Friday Pizza Night



Whole wheat in grain form




adding grain to mill




freshly milled whole wheat flour




the sponge




dough before rise




the risen dough




pizza crusts ready




the kid's pizzas




one side pepperoni, one side margherita




just looking at the finished product makes my mouth water

 

Who doesn't love a good pizza on a Friday night after an exhausting week of work and running around?  Too bad where I live there isn't a good "pie" to be had.  See, I'm from New Jersey.  The pizza from "Joisey" is just too tasty and it gets in my mouth.  The pizza here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland - not so good.  I don't know if it is the water or what.  And you can't get a slice around here -- only whole pies.

Being that I like to play with food, I decided to make pizza.  Not just any kind of pizza mind you -- but real whole wheat pizza, with flour from my kitchen, milled from grain from the mid-west.  So, let's see how pizza is made on the Eastern Shore by the Jersey girl.

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  That will warm up your kitchen enough to get some good breadmaking rise going on.  Get your whole grain on  out, and mill about 10 cups in the WonderMill.  Once you have your flour, measure out 2 tblspns of good yeast, 5 cups of water no warmer than 100 degrees, 1/3 cup of oil (I use Gold Label Coconut Oil for good belly reasons), 1/3 cup honey and mix together.  Let it sponge for about 15 minutes.  Once that is done, turn on your mixer with your dough hook (I use a Kitchen Aid, but am pining for a Bosch Universal Mixer) and add the remaining milled flour - about a cup at a time.  That should knead for about 10 to 15 minutes.   Once that is done, take it out and whack it a few times on your counter.  Place in bowl, cover with a little olive oil, drape it with a tea-towel and come back in 20 minutes.

It - is - Ah-LIVE!  Your dough should have doubled in size.  now you can use it.  You can bake bread or you can make pizzahhhhhhh!  Since I am making pizza, I'm going to roll, roll, roll the dough....I can make 4 pizza pies out of the dough - 2 - 14" pizza crusts, 2 - 12" crusts and a loaf of bread.  1 for son who likes more cheese and less sauce; 1 for daughter who likes a balance of sauce and a whisper of cheese - sometimes pepperoni; 1 for husband -  meaty and cheesey; and 1 for me - usually I drag mine through the garden, sometimes I like a hawaiian with pineapple, ham, peppers and onion, sometimes a margherita with lotsa garlic and fresh tomatoes and basil.

...and you can't have good pizza without a nice glass of red wine (or 2!)