Livin' La Pizza Loca Pt 2

The dough came out well. Speaking with Chef A yesterday at the restaurant, he said how difficult it could be to make non-ginormous quantities of dough. I started with Peter Rheinhart's recipe, adjusting with half double 00 flour and less water, which still came out really loose, adding more and more AP flour till it wasn't total goo. When the dough was taken out to work with this evening, it had set up nicely.

3 adults, 2 kids, one vegan. In the morning I churned strawberry ice cream and chocolate soy ice cream, slowly caramelized onions, sautéed criminis with garlic, prepped a tray of mise (buffalo and cow moz, parm, pepperoni, basil, thyme, raw sauce, cooked sauce).

Haven't made a proper blended soup since c-school, and it was a revelation. Easy to make and really delicious, no recipe, just threw in what I had on hand.


Peeled and roasted hunks of butternut squash. Softened a mess of diced onions in olive oil. Sautéed slices of peeled golden delicious apple. Into boiling water went peeled carrots and a yam. All went into blender, with some of the boiling water, maple syrup, salt, grated ginger, a dash of cayenne. An hour before the guests came, soup went into one large and one small pot on the stove top. To one, I finished the soup with heavy cream, the other with soy milk.

For garnishes, I roasted and steamed three multicolored peppers, then diced them together for a smokey relish. Took a head of parsley and blended it to smooth with a small amount of olive oil and a heavy dash of salt. I had no squeeze bottle on hand so the spooning of the parsley oil was a bit sloppy. Regardless, this mildly sweet soup was an excellent opening round. I stamped 2" rounds out of one flattened dough and painted them with garlic-infused olive oil and a shake of salt for a cracker-like garlicky pizza accompaniment for the soup.

After popping out a round of kid-made pies, whipped off the adult pies. I ran my oven at 500 instead of 550, and for convenience's sake used parchment under all the pies to get them in and out of the oven easier. (Right now I have a folding metal peel that just sucks, doesn't hold lubricating flour very well, need to get a short-handled wooden peel.) The temp, the paper, and perhaps the dough didn't lend itself to good browning. Next time, I'm gonna go hotter, lose the paper and perhaps add either a dash of sugar, honey, or milk to the dough, in a quest to find the ideal dough for the oven I have. Cow margarita, buffalo margarita, mushroom & cherry tomato, and a few variations, nothing that crazy.


For dessert, in addition to the ice creams, I balled some extra pizza dough into little nuggets and dropped them into about 400 degree peanut oil. Took a few minutes, but they browned nicely, not greasy at all, and puffy and steamy in the middle. Finished with powdered sugar, they were mildly sweet, yet had that certain yeasty tang that makes pizza dough pizza.

ADDENDA:
Probably the trickiest part of the night was having 2 non-English speaking kids assemble pizzas. Fortunately, the dough wasn't too loose and they got the concept of stretching pretty ably. I've never actually sat in front of my oven and watched the pizzas cook, but sitting with them was a mini-revelation, watching the yeast rise the dough in the first minute, the cheese melting into pools, then finally just bubbling away and browning.


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, bagel and cream cheese, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, spinach pumpkin ravioli, chocolate bar, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5 Ravioli is a bit disappointing, I rolled the dough a bit too thick, so it came out a bit too tough. The pumpkin filling is pretty good though, the balsamic reduction plays well against the pumpkin and marscapone.

DINNER: 6:30pm, butternut squash soup, various homemade pizza slices, vanilla ice cream with deep fried pizza dough balls with powdered sugar, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5