Pizza for Breakfast: A Tale of Two Pies

Pizza is one of my favorite foods to make. The dough is one of the breads I enjoy getting my hands into and the toppings are unlimited. It just depends what I have in the fridge and garden. Last night I made a couple of pies and have some leftovers for breakfast. I love cold pizza for breakfast. I keep pizza dough in the freezer and take some out when the mood strikes me. Here is my Pizza Dough Recipe as well as the formula I use for making Garlic Butter Bread Sticks with the dough.

Last night I made two distinctly different pies. One with red sauce I had left over from a pasta dinner . The sauce had spinach and Italian Sausage in it and I added pepperoni, porcini mushrooms,

mozzarella & raw red onions with fresh basil and oregano from the garden. 

The second pizza was made with no sauce, caramelized onions, 

Gorgonzola cheese, Puna Goat Cheese (available at Island Naturals) with mac nuts and basil, 

mozzarella cheese, porcini mushrooms, rosemary and  a sprinkle of Parmigiana Regiano. After baking for 5 minutes at 550 degrees on the hearth stone, thin slices of prosciutto are added and it is baked for 1 more minute.

Pain à l'ancienne: A perfect rustic bread

From The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart which I have been baking from for a year now, comes pain à l'ancienne, a truly lovely bread, full of texture, delightful crumb and flavor. The secret to this bread comes in the careful handling and retarding the fermenting in a refrigerator. The dough is a wet one and not easy to shape. If you try to shape it much, you will lose the characteristic holes made by the gasses in the bread. It can however be formed into baguettes, focaccia, pizza, ciabatta, pugliese, stirao & pain rustique, all of which are favorite breads of mine. In this case I did baguettes, but I plan to use this formula over and over again in different ways. 


I have been involved with a group of food bloggers doing the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge for the last year. It was started when one of my favorite food bloogers, Nicole from Pinch My Salt started the challenge. The goal is to bake through the book, one formula at a time, usually once a week. This formula can be found on page 191 of the book. Mr, Reinhart explains a few important things about this bread: 


"The unique delayed-fermentation method, which depends on ice-cold water, releases flavors trapped in flour in a way different from the more traditional twelve-stage method. The final product has a natural sweetness and a nut-like character that is distinct from breads made with exactly the same ingredients but fermented in by the standard method, even with large percentages of pre-ferment. 


This bread shows us another way to manipulate time, and thus outcomes, by manipulating temperature. The cold mixing and fermentation cycles delay the activation of the yeast until after the amylase enzymes have begun their work of breaking out sugar from starch. When the dough is brought to room temperature, and the yeast wakes up and begins feasting, it feeds on sugars that weren't there the day before. Because the yeast has converted less of the released sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide, a reserve of sugar remains in the fermented dough to flavor it and caramelize the crust during the baking cycle. While this delayed fermentation method does not work for every dough (especially those that are enriched with sugar and other flavor infusing ingredients,) used appropriately, it evokes the fullness of flavor from the wheat beyond any other fermentation method I've encountered." 

The actual method is simple, it takes two days, like most of Mr. Reinhart's formulas, but really, the actual time it takes to make these loaves is minimal. 

6 cups of bread flour are combined with salt, yeast and then ice water. The dough is then immediately placed in an oiled bowl in the refrigerator overnight. The next day the dough has still not doubled in size and it is removed from the refrigerator and allowed to finish the ferment for another 2-3 hours. Once it has developed, then it is carefully placed on a floured counter and cut into the sizes needed for whatever shapes you are making. In this case I cut the dough in half, from one half I made three thinner baguettes and with the other half larger sandwich size baguettes. 

I turned two sheet pans upside down and coated with cornmeal, then placed the cut and formed baguettes on them. 

The dough does not have a second rise at this point, just a rest of 5-10 minutes. It is then hearth baked directly on the hearth stone on parchment with some cornmeal to keep it from sticking, I used a peel to slide the dough on the parch
3 ment to the bottom of the hearth. Steam is incorporated by both a steam pan and spraying the inside of the oven with water. 

Garlic Butter Bread Sticks

Because Pizza dough is so versatile and I also enjoy being able to spontaneously make pizza and bread sticks with the dough, I make it in large batches, freeze some, use some and keep some in the fridge. The recipe I use is one that actually matures in the refrigerator for a cold ferment.. I made some bread sticks from a ball of the dough to go with a dinner of veal picatta and brussels sprouts. The recipe I use for pizza dough is posted below. 


To make these breadsticks, just take out a ball of the dough, apply a bit of olive oil in the bottom of a bowl at least 2 X the size of the the ball of dough. 


Preheat oven to 450 degrees.


Roll the dough around in the oil so that all surfaces have oil on them. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest and rise till double in size.  


Punch down and roll out on a floured board a rectangle about 10 X 6 inches. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into bread sticks about 1 1/2 inches wide. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.


Melt 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of butter in a small sauce pan. To the butter add 8 cloves of finely minced garlic and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Allow to simmer on low for a few minutes to blend flavors. 


