Pizza Night During a Blizzard

Yeast, water, and sugar,
mixed and resting

 Hello lovely readers! Hope you had a relaxing weekend. We were hunkered down here in the tri-state, waiting for the heavy snowstorms that weren't as exciting as we expected. I know New England was blasted with snow, so I do hope you're all okay up there! In the meantime, here's a fun project you can do when you're trapped inside. If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll probably have a lot of baking basics stored away in your house. So take out the flours, sugar, and yeast, followed by your favorite pizza toppings, and get started!


Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Martha Rose Shulman, New York Times

Yeast mixture, after a few min

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing the pizza crusts
• 1 1/4 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional if necessary for kneading
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Yeast, frothy after 10 min

Dump ingredients into
Cuisinart and go!

Directions

1. Combine the yeast and water in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup. Add the sugar, and stir together. Let sit two or three minutes, until the water is cloudy. Stir in the olive oil.
2. Combine the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and salt in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse once or twice. Then, with the machine running, pour in the yeast mixture. Process until the dough forms a ball on the blades. Remove from the processor (the dough will be a little tacky; flour or moisten your hands so it won’t stick), and knead on a lightly floured surface for a couple of minutes, adding flour as necessary for a smooth dough.
3. Shape the dough into a ball, pinched at bottom and rounded at top. Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly oiled bowl, rounded side down first, then rounded side up. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and leave it in a warm spot to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. When it is ready, the dough will stretch when it is gently pulled.
4. Divide the dough into two equal balls. Put the balls on a lightly oiled tray or platter, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap or a damp towel, and leave them to rest for 15 to 20 minutes. Afterward, the dough balls can be placed in a wide bowl, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to three days. Alternatively, you can wrap them loosely in lightly oiled plastic wrap and refrigerate them in a resealable plastic bag. When you are ready to roll out the pizzas, you will need to bring the balls to room temperature and punch them down again.



Dough resting

5. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven. Roll or press out the dough to a 12- to 14-inch circle. Lightly oil pizza pans, and dust with semolina or cornmeal. Place the dough on the pizza pan. With your fingers, form a slightly thicker raised rim around edge of the circle. Brush everything but the rim with a little olive oil, then top the pizza with the toppings of your choice.
6. Place the pizza pan on the stone. Bake as directed.

Yield: Two 12- to 14-inch crusts.

Dough after an hour
and a half

Advance preparation: The pizza dough can be refrigerated after the first rise for up to three days (see step 4). The rolled out dough can be frozen. Transfer directly from the freezer to the oven.

Ta da!

Happy baking!