Pizza, pizza?

When I first read that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Pizza Rustica, I figured that it would go over well here, since everyone in the family loves pizza.  Then I actually looked at the recipe and realized that it wasn't pizza in the traditional sense.  Instead, it's an Italian pie, filled with cheeses and prosciutto and eggs.  The twist with this one is that the dough is sweet instead of savory.  I knew that my husband would probably like this dish, since he likes the contrast of sweet and salty/savory.  My girls are fans of pretty much anything with a ricotta filling, so I figured there was a decent chance that they would eat it without complaint.  It feels like we've been in a rut lately as far as meal planning, so I was excited to try something new for dinner.

I decided that I wanted to make a tart rather than a pie.  Since I knew the tart pan would be shallower than a pie pan, I used my 10" pan.  For the filling, I used my favorite whole milk ricotta and substituted Asiago cheese for the Romano.  I almost forgot about the pepper, and ended up grinding some on top of the tart filling after it was already in the pan, before I added the lattice strips.  The dough was very nice to work with--easy to roll out and put in the tart pan.  I used my fluted pastry wheel to cut the strips for the top.

For baking, I preheated the oven to 375ºF since I was using a metal tart pan.  I placed the tart on a baking sheet and put the sheet pan directly on my baking stone in the lower part of my oven.  I usually do that for pies and tarts to ensure that the bottom crust bakes well and doesn't end up soggy.  The tart took 35 minutes to bake, at which point it was puffy all over and starting to brown.  We let it cool somewhat, but it was still warm rather than at room temperature when we ate.  I warmed up some of our usual pizza sauce to serve on the side.  

The verdict?  This went over pretty well!  As predicted, Jamie liked it; Brianna did, too.  Gillian didn't like the prosciutto, but said she might eat it without the meat or with regular ham instead.  The girls weren't sure what to think about the slight sweetness of the crust; I might try a less sweet version next time.  The tart was good both with and without the tomato sauce, but J pointed out that the sauce brought some nice acidity to the table to balance all the rich ingredients in the tart.  I can definitely see myself making this again, and maybe playing around with the filling ingredients.

If you'd like to give this a try for yourself, you can find the recipe on Emily's blog or Raelynn's blog.  To see what everyone else thought of this week's selection, check out the Links.  

Wordless Wednesday (bonus!) - Lunch at home

Brought to you by the letter S

I was recently amazed to discover that Gillian can write a lot more than I realized.  I knew she could recognize all the letters and write her name (a few of the letters are interesting, but you can make out what she's writing).  We were at Borders for story time, and afterwards they got to make Father's Day cards.  She sat there and asked me what letters she needed to say "Happy Father's Day." I offered to help her write it, but she insisted she could do it herself.  She only needed me to explain how to form one of the letters.  Boy, this kid is quick, even more so than her big sister.  She's not even four yet!  And with the timing of her birthday (October), she'll be almost 6 by the time she can start kindergarten.  It's really hard sometimes to figure out what to do with my smart kids to keep them challenged.

Jamie and I realized a couple weeks ago that boredom may be a lot of the reason B is driving us crazy lately.  She doesn't have enough to do of her own, so she starts bothering G and wanting to play with her stuff.  And I get tired of explaining, that yes, those toys were originally hers, but now G gets to play with them, since they're geared more toward a 3-year-old than a 7-year-old. *sigh*  Fortunately, we were able to come up with a few ideas...J is teaching her how to play chess, since he loved it as a kid (and still does).  I can play, but am nowhere near his level.  And he's a much more patient teacher than I am.  He found a couple of chess books for kids, too.  Another thing that B really likes is puzzles, both word puzzles and the jigsaw variety.  I think it's time to get some new ones--harder ones that G can't do yet, with more, smaller pieces.  

She's also been reading a lot, which is good, but that only keeps her occupied for so long.  Besides some new Betty & Veronica comics (J is the comic book influence), the main thing she's been reading is her Christmas present from my sister Kate.  Kate got her the entire collection of Ramona books.  With the new movie coming out next week, she's been trying to read as much as she can beforehand.  She's already talked me into taking her to see the movie.  The only movies I've seen in a theater for the past several years are the ones I've taken B to.  Going to the movies isn't in the budget much.  

