Pizza

To say that we created pizza on Friday would not be completely true as we made the dough on Thursday and allowed it to proof in the refrigerator overnight.  This is known as "retarding the dough" and greatly slows the fermentation and creates a much more complex flavor profile.  The dough was composed of bread flour, yeast, water, salt, and honey.  This was mixed until incorporated before olive oil was added.  It was then turned onto an oiled tabletop and kneaded until it was no longer sticky.

Pizza dough awaiting toppings

This took a VERY long time and required lots of patience.  I felt like there was more dough stuck to my hands and the counter than to the dough itself, but finally it became less sticky and started to tighten up.

One of our prepared pizzas.

       Since we let it rest in the refrigerator overnight all we had to do on Friday was make the toppings.  We used several types of cheeses, bacon, Italian sausage, pepperonis, caramelized onions, mushrooms and peppers.  My personal pizza was tomato sauce and pesto with mozzarella, fontina, and feta cheeses topped with pepperonis and caramelized onions.  My pizza puffed up a little too much but it had a very airy light crumb that was very nice.  It was much, better than most restaurant pizza except for select brickoven pizzerias.

Dessert Calzone

    For dessert we used our homemade nutella from the other day and marshmallows and bananas.
Someone made a calzone that included chocolate chips with the other dessert toppings and it was delicious.  As much a I love pizza(this was the third time this week having it) this recipe is one that I will use frequently at home to make delicious pizzas.