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.

Does your sourdough starter have a name? I’ve noticed that many of my blog friends name their sourdough starters. Now, I know that the starter is technically alive, but somehow I’ve never felt the need to call mine by name. Since it’s non-sentient, it doesn’t seem to mind. It bubbles along from day [...]]]>

Does your sourdough starter have a name? I’ve noticed that many of my blog friends name their sourdough starters. Now, I know that the starter is technically alive, but somehow I’ve never felt the need to call mine by name. Since it’s non-sentient, it doesn’t seem to mind. It bubbles along from day to day, always ready to help me when I’m craving some sourdough goodness. It was all too happy to jump into this sourdough zucchini bread along with some fresh squash from my CSA.

I reduced the amount of sugar from the original recipe so that the sourdough flavor would stand out. The bread came out with just the right balance of spice, sourdough, and sweetness. If you prefer a sweeter bread, I recommend slightly increasing the amount of sugar. Chopped nuts or raisins would also be an excellent addition to this bread.

I’m submitting this bread to YeastSpotting, where a new feast of bread is posted every Friday!

Sourdough Zucchini Bread
Adapted from Baking With Sourdough
Yield: one 9″ loaf

1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sucanat (or your preferred type of sugar)
1 egg
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup milk (I used rice milk)
1 cup grated zucchini (1 medium zucchini)
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 325°. Grease a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the oil, sucanat, egg, sourdough starter, and milk. Make sure that the sucanat has mostly dissolved in the liquid. Add the grated zucchini, stirring to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the bread tests done. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan to cool on a cooling rack.

The flavor does intensify as the loaf ages. I think it’s more delicious on the second and third day after baking!

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!

I am so thrilled with this bread! You see, sourdough starter and I have had an on again-off again relationship for almost two years now. I cultivated a starter from scratch. It was bubbly and it smelled nice and sour. I used it to make pancakes and cake, with wonderful results.

But something [...]]]>

I am so thrilled with this bread! You see, sourdough starter and I have had an on again-off again relationship for almost two years now. I cultivated a starter from scratch. It was bubbly and it smelled nice and sour. I used it to make pancakes and cake, with wonderful results.

But something always went wrong when I tried to make bread. I didn’t want to give up on my starter so I tried again and again. Nothing worked…until now. I started a brand new starter from scratch last week, and just look at this bread! I suspect that my old starter may have been the source of my troubles.

These loaves rose beautifully and have a perfect springy texture and sourdough taste. I added just enough garlic for a hint of flavor without it being overwhelming. I’ll definitely be making this bread again. As soon as these two loaves are gone.

This recipe uses a firm starter, which is fermented overnight before being chopped up and incorporated into the final dough.

I decided to shape the dough into bâtards, but since I don’t own a couche, I had to improvise. I used three kitchen towels, coated with flour and rolled up so they would cradle the dough while it proofed. It worked beautifully!

After a short time in the oven, I had two spectacular loaves of bread! Crusty outside, soft inside. Just perfect.

This bread will be submitted to Yeastspotting, a weekly showcase of beautiful bread.

Roasted Garlic Sourdough Bread
Adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice
Yield: 2 loaves

Firm Starter:
2/3 cup sourdough starter
1 cup unbleached bread flour
1/8 to 1/4 cup water

Final Dough:
3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
12 cloves roasted garlic

If your starter is in the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for at least an hour before making the firm starter.

To prepare the firm starter:
In a small bowl, mix the starter and flour together. Add just enough water that the dough comes together. Mix until the flour is absorbed and the mixture is uniform. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for 4 hours, or until doubled in size. Then, leave it in the fridge overnight.

To prepare the final dough:
Remove the firm starter from the fridge 1 hour before preparing the dough. Slice it into 10 small pieces, cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.

In a large bowl, combine the bread flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. Add the starter pieces and just enough water to bring the dough together, while mixing on low speed with the paddle attachment of your mixer (or by hand with a large spoon).

Knead the dough with the dough hook on second speed for 4 minutes, let the dough rest for 10 minutes, and knead for another 4 minutes. Alternatively, knead by hand for 12 to 15 minutes. Add more flour or water as needed to make the dough just slightly tacky but not sticky. Add the roasted garlic during the last minute or two of kneading.

The dough is ready when it passes the windowpane test. Take a small piece of dough and stretch it thin. If it stretches thin enough to become opaque without tearing, the gluten is fully developed. If not, knead for a few more minutes and then test again.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, and ferment at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours (or until the dough has doubled in size).

Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into boules or bâtards. Or divide into smaller pieces for rolls. I chose to shape the dough into bâtards. To do this, pat the dough into a rectangle approximately 6 inches by 12 inches, with the long side facing you. Fold the bottom third up, letter style, then fold the top third down over and seal the seam with the edge of your hand.

Proof the dough in bannetons, on couches, or on sheet pans lined with parchment and dusted with cornmeal. I proofed my loaves on a parchment-lined peel. Cover the dough with lightly greased plastic wrap and ferment for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature. At this point you may also proof the loaves overnight in the fridge. If you choose to proof them in the fridge, remove them 4 hours before baking.

