Whole grain goodness: Pizza dough

I’m going to tempt you with a photo.

Pizza dough - and pizza - that you can feel good about. And even better than that, it’s really, really tasty.

Simple ingredients. Straightforward. Rustic. Fairly easy. Incredibly healthy. What’s not to love here?

Regular readers will know that I love all things whole grain, and I’m on a mission of sorts to perfect the foods we know and love in the whole grain mode. To this end, I’ve begun a project to try and create a really tasty, good textured pizza dough that highlights the rich nuances of a variety of whole and heritage grains - something that can be stored in the refrigerator, and frozen. It irks me that I can’t go to the grocery store and buy a frozen or fresh container with multi whole grain pizza dough. That just seems so obvious to me.

Out came the many cannisters of whole grain flours, yeast, olive oil and the big, BIG Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

First I had to devise the recipe, then I decided to make three batches. Measure, measure, measure, and then make notes. I figured I’d drop some over at the neighbor’s house and ask them to give it a try. That’s called product testing. I mean, what are neighbors for?

Above in the photo, I’ve got three larger pans with the bulk of my flour mixture, then in the three glass bowls, I’ve got my percolating yeast ‘sponge’. The yeast - combined with water, olive oil and a half cup of the flour mixture - went into the kitchen aid mixer to be thoroughly combined. Then it sits for about 30 minutes to go poof. Bubble. Get happy.

This gives me a chance to put flours away and regroup.

When you look at the recipe, below, you’ll probably nag me about putting in the ultra fine, highly milled  ‘00’ Italian bread flour. “Whoa! That’s not whole grain!” Yup. I’m after the best balance of flavor, texture and healthy whole grain goodness. The whole grains comprise about 75% of the flours in this dough. I thinks that’s pretty damn good. I added vital wheat gluten, too. That’s to improve the elasticity and compensate for the lack of gluten in the whole grains.

When they’re ready, one at a time, each sponge will go into the mixer, with it’s accompanying flour added incrementally with the dough hook on the 2 setting. Stop and scrape occasionally. I found that - Nevada being dry - I had to add about two tablespoons of water, here and there, to get the dough to have that nice elastic shiny quality. You know the dough is ready when it pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl and starts to wrap tighter around the dough hook. The sides of the bowl should be quite clean looking.

As I finished each dough batch, it would go into another glass bowl that had been oiled. Cover each with a tea towel and set in a draft free place for about an hour.

Now, it’s time to gather, mince, slice and otherwise prepare the toppings. I wanted to keep it simple so that we could better evaluate the finished crust. So I opted for sliced grape tomatoes, halved balls of fresh mozzarella, sliced garlic and a melange of minced fresh basil, sage, thyme, oregano and rosemary. I had some sliced pancetta, so decided to use that for the meat.

Oh, time to preheat the oven - with a pizza stone if you have one. My oven will go 500 degrees. Just use the highest heat you have, which with many ovens is 450 or 475.

 

The first one cooked for about 12 minutes, and was perfectly great. The second cooked for about 14 minutes, since I was after a crisper crust. Yes. It worked very well indeed.

Well, here are the ingredients as I see them:

4 cups of flour, total. My combo came out like this - 1-1/2 cups of ‘OO’ Italian bread flour. 1 cup whole wheat bread flour. 1/2 cup each whole spelt and kamut flour. 1/4 cup each whole millet and barley flour.

2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 (.25 ounce) packet of dry active yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

1/2 cup lukewarm water (about 105 to 115 degrees)

1/4 cup olive oil, plus a couple tablespoons more to grease the bowls for rising, and a similar amount to oil the rolled out pizzas prior to topping them.

3/4 cold water

Technique

In a large bowl, mix together your flours and  the salt, so they add up to 4 cups total.

In the big bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together 1/2 cup of the flour(s), the 1/2 cup lukewarm water, and the packet of yeast. Let it set for about 30 minutes, til it’s all bubbly and poofy.

