as I took it off the stove, because I hate when spinach is over-wilted. 

The assembly: 

I ladled a small layer of sauce. Covered the bottom with basil. Sprinkled mozzarella cheese. Put the filling in, ladled more sauce on top, and covered with cheese. The pie was considerably full, but I thought it would help in not letting the crest puff up too much. I then covered the top with the remaining dough and pinched the edges together. Then covered the top of the pie with a layer of sauce. Popped it in a 400 degree oven and took it out when it smelled like pizza or about 40 minutes.

Here is a picture of the result.

 So, as you can see the crust kinda exploded. It was way too thick, but really good and soft. i just wish it was thick and a little bit more stationary instead of all bubbly. i should have let the sauce thicken more, maybe add some cornstarch or something, because it makes the bottom crust kinda soggy. Everything else was mmm good. I love how the skillet worked and sauce and filling was good, just wanna try a different crust. Hmmmm, so the search is on. i want something thick but not so airy. 

Also for Easter, I made a black forest cake and want to show you the pictures because it was so pretty.

A Day of Baking : Pizza Attempt Numero Uno

hi seesters!

alright, so freya went to stay with nana for the afternoon, so this mama got some stuff done!  i made a breakfast loaf bread with hazelnut meal and cranberries (i'll post those recipes in a separate post), a regular honey wheat sandwich bread, strawberry ice cream, and my first attempt at the pizza.

the pizza's the only thing i've eaten so far.  it was damn tasty!!  i just did a very simple margherita pizza with tomato slices, fresh mozzarella, and basil.  but all the ingredients for the topping (except for the crushed tomatoes for the sauce) came from the farmer's market or the little flower stand down the road.  makes all the difference!  

i like a thinner crust.  i'm thinking i should have divided this dough after it rose and refrigerated or frozen some of it.  in any case, even though it ended up pretty thick, it was still good.  greg, who never eats his crusts, ate all of his.  we polished off the whole pizza!  i took pictures, but still can't figure out how to get them to be smaller jpg.'s so they don't take up the whole page.  when i get that figured out, i'll post pics.  cloud, this recipe for the dough would be perfect for your deep dish pizza, methinks.

here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cups very warm water (but not hot)

2 tsp. yeast (i used the yeast i use with bread, instant dry)

2 tsp. sugar

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 cup semolina flour (i found Bob's Red Mill brand at the store)

1 tsp. salt

*this recipe says to make it in your food processor.  i used my stand mixer because i felt there would be less clean-up.  also, i already had it out for the bread and stuff.

place the sugar and yeast in the bowl of the stand mixer.  pour the warm water on top.  let stand for 2-3 minutes.  you'll see small bubbles start to form to let you know your yeast is working.  

measure out your dry ingredients.  after the yeast has had time to activate, dump the dry ingredients on into the bowl and turn the mixer on low.  once all the flour has been incorporated, crank up the mixer a few notches and let it go to work.  you may need to add a little more bread flour if the dough is too sticky.  after about a minute, it should start to form a loose ball around the dough hook (if not, add flour, a bit at a time).  too wet is better than too dry.

lightly oil a bowl with olive oil.  when the dough has finished mixing, take it out of the mixer (a little olive oil on your hands will keep it from sticking) and form a ball.  place the ball of dough in the bowl and coat with olive oil.  cover with clean kitchen towel or saran wrap and let it rise in a warm, draft free place for about an hour, or until doubled in size (mine was HUGE!).

when the dough has risen, preheat your oven to 500-550 degrees.  take it out onto a well floured surface.  roll out or stretch the dough into the shape you want it.  cooking on a pizza stone is supposed to yield a really crunchy crust, but i bet you could shape it into a cast iron skillet (esp. for deep dish) or cookie sheet.  spray the surface of what you are cooking it on and sprinkle a bit of the semolina flour to keep the crust from sticking.

assemble your pizza.  dough, sauce (not too much), cheese, toppings.  though i put the basil on top - they sort of shrunk and crisped.  greg said i should have put it under the tomatoes instead.  i also drizzled just a bit of olive oil over the pizza, making sure to get the crusts.  i then sprinkled a bit of coarse sea salt over the tomatoes and crust.  delish!

place pizza in preheated oven.  bake for 12-15 min.  let the pizza rest for 1-2 minutes before cutting.

as i said, you could probably cut this dough in half (at least) for a thinner crust.  you can refrigerate or freeze the additional dough.  just let it come to room temp. before rolling out to bake.

enjoy!

some things i learned with this pizza:

• wetter is better than drier.  try to keep it wettish and use flour and/or olive oil to help it keep from sticking to your hands and the counter.  but that's generally a good rule with all bread.
  
• i used a 550 degree oven.  i felt like the edges got done before the bottom got cooked the way i like it.  i may try a lower temp oven at first and then jack up the heat.  or try putting the pizza on a preheated pizza stone - though i'm not sure how to make that part happen.

love y'all.