Sunday, February 12, 2012

Pizza Party!

Ken and I hosted "Game Night" at our apartment last night. The event bordered on ridiculous, as we had a group of about 12 playing rounds of "Balderdash," "Taboo" and "Apples to Apples." Did I mention that our friends and neighbors who came out to the party are fairly sarcastic comedians? It was a hilarious and entertaining evening, filled with good food and great conversation. Since we were in charge of the main dish, I decided on pizza. I'd never made pizza dough from scratch (Ken did a few times) and came across an article on make-at-home artisan pizzas in this month's issue of "Better Homes & Gardens". Our homemade pizza turned out to be a success and we enjoyed flavor combinations of marinated artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, onions, stuffed chicken sausage, barbecued chicken, mushrooms, feta and mozzarella with sauces ranging from "white" oil-based to spicy basil tomato. I used two crust recipes, one an all-purpose dough and the other, a honey whole wheat dough. I'd like to include the recipes for these pizzas and some photos of our delicious pizza pies. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we did! (Scroll down for full recipes.)








++ Dough ++


Multigrain Pizza Dough with Honey
by Peter Reinhart, in "Better Homes and Gardens" (Feb. '12)

Ingredients:
4 cups unbleached bread flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup rye flour (or cornmeal or additional whole wheat flour
1 ½ tablespoons honey
1 ½ teaspoons table salt (or 2 1/2 tsp. coarse kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast (also labeled bread-machine or fast-rising yeast)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups water, at room temperature

Directions:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with dough hook(s) or in a large bowl using a large spoon, combine all ingredients. Mix on low or by hand about 3 minutes, until ingredients are combined and all the flour is moistened. Dough will be soft and gluten will not yet be fully developed at this point.

2. If using an electric mixer, increase to medium; mix 2 minutes longer. If working by hand, continue mixing with spoon; or turn dough out onto a counter and knead. Mix long enough to form a smooth, supple dough, about 3 minutes. If dough seems very stiff, incorporate more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, as you mix. If dough is wet and sticky, sprinkle in more flour as you mix. Dough should be tacky but not sticky.

3. Lightly coat an 8-quart bowl with cooking spray or oil. Form dough in a smooth ball and place in bowl, turning once to coat surface with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, without letting wrap touch surface of dough. Let dough stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Then refrigerate dough overnight or up to 3 days. (Dough will continue to rise in bowl until nearly doubled, then will go dormant from the cold.)

4. Two hours before assembling the pizzas, remove chilled dough from refrigerator. Mist a baking sheet with cooking spray or lightly rub with olive oil. Cut dough in four portions. Form each portion in a smooth round ball.

5. Place each ball of dough on prepared baking sheet. Lightly mist with cooking spray, then lightly cover with plastic wrap. Let dough stand to come to room temperature. Yield: 4 balls of pizza dough.

Tip: Dough balls may be placed in freezer bags that have been lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray. Seal, label and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator before using.

All-Purpose Pizza Dough
by Peter Reinhart, in "Better Homes and Gardens" (Feb. '12)

Ingredients:
5 cups unbleached bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
1 ½ teaspoons salt or 2 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 teaspoon fast-rising active dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ¾ cups plus 1 Tbsp. water, at room temperature
Olive oil or nonstick cooking spray

Directions:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with dough hook(s) or in a large bowl using a large spoon, combine all ingredients except cooking spray. Mix on low or by hand about 3 minutes, until ingredients are combined and all the flour is moistened. Dough will be soft and the gluten will not yet be fully developed at this point.

2. If using an electric mixer, increase speed to medium; mix 2 minutes longer. If working by hand, continue mixing with the spoon; or turn dough out onto a counter and knead. Mix long enough to form a smooth, supple dough, about 3 minutes. If dough seems very stiff, incorporate more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, as you mix. If dough is wet and sticky, sprinkle in more flour as you mix. Dough should be tacky but not sticky.

3. Lightly coat an 8-quart bowl with cooking spray or oil. Form dough in a smooth ball and place in bowl, turning once to coat surface with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, without letting wrap touch surface of dough. Let dough stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Then refrigerate dough overnight or up to 3 days. (Dough will continue to rise in bowl until nearly doubled, then will go dormant from the cold.)

