Impromptu home made pizza

Out of the blue, Herr Scherrer had a sudden inspiration to make our own pizza for dinner last week. I've never attempted preparing pizza dough from scratch so it became an impromptu "experiment".

It was a weekday night after work so we didn't have a lot of time. No time to plan for proper ingredients. It was like a surprise pizza challenge - we had to cope with whatever ingredients we happen to have at home. A quick google search and I found this pizza dough recipe from Jamie Oliver: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pizza-recipes/pizza-dough, and thankfully I had all the ingredients listed in my kitchen. I threw everything into my trusted bread machine and cut the rising time to 45 minutes as we were getting hungry. =P

While I worked on the dough, Herr Scherrrer planned the pizza toppings - he popped his head into the fridge and dug out mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach. Basically whatever he could find! We had a jar of tomato pasta sauce which we spread on the rolled out dough. We also went with our intuition and added olive oil, herb spices, salt and pepper.

The end result? It was surprisingly yummy for an impromptu pizza put together without much planning. Will definitely try it again with different toppings!

Assorted bread rolls

Playing with bread dough is fun fun fun!!  I made an assortment of bread rolls over the weekend.  Before you glance at the pictures and wonder if its a lot of work, let me reassure you that its the same bread dough for all of these dinner bread rolls.

 (In the centre is the twisted roll topped with poppy seeds.)

The real fun starts after the dough has completed its first rise.  After knocking back the risen dough and dividing it into equal pieces of around 60 to 65g each, the individual pieces can be shaped into a variety of assorted rolls.  Once proven, the rolls can be topped with a variety of seeds, nuts, or herbs of choice, including cheese.  There's so much room for creativity!  In the photos posted here you'll see the snail roll topped with crushed walnut, twist roll topped with poppy seeds, knot roll topped with cheese and cloverleaf roll topped with thyme.

 (Snail roll topped with crushed walnuts)

This dough is forgiving and very easy to work with.  It can be prepared using a bread machine, removing after its risen, which makes it very convenient.   In my opinion these are best served warm. 

(Cloverleaf roll topped with thyme)

The following recipe is taken from "Bread" by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno.

Ingredients:

- 2.5 tsp dried yeast

- 250 ml milk

- 60g unsalted butter, melted

- 30g, melted butter, to glaze and grease bowl and baking sheet

- 2 tbsp granulated sugar

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 560 g strong white flour

- 2 tsp salt

(Knot roll topped with cheese)

Method:

1. Sprinkle yeast into 100ml of the milk in a bowl.  Leave for 5 minutes; stir to dissolve. Warm the remaining milk in a saucepan with the butter and sugar.  Stir continously, until the butter has melted.  Cool until tepid, then beat in the eggs until evenly combined.

2. Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeasted milk and the butter mixture.  Mix in the flour to form a soft, sticky dough.

3. Turn the dough out on to a floured work surface.  Knead until smooth, shiny, and elastic, about 10 minutes.  Knead in extra flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough is too sticky.  Resist adding too much flour - the dough should not be dry, but soft.

4. Put the dough in a buttered bowl and cover with a tea towel.  Leave to rise until doubled in size, 1- 1.5 hours.

5. Knock back, then leave to rest for 10 minutes.  Divide the dough into 16 pieces and shape as follows: 

(a) 4 snail rolls: roll 4 pieces of dough into 30 cm rope each.  Form each rope into a coil, tucking under the end.

(b) 4 baker's knot roll: roll 4 pieces of dough into 30 cm rope each.  Make a loose knot with each rope, leaving enough room for the dough to expand during proving into a tight knot.

(c) 4 cloverleaf roll: separate 4 pieces of dough into 3 even portions each.  Shape each piece into a round roll.  Please 3 balls in each buttered cup of a muffin tin.

(d) 4 twist roll: roll 4 pieces of dough into 30 cm rope each.  Fold each rope in half, and twist; pinch ends to seal.

6. Arrange shaped snail rolls, baker's knot roll and twist roll 5pm apart on buttered baking sheets.  Cover with a tea towel and prove until double in size, about 30 minutes.  Leave cloverleaf roll in muffin tin to prove until double in size, also 30 minutes.

7. Glaze top of the bread rolls with remaining butter, top with nuts, seeds, cheese, spices as you prefer.

8. Bake 15 to 20 minutes in preheated 220 C oven, cool on wire rack.