Recipe for Herbed Pizza Dough-Secret Recipe Club

It's been a while since I made homemade dough of any kind.  I was making fresh bread every week for a while but events this year have had me away from home a lot, so no dough making for me recently.  It was therefore easy to pick the recipe from my Secret Recipe Club assignment this month!

Dee from On The Move is from Seattle but she and her hubby spend half the year cruising on their Motor Vessel Rhapsody.  Dee shares her activities in the galley on her food blog On The Move-In The Galley and this is where I found her pizza dough recipe, adapted from a Bonita Atkins recipe.

I had never made dough with semolina flour before.  It gave a nice structure and color to the dough.  I loved adding in the herbs to the dough for more flavor.  I did find the dough a bit persnickety when it came to shaping, but persistence paid off and we really enjoyed this new dough recipe.  I made one pizza that night and put the other dough ball in the freezer.  

Turkey pepperoni, mushroom, mozzarella, red pepper with some sprinkled Parmigiano-Reggiano and fresh basil; the raw crust brushed with a little olive oil and a little store bought red pizza sauce.

As per my usual routine, I made the pizza on a peel sprinkled with cornmeal, and then cooked on a preheated pizza stone at 500 degrees for about 12-15 minutes.

LOL, Mr. ELEB just walked by as I am typing this and said "That pizza was really good!" as he looked at the pictures.  And there you go.  What better endorsement?

Yield: 2 medium pizza crusts
Time: 65 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 pkgs dry yeast (each 1/4 oz)
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (115 degrees)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 cups AP flour plus more for shaping
• 1 1/2 cups semolina flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 TBSP EVOO (plus more for brushing dough before adding toppings)
• 2 TBSP mixed Italian dry herbs
• Cornmeal for sprinkling on pizza peel if using
• Pizza toppings of your choice

Method:

• Dissolve yeast in warm water in a mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer).
• Add the sugar and AP flour and beat vigorously for 1 minute (The dough is like cake batter at this point).
• Heat oven to 150 degrees and place mixing bowl on shelf partially pulled out, with oven door open. Leave to rise uncovered for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, stir the dough down and add semolina flour, salt, EVOO and herbs.
• Preheat oven to 500 degrees with pizza stone inside.
• Using dough hook on mixer, knead for 8 minutes, adding more AP flour as needed to prevent sticking and so a dough ball forms (I had to add about 1/3 cup).
• Turn dough out on floured surface and divide and shape into 2 balls.
• Wrap one ball in oiled plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag in freezer.
• Shape other ball into about a 13 inch crust, place on cornmeal dusted peel, brush with EVOO then add sauce and toppings.
• Cook on pizza stone for 12-15 minutes until crust is nicely browned and toppings are cooked to your liking.

Thanks Dee for sharing the recipe and happy cruising!

Printable recipe

Recipe for Squash, Apple and Bacon Pizza

Hope you enjoyed a wonderful Christmas!


Here is a pizza with an amazing combination of flavors. I could (and did) literally eat the sauce of pureed squash/apples/onions, sour cream and bacon with a spoon.  That combination will be featured soon as a stand alone casserole!

Doesn't that look delicious?!

A little blurry. Here is the pizza as it was going in to the oven.  Homemade whole wheat pizza dough, spread with the squash puree, then topped with more of the roasted squash and apples, caramelized onions, and bacon.


I got the inspiration from a recipe for a squash and apple galette from Cheryl and Adam over at Picture Perfect Meals.  I enjoy their blog-they are recipe developers and food photographers.  I thought the combination would be great for a different twist on pizza.  


Pizza needs some sort of sauce (or that is a belief held in our household).  I originally thought about a thin layer of sour cream but decided it needed more than that.  I started with pureed squash and just started throwing stuff in the food processor.  The sauce ended up being divine, and as I mentioned, it could stand alone as a squash casserole.


The caramelized onions look carbonized in the photos.  They tasted fine but next time, I would add them on for the last few minutes of cooking time.


Yield: 3 servings (depends on the size of your pizza crust)
Time: 45 minutes


Ingredients:

• Your favorite pizza dough (I used the whole wheat one from Hertzberg and Francois' Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day)
• 2 cups cubed butternut squash
• 1 cup cubed Granny Smith apple
• 1 cup thinly sliced onions
• 3 TBSP plus 1 tsp olive oil, divided
• 3/4 tsp dried sage
• 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 TBSP pure maple syrup
• Salt and pepper
• 1 TBSP butter
• 6 slices bacon
• 1/3 cup low fat sour cream

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Mix squash and apple with 2 TBSP olive oil, sage, nutmeg, syrup and generous sprinkle of salt and pepper.
• Spread squash/apple mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes.
• While veggies are roasting melt butter in 1 TBSP olive oil over medium low heat and cook onions until soft and lightly caramelized.
• Also, cook, drain and chop bacon.
• Adjust oven for pizza crust (for me, 500 degrees).
• Add 1/2 of squash mixture, 1/2 of onions, and the sour cream to food processor and puree until smooth.
• Stir in 1/2 of bacon.
• Prepare pizza dough (spread/roll on a cornmeal dusted parchment on a pizza peel).
• Spread about 1/2 of puree over dough (or more if making a large pizza; save any leftovers!).
• Top with enough of the reserved squash/apple mixture to sparsely cover (you don't want to "over top" it).
• Sprinkle with remaining bacon and onions (or reserve onions and drop on for the last few minutes of cooking time).
• Brush rim of crust with 1 tsp of olive oil.
• Bake for 5 minutes on the parchment on a pizza stone then carefully remove parchment with the help of a large spatula and continue cooking for a total of 12-15 minutes.

We really enjoyed this pizza and I can't wait to make the casserole as a side dish.  How can you go wrong with bacon and caramelized onions after all?


Printable recipe

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).