The folks over at The Fresh Loaf and A Year in Bread--not to mention professional bakers everywhere--would doubtless laugh at my naivete, but I'm going to post this anyway, just in case some of you who read this blog might benefit from my tardy epiphany.
Last Saturday I decided to make pizza for dinner. If we're making pizza at home, I make the crust, as it's better than any purchased pizza crust out there. It's simple and not terribly time-consuming. Yes, I have a stand mixer with a dough hook, but I used to knead it in the food processor, and hand-kneading isn't particularly difficult, either.
The recipe I use, from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, makes two 12-inch pizzas, too much for us. While I have on occasion cut the recipe in half for a single crust, it's just as easy to make the whole recipe. But what to do with the dough left over after one pizza crust has been rolled or patted out? Making a crust and freezing it is an option, but it's difficult to find space for it in the freezer. Freeze the dough without rolling it into a crust? Perhaps. I did that once, and about a year later threw it out, having forgotten all about it.
On Saturday I made the full recipe of pizza crust and placed the unused dough into an oiled bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator, hoping to do ... something with it. Not until Monday did I run across the dough while searching for something else in the fridge. I decided to try making a small loaf of bread with it.
Pizza dough, as Madison says, is just a bread dough that contains olive oil. And, of course, it lacks sweetener or dairy products of any kind. I knew enough about bread from my reading to know that this kind of dough wouldn't make a good sandwich loaf; it would have to be baked directly on the baking stone in a steaming oven.
When it came to rising times and oven temperature, I took as my cue Daniel Leader's instructions for baking 4-hour baguettes. The bread came out beautifully, and we could hardly wait the twenty minutes for it to cool (bread continues to cook during this time).
So the next time you make homemade pizza, consider using half the dough for a loaf of bread, which you can make the next day or even two days later, as long as the dough is refrigerated.
Note: I use a pizza peel and a baking stone for my pizzas. You really must have a baking stone for the tastiest, crispest crust; there's no substitute. You can try using a rimless baking sheet in lieu of a peel, but a pizza peel is a good investment if you like to make pizza or want to try homemade artisan-style breads.
Pizza crust/bread dough
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 to 1 cup whole wheat flour (to taste)
3 to 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Pour 1/2 cup of the water into a mixing bowl, stir in the yeast, and set aside until foamy (5 to 10 minutes). Add remaining water, oil, and salt, then beat in the whole wheat flour, followed by enough white flour to form a shaggy dough. Knead until smooth, adding more flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Dough should be on the moist side, still slightly tacky. It's ready when a little dough pulled away from the mass springs back.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap or a wet towel and allow it to rise until doubled in size, 40 to 60 minutes. Turn the dough onto the counter and divide in two. Form half the dough into a ball, place into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate.
Pizza crust
Preheat oven, with baking stone, to 500 degrees; allow at least 45 minutes to heat the stone.
Shape the dough into a ball, set on a lightly floured surface, cover with a towel, and let rise another half hour.
Flatten the ball into a disk, pushing it outward with your palm. Working from the middle, push the dough out with your fingers until it's about 1/4 inch thick and fairly even, thickening slightly at the edge. (Or roll the dough into a circle, then push the sides up to make a rim.)
Dust the peel with fine cornmeal or flour and set the dough on top; jerk the peel back and forth to make sure the dough slides easily. If it doesn't, take it off and dust again. When the crust finally slides easily, cover it with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes before you add the toppings. Slide the pizza off the peel and onto the hot baking stone (you need to jerk it as you pull the peel away).
Bake until cheese is nice and melty, about 7 to 10 minutes or so.
Bread
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to warm up for an hour or so. Deflate the dough and knead it gently on a lightly floured surface. Form into a ball, place in an oiled bowl, cover, and let it rise for an hour or so, until it's doubled in size.
Preheat the oven and the baking stone to 450 degrees. Also, place a cast iron or other heavy skillet in the lower part of the oven to heat up along with the stone and the oven.
On a lightly floured counter, flatten the dough and gently press the air out with the heel of your hand. Knead briefly and form into a ball. Place on a floured pizza peel, cover, and allow it to rise until it's about doubled in size. Using a very sharp serrated knife or a razor blade, make 3 or 4 slashes in the surface of the dough. You need to be very brave and fast in your movement when you do this (I'm still not that great at it); slashes allow the bread to expand when it hits the hot stone and experiences that famous "oven spring."
Get a half-cup of ice cubes ready. Slide the bread onto the baking stone. Pour the ice into the hot skillet and quickly shut the door. This makes the steam that will give you a good crust.
Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes; it took only 15 minutes when I made this bread on Monday. It's a smallish loaf, maybe 8 inches in diameter. After 15 minutes, take the bread out (don't burn yourself!) and tap the bottom gently with your finger. It should sound hollow when it's done. The crust should have a nice golden-brown color. Place on a cooling rack immediately, and don't touch it for a good twenty minutes, no matter how tempting it is!
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