Dough that is worthwhile...

It's been awhile, but before i return this book to the library I want to capture this recipe.  So good. No knead. Amazing stuff.

500 grams all purpose flour

1 gram active dry yeast

16 grams fine sea salt

350 grams water

Blend together, cover with a towel and rise at room temperature for 18 hours or until doubled.

Turn out and form into balls

From: Lahey, Jim My Pizza: the easy no-knead way to make spectacular pizza at home Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 2012.

Ballard Pizza Company

R, J, M and I paid a visit to Ethan Stowell's new pizza place, Ballard Pizza Company in Ballard today.
They seem to be going for a New-york style pizza with some Italian ingredients.  Like Stowell's other restaurants, the style of the restaurant was great--exposed beams, casual yet also foodie enough to be interesting.  I also dig that they have lots of slices available all the time, and "flour hour" happy hour with $1 slices from 10-11 PM.  Doubt I'll be making it but that's cool.

We had two slices: broccoli and roasted garlic as well as the cheese, and then also a Stromboli and a salad.

Reviews:

Crust 3.5 out of 5
The crust was thin like New York style pizzas and the slices were huge and foldable.  This crust was solid but I didn't find it all that interesting--no sense of fermentation, distinct flavors, and they aren't doing anything particular with the oven (just a regular pizza oven).

Toppings: 4 out of 5
I liked the broccoli and roasted garlic quite a bit although R didn't really care for it. She liked the cheese which I thought was good too but again not that distinctive.

Char: 3 out of 5
Char on the bottom of the crust was just fine but not unique.

Overall: 3.5 out of 5

Overall I'd say this place makes good pizza.  Better than a lot of run of the mill pizza shops, but I didn't find it interesting enough to make it into the top eschelon of Seattle pizza.  I found myself comparing to Pagliacci and while the toppings here were superior I find the crust and flavor at Pagliacci better.

Back at it.

We have a new baby in our family and I'm hoping some new energy for blogging in my spirit!

Not many folks take a one week old to get pizza but we pulled that off today.  Also already made a
pizza at home this week that I liked a lot.  I guess this hobby fits me well.

Wood Fired Breadsticks

One of the joys of summer in our household is lingering by our outdoor fireplace. One of the dreams I've had now for a while is to figure out how to put a wood burning oven in our backyard, but living in a rental house in the middle of the city makes that difficult, even potentially dangerous. Funny this is one of a few things that R fears more than I do!

Tonight, however, tonight! Tonight I saw possibilities of those worlds coming together. The coals of the fire looked just right, and I thought--if I push those over, I can fit a quarry tile or two in there (the tiles that line a shelf in our oven). I happened to have some pizza dough rising in the fridge (new recipe, more on that later this week).

We tried it out and made some quick breadsticks. They were delicious. We only preheated the tiles for about 5 minutes or so, probably another 30 minutes preheat might make it work for a pizza. We'll see if I give it a shot soon. The breadsticks got charred nicely and had some flavor you can only get from burning wood--a really wonderful way to end a day.

Pizza Dough Recipe

Warning...sometimes baking can turn your kitchen into a disaster zone. Like above.

This is Rachel...

I have rights to post on Sean's blog since he took over my Seattleats blog and turned it into this. It has become a justice issue, you are the masses in need and Sean is holding onto all the power (aka money, privilege etc) the the readers of this blog that Sean doesn't post recipes with this bread photos and descriptions.

Since Sean's greatest genius in our baking life has been his pizza...it is now time to share...

Pizza Dough

4 1/2 Cups high gluten flour (no whole wheat you health food nuts- this means white flour)

1 3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp yeast (instant yeast- the standard kind not uber quick rise just regular old store bought yeast) and yes if you are a consistent baker that is fairly small amount of yeast!

1/4 Cups Olive oil

1 3/4 Cups ice cold water

So stir together all the dry ingredients

and then, if you are lucky enough to own a nice mixer put on the dough hook and put in the dry ingredients and then the wet ones on medium for 5-7 minutes. Try to make sure that the dough doesn't slowly climb up the dough hook.

The dough should stick to the bottom and not the sides othe bowl.

THEN,

Cut into 4 pieces and let it sit in the fridge overnight...it will rise in the fridge nicely. If you want to freeze it- do it then.

So here is the uber trick...make sure you oven has been preheating forever at the highest possible temp (usually 550) with tiles or a pizza stone or even a baking sheet if that is all ya got inside of it.

So when you are ready to take it out of the fridge you take it out and roll it out- or moreover work it out slowly put the toppings on (some possibly need precooked) and then put it in the oven with flour on the bottom for like 7-10 minutes. Keep an eye on 'er.

Enjoy.

Source: This Recipe is derived from Peter Reinhart, The Bread Bakers Apprentice

Whole Wheat Bread

I've been working on some bread recipes recently, and found one I really like--Peter Reinhart's Recipe for Whole Wheat bread from Brother Juniper's Bread book. It is 2/3s white flour and 1/3 wheat flour so that's probably why!

Still, the flavor works great, and you feel a little better about yourself afterwards than if it was just purely white flour.

Found some locally grown tomatoes at the market today (ok, British Columbia, but still pretty local), and decided to go for them for some bruschetta. Combined with olive oil from Big John's PFC (more about that later) it was a great appetizer.

Fennel and Sausage Pizza

This is my latest creation, a braised fennel and sausage pizza inspired by 1) leftovers from our CSA box last week and 2) a pizza at Delancey in Seattle that features fennel-flavored sausage. See here, Delancey is amazing and the best pizza we've had in Seattle, or in a long time:

www.delanceyseattle.com.

Also I tried out a new dough recipe and am really happy with it. The overnight rise really helps the dough to be more stretchable and easier to work with, also better for small hands (like J's) to play with without tearing!

The dough recipe can be found here, reference to Peter Reinhart:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001199.html