1.11.2009

 

Pizza Pie!

I love pizza.

I love cooking.

Why not love cooking pizza?

Dough Recipe:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons Yeast
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Salt
dried Italian seasoning
dried Basil

Pour warm water into a bowl. The water should be about 85 to 115° F. Test it with your hand. It should feel very warm, but comfortable. Add the honey and salt. Mix by and hand (or any other method) until well blended. Add the yeast and mix some more. Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes, it'll get kinda puffy or foamy looking. That's a good thing.

Add 1 cup of flour and the olive oil and mix until well blended, it should look like a batter at this point and you should be able to see it growing. Add the rest of the flour one cup at a time (and any other additions) and mix well. I added Italian Seasoning and Basil to mine. Next time I'll add garlic I think. The dough should turn into a ball. Now, mine did not. I needed to add about a half cup more water. If the dough does not ball up because it's too dry, add water one tablespoon at a time until it does. If your mixture is more like a batter, add flour one tablespoon at a time. Adding water or flour as needed to get the right consistency will assure you always get a perfect dough. Just remember to do it in small amounts.

Once the dough is balled up, place the ball on a floured board and knead for about a minute. This builds the gluten which helps the dough to rise and become fluffy when cooked. Place the dough in a plastic grocery bag or a covered bowl and store in a warm, dry area to rise.

After about 45 minutes the dough should have about doubled in size. Smoosh it down. You should be able to hear the air escape. Let it rise for another hour to an hour and a half. The dough is now ready to be pizza.

Divide dough in half. This recipe makes 2 crusts. I stuck my extra in a plastic freezer bag and froze it for another day. Pizza is a good comfort food, no?

Turn your oven on to 400 to preheat. Move your rack as close to the heat (whether it's on top or underneath) as you can get.

Dust your work area with cornmeal. Toss your pizza dough ball on there and start smooshing. I flattened it out with the palm of my hand and by picking it up and stretching it. Whatever works best for you. Just make sure to get cornmeal on both sides of the dough. Throw it on you cooking tray (or whatever you are using, perforated pizza tray or cookie sheet. Obviously not if you're using a pizza stone.) Take a fork and perforate the pizza, leaving an unperforated crust edge area. Supposedly this helps keep it flat.

Drizzle with olive oil and set it off to the side for 15 minutes or so.

Work on toppings. Whatever you want. I made a red and white with onions and mushrooms. YUM.

Pre bake your crust for 13 to 15 minutes. It should puff up prettily.

Pull it out of the oven and add your toppings.

Back into the oven for 25 to 30 more minutes. It should be bubbly goodness when you take it out. Make sure the edges are golden brown and your cheese is nice and melty.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Let the pizza rest for a few minutes or you will burn your mouth. It will hurt. You will not enjoy the pizza and all your hard work will be for nothing. Wait patiently. Trust me it's worth it.



Labels: , ,


1.03.2009

 

Hey! I'm back. And I have food!


So I decided top share my Top Secret Creamy Turkey and Herbed Dumpling recipe with you all. I think it's FAB, but if you don't like rosemary walk away right now. This is Heavy on the rosemary.

Feel free to play around with this recipe. I don't often measure so if you think it needs more stock, or mushrooms, or more onions, whatever! Add away! Food is supposed to be fun and delicious!

Enjoy!




Soup

2 Cups chopped, cooked turkey (make sure to use dark and light meat)
1 big onion, chopped
2/8 butter
Garlic
Stock (I make my own but if you're using canned start with at least one big can)
1 small bag baby carrots Chopped (again you can use big carrots just chop them up and use however many you like)
1 cup Celery
1/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup heavey cream
Fresh Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, finely chopped (to taste)
Salt and Pepper

Dumplings:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
lots of fresh cracked pepper
Finely chopped herbs (you can use any kind I just prefer rosemary, sage and thyme)
1/2 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients and herbs, add milk and mix with fork
You may need to add more milk as you go. I started with a half cup and needed more but didn't measure. Sorry.
You want it to be the consistencey of a wet sticky dough, not firm like bread.



To Make:

Medium-low flame under a large stockpot
Toss in butter, onion and garlic to start sweating
Once translucent add the stock and the turkey
Add carrots, celery and chopped herbs (I also added 2 big sprigs of rosemary as it cooked. You may not want to right away. HEAVY rosemary if you do that.)
Cook until tender
Add white wine and cream
Taste! Add salt and pepper. Taste again.
Give it a stir and turn up heat just slightly to a fast simmer
Drop in dumplings one by one (use the 2 spoon method to get them all approximately the same size)
Now put the lid on and do not lift it for at least 30 minutes
Dumplings should be heavy and moist all the way through.

It's soup!

Labels: , , ,


This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]