Pizza. Home Crust. 1.26.22

 This is the pizza dough that seems to work best.  The recipe calls for more flour but then it's too dry and difficult (damn near impossible) to work.  It also calls for not kneading, but without kneading, the flour doesn't become evenly moist.   

Recipe (my version):

First, combine...

1 cup bread flour

2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups warm water.

Stir together in bowl, cover, let sit until lots of bubbles.  About 30 min.

Then gradually work in about 2 more cups of bread flour.  I knead it together in the bowl.

Let dough rise for about an hour until doubled.

Cover and refrigerate,  It's nice to use a Rubbermaid type bowl so the cover doesn't come lose.  Refrigerate overnight or up to two week.  Longer duration gives a more sourdough like flavor and texture.

This is great because you don't have to worry about timing before making a pizza.  

To make the pizza, cut into half and roll out on floured board, making circles about 1/4 inch thick.

Then I use the cast iron skillet method.  One of the skillets is actually a cast iron tortilla pan, which is bigger but very shallow, like a pizza stone.  I oil the pans and transfer dough to pans.  Preheat oven to a toasty 500F.

The sauce:  1 cup home made tomato sauce ( just boiled down sauce tomatoes, pureed, frozen), thawed with 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp Italian herbs, dash pepper, 1 tsp dry minced garlic.  This time the sauce was a little runny so I mixed in a few spoons of dried tomato powder (slices of tomato dried in food dehydrator then blended into powder).  I made the tomato powder last summer using extra slicing tomatoes.  They actually have more flavor compared to the sauce tomatoes, and by drying them rather than cooking down, they don't cause an overcooked flavor.  More fresh.

Topping:  Spread on the sauce  then mozzarella, thin onion slices, thin garlic slices, 

mushrooms, Jalapeño slices, this time I added squash slivers,

Baking:  Place the cast iron skillets containing pizzas onto stove burners.  Turn heat up to high, or slightly below high.  Heat for 4 minutes,  The sough will rise and the bottom will start to brown.

Then transfer to 500F oven, mid to high rack,  Bake 7 minutes, until top is bubbling and toppings are roasted.

Remove from oven (careful, hot) onto cooling rack.  Sprinkle with dried oregano.

I think the squash might have been better under the other veggies.  It tended to fall off.   This is my favorite pizza recipe.  Even though I love sourdough crusts, this crust is really excellent.  Also these photos were before scattering on the oregano.  Finally, I like to add Tabasco sauce for extra zing.

Stratifying Perennial Seeds. 1.26.22

 There is conflicting information about whether some perennial seeds require stratification.  The seed packets don't state it.  Some references state that Coreopsis and Echinacea require stratification.  That means the seeds need a "winter" before they will germinate.  In the past, I've done that with apple seeds, peach, plum, daylily, milkweed seeds.  I'm not sure if I did for Echinacea.   Rudbeckia supposedly requires stratification, but mine (annual Rudbeckia hirta) grew like crazy without a cold treatment.  Maybe the seed supplier pre-stratified the seeds, or maybe the annual ones don't require stratification, I don't know.

It's easy.  For these, thoroughly moisten a paper towel.  Scatter the seeds on the moist paper towel, fold it, place into zipper lock sandwich bag, and seal.  Refrigerate for a month, then plant the seeds.

These will be ready to plant about March 1.

s need stratification.  To stratify, they need to be chilled in moist conditions.  That's how I germinated apple, peach, plum, daylily, milkweed seedlings in the past.  Some instructions state stratification is necessary for Rudbeckias and Echinaceas, and others either don't mention it or state it isn't needed.  The seed packets don't always mention it.  

Even though the first Rudbeckias germinated like crazy without stratification (annual Rudbeckia hirta), I'm not certain the others will.  So I moistened some paper towels, scattered seeds on them, folded, placed in sandwich ziplock bags, and placed in fridge.  They'll be there for a month, then I'll plant them.

A Nice Yeast Bread Loaf. 1.26.22

I haven't been making sourdoughs for a while and the culture died. I decided to try a yeast pizza crust using the refrigerator method - flour, water, yeast, salt. Nothing else.  Mix, knead, put into bowl, let rise to double, cover and refrigerate. Can use any time in two weeks, and has better flavor and texture after several days to a week.  The chilling makes the dough more workable and holds in fermentation bubbles for a nice texture.  I made a batch, then thought I'd make a second batch for a loaf of bread, but refrigerate in loaf pan. Otherwise the same recipe.  After taking Rufus for a walk, it was already completely risen so I sprinkled on bagel seed topping and baked 375 for 45 min. This had a great texture and flavor. Even though the topping is just sprinkled on, the flavor is present in the bread slices.

This reminded me of why I always made my own bread. It doesn't keep as long as store bought but is so good, it is used up before molds have a chance to spoil it.

An Orchid Flower.

Last summer, I divided this cymbinium and repotted it. Then it didn't get much care. Nice flowerto cheer up the winter days.

MaltoMeal Muffins. 1.25.22

My mom used to make these many years ago. They were my favorite breakfast muffin. These are made using Malto Meal hit cereal and the usual other muffin stuff (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, oil, egg, milk). The recipe is on the box.

I like to use cast iron and preheat the pan. That gives a crispier muffin bottom and sides. This tasted exactly like I remembered, and brought back memories of being in the kitchen with my mom.