Updated Pizza from Scratch

I wanted to updated my pizza and sauce recipes a bit and wanted to share them. This is based off my normal procedures.

This recipe makes 2 - 16" pizzas.

Equipment Needed:

Oven with rack in lowest spot
Pizza Stone
Stand Mixer with dough hook
Pizza Peel (not required)
Large Mixing Bowl
Medium Sauce pan
Assorted measuring devices, stirring implements, etc

The Dough:

2 cups warm water
7 cups flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons molasses
(can substitute sugar and molasses for 3/4 cup brown sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Add all ingredients to mixer. Use the dough hook attachment at low for a couple minutes until rough dough is formed. remove dough and cut in half. Put half back in mixer and run on speed 2 for about 8 minutes. Take that doughball out, round it out and put the 2nd, ball in the mixer and repeat.

Cover with a towel and let stand for 1 an hour.

The Sauce: 

20oz tomato sauce
4 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder or fresh chopped garlic
1/2 tsp pepper

Combine in bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Bringing it all Together:

 Place your pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 475°. Put the rack in the lowest position.

 You can experiment with temperatures ( I find for softer crusts, lowering the temp down to 425° and cooking a little longer can do the trick.)

Divide the dough and on a floured surface, work it into a 16" circle. Work from the center out, you decide if you want a bulging crust edge or if you want it flat out to the edge. If you want to try to toss it like a pizzaman, be my guest. If you want a thinner crust, you can use a floured rolling pin to get it nice and smooth. If you roll it out, make sure you use plenty of flour underneath or you might end up with a mess. 

Without a Pizza Peel:
Since I do not own a pizza peel, once the stone is ready,  I pick the dough up and flop the dough onto the stone, quickly working it to fit (be careful the stone is HOT) Spread on sauce and toppings. Place stone back into oven. Be as quick as possible so that the crust doesn't cook too much on the stone while you top the pizza.

With a Pizza Peel:
 Create your pizza on a floured surface. Dust the bottom with some flour and let it sit bottom side up for a few minutes so it is nice and dry (that way it won't stick to the peel going into the oven) Flip it over on to the peel  and deposit on the stone in your oven.

Cooking:
Cook for 8-10 minutes, depending on your level of wanted crispyness and cheese doneness. Some people like their cheese a little browned others do not. Just keep an eye on it! at 475° it will cook fast. One recipe I read called for cooking at 500°, but it was too fast for me.

Once done, remove pizza from stone to a cookie sheet or other surface. Let stand for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

The Conclusion of the Matter
You will probably want to tweak my thoughts and add your own twist in the dough, sauce or toppings. It is really an open canvas on which to make some pretty tasty stuff. Try adding garlic powder or Italian seasoning to the dough, or  some sugar or honey to the sauce. Go a little crazy with toppings. There are no rules. So be awesome and make your own 100% from scratch pizza masterpiece!

Simple Blueberry Pancakes

Pancakes are always a winner in our house. Quick and easy. From scratch or from Bisquick, they are easy to get going fast.

For me the best kind of pancakes are blueberry pancakes. Just dropping some blueberries onto the pancakes after pouring them onto the griddle turns regular pancakes into something awesome.

Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes

For Valentines day this year my wife found a breakfast recipe that we just had to try.

Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes

It is a layered breakfast treat. With graham cracker pancakes, topped with a cream cheese pudding and strawberries. It was quick and easy to do. Everyone who tried it, loved it!

I highly recommend you give this one a try. The picture here is what mine turned out looking like.

Æbleskivers (Stuffed Pancakes!)

My extended family knows of my affinity for whipping something fun up in the kitchen, generally during the holidays I am scheduled to make breakfast at least once (usually biscuits and gravy) and buffalo chicken dip for dinner/snacks.


 My  sister-in-law this past Christmas gave our family a box of ingredients and a funny looking pan. Turns out it was for a dish called Ebelskivers ( or in Danish Æbleskivers ) Check out this article at Wikipedia for a rundown.

