Pizza Dough of Destiny

Team. It's time for another break from Beard on Bread, because I must explain to you how great home-made pizza is, and how versatile is the ultra-simple dough we use, and many other good things.

First, the recipe:

1 cup water ("about shower temperature" is a good rule of thumb)

2 tsp - 1Tbsp active dry yeast

1 tsp or so of sugar/honey/similar

1 tsp (ish) salt

3 cups flour

generous splash olive oil

whatever else you want (chopped herbs? shredded cheese? nuts? go nuts!)

1. Put the sugar and yeast in the water, mix, and let it sit for a few minutes (say, 5) in a warm spot.

2. Dump in everything but the "whatever else," mix it up, and knead until nice and smooth and elastic (for the sake of ease, let's say 5 minutes again -- maybe a little more?). At some point in the kneading process, dump in the whatever else. Make sure it gets kneaded all the way in.

3. Put it back in the bowl. Drizzle some more olive oil over it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let it sit a while -- a minimum of 15 minutes (if you're thinking thin-crust pizza), a minimum of an hour (if you're thinking a loaf of bread).

4a. Is it pizza/cinnamon rolls/apple pastry thing you want? Great! Uncover the dough and roll it as thin as you can (for pizza) or a little thicker (for other stuff), making sure it stays nicely floured. This recipe makes two cookie-sheet-sized thin-crust pizzas.

4b. ALTERNATIVELY: Is it bread you want? Punch it down, knead it for a while and then make it into the correct shape (formless blob = totally fine, baguette = traditional for this recipe). Let it rise another hour or so.

Congratulations! You have dough.

For pizza, drape your dough over a cookie sheet, put stuff* on it, trim or fold over the edges, and bake in a very hot oven (we use 500 degrees F) until it's nice and brown, anywhere from 5-15 minutes depending on the depth and density of toppings. (Hint: peek under the bottom to figure out whether it's nice and brown; don't trust the top.)

For a yummy pastryish (not actually pastry, but you get what I mean, right?) thing, drape your thin dough over a tart pan (or whatever), fill it with stuff,** and bake it in a 375-degree oven until it's nice and brown top and bottom and whatever's inside is bubbling audibly. Tonight's rendition at our house took about 30 (?) minutes total.

To fake some cinnamon rolls, take your sheet of dough (a rectangle is best) and slather it with yummy stuff.*** Then roll it up nice and tight. Use whatever implement comes to hand to seal up the seam (I like toothpicks). Same baking instructions as the previous thing.

For bread: After its second rise, put your lump/baguette/whatever on a cookie sheet. Slash it artistically with a nice sharp knife. Put it in the oven at about 400 degrees until it's nicely browned and sounds hollow. Times vary a lot. You will have to experiment, but something with more surface area (e.g., baguette) will finish much more quickly than will something with less (e.g., lump).

* I'm partial to greens, actually. Hot pepper flakes, kale, fontina, and onions is a favorite combo of mine. But seriously, we've done potato-rosemary-bacon; we've done tomato-basil-mozzarella; we've done onion, mushroom and sausage; we've done everything.

** Example pastry filling stuff: apples sliced thin, coupla tablespoons lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, pinch of cornstarch, BOURBON.

*** Usually butter, brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon, cloves. Sometimes also nuts, other dried fruit, or fresh apples chopped small. Although obviously you could also go savory with this one.

Here's the thing: this recipe (which is basically the same as one my pal Hollis taught me back in college when I was still afraid of making bread) can do anything. The bread it makes is not spectacular unless you flavor it spectacularly, but it is bread. Perfectly wonderful bread, especially when it comes out of your oven all bread-smelling and you made it yourself. It's easy!

In other news, here are two views of the galette-shaped apple "tart" thing I made tonight. It tastes a little like a mixed drink (see BOURBON under note ** above) and has completely made my day.

Doughnuts and Irish Soda Bread (a two-for-one post)

I admit it: I let life get away from me a little bit after the new year. I woke up New Year's Day without a voice, sure that it was Nori's awesome party's fault. But no, it was germs. At a family gathering a couple of days later, Jarrod said I sounded like Mike Tyson. Jarrod's dad said I sounded like I was faking. (He said it nicely, though.)

Anyway, all that is just to say that it has been a low-energy couple of weeks. However, we did manage some bread preparation, including a major departure from James Beard. So now, in chronological order, I offer you Breads of the Last Two Weeks (not to be confused with Breads of India).

First project: DOUGHNUTS. Yes, you heard me right.

For Christmas I ordered Jarrod a doughnut cookbook and doughnut cutter (like a thick cookie cutter that only makes rings), and when the book finally arrived—late—we made some basic raised doughnuts with chocolate glaze first thing. Putting the dough together was a long and moderately arduous task. Unlike many bread doughs, you can't just chuck everything in a bowl and knead, knead, knead.

Side note: One thing that surprised us was the amount of yeast involved in a single doughnut recipe (8-12 doughnuts, depending on size): 3 tablespoons! Then again, they are expected to rise astronomically and to be full of air, so.

In any case, there were lots of steps. The dough was very soft, just on the edge of sticky before its final rise, but surprisingly easy to handle. Which is good, because "handling" in this case means rolling out, cutting out, allowing to rise, then frying in 360-degree vegetable oil.

The final result was pretty amazing (especially after glazing with hella rich chocolate glaze) the first night, but actually kind of cruddy by the next day. I think it's safe to say that, of all the items I've cooked, doughnuts keep least well. That probably had something to do with our pitiable frying technology: we think that the type of oil we used (plain ol' vegetable oil, as opposed to the pure safflower oil recommended) may have caused some unintended greasiness, and we know that our oil was practically never the right temperature. So that.

Holy CRAP they were delicious right after being made, though.

Second project: Irish Soda Bread (back to James Beard!), just this afternoon. As you can see, I was mixing business (terrific edited volume entitled Sex, Drugs and Body Counts, on the politics of numbers) with pleasure.

This has long been one of my favorite recipes, largely because it is insanely easy, fast, and fragrant. Four cups of flour, some buttermilk (I substituted yogurt), baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix, knead three minutes, form, bake. There's no yeast, and hence no rise, and the result is a big round rustic loaf with thick crunchy crust, small chewy crumb and amazing hearty smell. Nom nom nom.

This recipe surprised me by actually calling for enough salt...which is to say, I added too much salt because I usually find Beard's recipes undersalted. Live and learn. Live and learn and nom.