Pizza dough

Making pizza is as much about the cooking method as it is the dough.  So that's the caveat with which I share this not very special prep.  The baking of the pie is a little different as many will attest to.

But, many still ask for the dough prep, here's mine - and sorry, it's in grams, get an Escali [Note: this is not an affiliate link] for $20 and get over it.  Weigh things when you cook, you'll be surprised how much better your intuition becomes in cooking and in everyday interactions with the world when you know a few common weights.

In addition to a balance, get a bread machine to be a dedicated kneading machine.  These things are about $5 in a thrift store and they are ALWAYS in stock, the kneading is all the same and it's better than a Kitchen Aid, way better.  Oh, and they absolutely suck at baking bread, hence the abundant supply in thrift stores.

To the bread machine pan add in any order:
unbleached white flour, I am dedicated to Montana Sapphire, 575 g
water, 400 g
Adriatic sea salt evaporated from the shell of a tortoise, 10 g (kidding, any salt)
olive oil, 50 g
sugar, 10 g
a pack of INSTANT active dry yeast.  Don't use the bottle, don't worry about price, you're making 4 pizzas worth, don't use the bulk bottle, don't use it no matter what, instant active dry yeast, not the bulk bottle.  Got it?

Set to spin on dough cycle, remove when it looks like the video:


When it's kneaded about 5-10 minutes, dump on counter, flour the ball so it won't stick and store in fridge.  I cut off 1/4 of the ball, about 250 g for a 10-12" pie.  This will stay in the fridge for a week or keep in the freezer for longer.

Enjoy

Superbowl Pita

The night before the superbowl, I made 4 kg of pizza dough for the big day.  I stored it outside in a loosely  covered container on my deck.  I used about 3/4 of it on the day of the superbowl and the remainder has sat in there for 11 days now. Since the raccoons decided to pass on it, I had to find a use for it.

Some time ago, Andrew convinced me a yeasted dough would last much longer than I expected.  I now believe a lump o dough has approximately 4-5 full rises before the dough is spent; eventually it gets too sour and needs to be refreshed with more flour.  The weather's been cool enough so the entire 11 days has been a long retarding period and it was ready to go tonight.  I made pitas for our hummus tonight.  They had a hint of a sourdough flavor and were great with the hummus.

The dough was scaled to ca. 200 g pieces, squished into circles and allowed to rest about 10 minutes uncovered.

I baked them in a 500°F oven on a preheated baking sheet. The sheet was enamel on steel. A new favorite baking surface of mine.

Semolina pasta, hand rolled and rustic

Tonight we host a guest that can't have dairy and is a carb monster. Carb monsters usually are sated with pasta and butter. Tonight, only olive oil thank you. With so few ingredients, the pasta better be good. So, I tossed some together.

I don't know why, but I don't use a high fraction (or any sometimes) of semolina. I will from now on.  Today, I made a pound with 1/2 unbleached white and 1/2 semolina (fine). What an easy dough to work with! The recipe is simple: 150 g unbleached white flour, 150 g semolina (fine), 170 g eggs (ca. 3), 5 g salt, 5 g olive oil. Mix with wooden spoon until a big blob forms. Don't worry about kneading much, rolling it out will finish the kneading. Divide in 4 pieces, let rest wrapped in fridge for a few minutes (up to a few days I think), roll out each piece to a ca. 15" circle, cut into ribbons with a pizza cutter.

The initial blob of dough cut into 4 pieces, each piece is rounded and let rest in fridge.

Dust a piece with flour and start to roll out. The dough is pretty tough. Flour a bit if it sticks to the rolling pin or counter.

Don't go insane trying to get it too thin. Here's a sheet rolled out. You can see a shadow of my hand. Hard to describe how thin it is, but don't worry, even thick noodles are good.

Slap the sheet (roughly a circle) on a cutting board and cut into ribbons any size you like. A simple pizza cutter is faster than you think.  I like short noodles.

A pound o' pasta. I'll let it sit out in the dry winter air, shake it once in a while to insure it doesn't stick to itself and save what we don't use in the freezer (uncooked). I'll cook the pasta in salted water until al dente and serve dressed with olive oil and some toasted bread crumbs (instead of cheese, no dairy tonight). Maybe I'll serve something green on the side to assuage my parenting guilt because the kids certainly won't eat it.  They are probably hoping for Kraft.

PS
Wow, the kids liked it.  And, I took the risk and served it tossed with peas - peas mixed in!  Very satisfying simple treat.  I cooked the entire batch and got a few minutes after dinner to eat some with my hands standing over the sink while cleaning up after the marauding children.  Quite the luxurious dinner.  Yes, honey, this postscript was added in case you read this post while dining "for business" at Deepwoods.  Maybe you could bring me your leftovers?

Related articles

• Fresh pici pasta dough recipe (telegraph.co.uk)

Savory flatbread / sticks

Note the surface has been painted with oil and scored using a pizza cutter.  

One of the flatbreads out of the oven.  The pizza cutter scoring isn't showing up, but they are there.  Also, this scoring is as good as docking the bread, so no worries about it puffing like a pita.  This was 180 of dough rolled to 14" x 8" (roughly).

Once thoroughly cooled, break apart and hide them.  The flavor develops over an hour after baking.  They need no special packaging.  They're fine out on the counter, they won't last very long.