An Æbleskiver Pan (image public domain from Wikipedia)

The idea is that they are round filled pancake/pastries. The pan is like a frying pan with a bunch of 1/2 spheres cut into it.


So far I have only made this treat with pancake batter. But it seems there are more extensive traditional batters that I will need to try.


A dollop of batter is placed in each divot, Jam, Chocolate chips or some other yumminess is placed in the center and then another dollop of batter is placed on top. After a couple minutes, they are spun in their divot and cooked on the other side. 


When you are done, you have these little filled pancake pastries that you can't stop eating.


 
Here are a couple of photos of the last time I made them. Strawberry Jam in some, Chocolate Chips in some and Nutella in others. Yeah, I had to take the picture quick because they were going fast.

Pizza from Scratch

If there is one recipe that I get asked about the most, it is my pizza recipe. I tried making pizza from scratch on a whim a couple years ago and now we do it several times a month. The key was finding a recipe that the kids like and I think we have. I did a bunch of looking online for good versions, and the best place I found was pizzamaking.com. They have all sorts of resources for making awesome pizza. The dough recipe here is more or less a doubled version of this recipe New York Style. There are slight modifications that I find work well but overall that was my source. The sauce is pretty made up by me. Toppings are up to you! I usually make a 1/2 cheese 1/2 pepperoni for the first pizza and then something like pepperoni/green pepper for the second.

This recipe makes 2 - 16" pizzas.

Equipment Needed:

Oven with rack in lowest spot
Pizza Stone
Stand Mixer with paddle and dough hook (not required, but will make your life a lot easier)
Pizza Peel (not required, I don't even have one yet, it's on my list)
Large Mixing Bowl
Medium Sauce pan
Assorted measuring devices, stirring implements, etc

The Dough:

2 2/3 cups warm water
7 cups flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

 With a mixer: 


 NOTE: This amount is about the max dough my mixer can handle motor-wise (KitchenAid Artisan 5qt), you might want to half it and make 2 dough balls, rather than one big one that you have to separate. It'll take a little longer, but you don't want to burn out your motor.

 Mix in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment for about 30 seconds to get it mixed up.

 Use the dough hook attachment at low to medium speed for 15 minutes. If after a few minutes the dough is still gooey sticking to the bottom of the bowl, add up to 1 more cup of flour and continue mixing.

If your mixer is struggling, you might be best to roll it out and finish the kneading by hand

 Without a mixer:
 Add ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Mix well until a large doughball is formed.
Put on a floured surface and knead for 15-20 minutes adding flour slowly as needed.

 Continue both here:
 Remove the dough ball and place in an oiled bowl.
Cover with a towel and let stand for 1 to 2 hours.
 You can also cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in the fridge overnight.

The Sauce: 

20oz tomato sauce
6oz tomato paste
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

Combine in a saucepan over medium  heat until bubbling.
Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Bringing it all Together:

 Place your pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 475°. Put the rack in the lowest position.

 You can experiment with temperatures ( I find for softer crusts, lowering the temp down to 425° and cooking a little longer can do the trick.)

Divide the dough and on a floured surface, work it into a 16" circle. Work from the center out, you decide if you want a bulging crust edge or if you want it flat out to the edge. If you want to try to toss it like a pizzaman, be my guest. If you want a thinner crust, you can use a floured rolling pin to get it nice and smooth. If you roll it out, make sure you use plenty of flour underneath or you might end up with a mess. 


Without a Pizza Peel:
Since I do not own a pizza peel, once the stone is ready,  I pick the dough up and flop the dough onto the stone, quickly working it to fit (be careful the stone is HOT) Spread on sauce and toppings. Place stone back into oven. Be as quick as possible so that the crust doesn't cook too much on the stone while you top the pizza.

With a Pizza Peel:
 Place the dough on a pizza peel dusted with flour or cornmeal. It should be able to slide around a bit on the peel. Add sauce, cheese and toppings. Slide the pizza off the peel on to the preheated pizza stone in oven. I have NEVER done this, so you are kinda on your own here. In theory it should be perfect. But I bet it takes a bit of practice.

