Total pizza bliss

Yesterday's pizza experiment was an astonishing success. I say "astonishing" not because I lack confidence in my/H's cooking skillz, but because the pizza far exceeded our (moderately-high) expectations. Without further ado, here's the method we followed to produce the bad boy featured at left.

First, the dough. I'd never made pizza dough from scratch before and was indeed a bit intimidated about the prospect - but, as it turns out, this fear was unfounded. The recipe I used is really quite simple:

Ingredients

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. Cover with your favorite sauce and toppings and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
We made a few amendments to this recipe - I let the dough rise for an hour (or just over), having consulted with my mom (a pizza making veteran), who correctly advised that half an hour isn't a long enough rising time. Also, we baked the pizza at 400 degrees, but that's putting the cart before the horse...

Rather than using a tomato-based sauce, we made a fig pesto. H followed Epicurious' classic pesto recipe and added five fresh mission figs, chopped coarsely.

Classic Pesto Recipe @ Epicurious Ingredients

4 cups fresh basil leaves (from about 3 large bunches)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated pecorino Sardo or Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Directions

Combine first 4 ingredients in blender. Blend until paste forms, stopping often to push down basil. Add both cheeses and salt; blend until smooth. Transfer to small bowl.

While H made the pesto, I rolled out the dough and placed it on a greased pan. We then topped the dough with the pesto, chevre (about 5 oz.), crumbled feta (1/3 cup or so), sliced white mushrooms, sliced figs (three), a chicken breast that had been sauteed in olive oil with black pepper and rosemary and then chopped, and a wee bit of grated Parmesan. The pizza baked for 22 minutes at 400; the crust was lightly browned and perfectly chewy, and the cheese melted evenly. This was total pizza heaven and a great way of using fresh figs.

One small note: in case you're wondering, the other half of the pizza was a traditional Margherita, made with one heirloom and one Roma tomato. Why make a split pizza, you ask? Having just whipped up the fig pesto idea (and not knowing if the flavors of that pizza would complement one another), we wanted to have a backup pizza in case the experimental one totally sucked. Which it did not, but, you know: precautions.

On that note, make some fig pesto this weekend! You will be filled with so much joy.

Solutions!

1. My car is not broken forever & ever! Left it at the Toyota dealership yesterday morning and the mechanic said there was nothing actually wrong with the Corolla - i.e., no reason for the malfunction light to have gone on - except that there was slight corrosion around the gas cap, which may have caused the cap not to sit as tightly in its place as it should. So, the mechanic cleaned the corroded part, reseated the cap, and the light went off. Relief!

2. My figs didn't go to waste! Sunday, I tried this recipe:

ALMOND MUFFINS WITH GOOEY FIG CENTER
(Serves 12)

Ingredients:

Zest of 1 small lemon
1 1/2 cups almond meal (or finely crushed almonds plus 1 tsp flour)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat flour (found at health food stores)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
12 small figs, stemmed
1 small egg
1/4 cup clover honey
1 1/4 cups skim milk
1/8 cup almond (or toasted almond) oil
6 tbsp sliced almonds

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Combine first 9 ingredients in a bowl. Puree figs in a food processor until smooth and scrape into a small saucepan. Place over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until puree gently boils, about 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate. Whisk egg, honey, milk and oil in a bowl. Incorporate into flour mixture and blend on low with a hand mixer. Line a muffin tin with paper cups; fill each halfway with batter. Add 1 tbsp fig puree to center of each cup, then cover with a small spoonful of batter. Sprinkle almonds on top. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

I didn't exactly follow the recipe. Not being motivated enough to go to the health food store, I substituted buckwheat flour (which I had on hand) for the oat flour, and really finely chopped almonds (sans flour) for almond meal. Also, canola oil for almond oil (maybe not the best choice). Despite my questionable substitutions/lack of a food processor - I used a potato masher, instead - the muffins turned out really well.

3. Reading The Effect of Living Backwards & loving it. I wish I could be reading now, at work, but it's a little easier to get away with slacking on the computer as opposed to "slacking" by reading. Sigh.

I promise this blog will not just become a photo archive of stuff I want/most likely won't attain, but Hinken just sent me a link to these - a pair of which will set you back $368. Naturally, I had to post. They're the cutest candelabras I've ever seen...but $368? Let me just type that again, for emphasis:

$368.

Now that that's out of my system...

Ali's pretty much moved in and I'm the gladdest she's here - it's been a nonstop nostalgiafest since her arrival. How much gossip from high school can you remember? you might be thinking. The answer? A lot. In all seriousness, though, I am the gladdest. Haven't taken any apartment pics yet, but soon I will. And then I will post the least blurry of the batch.

I haven't tried any new recipes in a little while, though I'm looking for a good way to prepare figs. That's right: I have about 1.5 lbs. of fresh figs that are currently in the fridge, battling spoilage. I rummaged through one of my email accounts and found a recipe for fig muffins, but it requires a bunch of ingredients I don't have, and I'm a wee bit tired to drive to the grocery store at this moment in time. Also [bad news], my car's engine light went on this afternoon, and I don't want to drive until I get it diagnosed on Monday.

Malfunctioning Toyota. Questionable figs. These are the stuff of adult life.