So far so good
I'm having a good, relaxing weekend here. I hope y'all are doing well too.
Inspired by LilDice's quick rustic pizza, I made pizza last night. I didn't follow the rustic pizza recipe exactly, but I did use a dough with around 90% hydration. I made it around noon and folded at 2 and 4, then baked it around 6.
The results were really good. I did one pesto pie:
And one with tomatoes, cheese, basil, olive oil, and garlic. Lildice: how can you forget the garlic?!? ;^)
Real nice open crust. Much more sturdy that the neo-Neopolitan dough I usually use and which required the nose to be folded up, NY pizza style. I'm not sure I prefer one over the other, they are just different kinds of pies.
Blueberries are here. I made blueberry muffins this morning. And a batch of banana nut muffins too, while I was at it.
I've still got another day to bake. Methinks my sourdough starter is feeling left out, so I'll have to do something to entertain it.
Comments
Holy Canolli. I didn't know it was even legal to use that much cheese on a pizza. Wow. That looks amazing. The muffins look good too, although much more circumspect..
Floyd,
The pizza looks great. I see the effect of the higher hydration. I'll have to try that sometime soon. Your choice of toppings suits me perfectly.
Bill
Hi Floyd and LilDice,
Your tomato pizzas looked so wonderful I tried making one last night. For the dough I used some leftiover from baking sourdough bread the day before. Not necessarily the best for pizza, but it serves.
It tasted great, but the crust was very soggy from the water in the tomatoes. Maybe I stretched the crust too thin. It was baked on a baking stone at 550F.
I was wondering if you can offer any tips for avoiding crust sog with the fresh tomatoes.
Thanks!
Susanfnp
I used some roma tomatoes that were still on the firm side. I also let some of the... seeds and tomato "goo" stay behind on the cutting board. The crust near the middle definite still absorbed some moisture and was less crisp than on the outside, but it seemed to have helped prevent it from getting too soggy.
Susanfnp,
Another trick is to sandwich and gently press the tomato slices between some layers of paper towels for a while to get out some of the moisture. You can go a step further and try to dab out the water among the seeds, but that's tedious.
Bill
Floyd and Bill, thank you both! Your suggestions make tons of sense. This was the first time I tried using fresh tomatoes instead of sauce and the flavor was so fresh, I will definitely be doing this again.
Susanfnp
The two things I do when the seed pockets are moist are 1.) slice the tomatoes and stack them in a salad spinner. A few turns spins most of the liquid out, and 2,) cut the tomatoes around the equator and stick a finger in the seed pockets to remove most of them before slicing.
I have also had good luck pre baking the crust for 3 minutes before the toppings go on using Floyds easy pizza recipe.
Eric
You slice fresh tomatoes and place them flat along the bottom and sides of a colander or something that would let you do this in a single layer over your sink. Or you could actually place them on a cooling rack over a sheet pan or in your sink if that would fit. Then you salt them and allow them to sit for about 10 or 15 minutes. The salt draws the moisture out of them so you can use them in recipes like pizza, tomato pie, etc. It is the same concept used when you are cooking and know that once you add salt to vegetables it makes them give up their liquid.
Floyd, that pizza is FABULOUS looking! I could eat it right off this screen. YUMMY! And I would give anything to have one of your blueberry muffins right now as well.
Good idea with the Pesto. I wonder if the high hydration style pizza has a name. It's really a double bonus that you can make a ciabatta loaf out of the same dough while you're at it. So you get that instant gratification of the pizza and some bread for later :)