linbakesbread

Good afternoon bread bakers!

So this week I am going to be very practical again. You see, we are re-doing our circa 1950s kitchen and on Thursday the Amish guys are coming to demolish it. It’s a little bitter-sweet, as I’ve come to appreciate my tiny kitchen with the GE harvest gold stove, knotty pine cabinets and the old Armstrong linoleum floor, that you will surely recognize if you are over the age of 50. While it’s under construction, I plan to utilize my basement as a temporary kitchen. It’s outfitted with a range and refrigerator, so I think I’m good. Back to my practical bread bake. I am planning to make pizza crusts. I use the same Donna Adams bread recipe and after the second rise, just shape it into pizza crusts instead of round loaves. I’ll keep these in the freezer so we can make quick and easy dinners when we’re without our “official” kitchen.

Here is the recipe. Please bake Donna Adams (famous) Food Processor Pizza Crust with me.

Special Tools you will need:

Food processor, such as a Cuisinart

Lineup of Ingredients

Ingredients:

3/4 cup warm water (approx. 115 degrees)
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 ½ cups Montana Sapphire flour
1 Tablespoon sea salt (preferably La Baleine fine sea salt)

1 cup cold water (use cold water here because the food processor generates heat as it kneads the dough)
2 to 2 1/2 cups additional Montana Sapphire flour

1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions

Proof yeast: In a glass measuring cup stir together the warm water, yeast and sugar. Let sit a few minutes until bubbly.

Make Dough: Meanwhile, combine the 2 cups of flour and salt in a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Blend for a few seconds. Add the yeast mixture and blend for about 1 minute. Add additional 1 cup of cold water and flour (start with about 1 3/4 cup flour) and process until dough forms a ball and the sides of the bowl are fairly clean. Add in more flour as needed. The dough should be soft but workable. You should be able to take it out of the food processor without the dough sticking to your hands.

Knead dough by hand: Dump dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead 1-2 minutes.

First Rise: Add the 1 teaspoon olive oil to the container or bowl that you will let the dough rise in. Put the ball of dough into the container and turn to lightly coat with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and fasten with rubber band (to trap in the gasses). Let rise 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled. Punch down.

Second Rise: Let rise a second time for 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.

Shape into pizza crusts: Dump dough onto counter and shape into 3-4 pizza crust shapes. My shapes are usually pretty random. Drizzle a little olive oil on baking sheet and stretch the dough for the crust. I like mine fairly thin but my family likes theirs a little thicker – so you can stretch the dough as thin as you like it.

Rest Dough: Let rest 10-15 minutes (push the crusts out a little if it has shrunk back after resting).

First Partial Bake: Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 10-15 minutes. The crusts will not brown in this short time. This is just a pre-bake. At this point you can use the crusts right away, or freeze and use later.

Second and final bake: Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Top crusts with your favorite toppings and bake for 5-10 minutes, depending on how crispy you like it.

After the first partial bake -- ready to freeze

Reflections on this bake: So we love pizza made with this crust. Even though the crust looks pasty-white after the first bake, after a few minutes in the super-hot 500 degree over, the cheese sizzles and the crust gets super crispy. It was a perfect do-ahead.