How About You: What Are Your Favorite Pizza Toppings?

Last night, we had another one of our pizza-making marathons. 13-year-old Aleks made the crusts, I made the sauce, and everyone pitched in making a pizza.

Having a pizza night is a lot like opening gifts on Christmas morning. I peek into the oven, see that the pie is done, grab the tongs and ease the creation off of the pizza stone, and transfer it to our butcher block island where it's cut and served right from there. Each new pie holds surprises. Last night, Aleks made a buffalo chicken-ranch pizza with fresh sliced garlic and basil, frozen from our summer's bounty. Mine was a white pizza with lots of mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano and minced garlic. There's always a combination of interesting flavors. We toss on marinaded artichokes, green olives and feta, or a simple garlic butter, basil, feta, kosher salt and red pepper flakes. Aleks loves to make a dipping sauce for the crust out of olive oil, salt, basil, italian seasonings and red pepper flakes.

What are your favorite pizza toppings? What's the most unconventional pizza you've ever made? If you've never made pizza from scratch, what's stopping you?

Can't wait to hear your responses!

Galette de rhubarbe

Spring means rhubarb, and rhubarb means Galette de rhubarbe, which is just a fancy name for a rustic tart. It's like a pie, but not nearly as fussy. The hardest part is cutting the rhubarb, and waiting for it to bake!

The amount of sugar I used just cut the tartness, so you might want to add just a bit more if you don't like really tart things. We like it to be a bit on the tart side and then we serve it with a good-quality vanilla ice cream, either homemade or Breyers. Serve it warm! It will serve about eight small pieces. The pate brise recipe makes two crusts, so you can either save one for later, or make two at once!

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Galette de rhubarbe

1/2 a recipe of pate brise
2 1/2 cups fresh rhubarb (washed and leaves removed!)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven the 350F

Roll the pate brise into a 9" round. You can cut off the edges to make it look prettier, if you like, but I like mine with as much crust as I can get, so I leave it on! Place the round onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Mix the rhubarb, sugar (or a bit more, if you want it sweeter), flour and a pinch of cinnamon. Toss it all together to thoroughly coat it.

Heap the rhubarb mixture onto the round of pate brise, and gently fold the edges of the dough partially over the rhubarb mixture. Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the rhubarb is soft and the crust is golden brown and crisp.

Serve warm with ice cream.

Deep-Dish Pizza--Starting with the Crust

Making deep-dish pizza takes a little extra effort, but not much. If you've never eaten deep-dish pizza--and I don't mean what they serve at fast-food pizza places but true, Chicago-style deep-dish pizza--think pizza pie, because that's what this is. It's a big, stuffed pie and one or two pieces can stuff a person.

This pizza is a variation of the stuffed spinach pizza found in Diane Morgan's book, Pizza, a delightful exploration of many different pizzas from Neapolitan to dessert pizza, explaining all the basics of pizza making, including ingredients and equipment. Lots of delicious photos in this one. If you check out here website, you'll find other pizza recipes there.

For this deep-dish pizza, you're going to need a new crust, and the one I made was in Diane's book, as well.

Before you begin the crust, you'll need a batch of the the sauce posted earlier. Get that started, then come back to begin your crust. Diane gives instructions for mixing the dough by hand and in a mixer. I'm giving you the mixer method. Pick up Diane's book for the hand-mixed method.

Chicago-Style Butter-and-Garlic Deep-Dish Pizza Dough from Pizza by Diane Morgan

1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (90-100 degrees farenheit)
1 teaspoon sugar
3 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour (I use King Arthur bread flour), plus more for dusting
1/2 cup medium-grind cornmeal
1 teaspoon table salt or 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 or more cloves or garlic, minced to a paste
vegetable oil for oiling the bowl and the pan

In the mixer-bowl of a stand mixer, combine the yeast with 1/4 cup of the warm water, then add the sugar and 1/4 cup of the flour.

Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until combined.

Place a clean, damp kitchen towel over the bowl and let this rest for 20 minutes. This is called a "sponge."

