Over the years I have tried dozens of recipes for pizza dough and although some were good, none ever made me shout “fucking hell!”, none until I found this one. This is the shit right here! If you are going to try it you will need a baking/pizza stone and a peel. You could manage without the peel by getting ingenius with some parchment paper but the stone is a must. You also have to start making it the day before you plan to eat.
This makes 4 12” pizzas.
Ingedients:
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour or bread flour but why pay double? (575g)
1 3/4 teaspoons salt (12.5g)
1 teaspoon instant yeast (3g)
1/4 cup olive oil (60ml)
1 3/4 cups ice cold water (414ml)
Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting the peel to stop the pizza from sticking to it.
1. Mix the first five ingredients together. It will give you a sticky and squishy dough. Knead it for 5 minutes. Split it in to 4 equal lumps. Spray the insides of 4 plastic storage bags with some olive oil, if you can’t spray then just put a splash in each and swoosh it around some. Put a lump of dough in each bag and tie off the top. Put them in the fridge for at least over night but up to 3 days. If you are not going to need all 4, you can stick however many in the freezer until 24 hours before you need them, at which point you can move them to the fridge.
Preheat your oven to 550°f (pretty much as hot as your oven goes!) for at least half an hour with your stone at or close to the bottom.
Put a good sprinkle of cornmeal or semolina flour on your peel. Take out your dough and shape it by hand . If you fuck it up just roll it up and have another go! I find it helps to dust my hands with some flour for this
Put your pizza base on the peel and give the top a light spray or brush of olive oil. Put your sauce, cheese and toppings on top.
Slide it off the peel on to the stone and it should be in done in roughly 8 minutes but keep an eye on it.
Take it out and let it cool for a few minutes on a rack before you cut and eat.
Lastly, send or buy be large ammounts of beer in gratitude!
5-6 cups bread or all-purpose flour
2 packages dry yeast (4.5 Teaspoons)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups hot water (125F)
Sesame, poppy seeds or whatever takes your fancy (optional but do not use flax seed, we tried and they suck!)
Place 4 cups flour in a large bowl, add yeast salt, & sugar.
Stir until well blended. Pour in water, beat 100 strokes, or
3 min with mixers flat beater.
Gradually work in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until dough
loses stickiness.
Sprinkle work surface with flour. Work in flour as you knead,
keep dusting work surface. Knead for 8 min, until dough is smooth
and elastic.
Put dough in greased, covered bowl until doubled in size. Depending on the ambient temp this could be as little as 15 minutes or as long as an hour or more!
Punch dough down, turn onto work surface, cut in 2. Shape each
into round, roll it in chosen seeds or whatever and place on baking sheet covered with a sheet of parchment paper
Place baking sheet in middle of cold oven. Put a pan of hot water
in the shelf below. Turn oven to 400F and bake until loaves are deep golden
brown, roughly 45-50 minutes should do it. Thump the bottom- if they sound hollow, they are done.
This bread doesn’t stay fresh for long, but it usually gets devoured so
fast that it doesn’t matter; freezes well. We have had good luck
varying the flour, although you may have to increase the rise time.
We have often added garlic and various other herbs/spices to the dough with great results.
This is for Robin, I don’t like the shit!
1. Combine all ingredients well in a blender.
2. Bottle and refrigerate. Shake before using.
3. Keeps for 2 months.
Lithuanian in origin, this stuff will knock your socks off and it tastes great, something like pumpkin pie apparently. I have heard various names for this sweet nectar. We know it as Evil but Krupnikas seems to be it’s most common name.
Crack the cardamom seeds and nutmeg. Boil the spices, rind and water in a covered pot until liquid is reduced to about 2 cups. Strain.
In a pot large enough to hold the spiced liquid, alcohol and honey, bring honey to a boil. Skim off the foam.
Pour spiced liquid into honey and stir.
Remove from heat. Place far away from heat to prevent flare-up or explosion of alcohol. Slowly, and very carefully, pour in alcohol.
Replace pot on LOW heat. Heat, being careful not to simmer or boil, for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool in the same covered pot overnight. Following day, pour into bottles and allow to settle for a week. Pour off the clear liquid into a separate bottle, being careful not to disturb the sediment. Filter the sedimented portion (through a coffee filter) into a separate bottle. Do this several times over the next month. You will end up with a clear liqueur that is akin to the nectar of the gods.
The longer it sits, the clearer it becomes and the better it tastes.
Good Luck and Enjoy!
Comment [2]With the U.K being the focus for many right no, I was real pleased to get a package full of British flavour yesterday. Six jars of Heinz Sandwich Spread arrived. Not having had any since I moved here, I jumped in and had 4 large slices of toast with a generous covering of butter and the aforementioned spread. Kickass and still five and a half jars left!
Different people miss different things when living away from where they grew up, not just food either. Many Brits here miss British Bacon (which mostly comes from Denmark as I recall!) and proper Baked Beans oftem get mentioned.
The first food that I found I couldn’t find a substitute for was Branston which I had to learn to make myself. Robin gets me occasional treats of crisps (potato chips) in all manner of interesting flavours that the USA couldn’t comprehend. I have acquired numerous jars of Marmite and Hersheys do a reasonable job of recreating Cadburys Chocolate. I have still to find a decent Banger substitute. Overall I miss very little food-wise these days but do thoroughly enjoy and occasional treat from Blighty. By coincidence I happened to move to an area in the US that tries to claim the Cornish Pastie as it’s own. Apparently some tin miners came here way back when and brought them along. Scrumptious!
My question is: What food do you miss, or would if you moved elsewhere and to what lengths would you go to acquire that ‘not to be lived without’ foodstuff?
Add to the grocery list! [6]