Pizza Party!

If you have followed the blog for a while, you know I am a fan of Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois' "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" and "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day".  After following their recipes on line, I finally bought the books and have had fun making artisan bread following their method for no knead bread.


When I was in Atlanta recently, I had the opportunity to meet the authors and receive a copy of their new book  "Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day". 

Hey, there is something wrong with my wine glass!

I've spent some time going through the book and we had a small pizza party this week where I tried out the Master Recipe.  I was a little nervous as we are used to at least partially whole wheat pizza dough and this was made with all white flour.  Silly me.  It was an amazing crust!


We made a simple mozzarella, tomato and sage (for something different instead of basil) pizza and a pear, prosciutto, and blue cheese pizza.  Served with a simple salad and some wine, voilà, the makings of a perfect evening.

Dough freshly mixed

Dough ball

Pear, prosciutto, and blue cheese pizza with pine nuts and asiago cheese

Simple mozzarella and sauce with sage pizza

Wow was that good!

If you haven't seen the book yet (what are you waiting for?) here is a link to the master dough recipe (I halved it and had enough left over for at least one more 2 person pizza after our party).  Make sure you get UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour...a lot of what the grocery stores carry is bleached and the authors tell us that the bleaching takes out some of the protein which messes with the chemistry of the dough.  Who knew?  That is only one thing I like about the book, in addition to fabulous recipes, all kinds of helpful information about ingredients.  For more of what I like about the book, here is my review on Amazon.  (I received the book as a gift from the authors, the opinions are mine).

Book Review: "On A Stick" by Matt Armendariz (and recipe)

Photo by Matt Armendariz, used with permission

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to receive a free review copy of a new fun and quirky cookbook, “On a Stick!” by photographer and blogger Matt Armendariz, published by Quirk Books, May 2011.   Ha!  Quirky cookbook, published by Quirk books-unplanned, honestly!  OK, moving on.  I follow Matt’s blog (mattbites.com) so I was enthusiastic to see what in the world he had come up with for his “anything on a stick” cookbook.

Well, Matt did not disappoint!  Now, I’m not saying I’d make everything in this cookbook. However, there are plenty of fun appetizer or snack ideas that I would make and others that will inspire me to adapt the recipes to my ingredients/style. 

Any cookbook based on street food and country fair treats is bound to have its share of fried, and I mean deep fried, goodies.  Think pineapple funnels (spears of pineapple wrapped in funnel cake batter and deep fried), deep fried candy bars (no explanation needed!), suppli (fried risotto stuffed with cheese), and deep fried mac ‘n’ cheese (again, you can probably figure that one out). 

But what I really liked about the cookbook is that those jaw-dropping, fun to read about, heart attack inducing, oh so delicious recipes are interspersed between good for you ones like dak sanjuk (Korean marinated chicken and veggies), caprese sticks (as you’d imagine but with regular and sun-dried tomatoes), fresh mango with chili powder (just as described with a squeeze of lime and touch of salt), and fruit salad skewers (beautiful skewers, perfect for kids of all ages).

As you can imagine, Matt has produced a cookbook with a beautiful full page picture of each of the 80 completed recipes.  Ah, to be able to get those kinds of photos.  Oh, well, one can only dream!

I was on a Twitter chat where Matt was the featured guests and I asked him what was the inspiration for the Fudge Puppies on page 157 of the book.  “I really wanted something chilly, chocolatety, and messy in the book!”  Not one to pass up much in the way of chocolate myself, I thought I’d give them a try.

Time: 60 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 wooden sticks
• 2 frozen Belgian waffles, toasted and cut down the middle
• 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

• Insert a wooden stick into each half waffle and freeze about 30 minutes.
• Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Dip frozen waffle sticks in melted chocolate, creating a thin, even layer.  Place on baking sheet and let chocolate set before serving.

Tip from Matt-Before chocolate sets completely you can dip Fudge Puppies in chopped peanuts, sprinkles, or homemade whipped cream.

I need to work on my dipping technique to get that "thin, even layer"!

Well done Matt!  Classic fair food at home.  Next, I think I should try the spam and pineapple skewers, don’t you think?  (Maybe with low salt turkey spam.)

Matt’s book is available on Amazon here. FYI, I am not compensated for reviewing or linking to Amazon.

Printable recipe