a really shite picture but i wanted you to be able to see the bubbles in the dough.
05 April 2009
addendum
here's the finished product (after i remembered to take some pictures of it...)
a really shite picture but i wanted you to be able to see the bubbles in the dough.
a really shite picture but i wanted you to be able to see the bubbles in the dough.
'za chez nous
alas, i've got an insane backlog of kitchen projects to blog about...i'm so behind schedule that i thought i'd just go ahead and write about tonight's dinner and make up the rest a bit at a time.
so, we're on this ridiculous food budget ($82 bucks a week for two, organic and local) which means that when the mood strikes us, we're trying to channel our "let's go grab a pizza and a beer" energy into "let's make pizza and drink whatever is left in the two rando bottles of wine we have in the fridge." j found a recipe for something called "pizza bianca" in one of our old cook's illustrated magazines and we decided to make that for our sunday dinner.
personally, i find the recipes in "ci" (for those inclined to confuse that with "si," this is the one with no pictures, no advertisements, and no annual tits and ass issue...) a little cumbersome. usually, they are tried and tested and come out very well--but invariably there are more than four steps which just overwhelms me. (i'm more of an intuitive cook). anyhow, j loves direction and exactitude. he finds freedom in the kitchen to be entirely too much of a good thing and he often becomes agitated when he tries to make something from some loose recipe that suggests a lot of dashes and pinches.
okay, so tonight, j took on pizza bianca...in the pictures, it looked like kind of like an upscale sicilian pizza dough, cooked in a rimmed baking sheet instead of directly on a baking stone. we topped ours with some fresh mozzarella and a little leftover tomato sauce from friday night's spag & meatballs feed. i also plucked one lone basil leaf off of our new little seedlings so we'd have a little green on top. j minced some garlic (remember folks, take out the green middles that run through the cloves this time of year--they're bitter) and threw that on too.
so, pizza bianca, faithfully transcribed from ci, september/october 2008. after the recipe, i'll make a few comments...
pizza bianca
------------
3 cups unbleached ap flour (we are devoted to king arthur)
1 2/3 cups water, room temp
1 1/4 tsp table salt (this is the iodized morton's stuff--we don't have any of that around so j used sea salt)
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (this is the kind that comes in a jar and says bread machine yeast--buy a jar and keep it in the fridge)
1 1/4 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1. Place towel or shelf liner beneath stand mixer to prevent wobbling (seriously, this is in the instructions...ci is anality personified...). Mix flour, water, and table salt in bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook on low speed until no patches of dry flour remain, 3-4 minutes, occasionally scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Turn off mixer and let dough rest, 20 minutes.
2. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over dough. Knead on low speed until fully combined, 1-2 minutes, occasionally scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Increase speed to high and knead until dough is glossy, smooth, and pulls away from sides of bowl, 6-10 minutes. (dough will only pull away from sides while mixer is on).
3. Using fingers, coat large bowl with 1 tbps olive oil, rubbing excess oil from fingers onto rubber spatula. Using oiled spatula, transfer dough to bowl and pour 1 tbsp oil over top. Flip dough over once so it is well coated with oil; cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let dough rise (you need a room temp around 75--i you're house isn't that warm yet, turn the oven on to the lowest heat for about five minutes; turn off, open door for about 5 minutes more, and place dough in oven, with door cracked. When it's time to heat up the oven for baking the 'za, take the bowl out and leave it on top of the stove) until nearly tripled in volume and large bubbles have formed, 2-2 1/2 hours.
4. One hour before baking, adjust oven rack to middle position, place pizza stone on rack (a completely worthwhile investment, btw), and heat oven to 450 degrees.
