Snow, Ice, Flour and Yeast

I've been more or less stuck in the house since Friday night. This is probably something that many of you can sympathize with. Is anyone else starting to worry that once they do get out and back to real life, they will have become agoraphobic, like a house cat? On Tuesday, I did get to the pet store (for cat food), liquor store (wine is almost a necessity when snow-bound, I find), and Target for groceries, since the Giant Eagle was unbelievably crowded. While perusing the shelves at Target, I was at a bit of a loss, since our Target store doesn't carry fresh vegetables, etc. I'd been planning on stewing some eggplant and making Chicken Masala, but clearly that wasn't going to happen.

When being snow bound, one has nothing if not time and then some more time, so it occurred to me that this would be a good opportunity to make Jim Lahey's No-Knead Pizza Dough. It requires hardly any work, but you do need 12 to 24 hours of rising time. I'd tried the bread on Friday/Saturday, and it was really good, especially for something that I mixed together and plunked in my laundry room to forget about for 18 hours!

I used 1 1/2 cups of all purpose white flour and 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour for the pizza dough, partially because a lot of people mentioned that the pizza dough was extremely floppy and hard to work with. I allowed my dough to rise for the full 24 hours, in my toasty laundry room, which seems to make a huge difference for rising dough. I had no trouble working with the dough, even when tossing it to make the crust. However, I wasn't too crazy about the strong wheat flavor with the tomato sauce, so next time I think I will use 2 cups of AP flour and 1 cup of wheat flour, or maybe even 2 1/2 cups AP and 1/2 cup wheat.

And there will definitely be a next time. I'd like to use more sophisticated and creative ingredients than a Kraft Italian cheese mix and some Hormel turkey pepperoni. I did, however, make a really good pizza sauce, which can be found in the comments section of my blog here. It's the first comment, and it was added by my sister, Rachel. It was a very easy, delicious sauce, and I'd definitely recommend using it.



Jim Lahey's No-Knead Pizza with a Simple Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Co.
Makes four 12-inch pizza crusts, with each crust serving one or two people

3 cups all purpose flour or bread flour, or a combination of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, plus more for sprinkling
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (it is important to use instant)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups water

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the yeast and salt. Add the water and stir until blended (the dough will be very sticky). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for 12 to 24 hours in a warm spot, about 70°.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and lightly sprinkle the top with flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Generously sprinkle a clean cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour and cover the dough balls with it. Let the dough rise for 2 hours.

Stretch or toss the dough into the desired shape, cover with toppings and bake (the pizzas will probably not be a perfect circle, but rather oblong in shape. I baked my pizzas in a 450 degree oven for about 12 minutes each).

Kitchen Mishaps

I have had a busy weekend in the kitchen! Saturday delivered results that were so-so. It started with me making french toast from a recipe that I found on Orangette. However, I found myself short on some of the called-for ingredients, so I will reproduce what I did here:


Challah French Toast
(adapted from Molly Wizenberg)

1 cup 2% milk
4 large eggs
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs. brown sugar (use this brown sugar and the extra tablespoon of sugar if no vanilla is available to you--I would much rather use vanilla, though)
¼ tsp salt
cooking spray
6 slices challah, about ¾ inch thick
Powdered Sugar


Whisk together the first five ingredients in a wide, shallow bowl.

Place a large skillet, preferably cast-iron (I have a cast-iron grill pan, so that's what I used), over low to medium heat, and add enough cooking spray to cover the bottom of the skillet. You will probably need to go through this process several times.

Two at a time, add the bread slices to the egg mixture in the bowl, allowing them to rest for a minute on each side. They should feel heavy and thoroughly saturated, but they should not be falling apart (Optional: allow the slices to rest for a minute on a plate. This will allow the bread to absorb the egg mixture. However, if you don't like your french toast to be very eggy inside, skip this step). When the oil is hot, place the slices in the skillet. Cook until the underside of each slice is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Turn the bread, and cook until the second side is golden, another 2 minutes or so. Remove the bread from the skillet to a plate lined with a paper towel, allow to rest for 30 seconds or so.
When the heat is off, place the slices back onto the cast-iron skillet. This will allow the outsides to crisp up a bit without burning. Serve immediately with powdered sugar or other toppings of your choice.

Yield: 6 slices, serving 2 or 3.

The french toast turned out pretty well. However, if you are using a cast-iron pan, I do not recommend using a grill pan, as it can leave a charred flavor to it. I plan to try the recipe again, using a different pan. I also recommend the second crisping stage to prevent the outside from being too soft. I used this technique on my last three pieces, and it really improved the results. The other pieces were far too soggy.

In the afternoon, I attempted to make the pizza dough that I had promised two weeks ago. I followed this recipe for the dough, planning to split up the dough into six individual crusts and freeze them.
The initial mixing stage turned out well; it was really easy and the mixture smelled good. I used yeast from a jar instead of packets, so that is one level tablespoon per yeast packet called for.



Greenhorn that I am, I took Chef Oliver's advice and made a well of flour and other dry ingredients directly on my counter top.




Few home kitchens really have the space for this type of process, as I learned the second I poured the yeast mixture into the well. Yeast-water ran everywhere, threatening the life of my precious computer that sat on the stool next to me. It also nearly ran off the ledge, and into the adjacent living room (I know, it was stupid of me to choose this particular surface. Really stupid. But it offered the most space). As you can imagine, there was no time for me to photograph this disaster, so you will just have to use your imagination. Allow me to have made this mistake for you,readers. Do not try the straight-on-counter-top well technique!
After cleaning up the mess and kneading the dough, I was left with a dough that was crumbly and dry. Not being sure what to do, I called my dad, who enjoys making his own pizza dough and breads. He has been doing this type of thing for about ten years, I believe, so he is certainly the person to ask. You might ask, "why didn't you go to him for advice before?" Because I don't always like to admit that father often does know best. At least, mine does. Sometimes I like to try my own thing.
He recommended to me that I add some extra water from the faucet, not very cold, but not hot, either. Adding some extra flour, I should knead the dough until it gets soft, and then place in a bowl and cover with a towel. I then should let it sit for an hour or so. If the dough fails to rise, it is ruined. He also mentioned that perhaps I should purchase a bowl large enough to mix dough ingredients together, and abandon the counter-top method. I directly purchased said bowl.
In the end, my dough did rise, fortunately. I tried to knead the dough as little as possible, so it wouldn't become tough. I then froze the result in smaller balls, as planned. Because the dough is very floury, I covered the dough balls with plastic wrap and placed them in individual zip-lock bags. When I use the dough to make pizza, I will let you know how it turns out.
One exciting thing that came out of this experience is that my dad will be guest posting on Sugar & Spice to talk more about the proper way for home cooks to make pizza dough!
Sunday has been far more successful in terms of my food preparation (weather-wise, it has been rainy, but it is April, after all). I will look forward all day to posting about this tomorrow!