Sourdough Pizza Crust + Tomato Sauce + Garlic + Bell Peppers + Mozzarella

I have been longing for homemade pizza lately. My current schedule and living situation make it a bit more difficult to have the weekly pizza night that The Boyfriend and I have grown accustomed to. I’m hoping to get this [...]]]>

Sourdough Pizza Crust + Tomato Sauce + Garlic + Bell Peppers + Mozzarella

I have been longing for homemade pizza lately. My current schedule and living situation make it a bit more difficult to have the weekly pizza night that The Boyfriend and I have grown accustomed to. I’m hoping to get this tradition back on track soon.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a new recipe but I do hope that you haven’t completely given up on me. I have a sweet treat in store for you this week. Watch this space for a new cookie recipe!

Have a Monochrome Monday post to share this week? Leave a link in the comments.

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987…

Have you deciphered the pattern? Each term is the sum of the previous two terms, creating the Fibonacci sequence. I find the graphical representation of this sequence beautiful and intriguing. Using squares whose sides correspond to the [...]]]>

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987…

Have you deciphered the pattern? Each term is the sum of the previous two terms, creating the Fibonacci sequence. I find the graphical representation of this sequence beautiful and intriguing. Using squares whose sides correspond to the numbers in the sequence, each consecutive square is placed in an outwardly spiraling manner. There is something satisfying about the way that each square nestles against the previous squares, and the pattern seems to contribute equally to the fields of mathematics and art. Since baking is a bit of both, I used this pattern as the inspiration for my berry dessert pizza.

I filled each square with a different berry: blueberries, pomegranate seeds, raspberries, cranberries, and strawberries. Atop a honey whole wheat crust with a layer of sweetened mascarpone cheese, each of the berries adds a different degree of tartness. A drizzle of caramel sauce balances the flavors perfectly!

Berry Dessert Pizza
Created by Simple Math Bakery
Yield: 8 servings

Dessert Pizza Dough
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 to 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

In a large bowl, or the bowl of your mixer, combine the yeast, whole wheat flour, bread flour, and salt. Add the olive oil, honey, and 1 cup of the water. Stir with a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment of your mixer until the dough comes together. If necessary, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time to get the dough to come together.

Knead the dough by hand or mixer until it becomes a cohesive dough. It may still look a little rough, but should hold together well. This will take about 5 minutes with the dough hook of a mixer.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour. It should be very puffy and not quite doubled in size.

Lightly flour a piece of parchment paper (if you are baking the crust directly on a pizza stone) or grease the pizza pan of your choice. Stretch the dough into shape. If it won’t hold its shape, cover it and let it rest for 15 minutes then try to stretch it farther.

Cover the shaped dough with lightly greased plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for about 1 hour. It will puff up quite a bit. Preheat the oven to 450° for at least 45 minutes during this last rise.

Use a peel to transfer the pizza directly onto a baking stone (or place the pizza pan in the oven) and bake for 10-12 minutes. The crust should be golden brown. Remove the crust from the oven and allow it to cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before adding toppings.

Dessert Pizza Sauce

3/4 cup homemade mascarpone cheese
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

Whisk the maple syrup into the mascarpone until combined. Spread a thin layer over the pizza crust.

Top with berries of your choice. Fibonacci sequence art is optional.

Place the pizza back into the oven for about 5 minutes. The mascarpone sauce should be bubbly and just starting to turn brown. The berries will soften ever so slightly. Place on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Slice and serve with a drizzle of warm caramel sauce.

Caramel Sauce
Adapted from Simply Recipes
Yield: 1 cup

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make sure all of your ingredients are ready and accessible before starting. Boiling sugar is extremely hot and can go from caramel to burnt very quickly. You don’t want to be trying to measure the cream while your caramel burns!

In a 2 or 3 quart saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. When the liquid comes to a boil, stop stirring and allow it to boil until the sugar starts to brown. Gently swirl the pan if necessary to keep the liquid heating evenly.

When the sugar becomes a dark amber color, carefully add the butter, stirring vigorously. It will bubble up and then subside as the butter melts. When the butter has melted completely, remove the pan from the heat. After 3 seconds, stir in the cream and vanilla extract. Again, the mixture will foam up. Keep stirring vigorously until the mixture is smooth.

Allow the sauce to cool for 15-20 minutes before drizzling over the pizza. When completely cooled, the sauce can be stored in the refrigerator.

Challenge #5 of Project Food Blog prompted the remaining 72 contestants to put their own spin on a common theme: pizza. Voting starts Monday, October 18th at 6AM Pacific Time, and runs through Thursday, October 21st at 6PM Pacific Time. As always, I truly appreciate your support!

This pizza was inspired by our favorite local pizza place. They put all kinds of crazy toppings on pizza – mashed potatoes, peanut butter, pasta, cream cheese, scrambled eggs, and many more! My favorite pizza is topped with mashed potatoes, BBQ sauce, chicken, and mozzarella. Since I stopped eating industrially processed meat, I [...]]]>

This pizza was inspired by our favorite local pizza place. They put all kinds of crazy toppings on pizza – mashed potatoes, peanut butter, pasta, cream cheese, scrambled eggs, and many more! My favorite pizza is topped with mashed potatoes, BBQ sauce, chicken, and mozzarella. Since I stopped eating industrially processed meat, I have missed eating this pizza.

