It just rained, no, poured maybe the hardest I've ever seen here. And for once in my life, I'm glad. Because it made the workers leave. At 6:30 this morning, I hear some shouting and the heavy thumping of footsteps on my roof. It's a metal roof, so every sound (including rain) is multiplied. And of course, the workers have no consideration for normal folk who aren't awake yet at 6:30 in the morning. It's a good thing Gloria (my landlord, who lives downstairs) had warned me about this, because if not, I would have been in quite a piff. Waking me up on the wrong note is not a good idea (just ask my family, who every winter has to battle me to wake up from my evening nap in front of the fireplace- oh, and don't even think about not waking me up, because I get anxious if I wake up on my own later and nobody is around). Yes, I can be somewhat difficult.
Well, the workers pounded away on the gutters and the roof, tromping with heavy worker boots all over the top of my house and yard, where their worker tools (and gutters, etc.) lay strewn. It looks like there was a hurricane and my house was one of the affected. So, when around 1pm it started to downpour, and I was cozy in my little house, letting the pizza dough rise, I was quite glad. However, Costa Rican weather sometimes has abrupt changes, and now the rain has stopped completely, and I think they're back.
Did I mention pizza dough? Yes, I did! It's been long enough from my last (failed) attempt that my spirits have gathered themselves back up again and I was ready to try, again. For the seventh time. I've made some nasty pizzas.
I'm happy to share with you that, although this pizza isn't perfect, it's the closest I've gotten. I think it would be completely perfect if 1) my oven would actually heat to 500F (we only got to 450F after 50 minutes of preheating); and 2) I had access to good quality flour, such as my beloved King Arthur. I'm no bread scientist, but the flour I get here is fine for pastries and baking, but not for bread. The protein level is so low (4g according to the package, but that's even lower than cake flour, so I'm not sure if it's correct or means the same thing I think it does), and I have not had great results with it, although it makes a fine sandwich loaf (coming up soon, don't think I forgot about the King Arthur Flour bread class post, but my photos are unattainable for the moment).
Those two things aside, I generally have to alter the amount of flour in the recipe by adding a tad more, due to living in a humid (rains allllll the timeeeee) climate.
I think the success in this recipe lies in that, like a pizza dough should, it has a higher percentage of water than normal bread. It also has a pretty low amount of yeast. This makes the dough somewhat wet, sticky, and not the cleanest or easiest thing to handle. But it's closer to my pizza dream than any other doughs have ever been: thin crust, browned in some spots, golden in others, like as if it were cooked in a brick oven (yes, I know, that's going to be very hard to achieve here in my two-bedroom apartment).
Anyways, here's the recipe… it's from The complete Italian vegetarian cookbook by Jack Bishop (I'm working on christening all 13 of my new cookbooks!)
Pizza margherita (pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil)
Makes one 12-inch pizza
½ recipe pizza dough (recipe below)
1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium-large tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded and diced*
½ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
5 oz mozzarella, shredded (about 1¼ cups)
Cornmeal or olive oil for the pan
Prepare the pizza dough. Preheat the oven to 500F for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle a pizza peel or rimless baking sheet (I use the backside of a half sheet cookie sheet) with cornmeal or alternatively brush with some olive oil.
Stretch the dough into about a 12-inch circle/ oval/ whatever shape you like. Brush the dough with 1 TBSP oil. Distribute the tomatoes evenly over the dough, leaving a ½-inch border. Sprinkle salt and basil evenly over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the cheese over the topping.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake until the crust starts to brown and the cheese turns golden in some spots, about 15 minutes (my oven only heated to 450F, so I baked the pizza for almost 20 minutes). Remove the pizza from the oven and serve hot.
*Note: I left my tomatoes unpeeled, and it was fine. To peel them, slash a small "X" in the bottom side and place them in a large pot of boiling water. Leave for about 20 seconds or until you can see the skin just start to loosen in some parts. For coring, an apple corer works great. To seed the tomatoes, slice the tomato in half crosswise and scoop out the seeds with your finger. Shake the tomato over a sink to remove excess seeds/ juice.
Pizza dough
Makes enough for two 12-inch pizzas
Ingredients
1¼ cups warm water (105-115F)*
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil
3½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1½ tsp salt
Combine the water and the yeast, stir gently and proof for 5-10 minutes. Add the yeast mixture and olive oil to the bowl of your stand mixer, along with the flour and salt. Fit with the paddle attachment and stir until the mixture comes together. Change the paddle attachment for the dough hook and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes.**
Turn the dough into a lightly oiled large bowl, rotating the dough to cover with oil. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Let rise in a draft-free place until the dough has almost doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Divide dough in half (with bench knife) and place each half in a separate lightly oiled medium bowl. Let rise, covered, 20 minutes.
From here you can either make a pizza and bake it, refrigerate it overnight, or freeze it for up to a month. If you freeze it, let it come to room temperature before rolling it out.
*Note: If you do not own an instant thermometer, you can do the "baby bottle test" to see if the water is about the right temperature. To do this, take some of the water you have heated and sprinkle it on your wrist. If it feels to hot to the skin, it's too hot. If it feels tepid or cool, heat it some more. It should feel comfortably warm.
**Note: As mentioned above, I add slightly more flour due to living in a humid climate. This time, I added the indicated amount of flour when I was mixing/ kneading it in the stand mixer, and afterwards, I generally like to knead it for a minute or two by hand on the counter. That's when I add the other ½ cup of flour, as I knead the dough. Kneading it by hand for a couple of minutes after kneading it in the stand mixer is helpful so you don't over-knead it, and have more control of it.
Se ve riquisima! How much the slice? Te amo!
Posted by: Gustavo Segura | 09/16/2010 at 08:57 PM
Gracias babie! Gratis para vos mi amor :)
Posted by: Sarah | 09/16/2010 at 09:14 PM