pizza Archives - Tartelette

When I ask my father what vegetables he wants with dinner, his response is often "potatoes" to which I reply "Dad! We already have a starch. What vegetable would you like?" He then looks me with an obvious smirk and repeats "potatoes". I am very much my father’s daughter in that regard. Love them. And noodles. I hope I never have to chose between the two. As much as I am a potato gal, I never thought of putting them on pizza, until last week that is. This Potato-Leek Pizza from The Pioneer Woman has surely changed my mind. "More!" I say!

I remember very distincly the first post I read on Ree’s site. I was on the phone with a friend back home who wanted to know how to make cinnamon rolls. We may have many a delicious pastry back home but I think we sorely miss out in the cinnamon rolls department. As a very occasional baker, she needed visuals. I searched step-by-steps online and stumbled on Ree’s site. Bingo! My friend had an official teacher, willing to take her by the hand through the whole process. I had found a treasure trove of All American classics that my husband grew up on. He never says so but it’s good to split my cooking between my French and his American. Makes for a fun relationship. Much like potatoes and pizza actually.

Ree lives on a ranch in the middle of vast great lands. I live in a house on stilts in the middle of marsh land. She has four 2-legged offsprings, I have two 4-legged companions. She married a cowboy who herds cows for a living. I married a man of the last frontier, history teaching. In her cooking, Ree makes do of what is available in her neck of the woods. I had to learn quickly what is Lowcountry cooking. Her cookbook is #1 in the New York Times Best Sellers list. Mine is still being edited (more on that later, promise) See…completely the same. Ahah!

Don’t these fancy baby leeks look like glorified green onions?
I don’t know Ree. Sure I have met her at BlogHer Food in San Francisco and exchanged a few words but that’s about it. Yet, and I don’t know how she does it, she is one of the most kind hearted ladies, taking time in her incredibly busy schedule and many roles to make you feel like what you say did not get lost in the big emptiness of the internet. I can guess it has got to be mind boggling for her how life has changed for her family in the last few years. It would make people feel uneasy, others would get the big head. Yet, Ree remains her natural, super nice, dorky self. I do need to say that she made me blush bright red when she put me in the same sentence a Matt Armendariz at BlogHer. Ugh!

Ree’s cookbook reads like a novel. There is food and there is life on the ranch, life with the kids, daily thoughts and aspirations. The one most excited about getting the book was my husband however. He can relate to the recipes, they were part of his mom’s stapples. He thought that whereas I fought the generation gap with his mother and the can of Ro-Tel, I would relate to Ree’s fresh approach to life and cooking as she was trying to adapt to her new territory. He was right. Copies of my mother-in-law’s Little League cookbooks are collecting dust but The Pioneer Woman Cooks is being earmarked by the both of us. He seldoms cooks so he loves the step by step pictures while I skip those for the stories. I like stories.

Ree’s book does not need another review, yet I can tell you that B. is extremely excited to eat "Pioneer Woman" this weekend while I am away. I have been invited by the great folks of The Grove Park Inn in Asheville to be a judge in their annual National Gingerbread House Competition. I am not only extremely honored but thrilled to be in a group comprising Colette Peters and Chef Lodge to name a couple. I thought that B. would be able to accompany me but he’s stuck with gigs this weekend. Instead, gal pal Tami from Running With Tweezers is coming up from Atlanta to share some of the fun and mountain air. In preparation of the trip, I made a few things that Bill loved and that he could easily reheat at night. One of them was this potato-leek pizza except it was devoured the moment it came out of the oven (well, after a few pictures).

I felt a bit pioneer-ish shopping for the ingredients when the only leeks I could find were fancy baby ones (did not have time to get to another store). Despite the double price tag, they looked a lot like green onions to me and I think I even aggravated the store clerck when I said so. I hate to aggravate them because they do order fancy stuff for me when I ask them. They are indeed green onions and they did taste like leeks however so all’s well. The combination of potatoes, leeks, bacon ang goat cheese made me think of Frenchified loaded American baked potatoes meeting their Italian cousin on a bed of mozarella and tender pizza crust. Awesome…and I am packing two slices for the road.

I hate to tell you I’m going to frolic in gingerbread goodness in a paradise like retreat while some of you have to work, play hard or are stuck sick at home. That’s why I am psyched that Ree generously offered to giveaway THREE copies of her book to three readers. If you want a chance to win, here is what to do:
– leave a comment on this post
– ONE entry per person – if you don’t see your comment right away, give me a few hours before re-posting as I have the moderator on.
– Enter until Wednesday November 18th at midnight, US eastern time.

Have a great weekend!

