Pizza

Today in our wanderings we happened upon an all you can eat Asian buffet.  First section had tired sushi.  The next few had typical sweet and sour and so on.  Lastly, we came to the salad bar and to our utter delight featured next to the lettuce an over flowing bowl of marshmallows and not those little ones but full size pillows of happiness.  This has nothing to do with pizza, but really iceberg and marshmallows, a new culinary trend or an episode of Chopped?

We have a new favorite pizza recipe from Epicurious.com, Overnight Pizza Dough.  Simply the best, you must give this a try.

Overnight Pizza Dough

from Epicurious.com

Sponge:
1 cup lukewarm water (110°F to 115°F)
1 envelope active dry yeast, divided
1 cup all purpose flour, divided

Dough:
1 1/2 cups lukewarm (110°F to 115°F) water
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 envelope active dry yeast
6 cups (or more) all purpose flour
Olive oil
Yellow cornmeal

For sponge:

~ place 1 cup lukewarm water in large bowl of heavy-duty mixer

~ sprinkle 1 teaspoon yeast (reserve remaining yeast for dough) and 1/4 teaspoon flour over water

~ let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture looks spongy, about 4 minutes

~ add remaining flour and whisk until smooth; scrape down sides of bowl

~ cover bowl with plastic wrap

~ let sponge rest at room temperature in draft-free area overnight (about 12 hours; sponge will look bubbly)

For dough:

~ add 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 envelope yeast, and reserved remaining yeast to sponge, then add 6 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, beating with dough hook to blend after each addition

~ continue to beat until dough is smooth, comes cleanly away from sides of bowl, and is only slightly sticky to touch, scraping down bowl occasionally, about 5 minutes

~ if dough is very sticky, beat in more flour, 1/4 cupful at a time. Scrape dough onto floured surface; knead into smooth ball

~ brush inside of large bowl with oil. Add dough; turn to coat with oil

~ cover bowl with plastic wrap; chill 6 hours, kneading dough down when doubled (after 2 hours)

~ about 1 1/2 hours before baking, dust 2 baking sheets with flour

~ turn dough out onto floured surface

~ knead gently; shape into 16-inch log

~ cut into 8 equal pieces

~ knead each piece into smooth ball

~ arrange 4 balls of dough on each sheet

~ cover loosely with kitchen towels and let rise until almost doubled, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

~ if using pizza stone, place in oven

~ preheat oven to 500F for 45 minutes

~ working with 1 dough ball at a time, dust dough with flour

~ press into 5-inch round, then gently stretch and roll out to 9-inch round

~ if using pizza stone, sprinkle pizza peel or rimless baking sheet with cornmeal

~ if not using pizza stone, sprinkle large baking sheet with cornmeal

~ place dough round on cornmeal; brush lightly with oil

~ top as desired (see below)

~ slide pizza onto stone or place pizza on baking sheet into oven (or bbq in my case)

~ bake pizza until sauce is bubbling and crust is crisp and brown, lifting edge of pizza to check underside, about 14 minutes

recipe on Epicurious

Sauce

1 can of organic tomatoes (chunks or puree what ever you prefer)
1/2t sugar, honey or agava
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
fresh herbs oregano, basil...

~ combined all and season to taste
~ spread on prepared dough
~ I do not cook the sauce since it will cook as the pizza is baking.  Twice cooked sauce tends to be bitter.

cheese

fontina cheese