After twenty minutes, add the remaining 1 cup warm water and three cups of flour, the cornmeal and the salt. Combine the butter and the garlic, and add those.

Mix on low speed until all the flour is incorporated and the dough forms a coarse ball, about four minutes.

Let the whole thing rest for about 2 minutes.

Mix on medium speed until it's all smooth and sticky, about three minutes.

Turn the dough, even if it's sticky, onto a well-floured work surface and knead for a minute or two until it's smooth, adding up to 1/4 cup of flour, if necessary.

Lightly oil a large bowl (I use a rubbermaid-type container and lid), add the dough, turn to coat, and set it somewhere warm, but not hot, to rest and rise.

You can either let this rise for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours in a warm spot, or you can slow-rise it in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours. Bring it to room temp before the final rise.

When the dough has doubled, knead it for 2-3 minutes and press it into your pan.

For our recipe, it's going to go into a springform pan, so we'll continue with the dough in the Deep Dish Spinach and Onion recipe in my next post.

Super Easy Pizza Crust

Super easy pizza crust

Originally found on Fine Cooking. This makes two 14" pizzas.

1 package of active-dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 1/2 cup very warm water (110 degrees)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Dissolve the yeast in the water and set aside.

Put a little less than 4 cups of the flour and all of the salt in a food processor with the steel blade and process it for a bit to mix it up.

Turn on the machine and add the yeast water through the food tube in a steady stream.

Turn off the machine; add the oil; pulse for a few seconds to mix the oil.

When you take the dough out of the food processor, it should be slightly sticky. It's okay if it's not fully mixed.

Scoop the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times until it's nice and smooth.

Divide it in two, form each half into a smooth ball, lightly coat a container with oil (I like to use a rubbermaid-like container with a lid, one with plenty of room for the dough to double) and roll the dough in the oil. Cover it and set it in a warm--not hot--place to rise until doubled.

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Now go check on your sauce.

Pate Brise

Pate Brise is just a fancy name for "short pastry." We're starting with this, because it's basic, basic, basic and can be used to make savory pies, tarts and quiches. Its sister crust, Pate Sucre, is the sweeter version which can be used to make pies and sweet tarts. We'll get to that one later.

Pate Brise has a fancy name, but it's not at all difficult to make. The reason it's a slow food is because it doesn't shortcut with shortening (yuck!) but features butter instead. The butter is a little finicky, so it has to be kept cold, cold, cold. Thus, we start with very cold butter and then, after mixing it with the other stuff, we add very cold water. After it's mixed, we flatten it (because that helps it chill faster) and then we put it in the fridge to get it very cold again. After we take it out and shape it--you guessed it--it goes back into the fridge to get very cold some more. All of this takes extra time, but it's worth it, because you end up with a delicious flaky crust that's not heavy with shortening.

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 c cold butter (unsalted, if you have it), cut into small pieces
1/2 c ice water

Put your flour, salt and sugar in a food processor.

Add butter pieces and process for just a bit, about 10 seconds or so, or just until mixture resembles a coarse meal.

With machine running, add ice water a little at a time through the food-processor tube. When the dough just sticks together but before it gets sticky or soggy,
you've added enough. Don't process the mix for longer than 30 seconds. Test
dough by squeezing a little bit of it together. If it is still crumbly,
add water just a little bit at a time until the dough just clings together. If you use too much water, you'll end up with a tough crust. Not enough, and you'll end up with a powdery crust.

Divide dough in half and turn out onto two large pieces of plastic wrap. Press dough into flat circles, which makes it chill faster and makes it easier to roll out after it's chilled. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

Take the dough out, one disc at a time, and roll it on a lightly floured surface. You might have to knead it just a bit to get it to a rollable consistency, but don't overwork it or you'll have a tough crust.

Quickly work it into your tart pan, pie pan or whatever you'll be making, then chill it for 15 minutes before you fill it and bake it.

After filling, bake just until golden brown.

Now, wasn't that worth the time?