A combined effort

Saturday night we still had some Pizza dough left over from the previous nights festivities. As in last week's attempt, the dough with the higher proportion of whole wheat did not rise in time for the main event- Luckily, to not disappoint my guests I knew that this was a distinct possibility, my daughter and I made a back up dough using less whole wheat flour. The "just in case" dough saved my butt and my guests not disappointed. 


But what to do with the remaining dough? After one too many glasses of wine my husband and I forgot about the dough rising in the back, it was left out over night. The next morning in a panic barely roused from bed I ran to check its progress. I was expecting the worst, a doughy gooey mess uncontainable by the bowl.  What I found was a nicely risen dough and that is when my husband and I hatched our plan. I gently punched it down and left it until later.


Ever since we got our latest and last issue of Gourmet Magazine my husband had been eyeing a particular Pizza Patate (p36)   a recipe by Jim Lahey and the author of my bread- The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method. We didn't need to use Lahey's particular dough recipe but my husband was just as eager to do the "potato pizza" part.The results were spectacular. The high whole wheat dough was perfect for this dish and due to the extra long ferment and rise, had a well developed crumb. I may even be as bold as to say that the whole wheat component may even be better suited to this dish as it gave a rich nutty flavour that was harmonious with the crispy potatoes and sweet onions; then again I will have to try a side by side.


As well as being an ideal autumn comfort meal, it is also a predominately local one. The potatoes are from one of the years last farmer's market, rosemary from our backyard and the whole wheat flour from the Urban Grains CSA.


Photo by me.

Little Helper

Tomorrow is the big night ,when we invite friends and family over for chow, the "kids" get to sit on the floor in the living room and we all eat Pizza.

Why am I talking about this now, when it is only Thursday? Well because last night Billie and I made our dough. She agrees with me "a long ferment is best". 

Experiments

The big event is Pizza night Friday nights. Pizza is and always should be with a capital P. I am constantly trying to out geek myself and last week I think I did it, so this week there is a lot of pressure on me.

I have spent the last five years becoming more and more obsessed with this culinary treat, one that most people don't think of as a gourmet food, true there has been a revival of late with fancy obscure toppings but what about the grass roots? Simple, classic, and clean flavour? Crust, Sauce, Cheese with minimal adornment. For that reason we do two types, the classic margarita and a fennel salami, but this blog is about the crust - this is the vehicle.

Pizza has an immediacy to it, the first bite, hot from the oven. It has a slight crunch, not crisp like a cracker but nearly. The texture should give slightly but have some chew. The flavour should be subtle with a slight tang and there should be air. My first recipe for pizza dough was simply yeast, salt, water and flour. It still is, but because I learned to crawl before I could walk, I can now run.

Experiment after experiment I have finally come up with a base recipe that works for me, so now I can play with it. One of our friends joined the first grain CSA in our area and share some of the product with us. I am trying two separate batches with two different whole wheat grains- a Hard Red Winter and a Hard Red Spring Wheat. Tomorrow night will be the Winter slowly fermenting in the refrigerator and next week the Spring safely stored in the freezer.

 photos by me

The dough was a minor disaster- but not major enough that it couldn't be fix by time. I allowed another day of resting and rising and it made an adequate crust. I now have some experience and can make adjustments  next time.