what to do with leftover pizza dough

My posts here have been SLOW lately. It's not that I haven't been cooking, but rather that life has been pulling in many other (good but time-consuming) directions. I've actually had the intention to post several times over the nearly two months that have gone by since my last...but time passes and I forget how to put together the random notes I have written on stickies, lose the compelling angle to the recipe I was going to describe, or the photos get buried among others of travel, ferris wheels, and weddings.

This time, I am not going to let that happen.

For the past few days, Randy's cousin, Jeff, and Jeff's son, Sam, have been visiting. They've been exploring much of LA and the surrounding area - venturing so far as San Bernadino yesterday for a quest to Randy Rhoad's (guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne) tomb. All of this exploring means the need for sustenance is great. Or at least that's one of the ways I've rationalized making all of the food we have in the past few days.

Homemade pizza on Friday night saw Randy making an extra batch of dough just as stomachs were starting to feel full. He of course already had a plan for the extra dough - something I had done the last time we made pizzas and had too much pre-made purchased dough on hand - homemade cinnamon rolls.

I cobbled the following together from a few different recipes. We ate the leftovers reheated in the oven this morning, enjoying the last bits of the sticky goodness. Rather than repeat the dough recipe here, I'll refer you back to the last post that details Rudy's special dough.

A Little Orange Cinnamon Rolls
Serves 8-10

Rolls:
1 recipe pizza dough (minus a small pizza, in our case*)
Flour for dusting
2 Tbsp. butter, melted plus more to grease pan
1 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. cinnamon
*I used the 8x8 square pan pictured plus a smaller version that fit 4 additional rolls; with a full batch of dough, I'd recommend using a 9x13" baking dish.

Topping:
2 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature
2 Tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp. vanilla
about a cup powdered sugar

Grease pan with butter. Roll prepared dough into a large rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Stir together brown sugar and cinnamon. Spoon mixture evenly over butter-coated dough. Beginning with long side facing you, roll dough into a long roll. Use a sharp knife to cut into 1 1/2" slices. Arrange slices side by side in baking pan and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 30 minutes to overnight (I did the latter - makes for an easy morning breakfast).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove rolls from fridge and discard plastic wrap. Bake rolls until golden, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix topping ingredients, adding more sugar as needed to get a paste-like consistency. Spoon over hot rolls after they come out of the oven. Let sit a few minutes for the sugary buttery topping to melt; enjoy while still warm.

pizza pizza

Lesson 1 from the pizza-baking adventure earlier this week: after a pizza comes out of a 500 degree oven, even after it has sat for a bit and in spite of the fact that you really want to experience it's deliciousness, be cautious. And watch out for a tomato that is out to get you, like the incredibly hot one that slipped from the crust when I took my first bite and decided to attach itself to my chin. Ouch. 

Lesson 2: prebake the crust.

It was a certain someone's birthday earlier this week. I can't recall a time we've gone into a kitchen store together when he hasn't admired a pizza stone or peel, so those had been on my list for him for a while now. Pizza tools plus an evening baking pizzas together sounded like a fun way to celebrate the special day.

I made the dough in late afternoon (using a flour blend that claimed to be the perfect mixture for fabulous pizza crust - it seemed to work fine) and let it rise until we were ready to bake. Neither of us were clear on whether we should pre-bake the crusts or not (due to recipes with conflicting guidance), so we decided to try both ways. After all, we had enough dough for 4 pizzas...might as well experiment, right?

We also experimented with toppings. We started with the standard margarita pictured at the beginning of this post: homemade tomato sauce plus fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. Pizza number two is shown below (recipe follows). Pizzas three and four were combinations of the toppings on the first two. My favorite was definitely pizza number two. In one word: delicious. And it didn't contain a single attacking tomato.

Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Gorgonzola and Other Great Things
homemade or store-bought pizza dough, ready to be topped (see lesson 2)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
a handful of crimini mushrooms, sliced
2-3 oz. gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
prosciutto, thinly sliced
a handful or two of arugula

Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Cook onion until caramel brown, about 10 minutes. Spread onions evenly over pizza dough. Top with mushroom slices and gorgonzola. Bake until crust is golden*. Remove from oven. Top individual slices with prosciutto and arugula. Drizzle with olive oil.
*With a hot pizza stone in a 500-degree oven and pretty thin pre-baked crust, this took about 11 minutes for us, but cooking time will vary as all of these inputs do.

pissaladière

I think the picture says it better than words can: yum.

Pissaladiere is a type of French pizza. I learned from Wikipedia that it is popular in southern France (especially around Nice, Marseilles, Toulon, and the Var District), as well as in the Italian region of Liguria. Pissaladiere is known as a white pizza, as it contains no tomatoes, and is traditionally topped with caramelized onions, olives, and anchovies. After making and consuming it last night, I'm going to consider it heaven on a plate.

