On a whim, I decided to try TJ's white (as opposed to their whole wheat) pre-made pizza dough. I'd tried their whole wheat dough before, with unimpressive results, so my expectations weren't high. In my mind, the mere act of making pizza is an apathetic way to clean out the fridge, so my expectations are never terribly high.
I had a disastrous time finding toppings (turns out my fridge wasn't as full of leftovers as I thought), and an even worse time wrangling the dough onto the pizza stone and topping it (as you may recall, I do not own a pizza peel).
And yet, it turned out reasonably well. The crust was perfect- crisp on the outside, chewy and fluffy on the inside. I was very impressed, and wonder if I hated their whole wheat crust because I followed their cooking instructions rather than my gut pizza stone instincts. Next time, I'll try their whole wheat crust, but bake it at a higher temperature and see if it yields better results.
Ooh, pretty crust...
I topped it with a garlic/olive oil sauce, smoked chicken sausage from TJ's, and some baby Swiss left over from a fondue experiment a few weeks back. I wish I'd had another, more assertive cheese to blend with the Swiss. I was trying to get rid of the chicken sausage, because it tastes like hot dogs. Gourmet or not, kosher or not, I do not and have never, ever liked hot dogs. The sausage is slightly better than a hot dog, and tasted fine on the pizza, but it will not be a repeat TJ's purchase.
The wine was Albero tempranillo from TJ's. It's inexpensive(under $6), and made with organic grapes. It's also weird. My best guess is that it's too young to drink. I like tannins, but it's downright bitter, after two hours of breathing.
In other news, I made some muffins this evening. Chocolate chip mini-muffins, with white whole wheat flour. They turned out nicely, except that it is impossible to thoroughly grease my mini-muffin tin without significant effort. And I am lazy. Hence, decapitated mini-muffins.
Also, I am still grossed out about the crappy butter I have.
Yuck. This is the butter with "natural flavors" added that make it smell and taste like movie popcorn butter. Even Jon noticed the weird smell, and he has notoriously bad smelling acuity. It's not terribly noticeable in baked goods, but I'm still irate with Cabot's.
4 comments:
My stepdad keeps telling me I need a pizza stone, thoughts? Because your pizza looks pretty tasty!
I love my pizza stone. I didn't think I needed one for a long time, either, but it's a surprising multitasker. I use it for pizza, baking bread and bagels, and sometimes even cooling/storing baked goods (because the stone absorbs extra moisture as they cool and keep crusts crisp).
It's also low-maintenance; think of it like a cast-iron skillet- scrape or burn off chunks, but don't ever wash it with soap. You can also leave it in the oven most of the time.
Just don't spend a ton of money on one. I got mine at Ross, weirdly, for $7. It was in a little pizza kit made by Bialetti. Ross' kitchen section has an ever-changing variety of kitchen things, so it's worth a try to check there.
Absolute cheapest is to buy an unglazed, unfinished terra cotta tile from a hardware or garden store. I had trouble finding one I trusted (a lot of the unglazed-looking ones I found had some sort of weird silicone coating), but if you can find one, they are about $2 and usually larger than the stone I have.
If you do get one, I've found that the best homemade pizza dough recipe is Peter Reinhart's- just google and there are a ton of sites about it. Just beware it requires an overnight rest, so it's best to make a ton and freeze it.
Try to arugula on the pizza next time. Just toss it with a little lemon juice, salt and pepper, and add it to the pizza either right before it comes out of the oven or right after. It's delicious! We discovered it at a pizza place in Chicago, and have been using having arugula on hand as an excuse to make pizza ever since!
@Stephanie, I thought about it. Darn, I will have to try it next time. Or maybe modify the NYT "crispy kale" recipe from a few months ago and top it with crispy arugula.
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