DB Take Two

It’s time for another Daring Bakers challenge! For October, our challenge was to make pizza. Specifically, we had to toss the dough to stretch it out. I make pizza quite often, but I’ve never been one hundred percent happy with my dough, so I was excited to try a new recipe. The recipe we were given is interesting in that it is yeasted, but you don’t let the dough rise—just rest overnight in the fridge. It was super simple to make, didn’t take too much kneading, and seemed like it would be good with partially whole wheat flour, too. When I went to make the first pizza, I found the dough almost too stretchy. I was worried when tossing it that it would just break apart. But it actually worked pretty well, as you can see.

I decided to make a different sort of pizza, too—rosemary potato. First, I roasted ¼ inch slices of red potato with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary, until they were tender. Then I spread the pizza with a simple garlic cream sauce, topped it with the roasted potatoes and garlic, sprinkled it with mozzarella, parmesan, and a bit more rosemary. The result was fantastic. Allie often worries about such pizzas as not being flavorful enough, but this one, she assured me, was nothing like that.

The crust, too, was great. It wasn’t too thin in the middle, and it was perfectly crisp but not tough on the bottom and chewy on top. Though the Daring bakers encouraged us to use only three to four toppings including sauce and cheese, I didn’t feel that the crust was overwhelmed at all. Rather, the whole pizza seemed perfectly balanced.

I love to cook, as you all know, and I’m good at it, but there are times, and making this pizza was one of them, when I feel talented. It’s a little bit bizarre. I don’t mean to be falsely modest, or anything, but it really isn’t all the time when I feel like this is, I don’t know, a gift?

Anyway, self-praise aside, the second pizza I made was equally good. Well, I didn’t actually have any of it, since I made it for a late dinner for my roommates when I had already eaten, but they assured me that it was “basically the most delicious pizza ever.” A couple of days ago, I poured a can of whole tomatoes into a pan with a bunch of garlic and rosemary and roasted it in the oven for an hour or so. So I took that sauce and put it on the pizza along with mozzarella, parmesan, green peppers, red onion, and garlic (usually my favorite pizza combination).

I’m not sure if I’ve quite reached the amazing level of Rudy’s, in Bellingham, where we recently gorged ourselves on fantastic pizza and cheap beer (though unfortunately they’ve switched from Mr. Pibb to Dr. Pepper), but I’m getting really close. Next time, I’ll use this recipe with a little less than half whole wheat flour, and see if I can retain the perfect texture and stretchiness with the addition of some actual nutrients.

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled

1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup Olive oil
1 3/4 Cups Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

2. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or fewer if you want to make larger pizzas). Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to three days.

3. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

4. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C). if you don’t have a baking stone, just preheat the oven.

5. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

6. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

7. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.