Take each breadstick and pull through the butter so that it is covered on all sides with butter. Twist and lay on a pan lined with a silpat sheet.  Continue with the remaining sticks, placing them about 1/2 " apart. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about an hour. If you are in a hurry, you can skip the rise and they will still rise in the oven, just not as much. 

Before baking pour any remaining butter and garlic on the breadsticks. Bake for 20 minutes and serve hot. 

Overnight Pizza Dough

makes 8 9 inch pizzas

Ingredients: 

sponge

1 cup lukewarm water (110°F to 115°F)

1 envelope active dry yeast, divided

1 cup all purpose flour, divided

dough

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (110°F to 115°F)

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

1 envelope active dry yeast

6 cups (or more) all purpose flour

Olive oil

Yellow cornmeal or semolina

Sauces and toppings

Preparation

sponge

Place 1 cup lukewarm water in large bowl of heavy-duty mixer. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon yeast (reserve remaining yeast for dough) and 1/4 teaspoon flour over water. Let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture looks spongy, about 4 minutes. Add remaining flour and whisk until smooth; scrape down sides of bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let sponge rest at room temperature in draft-free area overnight (about 12 hours; sponge will look bubbly).

dough

Add 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 envelope yeast, and remaining yeast to sponge, then add 6 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, beating with dough hook to blend after each addition. Continue to beat until dough is smooth, comes cleanly away from sides of bowl, and is only slightly sticky to touch, scraping down bowl occasionally, about 5 minutes. If dough is very sticky, beat in more flour, 1/4 cupful at a time. Scrape dough onto floured surface; knead into smooth ball.

Brush inside of large bowl with oil. Add dough; turn to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; chill 6 hours, kneading dough down when doubled (after 2 hours).

About 1 1/2 hours before baking, dust 2 baking sheets with flour. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead gently; shape into 16-inch log. Cut into 8 equal pieces. Knead each piece into smooth ball. Arrange 4 balls of dough on each sheet. Cover loosely with kitchen towels and let rise until almost doubled, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

If using pizza stone, place in oven.

Preheat oven to 500°F for 45 minutes. Working with 1 dough ball at a time, dust dough with flour. Press into 5-inch round, then gently stretch and roll out to 9-inch round.

If using pizza stone, sprinkle pizza peel or rimless baking sheet with cornmeal. If not using pizza stone, sprinkle large baking sheet with cornmeal. Place dough round on cornmeal; brush lightly with oil. Top as desired. Slide pizza onto stone or place pizza on baking sheet into oven.

Bake pizza until sauce is bubbling and crust is crisp and brown, lifting edge of pizza to check underside, about 14 minutes.

To speed things up, you can bake two pizzas at the same time. To ensure even cooking, be sure to reverse the position of the baking sheets after 8 minutes. Baking two pizzas at once may take longer than 14 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday : Making Italian Sausage

Big Island Bloggers and Tweeters Pizzarama!

Yes Virginia, there is pizza in Hilo. Good Pizza! Not just pre-fab frozen cardboard tasting dough baked to specifications by corporate franchise standards... really good pizza with crust that takes three days to make and locally grown ingredients, home cured meats and if you want it, with free delivery!

Yesterday a group of Big Island Bloggers and Tweeters got together for a social event and a chance to meet in person. Damon Tucker had sent out the notice that Big Island Pizza would be hosting the event, so there was a two fold reason to go, I had been wanting to taste their pizza and learn more about the restaurant. And after nearly a year and several attempts, Damon and I had not had a chance to meet in person. He has a nice smile. He kept on his 'FBI" look all afternoon, wearing his hat and shades:

One new face for me was Ilka (sounds like a nice Swedish name to me!) the newest FBI Blogger who describes herself as 'Big Bald Brainy in a Bitchy Total Package'. She's all that and more!

We arrived to find our friend Tom Lackey (supreme cartoonist) walking through the parking lot.

Jon and Dalynnda from PunaOnline showed up shortly and then Kona Dave and his wife Jeannie from the Kona Forum joined us. Soon Big Island Pizza's patio was full of aloha and laughter.

It was fun meeting new people as well as putting faces on some of the bloggers we follow and people that we have engaged with online. Damon Tucker and I have been trying to get together for several months and we finally got to meet in person after nearly a year of interaction online.

Larry Czerwonka (seen below) spearheaded the event and we seem to be forming some sort of group now that will meet on a regular basis.

I had a chance to talk to the owner of Big Island Pizza, standing center here:

and learned a lot about how they opened the place as well as the care they take to make everything from scratch and grow their own basil and herbs. They even cure their own meats and salami!

The pizza was quite good (and I am pretty picky about pizza), I only got a shot of the first one we were served; pepperoni and cheese (and it was good), but more interesting ones came after that, with lots of fresh local ingredients. The salad (above) was delicious, fresh and crispy with pear tomatoes (one of my favorites!). You can expect to see a full blown blog dedicated to this establishment soon.

Of course, I brought along WesIsland:

If you are a Big Island Blogger, Twitterer or Social Networking participant, send me an

e-mail and i will get you on our list.

some people cannot stop twittering! Oh well, it is the future!