Daring Bakers Pizzeria!

Welcome to my Pizzeria! Today's special menu is 3 for the price of one! With one pizza dough you'll have an appetizer, a main dish and dessert, of course.

Wonderful pizza dough provided by our amazing host Rosa, via "The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread" by Peter Reinhart.

Let's start by the appetizer: Fried pizza dough!

Easy, easy: just roll out your dough and cut it with a pizza cutter (or knife) in a shape you prefer and fry them in hot oil. Serve with dipping sauce and crunch away!

Now while you wait for the pizza to bake I'll give you the recipe:

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH

• 4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour chilled
• 1 3/4 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Instant yeast
• 1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil
• 1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
• 1 Tb sugar
• Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

Today's special pizza toppings include:

• Homemade tomato sauce
• Black olives
• Feta cheese
• Linguiça (a portuguese cured spicy sausage)
• Oreganos
  

Day One: Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer). Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water. If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

Day Two: On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C). If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan (do not preheat the pan). Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

In this pizzeria we bake our pizzas with the sauce first and then we put the toppings and bake some more. This way the pizzas are never soggy.

When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Your pizza is ready! Eat it up while I get the dessert ready!

Do you still have room for a Toffee Apple Crumble Pizza? I do...

Toffee Apple Crumble Pizza:

• Pizza dough
• Toffee sauce*1
• Sliced apples
• Crumble topping *2

*1- Toffee sauce: Use store bought or make your own. Caramelize 1/4 cup sugar, when it has a golden color and no lumps add 1/4 cup hot heavy cream (it will bubble a lot) and keep stiring until you have a smoth cream. Add a tbsp butter and mix until melted. keep in the fridge and if it's too hard to use, pop it in the microwave for a few seconds.

*2- Crumble topping: Same quantities (I've used 1/4 cup) of: cold butter, brown sugar, rolled oats, flour and 1/4 tsp salt and cinnamon. Mix with your finger tips until the mixture resembles coarse sand.

Crunchy, sweet, gooey, chewy, fruity, spicy... Really, what's not to like?

Are you pizzed-out allready? No? Go check the other Pizzerias then!