An Italian Tomato Pie – Pizza – Focaccia Made With Fresh Milled Wheat

A weeknight dinner pizza loosely in the style of an Italian Tomato Pie / Focaccia:

Topped with cupping pepperoni, goat cheese, and a red sauce made from our garden’s tomato sauce, basil, and oregano. The dough was very airy and light with mostly small holes in the crumb. It was baked on a sheet tray with lightly oiled parchment paper, so the bottom got a nice crispiness. The top had just a little crunch too. It was definitely rustic.

The Ingredients:

400 grams AP flour. 100 grams Hard White Winter Wheat flour (milled in our Mockmill). 500 grams flour total.

315 grams room temperature water (baker’s percentage 63% hydration)

15 grams honey (3%)

15 grams extra virgin olive oil (3%)

10 grams kosher salt (2%)

2 teaspoons instant yeast (not rapid rise)

The Handling:

Combine all ingredients and mix on low speed for 6 minutes.

Briefly finish kneading and shaping the dough into a ball.

Lightly coat a bowl with oil, cover and let rise 45 minutes.

Stretch and fold the dough, re-form into a ball, cover and let rise another 45 minutes.

Line a sheet tray with parchment and lightly oil the surface of the parchment. Transfer the dough to the parchment and lightly stretch it out, leaving it 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick. 500 grams of flour won’t stretch all the way to the edges of the sheet tray and that’s ok.

Dimple the dough all over with your fingertips. Turn on the the oven to 450F. Cover and let rise one hour.

Top with the tomato sauce and pepperoni. Bake at 450F for 15-18 minutes, or until the top begins to brown and the dough feels like it’s near baked when tapped. It will feel somewhat rigid and hollow. Top with the goat cheese and cook another 3-5 minutes.

Let the pizza rest, then cut into squares.

Thoughts:

If the bottom had cooked any further than it did it would have been overcooked. Adding an extra sheet tray to the bottom half-way through the bake likely would have created a slightly less “done” result. It’s something to keep an eye out for next time.

For an improvised dough, the finished product came out pretty much like what I’d visualized, so I was happy with that. It was very rustic but light at the same time. There were just enough toppings to make it interesting but not so many that the dough didn’t shine through.

One nice thing about using white wheat berries is that they don’t announce themselves like red wheat berries do. It’s more of a subtle backstory that adds depth and “what is that flavor?”

At some point I’ll need to try a 2-3 day cold ferment instead of the weeknight-gotta-get-dinner-on-the-table room temperature approach.

Overall it was somewhat unusual and definitely enjoyable. Win.

Weeknight Flatbread With Rye Flour And Greek Yogurt

A weeknight flatbread recipe that looks and tastes like more effort than it really is-

As an example, an easy flatbread recipe might be something like:

Combine 300 grams AP flour, 185 grams room temperature water (65% hydration), 6 grams kosher salt (2% of the flour by weight), and 1 tsp instant yeast in a stand mixer. Knead on low speed for 8 minutes. Cover and let rest 1 hour. Divide the dough into 3 balls, cover, and let rest another 30 minutes. Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Stretch the doughs out into loose rounds 6-8″ across. Brush each side of the discs lightly with olive oil, and cook 2-4 minutes per side until done and browned to taste. Wrap the finished breads in a clean kitchen towel to keep warm.

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Two Very Different Arugula Flatbreads

We love arugula on pizza and flatbreads. Last night it was time to harvest the arugula from the salad table. (The link shows the salad table one month after the initial planting in 2015, with yet another arugula pizza. I sense a theme. Here’s a link to the Making The Salad Table post.)

The first picture is last night’s arugula pizza with a garden tomato sauce from the freezer, goat cheese, and red pepper flakes. The arugula was strewn on top after baking:

190519 argula pizza2

The sauce was rich and on the sweet side. The frozen tomatoes that we used were labeled “2018 Tomato”, so the base was likely a combination of Oregon Spring and whatever else the garden provided that day. The dough itself was a little on the sweet side too — I substituted out 10% of the water and replaced it with a Riesling.

Another picture. I stretched the pizza by hand rather than rolling it out, making a point to leave it thicker at the edges. The pizza was a little more 3-dimensional than the picture might show:

190519 arugula pizza

This flatbread is topped with pancetta, red onion, and an arugula pesto made with arugula, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, and brie. The arugula pesto was the sauce, so it was added at the beginning:

190519 arugula flatbread2

Using arugula pesto meant that the end result was light and savory at the same time. The flatbread itself was somewhat crackery which complimented the zip of the arugula and red onion.