Archive of ‘Breads and Pastries’ category

19
Mar
2015

Grilled Pizza with Proscuitto and Arugula

categories: Breads and Pastries, Pizza and Sandwiches

 

Grilled Pizza with Proscuitto and ArugulaWe have had a warm spell up here in Alaska, perfect reason to uncloak the grill and awaken it from hibernation.  I love the charred taste of bread fresh off the grill, a perfect base for pizza.  This is one example of what you can do, if you don’t like arugula and proscuitto then go in a different direction.  I would make sure all ingredients that need to be cooked are cooked and to go easy on the toppings.  If this pizza gets overloaded the crust can burn before the cheese has had a chance to melt, and that high temp will give it that nice crust on the bottom.

Homemade Pizza DoughSome things I buy at the store that can be made at home (enchilada sauce), others I make myself.  One of those that I make is pizza dough.  It’s maybe 20 minutes of effort, and I always have the ingredients on hand.  Flour, yeast, salt, water, olive oil.  Having a few hours before dinner is needed though.  I don’t usually measure when I’m making dough, except for the yeast.  The amount of flour and water can vary depending on how compacted the flour is and how humid the environment is.  If the dough is too wet, add a little flour, too dry then add some water.  If you have a storebought dough, you can bake it on the grill the same way.

ingredients for pizzaIt helps to have everything ready, so when you flip the crust, all the toppings can be added quickly and easily.

Grilling Pizza DoughGrilling Pizza Dough

 

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Grilled Pizza with Proscuitto and Arugula

Prep Time: 3 hours

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1 1/2 cup all purpose or bread flour, plus more for dusting surface
  • 1 teaspoon yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 1 cup shredded or cubed mozzarella cheese
  • 4 slices proscuitto sliced
  • 2-3 cups arugula
  • 1-2 tablespoons truffle oil
  • flaky sea salt to finish

Instructions

  1. Combine warm water and yeast in medium sized bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes until water is foamy.
  2. Add flour and stir with a fork or hands until dough is coming together. Then dump dough onto well floured surface.
  3. Knead dough about 10 minutes, dough should be smooth and elastic, still somewhat soft.
  4. Place dough in oiled bowl and cover with tea towel. Let rise until doubled in size, about 2-3 hours.
  5. Flour a large cutting board, gently stretch out dough to large pizza size. Can make smaller ones if prefered, will make approximately one 14" round pizza.
  6. Set grill to high on both burners. Temp around 500 degrees fahrenheit.
  7. Get all topping ingredients ready and place next to grill.
  8. Scrape down grill grates and oil with paper towel soaked in oil (hold with tongs).
  9. Using spatula, gently shake cutting board to loosen dough and place on grill surface.
  10. Close door and check in two minutes. Dough should brown on the bottom with some blistering on top.
  11. Remove crust from grill and place back on cutting board and close grill door.
  12. Flip crust over, brush with oil, then spread ricotta over. Then put on 1/3 of the arugula, proscuitto and mozzarella.
  13. Put pizza back on to grill surface and turn down heat to medium high, about 450.
  14. Check every couple minutes, wait for cheese to melt, bottom crust should be browning too (takes 4-5 minutes).
  15. Remove pizza from grill back onto cutting board. Spread rest of the arugula over the top and drizzle the truffle oil over top.
  16. Let rest for 5 minutes or so, slice and enjoy.

Notes

You can substitute bacon or ham if you don't have proscuitto, can usually find it in the deli section of the grocery store.

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Pizza on the Grill

16
Feb
2015

An Evening of Sourdough at Fire Island Bakeshop

categories: Breads and Pastries, Life in Alaska, Local Restaurants, Markets

sourdough from Fire Island Bakeshop

A good homemade sourdough has eluded me to this point.  My bread was dense, decent flavor, flabby crust.  My starter was sluggish.  I could give up and head to nearby Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop and grab a loaf there.  But wait!  Even better, they are offering a course on DIY sourdough.

Sourdough Fire Island Bakeshop

Fire Island is offering a series of Monday evening classes ranging from vegan baking to home smoking.  See the class schedule for their offerings.  There was a group of ten of us, and we were put to work immediately.  Friendly and knowledgeable baker, Carlyle, had us start with shaping dough.  Three doughs were already prepared for us.  A whole wheat, a 50/50 wheat/white blend and an all white.  We started shaping the loaves to give them time to proof before baking.  Starting with the wheat as it was easiest to handle with our newbie boule shaping skills.  By the time I reached the full white (which was a sticky and stretchy beast) I was getting a rhythm down, the idea is to create surface tension over the top of the loaf to let it rise.  This is done with a gentle rolling motion while pulling the top edge of the loaf down but keeping it attached to the counter surface.

Fire Island Bakeshop

Fire Island Bake shopFire Island Bakeshop

Next was on to preparing our own dough to make at home.  We were provided with prepared starter, white or wheat.  A formula was provided and any wheat/white flour combo was ok.  We used the fold method, where every 30 minutes the dough is pulled and folded over until it no longer stretches.  A nice option, avoiding the 20 minutes or so of hand kneading I usually do, but this does require a bit more babysitting as you need to be near your dough for the next 3 hours or so.

Sourdough at Fire Island Bakeshop

Plenty of small breaks provided time to enjoy snacks and ask questions.  Why is my bread so dense?  How do I steam inject my oven?  Then on to the baking.  Our loaves were baked in their own fancy steam injected oven.  At home you can put a oven safe pan in your oven while oven preheats, once you put in the bread pour about a 1/2 cup hot water into already heated pan to give a nice bit of steam to provide that shiny, chewy crust we are all striving for.

I left with three loaves, one batch of dough to finish myself and a large bucket of starter.  Maybe some sourdough pancakes are in my future as well.

Fire Island Bakeshop