Opportunities to purchase meat that satisfies my current standards (local, small scale, pasture raised, respectfully slaughtered) are few and far between. When I went on a farm tour at Quail Springs permaculture farm, I got the chance to order a couple of chickens from livestock manager Brenton Kelly.

The chickens were raised as an important part of the permaculture garden. They eat kitchen scraps and help keep weeds and bugs under control in the garden, while providing a valuable output to enrich the soil. When it comes time for the chickens to serve their next purpose (meat), Brenton uses a low-stress method to process the birds. If you are interested in this process, take a look at Brenton’s turkey processing photos (warning: photos are graphic).

To cook the chicken, I used Julia Child’s Casserole-Roasted Chicken with Tarragon recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 (which also happens to be Meryl Streep’s favorite Julia Child recipe). As usual, Julia does not disappoint. This chicken is simple and flavorful!

To make the pizza, you’ll need:
Sourdough Pizza Crust
Olive Oil
Mashed Potatoes
Chicken slices, roasted or grilled
Red Onion, thinly sliced
Mozzarella and Gouda cheese (or your favorite cheese combo)
BBQ Sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 450° for at least 45 minutes, with a baking stone in the oven. Pre-bake the crust, directly on the baking stone, until it is slightly puffy and starts to brown on the bottom. Using a pastry brush, spread a thin layer of olive oil all over the crust.

Spoon the mashed potatoes onto the crust and spread thin (you don’t want the toppings to be too heavy!). Add a thin layer of barbecue sauce over the potatoes. Arrange the chicken slices over the sauce and top with onions. Slice the mozzarella thinly and add to the pizza. Sprinkle with shredded Gouda cheese and drizzle with barbecue sauce.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese is melty and the crust is brown.

Barbecue Sauce
Created by Simple Math Bakery
Yield: approximately 3 cups

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 chili pepper, minced
1 cup ketchup
1 cup beer
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons sucanat
3 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and chili pepper. Saute just until tender, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, about 20-30 minutes.

My friends, this recipe has been months in the making. It’s been tested, revised, re-tested, and overhauled from scratch by yours truly. Because, let’s face it, pizza is a serious matter. Soon after I began to bake my own bread I started experimenting with pizza crust. I found a delicious and simple recipe [...]]]>

My friends, this recipe has been months in the making. It’s been tested, revised, re-tested, and overhauled from scratch by yours truly. Because, let’s face it, pizza is a serious matter. Soon after I began to bake my own bread I started experimenting with pizza crust. I found a delicious and simple recipe for a thick crust using commerical yeast. I can appreciate a nice thick, bready pizza crust. But a true pizza master knows how to make pizza dough both thick and thin. I had a difficult time mastering the thin crust pizza dough.

I got frustrated by recipe after recipe. I needed a recipe that was easy to throw together and versatile enough to make on a busy weeknight. I finally created my own recipe from scratch that was able to produce consistent results.

This dough is very wet and difficult to handle. The wetter the dough is, the thinner the crust will be. It’s about finding the perfect balance between a wet dough and one that just falls apart. I recommend using lot of flour on your hands and work surface when shaping the dough. The easiest way to shape this dough is to place it on a sheet of parchment paper and pat it into the desired shape.

Bake the crust for 5-8 minutes before adding any toppings or sauce. This will ensure that the crust gets baked through without overbaking the toppings. Pizza perfection.

I like to use whatever I happen to have on hand for toppings. This week I made zucchini spinach pizza. Just look at that thin, crispy crust!

I’m submitting this post to Yeastspotting. Be sure to take a look at the beautiful bread roundup posted every Friday!

Sourdough Pizza Dough
Created by Simple Math Bakery
Makes two medium-sized pizzas (feeds 2-3 people each)

1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups unbleached bread flour (substitute whole wheat flour for all or part of the bread flour, if desired)
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup lukewarm water

In the bowl of your mixer, stir all ingredients together with a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment on low speed. Switch to the dough hook and knead on second speed for 5 minutes. Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes, then knead for another 5 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise at room temperature until doubled. My sourdough takes about 4 hours to double.

Use the dough immediately, or place it in the fridge, covered, for up to one week. If you refrigerate the dough, remove it at least one hour before baking.

Preheat the oven to 500° for one hour, with your pizza stone inside. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baker’s peel, or the back side of a cookie sheet.

Shape the dough about 10 minutes before the oven is ready. Dust the parchment with flour. Divide the dough into two halves, and place one half on the parchment. Using plenty of flour on your hands and on the dough, pat the dough into the desired size and shape.

Slide the dough, still on the parchment, onto the baking stone. Bake for 5-8 minutes. If any large bubbles appear and start to grow, use a skewer to pop them. Remove the dough from the oven when it looks slightly puffy and has just started to brown around the bottom edges. The crust should slide off the parchment easily. You can remove the parchment at this point if the crust slides off.

Use a pastry brush to apply a thin layer of olive oil to the crust before adding sauce and toppings. This prevents the sauce from seeping into the crust and getting soggy.

Once you’ve topped your crust, slide it back onto the baking stone and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and begun to brown (or to your desired level of doneness).

To make pizza on the same day, skipping the 4 hour rising time:
Prepare the dough just after you turn on the oven. Add an extra 1/4 cup flour when mixing the dough to aid in handling. Allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes while the oven preheats. The crust will be denser, but still delicious!