Preheat the oven to 500° for one hour. Transfer the dough to a peel, if necessary. Slide the dough onto your baking stone, or bake on a sheet pan. As soon as you place the dough in the oven, spray the oven walls with water to create steam, and close the door. After 30 seconds, spray the oven walls again. Repeat two more times. After the fourth spray, lower the oven temperature to 450°.

Bake the bread for 20-30 minutes, or until the loaves are deep golden brown and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. Cool the bread on a cooling rack for at least 45 minutes before slicing.

When I learned that bread could be baked without commercial yeast, I had to give it a try. I love finding new ways to become self-sufficient, and making bread with a wild yeast culture definitely appealed to me. Plus, it sounded like a fun science experiment with the added result of delicious homemade [...]]]>

When I learned that bread could be baked without commercial yeast, I had to give it a try. I love finding new ways to become self-sufficient, and making bread with a wild yeast culture definitely appealed to me. Plus, it sounded like a fun science experiment with the added result of delicious homemade bread.

To bake with wild yeast, the first step is to create a starter. This starter serves as a master culture of the organisms necessary to leaven a loaf of bread. A portion of the starter is used each time you bake, and the rest of the starter is refreshed for next time.

The goal is to harvest wild yeast organisms (which are present in the air you’re breathing right now) and friendly bacteria (lactobacilli). The lactobacilli and wild yeast have a symbiotic relationship.  The lactobacilli feed on flour and produce simple sugars, which the wild yeast need for sustenance.  Lactobacilli also produce acids which give sourdough its flavor.  The acids also keep other “bad” bacteria and yeast strains out.

There are many different ways to begin a sourdough culture, but I decided to use a simple method requiring just whole wheat flour and water.  Some methods use different amounts of fruit, fruit juice, commercial yeast, or multiple types of flour.  I found this simple recipe to work for me, and perhaps it will work for you as well.

Why whole wheat flour?  I have read that whole wheat flour contains more wild yeast and bacteria then all-purpose flour.  Also, I generally keep whole wheat flour in the house along with all-purpose flour, so it was readily accessible.

The length of time needed to cultivate a starter depends on a number of environmental conditions.  The temperature of the air, the type of wild yeast organisms found in your area, and the water you use to feed your starter can all have an effect on how quickly the starter gets going.  Mine took 4 days to become established.  

The first thing you’ll need is a container that can hold at least 3 cups.  It’s best to use glass, ceramic, or even plastic.  I use an old applesauce jar.  Make sure it’s been cleaned out well and then sterilized (I just run the jar through the dishwasher).

Add 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water and stir well.  Cover the jar loosely with plastic wrap and let it sit out at room temperature. I started this culture in the evening, so I’ll refer to this photo as Day 1, evening:

Do not disturb the starter for 24 hours.  Here is what my culture looked like on Day 2 (evening):

That layer of liquid on top is called hooch.  It does contain alcohol, and will probably smell like it.  It’s harmless to the culture, so you can pour it off or just mix it back in.  I usually mix it back in, unless the starter is very liquidy already.

Stir the culture a bit, and then add 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 12 hours.  On day 3 (morning), here is what I saw:

The culture is coming to life!  This is a good sign.  You can see many tiny bubbles throughout the culture, and it has risen a bit.

Stir the culture to collapse it.  You’ll need to give it another feeding at this point.  However, if we continue to double the volume of starter it will take over the kitchen.  Discard half of the starter before feeding it another 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup water.  Cover loosely and let sit for another 12 hours.

Day 3 (evening):

It’s still looking lively!  I’m not sure that it’s ready because the smell is not quite right.  It should have a sour smell but not too sour or acidic.  Stir the culture, discard half of it, and add another 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water.

Day 4 (morning):

Hmmm…not as lively, but still bubbly.  And it has separated a little.  Sometimes the sourdough will go through a dormant period, so don’t give up! If you see any bubbles at all in the mixture that’s a good sign. Stir the culture, and discard half of it.  Then add 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water.

Day 4 (evening):

This looks like a healthy sourdough culture to me! It’s bubbly and frothy on the surface, with tiny bubbles throughout the culture. It smells pleasantly sour. Keep in mind that you won’t always see the culture when it has doubled. Mine takes about 4 hours to double, so I’m usually asleep or at work when it’s at its peak.

Once your starter becomes established, you’ll only need to feed it once a day. You can either discard half of the starter or use it in baking. Then refresh with another 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water. If you’re not going to bake with it very often, you can store it in the fridge and feed it just once a week.

Sometimes the starter will develop a layer of mold on top. I’ve seen both white and black varieties of mold in my starter. This usually happens if I forget to feed the starter. Just scrape off as much of the mold as possible and proceed with the feeding. The good guys in the starter will generally demolish all the bad stuff after a good feeding.

If you’d like to read more about sourdough, here are some of my favorite sources:
Sourdough Basics by S. John Ross
Sourdough Home
Wild Yeast Blog

Get started on a sourdough culture, and check back in a few days for a sourdough bread recipe!