Allow me to indulge in a brief aside: my cleanse is over. Not finished (as you may recall, I began the 28 day cleanse on February 1st), but rather, I'm done with it. After nearly 3 weeks of no wheat, sugar, or dairy, I'm seeing most of the benefits I was hoping for (I think I've kicked the chocolate and wine before bed habit, I'm sleeping much better, waking up each morning with energy, and my jeans fit better) and I really miss cooking with some of these ingredients! So I'm going to call this round complete (slightly ahead of my 30th birthday, which was my intent anyway, just a little bigger "slightly" than initially planned) and plan to give it another go in summer, where there will be a greater variety of fruits and veggies to consume.

Back to the French pizza: I've been thinking about pissaladiere since I copied down the recipe over Christmas at my mom's house (from A Taste of the World). As I read through the recipe again yesterday, my mouth began to water. Now seemed the perfect time to try it out.

The result? The combination of sweet caramelized onions and salty olives and anchovies was turned out just as great as I had imagined it would be. The thyme and marjoram provided perfect bits of additional flavor in perfect proportions. For vegetarians reading, it would be good without the anchovies as well, you may just want to dial up the salty olives a bit.

The original recipe sounded like it would be huge, so I halved it. I also omitted winter savory sprigs from the confit, mostly because I didn't have the patience at the grocery store to locate them, and played with the amounts of some of the other ingredients. The recipe below reflects my modifications. The instructions make the process sound much more involved than it is - most of the preparation time is inactive (onions baking, dough rising). And I promise, once you taste this, you'll realize the bit of labor to get there was totally worth it...

Pissaladiere

Serves 4

confit:

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced

2 bay leaves

4 fresh thyme sprigs

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 Tbsp. olive oil

dough:

1 packet active dry yeast

1/2 c. lukewarm water

1/2 tsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more to oil bowl

1 1/2 c. flour, plus more for kneading and rolling

toppings:

10 anchovy fillets

10 oil cured black olives, pitted and halved

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp. minced fresh marjoram

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cut butter into pieces and put in a shallow baking dish. Melt in oven 5 minutes. Remove dish, add onions to it. Tear bay leaves and sprinkle over onions. Add thyme sprigs, pepper, salt, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake, turning every 10-15 minutes, until light golden brown, 60-90 minutes. Remove from oven. Discard bay leaf pieces and thyme sprigs.

Meanwhile, prepare dough. Dissolve yeast in warm water in a small bowl. Add sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy. Combine yeast mix, salt, olive oil, and flour in mixer. Process until a silky but firm ball forms. If too wet, add a little flour at a time; if too dry, dribble with warm water.

Turn dough onto well-floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic. Oil a large bowl with olive oil. Transfer dough to bowl. Cover with a damp towel and let stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size - 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough, recover with towel, and let rest for 30 additional minutes.

Lightly flour an 8x13 rimmed cookie sheet or baking dish. Position rack in upper third of oven. Preheat to 500 degrees. Punch down dough and turn out onto lightly floured surface. Roll into a large rectangle. Transfer to baking dish. Spread with onion confit, arrange anchovies and olives on top. Bake until crisp and lightly browned, 12-15 minutes.

Serve warm, drizzled with olive oil and topped with fresh marjoram.

We ate ours along side a simple salad and bowls of fresh tomato and basil soup. Cut it into small pieces, it would make an excellent dinner party appetizer.

One year ago: spicy bok choy soup

eggplant pizza

Pizza and a movie with Marika: a great Friday evening.

Here's what we ate:

Eggplant Pizza

olive oil

1 small eggplant, sliced into 1/4" rounds

prepared pizza dough (I typically use this one)

2 c. of your favorite tomato sauce

1 small red onion, chopped

4 oz. mozzarella, grated

a couple pinches of red pepper flakes

Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add eggplant (as many rounds as will comfortably fit) in a single layer. Cook 3-4 minutes. Drizzle with additional olive oil. Flip and cook on other side 3-4 minutes, until eggplant is tender. Set aside and repeat with additional eggplant if needed.

On the prepared pizza dough, spread tomato sauce. Sprinkle with chopped red onions. Place the eggplant rounds over the sauce and onions in a single layer. Cover with cheese. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.

Cook according to pizza dough directions.

YUM!

heirloom tomato margherita pizza

Here's a simple pizza I made with the heirloom tomatoes we had on hand earlier this week:

Heirloom Tomato Margherita Pizza

prepared pizza dough; (I use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free mix)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

5 Tbsp. olive oil

6 oz. mozzarella, grated

2-3 heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 bunch of basil, julienned

Prebake pizza dough according to directions. Mince garlic into a small bowl. Add olive oil. Brush garlic and oil mixture over dough. Top with half of the basil and grated cheese. Place tomatoes in a single layer, covering pizza. Drizzle with more olive oil.

Bake 15-18 minutes (or according to package directions), until crust edges are golden. Remove from oven and top with remaining basil.

amazing spinach and ricotta pizza

My cleanse is officially over! I made it through 4 weeks of no dairy, gluten, refined sugar, meat, caffeine, and alcohol (the cleanse I was following is outlined in The Complete Guide to Nutritional Health). I feel terrific - I'm sleeping better, have more energy throughout the day, am more motivated to exercise, and not really craving any of the items I've cut out. Not really craving, however I did complete my cleanse pretty excited to eat some cheese (and chocolate)!