5. (I promise, we're almost through...) Coat rimmed baking sheet with 2 tbsps olive oil. Using rubber spatula (remember, the one you coated with olive oil?), turn the (very wet, very flubbery) dough out onto baking sheet along with any oil in the bowl. Using fingertips, press dough toward edges of pan, taking care not to tear it (this is the fun part). The dough doesn't really want to tear but it doesn't want to stretch either. If is makes it hard to spread out, leave it be for a few minutes and return to it after it's gotten used to being flat. This was EXTREMELY forgiving dough, though, so don't be nervous. Just try not to tamp down all those gorgeous bubbles. Okay, so you let the dough rest (after stretching it out) for another 5-10 minutes. Then, using a fork, you poke some holes in the surface (j forgot to do this, no harm, no foul). If you're going to use cheese and sauce (like we did), omit kosher salt. If you are going to bake it au natural, sprinkle a tsp of kosher salt on the dough. You could also choose to add rosemary or thyme or any other hearty herb at this stage.
6. So, now, the moment you've been waiting for. You put the baking sheet in the oven (on top of the baking stone...) and bake for 20-30 minutes. In our case, we took it out after about 15 minutes (it was already browning up really nicely with lots of lovely golden brown spots forming on the top), threw some thinly sliced fresh mozz and a few dollops of our leftover sauce (it was very thick, btw. I'd avoid using a watery sauce) on top and put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so. At that point, we pulled it out, threw the garlic on top, and baked for another five. The cheese was adhered to the crust and the sauce looked set. We pulled it out and J ran under the whole thing with a spatula to make sure it hadn't stuck (it had in a few places so he unstuck it...). You want it to come out easily (the dough will be very crisp so this is not hard to achieve). Put it on a wooden board (we use our biggest cutting board; plastic will make the bottom go soggy sooner), cut it up with a pizza wheel, and mangia.
All in all, this sounds difficult but it was spectacularly easy--especially considering how well it turned out. You could top it with any number of lovely things; I was thinking of caramelized onions and goat cheese myself. Maybe a few quartered figs at the last minute? You could also make a nice asiago and garlic pizza with some red chili flakes. You get the idea.
The dough itself turned out beautifully...light, airy, and crisp. Even made the craptastic wine we drank with it seem sophisticated...
photos to follow momentarily...they didn't come out too well but we are dining by candlelight.
dessert is buttermilk panna cotta with strawberry-kumquat compote. yeah, we wish you were here too.
so, we're on this ridiculous food budget ($82 bucks a week for two, organic and local) which means that when the mood strikes us, we're trying to channel our "let's go grab a pizza and a beer" energy into "let's make pizza and drink whatever is left in the two rando bottles of wine we have in the fridge." j found a recipe for something called "pizza bianca" in one of our old cook's illustrated magazines and we decided to make that for our sunday dinner.
personally, i find the recipes in "ci" (for those inclined to confuse that with "si," this is the one with no pictures, no advertisements, and no annual tits and ass issue...) a little cumbersome. usually, they are tried and tested and come out very well--but invariably there are more than four steps which just overwhelms me. (i'm more of an intuitive cook). anyhow, j loves direction and exactitude. he finds freedom in the kitchen to be entirely too much of a good thing and he often becomes agitated when he tries to make something from some loose recipe that suggests a lot of dashes and pinches.
okay, so tonight, j took on pizza bianca...in the pictures, it looked like kind of like an upscale sicilian pizza dough, cooked in a rimmed baking sheet instead of directly on a baking stone. we topped ours with some fresh mozzarella and a little leftover tomato sauce from friday night's spag & meatballs feed. i also plucked one lone basil leaf off of our new little seedlings so we'd have a little green on top. j minced some garlic (remember folks, take out the green middles that run through the cloves this time of year--they're bitter) and threw that on too.
so, pizza bianca, faithfully transcribed from ci, september/october 2008. after the recipe, i'll make a few comments...
pizza bianca
------------
3 cups unbleached ap flour (we are devoted to king arthur)
1 2/3 cups water, room temp
1 1/4 tsp table salt (this is the iodized morton's stuff--we don't have any of that around so j used sea salt)
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (this is the kind that comes in a jar and says bread machine yeast--buy a jar and keep it in the fridge)
1 1/4 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1. Place towel or shelf liner beneath stand mixer to prevent wobbling (seriously, this is in the instructions...ci is anality personified...). Mix flour, water, and table salt in bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook on low speed until no patches of dry flour remain, 3-4 minutes, occasionally scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Turn off mixer and let dough rest, 20 minutes.
2. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over dough. Knead on low speed until fully combined, 1-2 minutes, occasionally scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Increase speed to high and knead until dough is glossy, smooth, and pulls away from sides of bowl, 6-10 minutes. (dough will only pull away from sides while mixer is on).
3. Using fingers, coat large bowl with 1 tbps olive oil, rubbing excess oil from fingers onto rubber spatula. Using oiled spatula, transfer dough to bowl and pour 1 tbsp oil over top. Flip dough over once so it is well coated with oil; cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let dough rise (you need a room temp around 75--i you're house isn't that warm yet, turn the oven on to the lowest heat for about five minutes; turn off, open door for about 5 minutes more, and place dough in oven, with door cracked. When it's time to heat up the oven for baking the 'za, take the bowl out and leave it on top of the stove) until nearly tripled in volume and large bubbles have formed, 2-2 1/2 hours.
4. One hour before baking, adjust oven rack to middle position, place pizza stone on rack (a completely worthwhile investment, btw), and heat oven to 450 degrees.
5. (I promise, we're almost through...) Coat rimmed baking sheet with 2 tbsps olive oil. Using rubber spatula (remember, the one you coated with olive oil?), turn the (very wet, very flubbery) dough out onto baking sheet along with any oil in the bowl. Using fingertips, press dough toward edges of pan, taking care not to tear it (this is the fun part). The dough doesn't really want to tear but it doesn't want to stretch either. If is makes it hard to spread out, leave it be for a few minutes and return to it after it's gotten used to being flat. This was EXTREMELY forgiving dough, though, so don't be nervous. Just try not to tamp down all those gorgeous bubbles. Okay, so you let the dough rest (after stretching it out) for another 5-10 minutes. Then, using a fork, you poke some holes in the surface (j forgot to do this, no harm, no foul). If you're going to use cheese and sauce (like we did), omit kosher salt. If you are going to bake it au natural, sprinkle a tsp of kosher salt on the dough. You could also choose to add rosemary or thyme or any other hearty herb at this stage.
6. So, now, the moment you've been waiting for. You put the baking sheet in the oven (on top of the baking stone...) and bake for 20-30 minutes. In our case, we took it out after about 15 minutes (it was already browning up really nicely with lots of lovely golden brown spots forming on the top), threw some thinly sliced fresh mozz and a few dollops of our leftover sauce (it was very thick, btw. I'd avoid using a watery sauce) on top and put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so. At that point, we pulled it out, threw the garlic on top, and baked for another five. The cheese was adhered to the crust and the sauce looked set. We pulled it out and J ran under the whole thing with a spatula to make sure it hadn't stuck (it had in a few places so he unstuck it...). You want it to come out easily (the dough will be very crisp so this is not hard to achieve). Put it on a wooden board (we use our biggest cutting board; plastic will make the bottom go soggy sooner), cut it up with a pizza wheel, and mangia.
All in all, this sounds difficult but it was spectacularly easy--especially considering how well it turned out. You could top it with any number of lovely things; I was thinking of caramelized onions and goat cheese myself. Maybe a few quartered figs at the last minute? You could also make a nice asiago and garlic pizza with some red chili flakes. You get the idea.
The dough itself turned out beautifully...light, airy, and crisp. Even made the craptastic wine we drank with it seem sophisticated...
photos to follow momentarily...they didn't come out too well but we are dining by candlelight.
dessert is buttermilk panna cotta with strawberry-kumquat compote. yeah, we wish you were here too.
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