for some reason i have decided to start baking bread. mainly because i think the bread that comes from the bakery section at the store or from an actual bakery (you know, the loaves that aren't sliced and shaped like they come from the factory, and are all crispy on the outside and soft and dough-y with air pockets on the inside) taste WAY better than "normal" commercial bread. also (and really, this should be the most important), bread baked at home or in local bakeries don't take as much fuel to create and take nearly no fuel to get them to where they will be purchased/consumed. that and the fact that i am part owner of a place that always has mad amounts of yeast laying around. (though i used yeast from the store this first time because i have no idea what i'm doing.)
my first try at bread was a pizza dough. matt and troy are off on a man vacation at the coast in the vw bus this weekend and i decided i want to make homemade pizza for all of us when they get back. i was going to do one test-pizza yesterday and another one today for when they come home, but i accidentally made enough dough for two (possibly three, we'll see) pizzas. it came out ok. i used mozzarella cheese and leftover marinara from when i made veggie lasagna. the crust was weird, though, in the same way that the crust on take-and-bake pizzas are weird. all dense and spongy. i like really thin crusts with just a little bit of that air-pocket-y dough-yness that's in the loaves of bread i like. i was kind of discouraged, but i punched down the rest of the dough and decided to leave it out and let it rise again overnight (don't know why...i was drinking beer...). when i got up this morning i had second thoughts about eating something i'd left out all night. but i went on line to see if it was safe, and i read (at 101cookbooks.com) that the secret to good thin-crust pizza is an overnight second rise! so i made a tiny little test pizza, and YUM! :) i love when things accidentally go right. now the guys just need to come home so i can surprise them with my crazy pizza skills. ;)
2 comments:
Yeah... I was going to tell you to leave it out overnight, but you accidentally did the exact right thing. I'm glad it worked out.
rebel--i think i need your pizza advice. the second batch i made (that i talked about in the blog) was good but a little thin, so the next time i tried to do just ONE rise, but overnight. and it was just too dense. how do i get it thin, but on the inside all soft and sour-dough-bread-like, while crispy on the outside?
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