Beet Pizza Dough

I loved the idea behind this dough: purple pizza! How fun! It was easy enough to make, the same as regular pizza dough, although with beets. And if you don't like beets you're nuts.

I didn't enjoy the pizza as much as I hoped. The dough was fun and made for a different sort of crust flavor! However, it was definitely not as good as some of the better regular dough's out there. If you're in for a change, though, this could be the dough for you! I topped my pizza with green pepper, fresh mozzarella and onions.



Beet Pizza Dough
The Cooking Photographer

3/4 cup cooked and chopped beets, lightly packed in a liquid measuring cup (or see notes)
Enough almost warm water to make 1 cup when mixed with cooked beets, plus 1 Tablespoon.
1 package bread machine or active dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
3 cups all-purpose flour (Use good quality all-purpose or bread flour)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the bowl

1. Scrub beets under warm water to clean. Stab a knife into it a few times for venting. Line a plate with paper towels, place the beet on the plate, and cover with a paper towel. Microwave the beet on high for several minutes until easily stabbed through with the knife. Cool completely.

2. Chop the beet into chunks. Place 3/4 of a cup of the chunks (lightly packed) into a liquid measuring cup. Top with enough water to make 1 cup. Puree the beet/water mixture in a blender until smooth. (A couple small chunks are ok, but you might end up picking them out as you roll the dough. You can also strain beet mixture through a fine mesh strainer if you have one.) Pour the mixture back into the liquid measuring cup and top with enough water to make 1 cup, then add 1 more Tablespoon.

3. Add all the ingredients into a stand mixer bowl. Mix with the dough hook until well kneaded.

4. Remove from the bowl and knead by hand for 2 minutes on an unfloured surface. (If you have a counter that stains find another place). Then pat into a ball.

5. Grease a large bowl with olive oil and add the dough, flipping once to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until doubled.

6. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, do the final stretches by hand by gently pulling the ends with your fingers. Place on a lightly oiled and coarse cornmeal covered pizza pan, and then add the toppings.

Stromboli

Have you ever eaten stromboli? Oh goodness, if you haven't, get thee to a strombol-ery (I just made that up, they probably don't exist)!

Bananie's mom (whom we lovingly refer to as Mama Stromboli) has been making this miracle of nature for us since before Bananie even moved in! We put in a special order with her for every party we throw and let me tell you, our parties are the best simply BECAUSE of this stromboli!

Unfortunately, we decided to try to make our own the other night and realized how insanely easy it is to make. Bummer (for my hips, not my tastebuds). I don't have a recipe, but I'll take you through it!

First get some pizza dough. We used some from a bakery near us. Roll it out and top it with an assortment of goodies. We made three stromboli:
1. Cheese (any assortment will suffice)
2. Mozzerella and Spinach
3. Salami, pepperoni and cheese


Roll the stromboli up and tuck in the ends. Place them on a baking sheet and brush with an egg wash.

Place in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Salivate at the glistening, seeping, melty cheesy goodness...

Slice and dip into marinara sauce. This is the spinach dude.

I told you it was easy, didn't I?! And I would NEVER lie to you ;)

Shiitake Mushroom Pizza

New York is in a heat wave. I kind of want to crawl into an air conditioner and hibernate until winter. Every time I walk outside I am graced with a wall of HOT air full force in my face. Not cool (literally and figuratively).

Speaking of which...I cannot WAIT for Christmas/Wintertime this year. My friend Lisa and I are pretty much the epitome of elves. Do I even need to mention my most favorite movie of all time is Elf? I watch it year round and know all the words. Don't judge. Mostly, I am excited for sweatpants. I love it when it is cold outside and you can come home and curl up in a pair of sweats. How awesome is that?! It is always better with a fire and some coffee or hot chocolate, but lets not get too picky here!

Back to food. I watched Martha Stewart and Jennifer Garner make a Shiitake Mushroom Pizza on The Martha Stewart Show last week. I was inspired. This was definitely the best pizza I have made to date. Especially the dough. It was just how I like it: thin and crunchy! Perfection! I was also smart and made it ahead like you are supposed to. Sometimes its so darn difficult to plan ahead!

Watch Jen and Martha here. It's pretty awesome!

Pizza Dough
Martha Stewart

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (one 1/4-ounce envelope)
2 cups warm water (105 degrees to 115 degrees)
5 to 5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting, preferably organic
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
Extra-virgin olive oil, for bowl

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in 3 cups flour and the salt, stirring until smooth. Stir in an additional 2 cups flour; continue adding flour (up to 1/2 cup), 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring until dough comes away from bowl but is still sticky.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead with lightly floured hands. Start by slapping the dough onto the counter, pulling it toward you with one hand and pushing it away from you with the other. Fold the dough back over itself (use a bench scraper or a wide knife to help scrape dough from surface). Repeat until it's easier to handle, about 10 times. Finish kneading normally until dough is smooth, elastic, and soft, but a little tacky, about 10 minutes.

Shape dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl; turn to coat. Cover with plastic, and let rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume, 2 hours. Press it with your finger to see if it's done; an indent should remain.

Scrape dough out of the bowl onto floured surface, and cut it into 4 pieces. Shape into balls. Dust with flour, and cover with plastic. Transfer to refrigerator, let rise overnight.