Potato Leek Pizza, with permission of Ree Drummond:

6 slices thick bacon, cut into 1-in pieces
3 leeks, sliced thinly
Extra virgin olive oil
5 small red or Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced paper thin
16 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly
4 oz crumbled goat cheese (I used twice that much:))
Parmesan cheese, grated
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Unbaked pizza crust

Preheat oven to 500 degrees
Begin by frying bacon pieces in a skillet over medium heat until cooked but not crisp. Remove bacon from pan and pour off most of the grease. Set bacon aside.
Return skillet to stove and turn heat to medium-low.
Slice leeks very thinly. A sharp knife helps.
Add leeks to the same pan and sauté over medium-low heat until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Using a sharp knife or mandoline, slice potatoes very thin.
Prepare pizza crust according to directions, and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Arrange potatoes in a single layer all over crust, slightly overlapping edges. Sprinkle potatoes lightly with salt, then lay mozzarella slices in a single layer over the top of the potatoes.
Place sautéed leeks over the top of the cheese.
Next, sprinkle the fried bacon pieces over the top, followed by a generous addition of crumbled goat cheese.
Finally, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.
Bake pizza for 8 to 11 minutes, or until edges of crust are golden brown and cheese is melted and bubbly. Cut into wedges or squares and serve immediately.

Pizza Crust
Makes two pizza crusts
1 ½ cups warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Extra olive oil for drizzling

Pour warm water into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast over the water.
Stir together flour, olive oil, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add water/yeast mixture and stir together until just combined. Dough will be very sticky.
Drizzle a little olive oil into a clean mixing bowl. Toss the ball of dough in the bowl and turn over to coat in oil. Cover bowl and place in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours, or cover in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 2 days.

This Daring Bakers' challenge almost did not come to be. Almost. It’s been a busy month, work, play, life…the usual. Multiply that by two or three. It took a dinner invitation and a little Halloween inspiration to make it happen.

Our October hostess, Rosa from Rosa’s Yummy Yums chose pizza as our challenge and although excited about it right from the start (it’s got carbs…I am excited), I did not get to it until Monday morning. We had friends coming over yesterday for dinner and since it was going to be a late casual nibble around a game of Scrabble and some wine, I figured that pizza would be the perfect thing for that kind of get together. I made four small pizzas and kept three on the savory side and you guess it, one sweet for the blog. Turns out our guests arrived while I was still in traffic and helped themselves to the Plum Mascarpone and Streusel Pizza before Scrabble…my kind of peeps…dessert first!

One of Rosa’s requests, although not mandatory was to take a picture of us tossing the dough. My schedule is completely opposite my husband’s these days so I knew it would be a hard thing to do, not having extra hands to hold the camera while I tossed, even with a remote control it was proving difficult. I kept having this nightmare: 2 in the morning and you toss your dough, click the remote button and then watch your pretty dough fall on a glass of water or pan full of cookies, catch the said glass or pan and takes them for a dive down to the floor and with a big sound of broken glass, baking sheet tumbling and loud cursing you end up waking up a puppy, an old dog and your mate. So you spend the next hour, cleaning, playing, calming and promising more cookies to ease the pain of a bing and a bang…Yep…as I said, I had to find a back up.

Late Sunday night, I went to the attic to get some Halloween decorations and I was sitting there in the middle of unlabeled boxes (grhhh!), I picked up my favorite Halloween witches, Greta and Hilda. Ha!Ha! They would do the tossing or stretching and I would photograph their tribulations!Greta started on her own while Hilda was getting her pretty pink hair fixed up a bit and the task was proving to be a little to much for one person so Hilda jumped right in like a good Daring Bakers. Once they were done tossing, stretching and playing with the dough I spread some mascarpone flavored with some vanilla on one pizza, arranged plum slices over it and topped the whole thing with some almond streusel. The end result was close to a rustic brioche tart and absolutely wonderful warm out of the oven.

Thank you Rosa for such a fun challenge and to you Lisa and Ivonne for coordinating things so well each month! I bet your quest for pizza toppings and variations will forever be answered by taking a look at all the other Daring Bakers' creations. Happy tossing!

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH

Adapted from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.
Makes 4-6 pizza crusts

For the dough:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) olive oil or vegetable oil
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) ice cold water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

Toppings:
6 oz mascarpone, at room temperature
1 Tb sugar
1 vanilla bean
3 -4 plums, pitted and sliced
streusel topping (add 1/3 cup sliced almonds)

In a bowl combine the mascarpone, sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean and stir until smooth. Spread over the dough right before baking, arrange the plum slices around and topped with the streusel. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes (unlike for savory pizza, the streusel needs to bake a little longer and not burn).

DAY ONE
Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl or stand mixer. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (spoon or paddle attachment) to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth. If it is too wet, add a little flour 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. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour. If it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.
Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper. Cut the dough into 4-6 equal pieces. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.
Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.
NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil (a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

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. 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. Take 1 piece and 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.
Make only one pizza at a time. During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping. In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.You can also resort to using a rolling pin.
When the dough has the shape you want, 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 about 5-8 minutes.

pizza

Potato Leek Pizza and A Giveaway

Tossing With The Daring Bakers: Plum Mascarpone and Streusel Pizza