When the yeast mixture is ready, add the rest of the water and olive oil. Turn your mixer on, using the dough hook, to the 2 setting. Start adding the rest of the flour(s) in quarter cup increments.

Mix/knead the dough for about 5 minutes or until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl, leaving ‘clean’ sides, and start to ball up around the dough hook. Remove the dough from the bowl, and set it in the greased bowl, and cover with a kitchen towel. Set it in a draft free place until it doubles in size - about 1-1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees or as close as you can get to that.

When the dough is doubled, punch it down. Give it a couple kneads and divide it into four disks … or two … or don’t. Make one big huge pizza pie if you want.

Working on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin and your hands. Stretch it out till it’s about 1/4 inch thick. It doesn’t have to be perfectly round or perfectly anything. I call this rustic. Rustic makes up for any number of sins of omission or lack of technique.

Repeat with remaining dough discs.

Wipe each rolled out dough disc with some good olive oil, put some tomato paste or pesto on - or don’t, hell it’s your pizza. Don’t look at me to hold your hand.

Here are some other things you can put on it, put please do it in the true Italian style - Less is More. Keep it to about 3 or 4 ingredients max. Use really good quality stuff.

Slices of fresh mozzarella, anchovies, kalamata olives, pine nuts, slices of artichoke hearts, minced herbs, julienned basil, dried tomatoes, thin slices of fresh tomato, goat cheese, pesto Genovese, simple goddamn tomato paste, parmesan cheese, salmon lox, tomato pesto, chunks of roasted chicken or turkey, spinach (blanched, drained and chopped), crumbled Italian sausage, fresh sage leaves, pancetta, paper thin slices of salami or prosciutto, caper berries, very thin slices of duck confit or smoked duck breast,  thin ribbons of zucchini … sliced apples, blue cheese, smoky bacon.

Knock yourself out.

I think this dough will freeze just fine. And it will keep fresh in the fridge, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for a few days, too. In other words, there’s no reason not to have a bit of this dough around when you get the urge for a little slice of pizza pie.

Hey, if you try this, let me know how it works out for you. I’m really interested.

-maven

P.S. - A reader and neighbor keeps telling me that I should offer informal classes in some of this stuff … like the pizza making. What do you think? Would you be interested in spending a few hours on a Saturday, so that you have the confidence to do this on your own?

Pissaladiere? What? Oh, you mean that pizza thing.

Actually, not pizza. It’s like pizza, but it’s French. Black olives, anchovies, tomatoes and caramelized onions French. With a whole grain crust. That’s right a light, well textured whole grain crust.

Here’s the photo from in the oven. I would’ve had a photo out of the oven, but company arrived, I got busy, bottles of wine were being opened, and then they ate it all. Sheesh. WTF? I knew I should’ve done two.

This is so easy. A no-brainer. Really.

In a big old cast iron skillet, medium heat, add 4-5 tablespoons olive oil and one huge sweet onion that has been finely sliced - or ‘frenched’.

Add a few pinches of salt. Gently, slowly cook these lovely onions down to a fare thee well, stirring frequently - or until they are very wilted, soft, tender, fragrant, and almost but not quite golden. Don’t let them burn or brown. Kill the heat. Set aside. Try not to ‘pick’ at them.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Meanwhile, take one packet of fast rising yeast, add that to a bowl which contains: one egg beaten, 1/3 cup barely warmish tap water and a pinch of sugar. Stir with a fork, and then let it sit for about ten to 15 minutes and liven up. Get a little foamy thing going on.

In a larger bowl: 3 cups of flour ( I use a combination of Italian 00 bread flour, white whole wheat, and barley flour). Keep your ratio of white flour at one half of the total flour. Add 1/8th cup of fresh thyme and rosemary, minced. Two teaspoons of salt.

