Monday, August 19, 2013

whole wheat pizza {working with yeast}

After a successful class on pizza making I was feeling quite confident and decided to give a try at home... from scratch.... with only my faulty memory to go on...

Are you getting where I am going with this?

Well, I remembered how I was supposed to do baby CPR on the dough and then turn it around on my fists like I was a boxer, and it did spin out nicely to fill my pie tray... but the end result was, um, well, how do I say?

Yeasty. Yes, yeasty. In a bad way. I am not sure what went wrong.

I found a pretty basic recipe at Girl Versus Dough.

Ridiculously Easy Pizza Dough
Makes two pies. From Girl Versus Dough.

3 and 3/4 cup flour (one cup whole wheat, the rest bread dough)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/3 cup warm water
1 package yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup ice water
Olive oil

Topping
1/2 cup tomato puree
Small ball of mozzarella cheese, sliced
5 basil leaves
Whatever else you like - the sky's the limit - we used chicken sausage slices

1. Whisk flour and salt. Make a well and add warm water, sugar and yeast. When foamy, mix in 3 tablespoons olive oil; knead until smooth, 5 minutes. Brush with olive oil, cover in a bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Divide into two 1-pound balls. Use 1 pound per recipe (I then left one ball in the fridge  - and one in the freezer which I will use later- for a whole day until I had time to make the pie.).

2. Take one ball and push lightly on the edges moving outward (baby CPR) until the dough is a disk. Then drape it over your fists, held like you are a boxer, and turn it slowly around. It will stretch gently, hopefully without tearing. Place on a pizza tray and press out further until it reaches the outer edge of the pan.

3. Cover with a thin layer of crushed tomato puree. Place cheese slices and anything else you like around the pie.

4. Cook at the highest heat you can make your oven (around 500 degrees) for 15 minutes. Add basil leaves when out of oven.

So, what did I do wrong???

1 comment:

  1. Hmm that's so weird!! Maybe it depends on what kind of yeast you're using??

    ReplyDelete