Of course, you're all familiar with my main source of entertainment these days--baking. =)  And a lot of the books I read are cookbooks.  I was thinking the other day that I've gained an amazing amount of knowledge and skill through my participation in various baking groups.  Tuesdays with Dorie and Daring Bakers have helped with cakes and other sweets.  For bread, though, the biggest influence is definitely the BBA Challenge.

I mentioned in my last BBA post that I got stuck on the Marbled Rye and decided to jump ahead for the time being.  Since I was making pâte fermentée for the Pain de Campagne, I figured I'd make a double batch so I'd have some ready for the next recipe, too, which is Pane Siciliano.  I was really looking forward to this one, because I've really enjoyed every bread that I've made with semolina.  The addition of semolina flour gives bread a pretty yellow color and I like the texture it contributes, too.  

The dough for Pane Siciliano is fairly lean (bread flour, semolina flour, salt, yeast and water) but does have a small amount of olive oil and honey added to it.  After the initial mixing, my dough was rather sticky.  Rather than add flour when kneading, I decided to try Peter Reinhart's stretch and fold technique from his newest book, Artisan Breads Every Day.  I did the stretch and fold on an oiled countertop 3 or 4 times in about 45 minutes, and then let the dough rise for another 45 minutes.  When it was time to divide the dough for shaping, I decided that I wanted to set some of it aside for pizza crust.  I did three portions of 7 ounces each that I formed into balls and stuck in the fridge to use for dinner.  The remaining dough was about 23 ounces, and I shaped that into the traditional "S" shaped loaf.  It's supposed to be topped with sesame seeds, but I didn't have any.  The shaped loaf is retarded overnight in the fridge to develop flavor.  The next morning, I pulled it out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit while the oven preheated, about 45 minutes.  The loaf only took about 20 minutes to bake.

The verdict?  I really enjoyed this bread.  It made a very nice loaf, and excellent pizza crust.  Next time I make it, I'll make sure I have sesame seeds on hand so I can try it that way.  Everyone else here loved it as well.  Jamie is my main critic for the various pizza crusts that we've tried, and he commented that he really likes how this dough worked--stayed nicely firm and crisp on the bottom with his choice of toppings, but was tender on top.  I loved the edges of this crust--nice and puffy.  I love the bubbles. =)

If you'd like to try Pane Siciliano for yourself, check out a copy of The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  There are so many excellent recipes and such good information on how to make bread.  To see how everyone else is doing with the challenge, check out the BBA Challenge blogroll.  Also, check out Yeastspotting for lots of other yummy yeasted treats.  And I'm submitting this to Bread Baking Day #32: Italian Breads!

When the moon hits your eye...

If I had to pick a single favorite food, it would be pizza.  I think I could eat pizza every day and not get tired of it.  But it has to be the right kind of pizza.  It's a good thing that I only lived in Boulder for less than a year, because the people there seem to have a thing for Chicago-style deep dish pizza, based on the restaurants that I went to.  I suppose that's alright if you like that sort of thing, but I grew up eating real pizza, which is to say, thin crust pizza that comes in enormous slices. =)  The sort of pizza we would order by the slice after football games in high school.  (I admit, I was a band geek in high school; a bunch of us would go out after the games and almost always end up at the same place, eating pizza.)  Whenever I go to visit family on the east coast, I try to eat pizza while I'm there.  Fortunately, Austin is home to a lot of people transplanted from the northeast, so we are lucky enough to have some great pizza places.

I know it's not my usual thing to write about savory dishes on this blog, but I'll defend this post by pointing out that it's still baking. =)  I'm actually surprised that I haven't posted about pizza dough more often, since we eat it almost on a weekly basis.  My one previous post was for a Daring Bakers challenge, and featured a recipe from the Bread Baker's Apprentice.  That one was good, but not my favorite--I had some trouble working with the dough.  Since we eat pizza so often, I've tried a number of different recipes over time.  For a while, one from Cook's Illustrated was my standby.  Lately, though, I've tried a couple from my new Peter Reinhart book, Artisan Breads Every Day.

