Hero Points

So while Knox and I were having fun with the girls this weekend, Josh was in CHICAGO.  

Which may have made me just a tad bit jealous, 

until he walked off the plane carrying THIS:

A frozen, half-baked Giordano's cheese pizza.

Which, upon arriving home from the airport,

we promptly threw in the oven.

And consumed, with much rejoicing.

This man is always my hero:

But this week he got extra hero points.

Now please excuse me 

while I go heat up the last leftover piece for lunch.

And yes I do realize it's not even 11:00 yet.

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

Chicago-Style Stuffed Pizza!

I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent searching for these Chicago-style stuffed pizza photos!

My sister Courtney came to visit me last spring before she left for Indonesia, when I was very pregnant with Knox.  We found this recipe on the King Arthur Flor blog (here) and agreed immediately that we would have to try it out when she came to visit.

My sister is the best.  She shares my crazy love for baking, my love for Chicago, my love for Chicago pizza (and every kind of pizza, in fact), my love for Vermont...and, oh yes, my love for Asia, too.  We have a lot in common.  And soon she's going to be the Mommy of a little BOY so we're going to have that in common, too! 

I love you, Court!

Like I said before, I spent hours searching for these photos, to no avail.  I really wanted to make this into a blog post but I couldn't find the pictures anywhere.  I was starting to think I had just imagined taking them...

Then, earlier this week, I was looking for photos of something else and wallah!  There they were!

Just in time for PIZZA WEEK!  Imagine that.

So I am excited to share with you this MOUTH-WATERING Chicago-style pizza recipe.

I won't lie to you, this recipe takes a long time to make.  It has a lot of steps.  But it is SO worth it for a special occasion or if you live in any place besides Chicago and are craving (or dying to try for the first time!) some world-famous Chicago-style pizza.  It seriously tastes authentic. And I should know, because I've eaten more than my fair share of Chicago pizza. :)

This pizza came out tasting very close to Giordano's, one of our favorite pizza restaurants in Chicago.  You can just close your eyes and imagine you're in Chi-town while you're chowing down this amazing pizza. 

I was planning on making this pizza for the SUPERBOWL this year, if the Bears made it, but they didn't.  Still a little bummed about that.  So we just made this salad, instead.

Maybe next year, Bears.

Spinach, Artichoke & Kalamata Olive

Fresh Basil & Pepperoni

 

 Chicago-Style Stuffed Pizza

CRUST
Put the following in a mixing bowl:

6 cups flour
3/4 cup semolina
1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons melted butter
Mix till thoroughly combined.

Add 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water. Use enough to make a smooth dough. You’ll use less in the summer, or if you substitute all-purpose flour for the semolina; and more in the winter, or if you’re in a dry climate.

Mix till everything is cohesive……then knead to make an elastic, fairly stiff dough.  Place in a large, greased bowl; cover, and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour.

For best flavor, after its initial 1-hour rise, refrigerate the dough for several hours, or for up to 24 hours. You can use the crust after its first 1-hour rise, but its flavor will improve with the longer, slower rise offered by refrigeration.

While the dough is rising, start the sauce.

SAUCE

Start with 1, 28-oz can diced tomatoes. Coarsely grate 1 small onion; you’ll have about 1/2 cup of onion. Sauté it in 1 tablespoon of butter.  When the onion is starting to brown, add 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed. Cook for about 30 seconds, and remove the pan from the stove.

Add the following:

1 teaspoon dried oregano; or 1 teaspoon pizza seasoning
4 teaspoons sugar, or to taste
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste*

*The amount will depend on the saltiness of the canned tomatoes. Under-salt a bit, as the sauce will cook down and the flavor intensify.  Simmer gently for up to 1 hour, to concentrate the flavors.


ASSEMBLY

Time to start assembling this baby. Place the dough on a lightly greased work surface. Divide the dough into two pieces. One should be about three-quarters of the dough; the other, one-quarter. 

Divide each piece of dough in half again. You’ll now have four pieces of dough: top and bottom crusts for two 9” stuffed pizzas.

Start with one of the larger pieces of dough.

Stretch, then roll the dough into a round large enough (about 15” to 16”) to line the bottom and sides of one pan, with some overhang.

You’ll be rolling the dough quite thin; it may help to cover it with some lightly greased parchment as you roll.  Roll one of the smaller pieces of dough into a circle about 9” in diameter.

Cover both pieces of dough, and go away for 15 minutes. Or use the time to roll out the other two pieces of dough. Either way, you want to let your rolled-out dough rest for 15 minutes; it relaxes the gluten, allowing you to handle the dough without it shrinking.

Butter the bottom and sides of two 9” x 2”-deep round cake pans, then drizzle olive oil in the bottom of each.

Fold the larger piece of dough into quarters and center it in the pan.

You’ll need 1 pound of sliced mozzarella, 8 ounces for each pizza. “Tile” (fan) the mozzarella into the crust, top with other toppings of your choice.  
.
Crimp together the top and bottom crusts.  Cut slashes in the top, to allow steam to escape as the pizza bakes.  Repeat the whole process with the remaining dough and ingredients, making another 9” round pizza.  Cover the pizzas, and let them rest while you preheat your oven to 425°F, about 30 minutes.
Just before baking, top the pizzas with the sauce and sprinkle with a total of 1 1/4 cups of freshly grated Parmesan, Romano, aged Asiago, or your favorite hard cheese grated cheese.  Use half the cheese (a scant 2/3 cup) on each pizza.

Put the pizzas in the oven.

