Saturday Update...September 8

The Pitt County Farmer's Market was rather quiet today. We bought fresh green beans, tomatoes, and cukes...that was it.

With these purchases behind us, we set out for home with the intent of making homemade pizza dough to rise until later in the day. Our niece, Leslie Anne, has asked for the recipe, so this request provides the perfect opportunity to post our pizza dough recipe below. Tonight, we topped the recipe with homemade tomato herb sauce, sauteed mushrooms, thinly sliced onions, and three cheeses (mozzarella, feta, parmesan) and pine nuts.


Les...the pizza was divine, so here is the recipe for you and Cam. You need to know the variations for your high altitudes in Colorado so that the recipe will be successful for you. Here are the high altitude facts....Looks like you will need to add a bit of additional flour and water to compensate for your 5000+ feet altitude. Here is a website providing all of the details...http://highaltitudebaking.com/adj_recipes.htm.



Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (makes 4 small pizzas…If you only want to make two small pizzas, freeze the other half of the dough AFTER it has risen.)

INGREDIENTS:
1 package dry yeast
1 tablespoon local honey
2 ¼ cups lukewarm water (105 degrees F/42 degrees C)
3 tablespoons canola or corn oil (this type of oil is recommended with whole wheat flour so the "earthiness" of the olive oil and whole wheat flour do not compete)
1 3/4 cups organic whole wheat flour
3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
1 tablespoon salt

OIL FOR AFTER BAKING:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Crushed red pepper, to taste
Garlic, if you like

DIRECTIONS:
Stir honey into the lukewarm water. When honey is dissolved, add dry yeast. Let stand until mixture is creamy….7-10 minutes. Stir in oil and whisk in 1 ½ cups of the all purpose flour and the salt, stirring until smooth. Stir in remainder of both kinds of flour until the dough comes together into a rough clump. (I do all of this in my heavyweight counter-top mixer.)

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured work surface. Sprinkle flour over the top and on your hands. Form the dough into a ball ASAP without kneading (adding flour as needed so the dough does not stick to your hands). Place into oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 3 hours to all day. If the dough rises more than 3 hours, punch dough down and let rise again (and again, if needed) until you begin to make the pizzas.

When “pizza-production” begins, cut the dough into four equal parts. Roll each fourth lightly in flour to make a “ball-like” shape. (Now is the time to freeze any dough that you will not use. Roll each ball to be frozen in plastic wrap and put these balls into zip-lock bag.) Grease pizza pans liberally with olive oil. Shape dough into ovals or rounds. Ensure that edges are thicker than center. PRECOOK dough with no toppings in 500 degree oven for 4 minutes. This will ensure a crisper crust. Remove crusts from oven, add toppings (see suggestions below), and bake in preheated 500 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until desired crispness has been achieved.

While pizza is cooking, heat ingredients noted above for OIL AFTER BAKING. Set the heated oil aside. After pizza comes out of oven, brush oil on pizza crust edges. This makes the crust crisp and incredibly delicious. Drizzle extra oil over pizza after serving.

Extra dough can be refrigerated for up to two days or frozen in an airtight container for up to one month.

FAVORITE TOPPINGS:
-JA’s fav… pesto sauce, pine nuts, and four cheeses (mozzarella, feta, parmesan, dollops of ricotta)

-Another JA fav…red sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella, feta, parmesan

-Tonight we used… Homemade red sauce with herbs (which we had in the freezer in 2 pizza portions) sautéed mushrooms, thinly sliced onions, thinly sliced red peppers, mozzarella, feta, parmesan, pine nuts, crushed red peppers)

-Another Terry and Stephen fav….pesto sauce, fresh spinach sautéed with garlic and olive oil, thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, Kalamata olives, four cheeses

Bottom line…combine any toppings that you like….the leftovers are divine!


FYI...In her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Kingsolver mentions that their regular Friday night fare is homemade pizza. Evidently, all "invited parties" bring their favorite local ingredients and multiple pizzas emerge from the oven after all ingredients are combined. What a GREAT idea!