The most recent one that we've been making is the Neo-Neapolitan Pizza Dough.  The original recipe calls for all bread flour, but I like substituting white whole wheat for part of it.  Reinhart mentions several times in the book that it's possible to substitute whole grain flour for part of the white flour in most of the recipes but that addition water will be needed.  He says to add 1/2 tablespoon (1/4 ounce) of water for each 1 ounce of whole grain flour that you substitute.  I made my pizza dough with 4 ounces of white whole wheat flour, so I added 1 ounce of extra water.  (So 20 ounces of bread flour, 4 ounces of white whole wheat flour, and 18 ounces of water.)  The recipe has olive oil and sweetener (sugar, honey or agave syrup) as optional additions.  I used the sweetener once, but found that the crust darkened too quickly (totally burned one pizza) so now I skip it.  I do add the oil.  

The recipe says that the dough should be refrigerated overnight before using it.  I've actually been making it in the morning, portioning it into balls for individual pizzas, and putting the dough balls in the fridge to ferment during the day.  It seems to work quite well.  I also like the fact that the dough makes a lot--I make 6 portions of dough at 7 ounces each.  Three of them go into the fridge to be used that evening, and the other three go directly into the freezer to save for the following week.  Jamie and I each make our own pizzas and the girls share one.  The nice thing about individual pizzas is that everyone can have the toppings that they like. =)

I'm the boring one.  I prefer just sauce and cheese on mine.  We use whole milk mozzarella (the kind you buy in blocks, not fresh mozzarella) because it has a much nicer texture than part-skim.  We just try not to go crazy with it. =)  I also add some freshly grated parmesan on top.  Occasionally I'll also sauté some mushrooms to add to mine.  Jamie is much more adventurous in his toppings.  He usually has pepperoni (we always use turkey pepperoni--Jamie says it tastes just as good but is much less greasy).  He also adds olives (sometimes black, lately green) and mushrooms.  He likes spicy things too, so he often adds some crushed red pepper flakes or adds a bit of hot sauce to his sauce.  And he prefers romano to parmesan.  The girls mostly go with cheese, sometimes adding pepperoni.  When we were making the pizza that I photographed, we were low on pepperoni, so they had salami instead.  I put Brianna to work cutting it into smaller pieces.  Both Brianna and Gillian like helping add stuff to their pizza. =)

With some of the previous recipes I've made, we would pre-bake the crust for a minute or two, then add the toppings and finish baking.  With this dough, though, the bottom was getting too brown when I did that.  But even with cornmeal on the peel, the dough tends to stick to it when we add sauce and toppings to the raw dough.  So I've started doing things another way.  I put a sheet of parchment paper on the peel and put the dough on top of that, then add toppings.  The pizza then goes into the oven, parchment and all.  It's a good idea to pull the parchment out after a minute or two of baking, once the crust has set on the bottom.  Otherwise, it tends to get rather charred around the edges, from baking at 550F for too long. =)  The pizzas bake for 5-7 minutes each, depending on the amount of toppings.

The verdict?  I think I have a new favorite dough!  We've made this one a couple times now, and I really like how it turns out, from both fresh and frozen dough.  The whole wheat adds a nice flavor.  Most of the crust is thin and crisp on the bottom, while the edges are chewier, with some nice bubbles.  

If you'd like to try this recipe for yourself, you can find it here.  But I highly recommend getting a copy of Artisan Breads Every Day--there are many other wonderful recipes to try.  And if you're a huge pizza fan, it's worth getting your hands on a copy of Peter Reinhart's pizza book, American Pie.  I was lucky enough to be able to borrow it from my library, and I'll definitely be buying my own copy at some point.

One last thing, this pizza has been submitted to Yeastspotting!

Pie time

When I first started this blog last December, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to blog about.  I do a lot of baking, and like experimenting with recipes.  I do cook as well, every day.  We very seldom eat out--saves money, and I generally like doing it.   Of course, there are days when dinner consists of pretty simple things like frozen ravioli.  =)  I enjoy trying new savory recipes and do sometimes make notes about them in my notebook.  But the vast majority of my notes are about things I've baked, and I ultimately decided that I would just blog about baking.  Of course, sometimes dinner involves baking, too.