In fact, I've been feeling so good throughout the cleanse that I've decided to continue to eliminate gluten, meat, and refined sugar from my diet. I'm also going to treat dairy as a special treat (like brie and crackers on Bachelorette night), rather than incorporate it into almost every meal, as had become the habit prior to the past month.

My first special treat post-cleanse was this pizza. If you've been following this blog for awhile, you may recall that I've posted before about the dismal pizza options on the peninsula. So when I want good pizza, I've taken to making my own. This obviously also lets you have complete control over the ingredients that go into the pizza, which meant in this case that I was able to test out a gluten-free crust. (You could certainly make this pizza with a non-gluten free crust as well.)

I was optimistic, but skeptical that a gluten-free pizza crust would be as good as a traditional crust. To improve my odds of success, rather than play around with combining various gluten-free flours, I decided to go with a packaged mix. I've had great luck in the past with Bob's Red Mill flours (you may recall the oat flour from my recent post, vegan gluten-free date newtons), so I went with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Pizza Crust Mix (which even comes with yeast, so all you need to add is water).

The crust turned out awesome. I'm not sure if it's because this was the first time in a month that I'd ingested any dairy, but I'd list this pizza in the top 5 (maybe even top 3?) of best pizzas that I've ever eaten. It's based on a recipe from the July 2009 edition of Cooking Light, to which I made a few minor tweaks. Here's what I did:

Amazing Spinach & Ricotta (gluten-free!) Pizza

Serves 4

olive oil

dough for one large pizza (as mentioned, mine was gluten-free)

1 c. marinara sauce

2 c. baby spinach

3 Tbsp. freshly grated parmesan

5 oz. mozzarella, grated

1/3 c. ricotta cheese

2 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

about 1/4 c. fresh basil, chopped into thin strips

1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly oil a perforated pizza pan. Place dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll into a circle. Transfer to prepared pan. (The original recipe calls for you to roll the dough into a 12-inch pizza. The pizza dough mix I was using allowed me to get the crust to 16 inches. I also followed the cooking instructions on the package - which I don't have any longer or would post here as well - which meant some pre-baking and a slightly longer overall cooking time than outlined below.)

Brush dough with olive oil. Spread sauce evenly over dough, leaving a 1/4 inch border. Top with spinach, parmesan, and mozzarella (in that order). Spoon teaspoonfuls of ricotta over mozzarella.

Bake for 12 minutes or until mozzarella melts and crust browns. Let stand for 5 minutes. Top with tomato slices, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes. Cut into 8 pieces. Enjoy!

homemade pizza!

One of the (very few) disappointments of our locale on the peninsula is that we have not found any good, local pizza. This might be partly because we left behind a few fantastic pizza places in Seattle. Some nights I long for Pagliacci's AGOG Primo and Pagliaccio Salad, or a slice from Atlantic Street. What we've found in our area so far just hasn't measured up. So we've taken to making our own.

Tonight's pizza topping combo is courtesy of Jennifer Kurkoski (fellow Googler and culinary sage). I'm going to put it all onto a cornmeal crust. I think it's quite possibly the best pizza I've ever made. 

Pear Gorgonzola Pizza

Cornmeal pizza dough:

2 tsp. active dry yeast

pinch of sugar

2/3 c. warm water

1 2/3 c. flour (plus more for work surface)

1/4 c. cornmeal (plus more for baking sheet)

1 1/2 tsp. coarse salt

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (plus more for bowl)

Toppings:

6 oz. gorgonzola, crumbled

1 large portobello mushroom

8 oz. mozzarella, shredded

1 large pear

olive oil

Sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water in a small bowl. Let stand until yeast is dissolved and mixture is foamy (about 10 minutes). 

Combine flour, cornmeal, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, add yeast mixture and oil to the well. Slowly stir with a wooden spoon until dough just starts to come together (sprinkle with flour if dough is too sticky, but not so much that it becomes dry). Transfer to lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Rub oil over dough and return to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for about an hour (the dough should double in size). 

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Transfer dough to floured surface and knead for 30 seconds. Sprinkle cornmeal on baking sheet. Using fingers, press dough out on baking sheet to desired size. (Word of warning: dust off the extra cornmeal at this point before baking, otherwise there might be some smoke and the fire alarm might go off. That might have happened tonight!)

Brush the dough with olive oil and bake (about 8 minutes). Thinly slice mushroom and pear. Layer mushroom, gorgonzola, pear, and mozzarella (in that order) onto mostly baked crust. Return to oven. Bake until cheese is golden (about 5 minutes).

Add a simple spinach salad (tonight's version includes apples and walnuts) and we have a not altogether unhealthy meal to accompany our weekly viewing of the Bachelor. Perhaps it will be so tasty that Marika will weigh in with a comment this week!