Thursday, June 3, 2010

The Hawthornes Make Pizza.

It'sPizzaPizza! Mr. Hawthorne wanted pizza the other night and as you know, Mr. Hawthorne gets what he wants. Our pizzas are usually collaborations. He wanted a thin and crispy crust, so I made the crust and he did the toppings. That way he gets to take all the credit for his pizza. He's such a credit whore.
I poured my yeast packet into 1/2 cup of warm water ... ... rinsed out the yeast packet with a little more warm water to get it all out ...
... and added about 1 TB sugar. Stir and let sit to proof.
After about 5-10 minutes, the mixture becomes bubbly. It has "proofed." That means the yeast is active. If your mixture doesn't get poufy, throw it out. The yeast is bad.
Next I added in one egg.
You know I love my action shots.
About a tablespoon of ELBOO. That's Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil.
Mix well.
Work in 1 cup bread flour.
Another tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt.
And you have this messy blob.
I gradually worked in maybe another 1/2 cup of bread flour, kneading.
Keep kneading (I added another TB of oil) and dust with flour as needed.
Keep kneading until you have a nice elastic dough.
Please don't be intimidated by bread dough. Just jump in and do it. If the dough is too sticky, sprinkle in more flour. If it's too stiff, add a little oil. It's a balance and it's not difficult.
I always let my dough rest about 5-10 minutes before continuing, or in this case, turning it over to Mr. Hawthorne.
Mr. Hawthorne oiled his baking pan ...
... and slowly started pressing out his dough. When I do this, I press it out a bit, let it rest, then press again, pushing from the center to the outside, rest, and push.
Mr. Hawthorne pricked his crust before putting it into a 425 degree oven and ...
... and baking until nicely browned. Mr. Hawthorne prepared the rest of the pizza while I did nothing.
He took an assortment of mushrooms and ...
... OK, I took pictures ...
... sauteed them. Salt after you saute not before or during. Salting brings out the moisture in the shrooms and they'll steam instead of saute. Set aside.
Next, he cooked up his deer sausage ...
... breaking it up.
Mr. Hawthorne always likes to put a layer of cheese on the bottom first. And Mr. H. is semi-ho'ing his pizza. He poured a can of tomato sauce over top.
Mushrooms and sausage went on.
Onion rings on. Black olives. Some Brie and goat cheese. Oh ... that little baggie is full of oregano. Really. It's oregano.
Peppers.
Tomatoes.
Grated mozzarella.
Bake until cheese is melted and browned.
Crust was excellent. Thin, crispy, crunchy.
Toppings were pretty good too.
We do make a damn good pizza.

2 comments:

zzzadig said...

If you ate all the pizza and a half gallon of Cherry Garcia, it wasn't oregano...

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Uh oh ...