Pizza Crazy

This summer, everyone made pizza. I did too! This recipe rocks. I mean, SERIOUSLY rocks. Kickpleat, you've done it again.

Check out the pizzas I made!!

This one has fresh and roasted veggies ...


This one has chicken ...


This one has bacon and spicy salami ...


This is a breakfast one with eggs, sausage, spinach ... I was guided by this recipe ...


And LOOK!! That's pizza dough too! Chili powder, herbs, honey, olive oil, crunchy, chewy bready goodness inspired by the lovely tara ...

I never knew pizza could be such an easy thing to make. It feels so liberating to add whatever you want to the dough; kind of like an empty page waiting to be filled up -- reminds me of my journal days when I would write stories and things in my head on the subway, the bus, in front of the computer in the middle of studying for an exam, during the early morning hours of insomnia .. Those days may be gone, but my pizza days have just begun!

Check this one out ...

Ok, it's not really a pizza. It started when I saw my cooking love, Anna Olson make a concord grape focaccia on her newish show Fresh. And then I saw this post from smitten kitchen who made kind of the same thing, but with rosemary. But Anna Olson's version needed to rest a for different periods of time .. time that I didn't have ... And smitten kitchen's version required fancy equipment like a hook and an electric mixer. So, I went back to my summer discovery: a pizza dough that you don't have to knead and that doesn't need a lot of rest. I used a combination of all purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour, added just a touch more honey than the recipe called for and then piled on the grapes, sprinkled on the rosemary and sugar and hoped for the best.


My grape pizza turned out wonderful -- a perfect treat, nice enough to give to friends, and wonderful the next morning for breakfast alongside a little smoothie. The texture was really interesting, almost pastry like and crumbly because of the type of flour I used. If you wanted to turn this into dinner, I'm sure you could add some crumble goat cheese, or even extra old cheddar, some chopped walnuts, and some baby arugula. Wow ... I need to try that next!

So, it's not really focaccia; big deal. One day, we'll dig through storage and find that big monster kitchen aid that comes with all the fancy attachments. One day, I'll take an entire day off so that I can let a dough rise as much as it likes. One day I'll find my story-writing groove again and write on the streetcar on the way to work instead of sleep ... Until then, I'm consoled by pizza.

Sweet Pizza with Concord Grapes and Rosemary
crust from Everybody Likes Sandwiches
inspired and guided by Anna Olson and Smitten Kitchen

For the crust:
1 package of instant yeast
1 cup of warm water
1 tablespoon of honey
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1.5 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup of all purpose flour (+ more for if needed)
cornmeal

On top:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 cup of concord grapes, halved and de-seeded
2 teaspoons of coarse sugar

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the yeast, water, honey, salt, rosemary and oil. Sift in the flour and stir to combine. Dough should be soft, but not too sticky. Add more all purpose flour if needed. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

2. Sprinkle corn meal on a baking sheet (rectangular works too!). Knead the dough a few times in the bowl, adding more flour if needed until you get a soft, smooth ball of dough. Press the dough out on the baking sheet.

3. Brush the dough with olive oil. Sprinkle on the grapes and press down on them slightly. Add the rosemary needles and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

4. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until the crust gets lightly golden brown.

Letting Summer Go ...

I know, I know. I've lamented about the loss of summer more than once. But .. but .. it's just that I'm so relaxed in the summer, and there seems to be so much more time to just be. Like every other summer, this once seemed to fly by. It was like all of July, I spent anticipating our trip to Moncton, and then once we got back, all I could do was think about school starting and counting the days till the end of freedom. Well, my friends, September has finally arrived and summer, for me at least, has come to an end.

But I'm not crying, because this summer has been one of the best and most exciting. I have one last summer story post for you coming up next week, but for now, I'll keep it short and sweet and present to you ... some beer bread. But this is not just ANY beer bread -- it's fruity, summery, memory-inducing beer bread, made first with Pump House Blueberry Ale that my best friend brought over one weekend as a funny surprise. Her and my partner drank quite a few of these when we were in Moncton. Over there, it was the specialty, brewed in downtown Moncton. It even had a little restaurant attached to the brewery called The Pump House.

A little research brought me to this wonderful blog, Farmgirl Fare, where I saw her recipe for whole wheat beer bread. I used the blueberry ale and added in a handful of fresh Ontario blueberries for good measure. It smelled wonderful in the oven, and even better when it came out. The blueberries had exploded and turned jammy and beautiful and I could definitely taste that slightly bitter tang from the beer. The texture was hearty and dense, as expected from a beer bread, but a little bit too moist and sticky. The next time I tried it, I used KLB Raspberry Wheat Beer and, you guessed it, fresh local raspberries provided by my sister's CSA. This time, I baked it a little longer and the texture was definitely better.

Don't be scared of bread. Go ahead and bake some. Use a fancy beer and throw in some fruit. Hey .. you could even try chocolate beer bread and use chocolate stout .. oh my ...

Fruity Beer Bread
adapted from Farmgirl Fare

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of honey
7 ounces of fruity beer (that's about 3/4 of the bottle)
a handful of berries to match the beer, washed and patted dry

1. Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour the honey on top of the dry ingredients.

2. Open a bottle of fruity beer. Take a biiiig gulp. Pour the rest of the bottle into the other ingredients and stir gently until everything comes together in a sticky, thick batter. Add the berries and mix them in.

4. Pour in a prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean, and the top has browned every so slightly. Best served warm with a cup of coffee.