Thursday, June 24, 2010

Semolina crust pizza

I am not good at following recipes. At best, I take a recipe as a reference, and try to add or subtract things from it based on my imaginations. Here is a recipe taken from KAF all-purpose cook book, which again has subjected to my experimentation. I make this specially for my husband, who has been going through so much lately. He needs a moment of refreshment after a long day of hard work.


Recipe: Semolina crust pizza (make one 12" thin pizza)

Ingredients:
Crust
- 1/4 cup KAF all-purpose flour
- 3/8 cup fine semolina flour
- 1/8 cup oat bran
- 1/4 tp kosher salt
- 1/2 tp active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
Toppings
- 1/2 to 1 cup tomato sauce
- 3 slices of cooked bacon
- 2-3 TB mini pepperoni
- 2 slices of pineapple
- ample fat-free mozzarella cheese, shredded

Procedure:
1. Mix flours, bran and salt in a bowl. Proof yeast. Add to the mixture and knead to form a dough.
2. Allow dough to sit for an hour.
3. Roll dough out on a greased wax paper. Dust a pan with corn flour. Flip dough over carefully. Allow to proof until puffy.
4. Spread tomato sauce and add toppings just before baking.
5. Bake at 450F or 500F on lowest rack in the oven, 4 minutes. Add shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake for another 4 minutes until cheese has melted.

Results:
2:12pm, proofed yeast and mixed dry ingredients:

4:31pm, dough rested 2 hours:

5:05pm, dough stretched out on greased wax paper:

5:08pm, dusted pan:

5:09pm, dough transferring to pan easily:

5:11pm, dough on pan, ready to proof covered with wax paper:

9:09pm, dough and toppings left on counter to room temperature:

10:00pm, dough with toppings, ready to bake:

10:11pm, pizza baked at 500F for a few minutes:

10:15pm, pizza topped with mozzarella:

10:19pm, pizza baked another 4 minutes, done:

10:22pm, bottom of crust when done:

10:23pm, pizza top:

10:31pm, a slice for someone important:

Observations:
1. Semolina flour gives a flavorful crust that is soft.
2. After fermenting for over 4 hours, the crust has developed some taste of alcohol!
3. The cheese hardens up when the pizza is cooled. I wonder if this is because I use fat-free mozzarella.

Originally, I prepared the dough to be ready for baking when my husband comes home in the early evening. As it turned out, he came back late at night. So the dough goes into the fridge during the extra waiting time, until about 1 hour before he comes back. When he steps into the house, the freshly baked pizza parades out from the oven to his table. He really enjoys it. Two-third of the whole pizza has disappeared before the pan comes back to the kitchen. However, this pizza does not taste as good the next day. My husband says that, when reheated the second day, it has some different taste that is not there on the first day. I wonder if that's from the over-long fermentation.

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