Recipes

Monday, March 15, 2010

Post Race Pizza

Here is our PILE of soaking wet clothes from after the (awesome but ridiculously wet and cold) race yesterday

IMG_8634
Nothing felt better than a long hot shower.

Then it was pizza time!  I had an itch to make homemade pizza dough Saturday night, and decided we’d eat it Sunday.  I first went off this recipe from Good Things Catered

I used her ingredient list, only substituting 1.5 cups White Whole Wheat Flour + .5 cups APF, instead of all APF. 

Then I referenced this recipe from 101 cookbooks.  Since they were very similar recipes, I opted to use this recipe for it’s technique because I really just wanted to use my mixer and it’s dough hook :)

IMG_8617

(Don’t worry I changed it to the dough hook)

Action shot:

IMG_8623

Dough ball!  This literally took 5min, why don’t I do this more often?
In fact I made another batch today so we could have leftovers. 

     IMG_8625

Both of these recipes used instant yeast.  The difference between instant and regular is that the instant doesn’t need to be proofed first, you just add it in with the dry ingredients. 

Well I found that it didn't really dissolve all the way, when I                 went to roll it out you could see little particles of yeast in the dough???  Anyone know what's up with that?  It still tasted good at least. 

Also didn’t rise much (probably because the yeast didn’t dissolve all the way…oh well, this is how we learn :)

I was inviting my mom (and Willow) over for pizza night as well.

Cleaned and set up the table.  New runner I got on sale from Pottery Barn:) 

IMG_8635

IMG_8637

Fresh Tulips (another whole foods purchase from Saturday:)

IMG_8636

First was  a trial pizza, when I was still unsure about the dough.

IMG_8638

And maybe I’m the last one to realize this but, PARCHMENT PAPER IS INCREDIBLE FOR PIZZA STONES!!!!  I’ve ALWAYS had issues getting the pizza onto the hot pizza stone…just make the pizza on parchment and slide the pizza + parchment right onto the stone.  Genius. 

#1 - Sauce+cheese+pepperoni+onions+peppers.  Mmmmm.

IMG_8639

#2 – Buffalo Chicken Pizza!

IMG_8640

We broiled some chicken tenders earlier with Frank’s Red Hot and a little olive oil. 

Sauce+cheese+Red Hot+chicken+shredded carrots

SO GOOD!  This was served with light Blue Cheese dressing on the side.

#3 – Hawaiian. 

IMG_8641

Yay for having Ham and Pineapple in the house.

#4  -  was a trio of all three flavors. (pre-baking)
IMG_8643

Mom brought a salad, and dessert.

My plate.

IMG_8642 The pizza’s were small and very thin.  I cut about 6 sliced in each.  I had about 4 of these small slices + salad.

Dessert was homemade black bottom pie!! 

IMG_8645

She even whipped up some fresh whipped cream here.  We shaved some chocolate on top as well.

IMG_8646

IMG_8647

Incredible.  Thin rich chocolaty layer on the bottom, a custardy middle that had a hint of rum, and whipped cream on top.

IMG_8648

Willow ventured under a chair for a while :) 

IMG_8650

Found you!

IMG_8653

Anyone have any thoughts/preferences/issues with instant yeast vs. regular Active yeast??

7 comments:

  1. Bridget I feel like we live such parallel lives. You are such an awesome hostess, and I like to think that I come in 2nd to you! Also, we both love berries (hello my whole site is berries and your blog NAME is berries) ANDDDDDD we have families that love to cook and eat good food. Anyway, is there any wax on the parchment paper? Does it stick? Did the crust get crunchy?

    I just posted about pizza TONIGHT! We use active dry yeast and put it in 1.75 cups of warm water with 2 teaspoons of sugar for 5 minutes. It is really no big deal, trust me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks!

    Also, I wish you had Twitter!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Such a fabulous post race meal! I love making my own dough and often use the recipe from 101 cookbooks! I've never though to use parchment with pizza- I usually use corn meal to prevent sticking- I will have to try parchment next time! The tulips are gorgeous too! Hope you have a good week :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd love your mom's recipe for blackbottomed pie - would y'all be willing to share?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love making homemade pizza, but have had trouble with my pizza stone. The whole transferring and sticking and all of that. Great idea about the parchment paper. I'm going to try that this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  6. YUMMMM! Glad it worked out. I do find, however, when I make whole wheat dough, that the texture is wayyyyyyy different. I use a littl more yeast and I let proof overnight or at least a few hours for sure. The AP flour is much quicker to rise for sure. I also find if I use the dough hook with the whole wheat I get very very little rise. But I like hand kneading. Imo it gets the dough more uniform...but that could just be in my head. :) Love the blog btw!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi! I have just found your blog and am addicted!

    Your food looks completely amazing! That pizza looks like the most incredible post-race meal! Especially a wet and cold one!

    I really look forward to reading lots more!

    Jessica

    ReplyDelete