Shiitake Mushroom Pizza
Martha Stewart

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 1/2 cups shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/4 recipe Pizza Dough
Semolina flour, for dusting
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1/4 cup fresh ricotta cheese
3 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
2 teaspoons chopped thyme leaves
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat grapeseed oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Place a pizza stone (available at most kitchen-supply stores) on floor of a gas oven (remove racks) or bottom rack of electric oven. Preheat oven to at least 500 degrees for 1 hour.

Shape dough into a round. Holding top edge of dough round in both hands, let bottom edge touch work surface. Carefully move hands around edge to form a circle, as if turning a wheel. Hold dough on back of your hand, letting its weight stretch it into a 12-inch round. Transfer dough to a pizza peel (or an inverted baking sheet) lightly dusted with semolina flour. Press out edges using your fingers. Jerk peel; if dough sticks, lift, and dust more flour underneath.

Drizzle olive oil over dough, leaving a 1-inch border. Arrange cheeses evenly over olive oil. Top with cooked mushrooms and thyme leaves; season with salt and pepper.

Heat oven to broil. Align edge of peel with edge of stone. Tilt peel, jerking it gently to move pizza. When edge of pizza touches stone, quickly pull back peel to transfer pizza to stone. (Do not move pizza). Broil until crust begins to bubble, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce temperature to 500 degrees, and bake until crust is crisp and golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes more. (If not using broiler, bake pizza for 10 to 15 minutes total.) Remove pizza from oven using peel; drizzle with additional olive oil, if desired. Slice and serve.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Made some more pizza. It was delish. Per usual.

I tried a new pizza dough recipe I found on Friday Delights Blog. The thing that attracted me to it was that it took no resting time, had no yeast and was whole wheat. I added a little wheat bran to the dough just for some more nutritional value. I liked that this dough stayed pretty thin, and got somewhat crunchy, but it wasn't my favorite. I wonder if I made it wrong, too, because my dough didn't look like the one of Friday Delights. Boo hickey.

I still had a good time eating it because I topped it with copious amounts of cheese, onion, mushrooms and bbq sauce! Sounds like a weird combo, but it was yummy! Don't knock it till you've tried it!


Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 cup wheat bran

1 egg, lightly beaten

2/3 cup soy milk

Pizza Stone/Pizza Pan

Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease the pizza stone or pizza pan with olive oil. In a large bowl, stiff the flour, salt, and oregano. Mix in the egg and milk; stir well. Transfer to lightly floured surface. Knead dough until smooth, adding more flour if dough is very sticky. Roll out dough onto the pizza stone or pizza pan and baked in preheated over for 20 minutes, until crust is set. Add toppings of your choice and baked until cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.

Pepper and Mushroom BBQ Pizza

I'm afraid I've become a bit obsessed with pizza as of late. Of course, pizza is delicious, but on top of that, it is great as leftovers.

One of my favorite questions to ask people is "if you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?" I know. Weird thing to ask, right? One of my answers is always pizza because there are just so many kinds! You can have it with marinara sauce, BBQ sauce, cream cheese, pesto...the options are endless! How awesome!

Pepper and Mushroom BBQ Pizza

Dough from Epicurious

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 cups white whole wheat flour

3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Whisk warm water and yeast in a small bowl. Let stand until yeast dissolves, 5 minutes.

Mix flours, wheat gluten and salt together. Whisk 2 tablespoons olive oil into yeast mixture. Gradually add yeast mixture to flour mixture, kneading as you go. Knead until dough will form ball. Brush large bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Place dough in bowl and turn to coat. Let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Separate dough into 2 balls, place one in a plastic bag and put in freezer for next time! Roll out dough ball into a pizza shape and place on a pizza stone coated with cornmeal. Place BBQ sauce over dough. Sprinkle white cheddar and parmesan cheese over pizza, followed by chopped peppers (any color) and mushrooms. Place pizza in a 400 degree oven and bake for about 15 minutes.

Pizza Pizza

Is Little Caesar's Pizza a chain restaurant? I remember a commercial for them when I was little and this little dude with a long nose would always say "pizza, pizza!" Random, I know.

I made some pizza this weekend and it definitely hit the spot! With all the yummy pizza to be found in New York, plus being spoiled by my Stepmom's pizza on the grill when I go home, I don't attempt my own very frequently. I stepped it up (PS: have you seen the movie Step Up? It's fabulous and you should watch it) this weekend and went for it. Yum! I decided on a pineapple, grilled onion and ricotta pizza and made it on my pizza stone in the oven. It wasn't as good as a grilled pizza, but I have never been known to not enjoy a pizza and this bad boy was no exception! (I think I said the word "pizza" about a million times, approximately, in the last paragraph)

Pizza Dough
From Eating, Etc.

1-2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Cornmeal

Combine one cup all-purpose flour, one cup whole wheat flour, yeast and salt in food processor. Pulse to mix.

Add warm water and olive oil and press until a ball forms. Add more flour as needed and knead until smooth, about 4 to 6 minutes. Cover and let rest on a floured surface for about 10 minutes.

Shape into desired shape of pizza and transfer to a pizza stone drizzled with cornmeal.

My Pizza Pizza

Olive oil
Marinara sauce
Mozzarella cheese
One onion, chopped and sauteed
Pineapple chunks
Parmesan cheese
Ricotta cheese
Basil leaves

Place a light layer of olive oil followed by your favorite marinara sauce on to dough. Sprinkle with a layer of shredded mozzarella. Place the chopped onion and pineapple on top of cheese. Sprinkle with Parmesan and dot with ricotta. Place basil leaves on top.