If I had to pick a favorite food, it would definitely be pizza.  I love pizza.  In pretty much any form, but my favorite is thin crust pizza.  That's one thing that I miss about the east coast.  Austin tends toward Chicago-style pizza.  But we do have a few options, including a great New Jersey transplant.  We make pizza at home on a weekly basis, all from scratch.  People always seem so surprised when I tell them that.  "You make the crust?  Yourself?  Every week?"  I can't quite duplicate real pizzeria crust, since my oven only goes to 550 degrees F, but I keep trying. Using my baking stone helps as well.  And I've learned to make a big batch of dough and freeze half of it, so I don't actually have to make dough every week.  =)  Over time, I've played around with different recipes, and pretty much settled on my go-to dough.

And then came the October Daring Bakers challenge.  This month's host was Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums, and she chose Pizza Napoletana from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  I have this cookbook, and have liked everything I've made from it so far.  The pizza was on my to-do list, but I hadn't gotten to it yet.  Rosa gave us a lot of flexibility, but did set a few requirements.  Something saucy.  Some sort of topping.  And tossing.  Yes, tossing the dough, as opposed to rolling it out.  With pictures. =)

One thing that's different for me about this dough recipe is that it uses cold water.  I've used room temperature water, but not cold.  Peter Reinhart had an article in Fine Cooking earlier this year that had some tips in in that I applied to my usual dough recipe, including a slow rise in the refrigerator.  This recipe has you do the same.  I actually don't do an overnight rise--I make the dough first thing in the morning and leave it in the fridge all day (usually at least 10 hours), and that seems to work quite well.  The recipe also calls for less yeast than I'm used to, which helps make for a thinner crust. 

Since I make pizza every week, I was able to try this dough a couple times during the month.  The first time, I made it as written, except that I didn't add any sugar.  I was making it from my copy of the book, which doesn't have any sugar in the recipe, and I didn't realize that until after the dough was already made.  As directed, I divided the dough into 6 balls.  I put three in the fridge to rise and put the others in the freezer.  When it came time to shape the dough, I couldn't believe how easily it stretched.  It was actually a little too thin.  I always shape dough by stretching it over my hands, not rolling, but there was no chance of tossing--it was just too stretchy.   But we topped it and baked it and it made for some very tasty pizzas.  

Which leads me to another thing that people can't believe.  My favorite pizza is plain cheese.  Tomato sauce and mozzarella, maybe with a little parmigiano reggiano on top.  Whenever I'm in a group that's ordering pizza, people give me a hard time because I want pizza with no other toppings.  But you know what?  It always gets eaten, and not just by me. =)  I do like mushrooms on occasion, but one thing I don't like is pepperoni, which is why my husband and I make our own individual pizzas.  He loves everything, but usually goes for pepperoni and black olives at home.  And he adds provolone cheese and maybe a bit of romano on top.  A few years back he switched to turkey pepperoni and loves it because it's less greasy.  

The frozen dough from that first batch worked fine as well, but I decided to tweak a few things when I made my second batch of dough a couple weeks ago.  When I made it the first time, I used all bread flour and the full 2 ounces of olive oil.  I cut the oil back to one ounce, hoping to make the dough a bit less tender.  And I tried one of the side-bar variations in the recipe and substituted white whole wheat flour for 10% of the bread flour.  I also increased the yeast just a little bit.  After kneading the dough in my mixer, I put the whole batch of dough in one of my dough buckets and put it in the fridge for the day.  That evening, I divided it into 6 portions of dough (and froze half of them).  

The verdict?  I liked my variations better--the dough was easier for me to work with.  I liked the additional flavor and texture from the whole wheat flour.  It's amazing how just a small amount can make a difference.  I'll probably continue to play around with the recipe--for one thing, I like some semolina flour in my pizza dough.  But I'm sticking with the cold water and smaller amount of yeast (my old recipe used 2 teaspoons).  On the whole, this was a very successful challenge for me.

Check out Rosa's blog for the original recipe and complete method.  Here are the ingredients for my variation:

2 ounces white whole wheat flour (King Arthur)

18 ounces bread flour (King Arthur)

1 3/4 teaspoons table salt

1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

14 ounces cold water (from the fridge - 40 degrees F)

And here's my standard sauce recipe:

Easy Pizza & Pasta Sauce

3 to 4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 to 3 teaspoons olive oil

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

pinch of kosher salt

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds (don't let it brown).  Add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.  Stir in the seasonings, including salt to taste.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Leave the sauce chunky or puree it with an immersion or regular blender until smooth.

And don't forget to check out the Daring Bakers blogroll for more wonderful pizza ideas!