Cooking:
Cook for 8-10 minutes, depending on your level of wanted crispyness and cheese doneness. Some people like their cheese a little browned others do not. Just keep an eye on it! at 475° it will cook fast. One recipe I read called for cooking at 500°, but it was too fast for me.

Once done, remove pizza from stone to a cookie sheet or other surface. Let stand for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

The Conclusion of the Matter
You will probably want to tweak my thoughts and add your own twist in the dough, sauce or toppings. It is really an open canvas on which to make some pretty tasty stuff. Try adding garlic powder or Italian seasoning to the dough, or  some sugar or honey to the sauce. Go a little crazy with toppings. There are no rules. So be awesome and make your own 100% from scratch pizza masterpiece!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

We had some bananas that were not being eaten because they were a bit too ripe. As a joke, my wife said you could make some banana bread out of those as she was walking out the door. When she returned she found something better.

I found a couple recipes, but was missing vanilla that day, so a little ingredient improv came up with this recipe. I started with this as a base recipe.

Simply Recipes Banana Bread

and modified it to this:

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup chocolate syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Put the bananas in the mixer and mix them until mushy.
Put the rest of the ingredients in and mix until a nice batter has formed

Put batter in a small (4x8) bread pan and bake for 1 hour (actually more like 1:10)

Make sure to let it cool for a bit before removing from your pan as it can be gooey in the middle if you got a clump of banana.

I've also tried this with some chocolate chips too, but put in too many and the whole thing fell apart. It was still tasty, but it was a mess! Next time I'm gonna try it with 1/4 cup choc chips and see if that works a little better.

Generally speaking, in our house of 9, this loaf of banana bread doesn't last long.

Chrissy's Birthday Cake

For my wife's birthday this year, I wanted to make a simple yet tasty cake. I wanted to to more than just a box cake, but nothing too crazy as things have been a little nuts around the house since the holidays. I wanted to do chocolate and I wanted to try some layers, so after a little searching I found this recipe. It uses a box mix and frosting in tins, but adds extra ingredients to make the cake super moist and the frosting extra creamy!

Rich Chocolate Layer Cake at Country Living

I followed the directions pretty closely, except that I left the almonds and coconut out of the frosting.

It was a big hit! It certainly didn't last long. My layers weren't perfect, but they did turn out pretty good. The recipe also had a couple great tips that I will take into future cake baking. They are:

• Cut out a wax paper circle for the bottom of your cake tins as to keep the cakes from sticking.
• Put strips of wax paper under the edges of your cake before frosting, then slip the out after you are done. That way you don't have frosting all over the plate or platter.

'The Stuff' - Buffalo Chicken Dip

There is one dish around our house that we love so much that my wife has dubbed 'The Stuff'. I had it a party once and had to get the recipe. It's actual name is buffalo chicken dip, I've modified it some since the first version I got, but it works really well.

• 2lb boneless chicken breast
• 1 12oz bottle Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• 1 16oz bottle ranch dressing
• 2 8oz blocks of cream cheese
• 8oz shredded cheddar cheese
  
• Your favorite tortilla chips for dipping (something that won't break too easy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil the chicken until cooked through, then shred. For a heartier dip, shred with a fork. For something looser, I use the shredder on my KitchenAid to do a fine shred. To this chicken add the bottle of Frank's. Mix well and put in the bottom of a 13x9 (or similar size) pan. 

Combine the bottle of ranch dressing and cream cheese in a saucepan. Heat and stir until well combined. Add this white sauce to the top of the chicken layer.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Add a layer of shredded cheddar cheese and back for an additional 15-20 minutes. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes before serving (if you can).

We find that the fork shredded version required very hearty chips, something along the lines of Tostitos Gold, Where the finely shredded version works with just about any chips.

This has some kick that you can adjust depending on which buffalo sauce you use. So try your favorite and enjoy!