Stir that flour, salt and herbs around with your fingers to combine. Make a ‘well’ in the center. Pour in 3/4 cup of barely warmish water, followed by the yeast/egg mixture and two tablespoons more of olive oil. Take your clean little fingers and start mixing from the outside of the bowl to the well, around and around. Feel how wonderfully light and ‘silky’ the flour is. Like silk sheets. Draw the flour in to make the dough. Knead to make it rather more elastic. Add a bit more flour, only as needed to keep the dough workable. Take your rings off before you start this.

When all is thoroughly combined and happy looking, form it into a ball and rub about two tablespoons of olive oil around on it. Cover with a kitchen towel and set it in a warmish - draft free place until it doubles.

Slice up two nice tomatoes. Prepare the olives. You will need about 1/2 cup of pitted Nicoise or similar olives roughly chopped. Round up 1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese. Now open a small tin of anchovies and drain them in a colander, and rinse them under water to remove excess salt and fishy-ness. Drain.

When the dough has risen to twice it’s original volume, punch it down and take it out onto a baking sheet. Roll it out, more or less in a rectangle. It’s alright to sprinkle a bit of extra flour on it, to keep your rolling pin from sticking to the dough. Spread the cooled caramelized onions all over. Yum. Add the tomato slices,  an attractive lattice of the anchovies, olives, spinkled cheese and several healthy grinds of black pepper.

You can sprinkle some generic Italian seasoning or Herbs de Provence around on it all.

Now, let it all set and think for about 30 minutes, allowing the dough to rise again. This isn’t a huge rise.

Now, pop it into the hot oven for 30 minutes. Remove and let it cool for about 10 minutes before slicing. Serve as a cocktail appetizer, or a side to a wonderful salad and soup.

Try this on a weekend, and you’ll see that it’s so easy that you’ll be able to do it on a weeknight.

-maven

Oh, remember to go get your rings out of the bread box, and put them back on. Duh. Your ultra-sonic toothbrush will remove any dried dough.

I crack myself up. Really, I do.

Whole Wheat Naan Pizza

It’s become something of a quest for me to find an acceptable pizza crust in whole wheat. Whole Foods now has one that looks pretty good and is there house ‘365’ brand, and I almost tried one the other day. Then, I saw the Naan.

We don’t care for really large pizzas, preferring individual ones that can be topped to each of our picky, picky preferences. So the Naan was actually perfect. Even better, it’s also available in the Whole Foods 365 house brand, and was less expensive than the large round pizza crust. I think it was about $4 for a package of four large naan breads, and when I topped those with stuff out of the fridge - it was bargain pizza that everybody raved over.

My family insisted that it was so good, in fact, that we have to have that in the freezer all the time now for pizza anytime.

Here’s how it came out with my toppings: grated mozzerella, grated parmesan/pecorino/gruyere blend, basil pesto, some leftover veggie bruschetta topping, zuchinni, sauteed onions and baby sweet peppers.

My guess is that you can actually get your white flour family to try this, and they just might become whole grain lovers in time.

What I hunger for at B7

Bistro 7, that is. They’ve made some necessary changes at B7 recently and Mr. Maven and I stopped in a couple weeks back to try it out.

The biggest change is that they’re now really utilizing the wood fired oven as their signature touch for almost every item on the menu.  Executive Chef Michael Vingiello and Catering Director Jennifer Bushman have come together to create a diverse menu centered on Bistro 7’s wood oven grill.

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Incredibly good eggplant lasagna at Bistro 7

I’m not kidding. This stuff is addictive. Even if you’re not vegan or sort of you really ought to try it.

Mr. Maven and I slipped into Bistro 7 for a late supper. He had the wonderful thin crust, wood oven baked red pizza with sweet Italian sausage. Just the right size for one person that’s hungry, enough as an appetizer or small plate for a two-some. The crust is so tender it melts in your mouth.

But the lasagna. Oh, baby, oh, baby, oooooh baby.

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Home-made pizza in one hour

Warm, zesty home-made pizza doesn’t need to be just a weekend idea. You can whip up a pizza on a work night, quickly and easily, and use up leftover meats and whatever cheese you have.

This is really a start to finish pizza meal in one hour. Make the salad while the pizza is baking.

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