Sunday, February 15, 2015

Easy, Part Wheat, Pizza Dough

 
Since it was Valentines I thought we would be making heart shaped pizzas. Warren, however, had a different idea. He wanted to make a dinosaur. His daddy was happy to make his dreams come true. It ended up having "two heads" and when it was baked he showed his sweet spirit by wanting to give his brother the coolest part - the awesome head with grape eyes and all. I, Kim, have to say the cooked grapes actually tasted good.
“Thin & Crispy Pizza Crust

1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
2 ½ teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups white flour

Cornmeal for rolling out dough

Stir together above ingredients (except cornmeal) in the bowl of a mixer. With dough hook attachment, knead dough for 3 to 5 minutes at medium speed. Remove dough hook, cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise for 30 minutes (or up to 2 hours).

Place a pizza stone on bottom rack of oven and preheat to 450 degrees (remove other racks). Punch down dough and divide into fourths. Let dough rest a few minutes before rolling out. Sprinkle counter generously with cornmeal and roll out each dough quarter into a thin, 10-inch circle, dusting top of dough with flour if sticky (thin as a tortilla). Transfer rolled dough to a cornmeal-dusted cutting board. Top with desired toppings, then gently shake/slide pizza onto preheated pizza stone. Bake until crust is browned and crisp, about 8 minutes. Remove pizza to cooling rack, let rest a minute or two, then slice and serve.

This recipe makes four 10-inch pizzas. The addition of whole wheat flour isn’t just healthy- it gives great texture and flavor to the crust.” (pg 183 keeping up cookbook)


2/14/15 We used this for our valentine pizzas. Lance says the cornmeal is a MUST. He prefers the bites that have it on the bottom (more flavor that way). We didn’t follow the instructions exactly and it still worked out. TIP = use parchment paper then just sling your dough onto the stone. We did the usual family way of the jellyroll pan/cookie sheet and cooked it in the middle since that’s where our shelf already was. We did three thick and only one pizza was actually “thin and crispy” like it tells you to do. All were good. NOTE: our also took a few minutes longer to cook but perhaps that is because we didn’t have a preheated stone nor did we have our shelf close to the heat source.

Tortilla THIN Pizza
 
Xander

 
Cutting boards as our work space. Turns out the recipe says to use them. Perfect!

On the left: "backwards Sicilian" something we learned from a "long islander" the day we got home from Christmas visit 2014. Cheese first, sauce 2nd. What better time to try it than Valentines day when the read will be extra appreciated.
 

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Aunt Sherri's Honey Wheat Bread

6 Cups Wheat Flour
8 Cups White Flour
4 TB SAF Yeast
2 TB Salt
 
1 Cup of Honey
½ Cup Oil
5 Cups of Hot Water
Mix all dry ingredients in bowl then add hot tap water and mix well, kneading for about 5 minutes. Shape into loaf, let raise and bake at 375 (Fahrenheit) for 25minutes. Makes 4-2lb loaves


Tip: Store yeast in the freezer, even after you open it.

Use Pam on the counter and your hands when kneading dough. OR use WATER

 
Half Recipe (Makes 2 Loafs)
3 Cups Wheat Flour
4 Cups White Flour
2 TB Yeast
1 TB salt
 
½ cup Honey
¼ Cup Oil
2 ½ Cups Hot Water
 
 

 
One inch slices = 32 servings @ 263 Calories a slice

Index finger slices = 56 servings @151 Calories a slice

Rosemary Chicken w/ White Beans

2 Tbsp. Oil
4-6 Chicken Breast Halves
2 Cups Carrots (or 4 big Carrots), sliced
1/2 Cup Celery (2 stalks), chopped
2 Cans Great Northern (or other White) Beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Pepper
1 tsp. Rosemary
1/2 Cup Italian Dressing

In a large skillet, heat the oil and brown the chicken breast (optional). Remove and drain. Place the carrots and celery in the bottom of the crockpot. Place chicken on top of vegetables. In a medium bowl, combine the salt, pepper, rosemary and Italian dressing and pour over the chicken. Place the beans on top of chicken. Cover, cook on LOW for 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours. About an hour before serving shred chicken up and stir it all together. We serve this over rice, with a side of steamed broccoli. Makes approx. 12 Servings (1/2 Cup and 142 Calories each)

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Brown Sugar Muffins

1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nuts (typically pecans)

Mix together, do not over stir! The batter should be lumpy. Bake at 350, until golden brown. Approx 15 minutes -/+ for regular size muffins. Mini muffins 10-12 mins. Yield: 1 dozen regular muffins Calorie: 244 per muffin I remember eating these on Sundays! My boys like eating them in the buff with a sippie cup of milk.