Bake till the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove the pizzas from the oven, and allow them to rest for about 15 minutes before serving.

Masterpiece

Basic Pizza Dough 2

Wow.  King Arthur can bring it!!!  I really didn't think it could beat the Gourmet recipe but it just may  have done it!  It was really really close.  I love them both.

The two crusts are very different, and both delicious.  I think the King Arthur recipe did come out a little ahead in my preference (and Josh's); but again, we love both recipes.  I think I will probably alternate back and forth between the two.  

The Gourmet crust is like a delicious flour-dusted flat bread; while the consistency of King Arthur crust is a little closer to what you would find in a traditional pizza parlor.  

The King Arthur dough is made with part flour/part semolina, which gives it a little more body and texture than the Gourmet recipe.  Semolina is a course flour that resembles cornmeal in look and texture.  It is probably available at most large supermarkets; we buy small quantities at a time from Sun Flower Farmer's Market here in Dallas.  

Another cool thing about the King Arthur recipe is that it makes enough dough for two pizzas, so you can freeze one and save it for later!  

One thing to note if you try this pizza is that you need to begin it early so the dough can refrigerate for several hours.  This allows its flavors to develop.

Semolina

Parmesan

Mozzarella, Spinach & Sun-dried Tomatoes

Basic Pizza Dough 2

13/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups semolina
2 Tbl. dough relaxer (optional...I didn't have any)
1 pkg. instant dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. olive oil
1 1/4-1 1/2 cups very warm water*

Mix and knead together all dough ingredients - by hand or mixer - until you've created a smooth, soft dough.  Don't over-knead the dough; it should hold together but look fairly rough on the surface.

Cover and let dough rise for 45 minutes, then refrigerate for 4 hours (or up to 36 hours); this step will help develop the crust's flavor.

Divide dough in half.  Shape each ball into a round and stretch to fit pizza pan.  Cover dough and let it rest while you preheat oven to 500, for about 30 minutes.  


Bake at 500 for 10-15 minutes.

*Hint: Water should be just at the temperature where it is almost too hot to touch, but you can still stand to keep your fingers in it.  

Knox got to chew on a piece of this crust, as well.  This is what he had to say about it afterward:

 

Basic Pizza Dough 1

It's time!

It's time to find the best homemade pizza dough recipe EVER!!! :) 

Pizza is my favorite of all favorite foods.  I think I was supposed to "grow out of that" about 15 years ago (I'm 30), but I never did.  When I was a kid my parents just kind of got used to making a lot of stops at Pizza Hut on our vacations.  Now Josh knows that if he doesn't speak up early about where he wants to go for our Friday date nights I will probably be suggesting Fireside Pies. :)

It's difficult to make a really good pizza at home, though.  I've decided that when I become a millionaire the first thing I will buy is a  real pizza oven.  But I might be waiting for a while for that so in the mean time I need to have a recipe that will meet my sky-high pizza standards even when baked in a regular old oven.

I've tried a lot of pizza dough recipes that didn't really do it for me...they were too soggy, too bread-y, too yeasty, too hard to stretch out onto a pizza pan...I knew there was something better out there.

So I turned to my favorite two cookbooks to see what they could produce.  These cookbooks haven't let me down yet...let's see what they can do with pizza.

It's a battle between The Gourmet and King Arthur.

We've made the Gourmet recipe many times before, and it's amazing.  Definitely the best homemade pizza crust I've ever made.  The crust is thin and perfectly crispy and chewy at the same time.  You can actually taste the salt in it just a bit, which I love; it makes for a very flavorful crust.

But I've been eyeing the pizza crust recipe in the King Arthur Cookbook for some time.  This book is my baking Bible...what if this recipe is even better than the Gourmet one?!  I have to find out.

As I type this paragraph the King Arthur batch is rising in a bowl on my stove.  And I'll let you know tomorrow how it compares. 

But I'll tell you right now:

Iit's going to have to be absolutely brilliant to beat this Gourmet recipe.   We love this pizza!!!

 Basic Pizza Dough 1

1 package (about 2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast

3/4 cups very warm water*

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. olive oil

Stir together yeast, 1 tablespoon flour and 1/4 cup warm water in a measuring cup and let stand until surface appears creamy, 3-5 minutes.  (If mixture doesn't appear creamy, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Stir together 1 1/4 cups flour and salt in a large bowl.  Add yeast mixture, oil, and remaining 1/2 cup warm water and stir until smooth.  Stir in enough remaining flour (about 1/2 cup) so that dough comes away from sides of bowl.  (The dough will be wetter than other pizza doughs you may have made.)

Knead dough on dry surface with lightly floured hands (or with dough hook in Kitchenaid) for 8 minutes.  Put on a lightly floured surface and generously dust with flour.  Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/4 hours.

***Do not punch down dough.*** Carefully dredge dough in a bowl of flour to coat and transfer to dry work surface.  Gently move hands around edge of dough (like turning a steering wheel), allowing weight of dough to stretch to roughly 10 inches.  Place on baking sheet and continue to work edges with fingers, stretching to size of pizza pan.

Top with favorite toppings and bake at 500 for 15-20 minutes.

*Hint: Water should be just at the temperature where it is almost too hot to touch, but you can still stand to keep your fingers in it.  

Stay Tuned...

for PIZZA WEEK on Leah's Ideas!

Pizza Week. Starts. TOMORROW!

Pizza week was actually scheduled to start today; but due to technical difficulties (half of pizza photos saved on laptop which was taken to night class) it has been postponed until tomorrow.  :)  See you then!

preview of pizza week