Pizza 2 - in a Fry Pan!

Continuing the search for a good pizza dough.

This is the adaptation of a recipe from Serious Eats

Ingredients

• as modified 
• 20 ounces flour - I used Sir Lancelot high gluten flour
  
• 2 teaspoons salt, plus extra for assembly
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 12 ounces water

Use the heavy duty mixer to knead the dough.  It's very stiff.
Then refrigerate.  I kept it overnight and then cut into 6 pieces, keeping 2 pieces out to make pizza today.  Four balls are oiled in pint containers in the fridge for another day.

After a two hour rise, it is stretched.
A bit of tomato sauce (this one is made with tomatoes, sausage, pork chops, meatballs, seasoned with basil, parsley, garlic, locatelli, red and black pepper).

I made two.  The first is pepperoni with mozzarella.
This one is pepperoni with provolone.

While putting the pizza together, the 11 1/2 inch cast-iron frying pan is heating on high (for 3 minutes).
The broiler, with the rack as close to the broiler as will fit the pan, is preheating on high.
The pizza is slid onto the frying pan and is left on high heat until the bottom looks right.
Then it is moved to under the broiler.
I found that I needed to move it away from the broiler after a short time, because the top was bubbling, but the dough was not done.
I put it on the bottom rack until I was satisfied with the dough.

Then it's ready to eat.

The bottom is crunchy.  The top is chewy.

I think this may be it!

Now to experiment with flavors/toppings.
And to work on aesthetics!

The trick seems to be the super hot frypan.
We were not happy with the pizza stone - no significant improvement over a pan.
And with the stone or without, even at 550 degrees, there was no crunch to the crust.
The other recipes we found were too breadlike.
Next question - is it the technique or the recipe.  Will have to keep experimenting.

Pizza

I found a recipe that was supposed to make the greatest pizza crust: 

 

Ingredients

• 22 1/2 ounces (about 4 1/2 cups) bread flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• .35 ounces kosher salt (about 3 teaspoons)
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 15 ounces lukewarm water
• Mix today, in the food processor, make tomorrow.
• food lab recipe

I used my own pizza sauce with sausage and meatball and topped with whole milk mozzarella. 

I did it on a cookie sheet which I placed on the stone in a 550 degree oven.

While it cooled a bit, I added freshly grated locatelli.

Cut into squares, it was ready to eat.

D liked it very much.  I thought it was too bready.

The next day, I made one with ricotta and pepperoni.  Good, but again D likes the crust better than I do.

We Got Snow!!!!

They have upped the winter weather advisory to a winter storm warning.
Looks like we have about 6 inches so far, and no sign of letting up. 

This is our second storm - the first one, on Thursday, Dec. 27 gave us 8 inches, less than the 12-14 predicted.

This one was predicted as 2-4 inches.

Tommy loves it! 

 

Pork Pies

Pork Pies



We thought it might be fun to make some pork pies, following and emending various recipes. 

Filling
1.5 kilos of pork, 500 g coarsely ground and the balance cut into 3/8" cubes
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp sage
2 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp salt

Pastry
500 g AP flour
200 ml water
175 ml suet, melted and finely sieved-- being unable to find any leaf lard here abouts, although the butcher's assistant at the local supermarket suggested I look in the produce section
2 tsp salt

Jelly
2 pigs feet
1 medium onion
1 medium carrot
a dozen peppercorns
1 celery rib
salt
pepper

Roll out a pie-sized piece of pastry and manipulate it into a cup.
Put in a bit of filling and add a top and pinch it together.
This is not a delicate crust!
:~:
 Brush the finished pies with an egg wash. and bake.

When they are cool, you can add jelly.
We did on one, but decided it is not necessary.

Delicious.

With some cider and cheddar cheese, it makes a fine meal.

 

Shrimp Soup with Bean Threads

We started our Christmas Eve dinner with soup.

This was delicious.
I used the stock that had cooked the shrimp.
There are slices of ginger, and at the last minute, I added onion tops.
and added the bean threads.

 

Delicious.

BTW, I experimented with ginger storage.
The best is to peel and slice it and put it in a jar, add vodka, and refrigerate.
This ginger is from the summer, and it was fine.

Christmas Eggs

The chickens are still laying a few eggs a day.
We noticed some are small and pink.

Actually, we weighed the eggs to see how puny the little ones are.
The little pink one in the far row weighs 50 grams.
That qualifies it as "medium".
:~:
The far left in the front row is 73 grams.
The far right in the front row is 72 grams.
Those guys are "jumbo".

Rosemary Olive Oil Whole Wheat Bread

Today is a gloomy, snowy day.

I needed to make King Arthur Flour's No-Knead Whole Wheat bread, to which I add raisins.  This is D's favorite breakfast bread.  But I wanted to have something different.  I found a recipe for Rosemary Olive Oil Whole Wheat Bread.  I basically followed the recipe, using the Cuisinart mixer rather than hand-kneading.

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

INGREDIENTS
1 cup warm water (100-110 F)
1 Tbsp. organic cane sugar  (I used regular)
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped (or 2 tsp. dried)
1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning (or pinch of each ground garlic, dried oregano, and dried basil)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bread flour + extra for kneading
(I skipped this part:  1 egg, whisked + 1 Tbsp. water, for egg wash
dried rosemary, for sprinkling)
The complete recipe is at:  http://www.ahintofhoney.com
After the second rise, I heated the oven to 450 with the pot and lid.
When it was hot, I put the dough in and turned the oven to 400.

 

It baked for 40 minutes.

Lovely.
(the background bread is the raisin whole wheat bread).

 

I think I don't like rosemary very much.
I liked the bread, but not the flavor.
I had also added one teaspoon of diastatic malt powder.
I'm not sure I like that either - it gives the texture of store bought bread -
slightly rubbery.

It was a fun way to spend a gloomy day.