4. Two hours before assembling the pizzas, remove chilled dough from refrigerator. Mist a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray or lightly rub with olive oil. Cut dough in four portions. Form each portion in a smooth round ball.*

5. Place each ball of dough on prepared baking sheet. Lightly mist with cooking spray, then lightly cover with plastic wrap. Let dough stand to come to room temperature.

++ Sauces ++

All-Purpose Pizza Sauce
by Peter Reinhart, in "Better Homes and Gardens" (Feb. '12)

Ingredients:
1 28 ounce crushed tomatoes
1 ½ teaspoons red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder
½ teaspoon dried basil
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼  - ½ teaspoon salt
¼  - ½ cup water

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl whisk together all ingredients except the salt and water. Taste sauce and whisk in 1/4 cup water and enough salt to taste. If necessary, add more water to thin. Peter Reinhart says, "If the sauce is thick at this stage, it will be pasty on the pizza. It should easily spread over the dough.") Taste again and adjust the salt, if needed. Yield: 3 cups sauce.

2. For an 8- to 10-inch pizza, use 1/4 cup of the sauce. For bolder flavor, add the variations to the basic sauce.

Variation Spicy Puttanesca Sauce: Add 1/2 cup chopped pitted kalamata or ripe olives, 1 tablespoons capers and 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper.

Variation Tomato Basil-Pesto Sauce:Whisk in 1/2 cup Pesto alla Genovese (see recipe below) into the pasta sauce. Taste and add more if desired.

Variation Garlic-Robusto Sauce: Add 2 to 3 tablespoon of garlic oil (see Caramelized garlic recipe) and 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper. 


Pesto alla Genovese
by Peter Reinhart, in "Better Homes and Gardens" (Feb. '12)

Ingredients:
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 cups tightly packed fresh basil leaves*
1 cup finely shredded Parmesan, Romano, or Asiago cheese
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup pine nuts or chopped walnuts, toasted
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper (optional)

Directions:
1. In a medium skillet, heat 1/4 cup of the oil; add garlic. Cook and stir for 10 seconds; remove pan from heat. Immediately add to remaining oil.

2. In a food processor combine the oil, basil, cheese, lemon juice, and half of the nuts; cover and process 20 seconds or until mixture resembles a thick green sauce (If the contents are very thick and pasty, drizzle in additional olive oil and process for a few more seconds. If too thin, add more shredded cheese.)

3. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl and stir in the remaining nuts. Add pepper to taste, if desired. 

4. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pesto and refrigerate (the plastic wrap will help keep the pesto a bright green). Chill for up to 5 days; for longer storage, transfer to freezer container. Seal, label and freeze up to 3 months. Yield: 2 cups

++ Complete Pizza Recipe ++

Peters Pizza Margherita
by Peter Reinhart, in "Better Homes and Gardens" (Feb. '12)

Ingredients:
1 recipe All-Purpose Dough or Multigrain Pizza Dough with Honey (see Recipe Index)
1 cup All-Purpose Pizza Sauce (see Recipe Index)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil leaves
Olive Oil

Directions:

1. Prepare pizza dough as directed in recipe. About 2 hours before baking, remove chilled dough from rfrigerator. Let stand at room temperature to proof.

2. About 45 minutes before assembling pizzas, arrange an oven rack one-third from bottom of oven. Place a pizza stone or invert a heavy baking sheet o the rack. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Prepare pizza peel or baking sheet as directed in dough recipe.

3. Stretch dough in four 8- to 10-inch rounds. One at a time, place each round on pizza peel or rimless baking sheet dusted with flour. (Each pizza will be baked separately.) Top each round with 1/4 cup All-Purpose Pizza Sauce, 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, 1 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese, and several basil leaves brushed with olive oil. Use the peel or baking sheet to slide pizza onto pizza stone or inverted baking sheet in oven.

4. Bake each pizza for 5 to 7 minutes, until toppings are bubbly, cheese is turning golden, and edges of pizza are golden brown. Midway through baking, rotate pizzas a half turn for even baking. Let each pizza stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Makes 4 pizzas.

Feel free to do variations on this pizza. I tried different sauces with veggies and cheeses and every pizza turned out fantastic!


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