Thursday, February 24, 2011

Mr. Hawthorne Makes Pizza.

If you like crispy crust pizza, then you're in for a treat. Mr. Hawthorne is cooking tonight.
He created a thin, crispy crust, and his toppings were peppers, red onion, tomato, black olives, assorted cheeses, and spinach.
Mr. Hawthorne added one package of yeast to 1/2 cup of warm water. In case you're wondering about the time factor, he started at 4:43.
Sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar over top of the yeast, stir to combine, and leave it alone for a few minutes ...
... or however long it takes to "proof." This was ready in ten minutes - by 4:53.
See how the mixture has become bubbly? It has "proofed." In other words, the yeast is active and you're good to go with making your dough. If your yeast doesn't proof, dump it out and get new yeast.
Mr. Hawthorne added one cup of bread flour to the his mixture ...
... stirring to combine.
Add in an egg ...
... and continue stirring.
He added in another 1/4 cup of bread flour ...
... then he turned it out on his floured board and started kneading.
And kneading.
He added in a little olive oil and continued kneading.
Add a sprinkling of flour if needed.
Sprinkle a little fine corn meal in your pan and slap in the dough. Working from the center, press the dough outwards.
Prick the dough with a fork ...
... and set it in a warm oven to rise a bit. Time: 5:35 You don't want a big rise here, since we're going for thin and crispy. After about ten minutes rising, Mr. Hawthorne removed the crust from the oven and cranked it up to 425 degrees. Crust went back in the oven to brown.
Time: 5:47
Here are Mr. Hawthorne's ingredients for topping: green pepper those little multi-colored peppers that are shaped like jalapenos but are sweet, not hot Roma tomatoes red onion black olives spinach assorted cheeses: Ricotta Mozzarella Swiss Pepper Jack shredded mix of Mozzarella and mild cheddar
When Mr. Hawthorne cooks, he likes to spread out.
First, a layer of grated Mozzarella and Pepper Jack cheeses.
A sprinkling of oregano.
Onion powder.
Granulated garlic.
Red onion slices.
Green pepper slices.
Red and orange peppers.
Tomatoes.
Black olives.
More oregano.
And pile on the spinach!
Some of the shredded mixture of mozzarella and cheddar.
A drizzling of ELBOO - Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil.
Freshly ground pepper.
Freshly ground salt.
Some feta.
More grated Mozzarella.
Some ricotta.
Another drizzling of olive oil. And it's ready for the oven (425 degrees) at 6:09.
Bake until cheese is nicely melted. Out of the oven at 6:35.
Beautiful crisp crust.
Perfect pizza. Excellent crust. Lovely toppings. And fairly healthy as far as pizza goes.
Very light.
It's so simple. Now you have no excuse NOT to make a pizza tonight. Try it and let me know how you likey.
Well done, Mr. Hawthorne. Here's Rosie's tip #279: Never nuke your leftover pizza slices, unless, of course, you happen to like limp and soggy pizza. To reheat, use an iron skillet. Keeps the crust crusty. Lightly oil the skillet, place the slices in over low heat, and cover to heat through.

3 comments:

Catherine said...

I love homemade pizza. It really is worth the time. Blessings, Catherine

Rocquie said...

That looks scrumptious. Great job Mr. Hawthorne.

Woodduck said...

Looks so good!
Go ECU...my first year there, it was ECC...ECTC when my mom was there!