A Pizza Crust Demo

... the dough can be hung and swung ...

... pressing the dough into the pizza pan ...

... the dough in its resting stage ...

Glen gave me a package of semolina flour – a product he says makes all of the difference in pizza crust.

Since making home-made pizza seems to be a mainstay of our fall and winter meals, I took the semolina home and posted his recipe on the family food blog so others could use it.

I have been experimenting with different flatbread crusts, especially the ones in my Olives, Lemons & Za’atar cookbook, where I have learned to make Arabic bread dough softer than ever before in my life, and I have make soft dough before. 

I had in mind with Glen’s pizza to do the same kind of exploring with method and ingredients, so that I could get the texture just right for his thin crust pizza.

Lucky for me, Janet invited us over for Saturday supper – and there was a new pizza coming out of the oven every 10 minutes until no one could eat another bite.

The counter was sprinkled with flour and there were 6 pizza doughs resting on its floured surface when I got there.

I asked permission to touch the dough, which he freely gave.

Then I watched him stretch the dough, hang it off of his hand, twirl it, and then press it onto their one of their six round pizza pans. 

“This is what we do all summer,” he said, “sit on the porch and have a new pizza coming out of the oven every 10 minutes. 

Many lovely evenings spent watching the sun go down over the beloved Shuswap Lake this way.”

I usually make one kind of pizza, two at the most, per pizza night.

But already on the counter were the toppings for 6 pizzas, which could be named, and which were only cousins to each other, not identical twins as is the case in my house.

Out of the oven they came: BBQ chicken, Hawaiian, pepperoni, veggie, Mediterranean, supreme.

There were names for them all. He was right.

I ate until there was no room.

... the dough is soft and maleable ...

Not even for the ice-cream that followed. 

Alright, maybe I had a taste of one of the finer brands (a chocolate-caramel piece in vanilla) that he brought to the table, but a Pilling size bowl was out of the question.

A good pizza time was had by all.

Arta

Pizza Crust

I am trying to give Alex 17 chances to make pizza crust. I am doing this, just for an experiment, and if any of the pizza crusts turn out, well that will be bonus for me. I have a simple recipe, which we tried. The basic method is, for a chemist (which Alex is), wake the yeast up with a little sugar. Then add flour, salt and a few spices and let the Kenmore mix master beat it for 5 minutes. Preferably add the right proportions of each ingredient.

... ready for the oven ...
experiment 1

We let first try rise over a warm vent grate and here is the final result.

As I warned you, I are worrying about process, not result. That is what let us give up on the extra cheese, since we only had about one cup of cheese in the house no matter where we looked.

Alex wanted to add extra seasonings: thyme, nassi goren spice, star anise. I begged him to wait for later the road for those additions.

Alex is prone to add ingredients of his choice.

He pulled out the chorizo sausage fro the fridge but Rebecca and I were sending up shouts of, “No, it has to be cooked first.”

He showed us words on the back of the package that said: our sausage is pre-cooked.

That took away my fear of being utterly doomed, perhaps even dying from raw sausage. I sliced the chorizo thinly.

Alex grabbed some spinach out of the fridge, which I would not have added.

I wanted to the sun dried tomatoes in oil, some roasted red peppers in a jar and some olives.

Alex didn’t anything bottled or canned.

It is fun living here.

Arta

Fast Pizza Crist

The recipe below is in answer to the request from Wyona to post the recipe I talked about a few weeks ago.  I give cedit to Miranda for the recipe.  I give credit to Duncan and Alex who like a quick pizza (delivered to the door is also good).

Use the oil that the tomatoes are
are packed in for even greater flavour.

I give credit to Rebecca who pulls the sauce out of the fridge and a few toppings: artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, pesto, etc.

She also cuts the ingredients up and when she goes to the store, she buys a squeeze pizza sauce for the boys so they can easily get it on the crust.

We double the dough at this house and it feeds 5 adults, 2 of whom are voracious teen-age eaters.

Pizza Dough

1 cup very warm water

1tbsp (or one packet) active yeast

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp avocado oil (we've used other kinds,  but this gives the best flavour)

1/2 tsp salt

2 3/4 - 3 cups flour

Proof the yeast, then mix everything together in your stand mixer.  Let it sit while you prep your toppings.  Makes two big thin crust pizzas.

PS  I will put the recipe over on larchkitchen.blogspot.ca so that you can find it easily when in a rush to make it some cold winter evening.

The Fastest Home Made Pizza in the World

... almost plain pizza ...

We are going nuts in out house over Miranda's quick pizza crust recipe.

The ingredients for the crust go together in a mixer for 5 minutes. And while all that is going on, the toppings can be cut in readiness for the last act -- spreading on the pizza sauce.

We say that we can make this pizza faster than one can be ordered and delivered.  I think we are right.  One recipe feeds four of us and the dinner is hot, delicious and everyone gets their version of the best pizza in the world.  For Duncan this means just sauce and mozzarella cheese -- pepperoni on it when pushed but that part is not necessary.

Rebecca wants to carmelize some onions and add roaster red peppers.  Those come from the jar and yes, carmelizing the onions does slow down the speed but that is fine when the first bite of that hits out lips.

Thanks Miranda.  And if anyone wants the recipe, speak up and I will put it over on larchkitchen.blogspot.com

Arta

Quick Pizza

Miranda has a recipe for a quick pizza dough. Make the dough and put it directly onto the pizza pan. Add toppings and cook and the whole event is over.

She promised Duncan that she could make the pizza faster than she could order it and have it delivered.

She was right.  Ours had carmalized onions, roasted red peppers and a sundried tomato pesto on the bottom.  I don't know why I am looking at this with wonder.  I have already put it in my mouth, had a couple of bites and decided nothing could inprove the pizza, though others might add some parmesan or some hot pepper flakes.

I thought we should put on Xmas music while we ate, but perhaps having Rebecca's friend Stacy over and singing carols for a half hour at the piano was enough.

My sight-reading leaves something to be desired, but people have to gather around to see the lyrics and they just ignored the fact that sometimes I play in D major when the song is in A Flat Major.

Duncan put on some music from his computer, so now I must learn Great Big World's "Say Something", as well as Cold Play's "Viva La Vie".  And then he switched to Bob Dylan's "Wagon Wheels".

So now a third song to learn before I can tempt people back to the sweet and familiar old carols.

Arta