Pizza Land

After a 20 mile bike ride, who doesn't want to spend two hours in the kitchen, on his feet making three different pizzas?



I know, this is a universal desire, but I'll share with you anyway. Experimenting with dough recipes again, going back to a wetter dough, closer to Jill Santopietro's as far as the flour/water mix, but kneading longer and doing the fridge rise like Alton Brown does. Sort of following a 2 cups flour to 1 cup water recipe, adding a teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of wheat gluten, 3/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and then kneading it for 15 minutes in the Kitchen Aid on high. My 'high' may not be what yours is, my Kitchen Aid is somewhere between 47 and 63 years old, doesn't crank like a new one would.




But to hand-stretch/toss the dough and get a thin crust with puffy handles, you've gotta develop the gluten big time. The dough I made this evening to replace what I used, I moved the knead time up to 20 minutes to see if I can't get an even stretchier dough.



Made an alfredo/prosciutto for Em, a sauceless pepperoni for Mo and for me...



I know, it's a rut if I always make the same pizza. But I mixed it up a little. Caramelized onions, fig, bacon, Gorgonzola and baby portobello mushrooms this time. See what I did? I added mushrooms so it's not the exact same pizza I keep making.



I asked Em if she thought it was possible to get sick of pizza, have it too often. She tried, but couldn't quite get her mind around the idea. Me either.