Of pizzas and dogs, a coming-of-age story

Jump to Comments

Lest you think the crepe mayhem destroyed my will to cook and write, I´m gonna write a quick post today with a general update on food and life.

I´m still enamoured by all things bready, which means I have yet to translate and post 2 more bread recipes (and to think I´m a translator, but translating into English, and for free, really bugs me hahaha.) But I´ll get to it soon, hopefully during the weekend, when I usually have more time to write.

And I made pizza crust this week following a recipe (a first for me), which turned out very good, and I promise to share it with you as soon as I can.

Yummy, non?

And for those of you wondering about my puppy, soon-to-be-grownup, Phoebe, she´s doing great and behaving like a true lady most of the time, though I´m afraid I´ll have to start saying goodbye to her puppy days. Just look how big she is at 4 months of age! (that Royal Canin in the background seems to be working for her!)

We have started going to the park (yepee! finally!), and she´s still polishing her social skills with other dogs and with people… you see, she doesn´t seem to grasp the concept that jumping on all dogs and people is not cool.

Here she is, enjoying some pampering from yours truly.

And then giving me a spa treatment for my hands so that they´ll never get too dry.

Well, that´s it for now. I need to clean up the house before some friends arrive, so I´m sorry but I´ll have to keep this very short today. I´ll do an update with the pizza crust recipe soon and hopefully catch up on old recipes during the weekend.

UPDATE: recipe after the jump.

Herbal pizza crust (adapted and translated from 145 recetas de panes y facturas, by Marcelo Vallejo)

Starter:

Fresh yeast, 40 grams (around 1 T and 1/2 of dry yeast)

Water, 75cc

Sugar, 1 teaspoon

Dough:

All-purpose flour, 1 kilo

Salt, 22 grams

Malta flour, 1 teaspoon (here I used 1 teaspoon of malt extract instead for moisture)

Water, 575cc

Olive oil, 50cc

Fresh oregano, 1 Tablespoon (I used a bit more of dried oregano instead)

Chives, chopped, 1 Tablespoon

Fresh thyme, 1 T

Fresh tarragon, 1 T

* Just use whatever herbs you want, have around. I didn´t have thyme or tarragon this time around, so I used dried rosemary and parsley, for instance.

Tomato sauce, to pour over the crust.

Yields 4 pizzas.

1. For the starter: Mix in the yeast in the lukewarm water and add the sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 10 minutes.

2. For the dough: In a bowl, mix the flour with the salt and the malt flour (if you are using it, if you are using malt extract, mix it with the water instead.) Make a hole in the middle and put the lukewarm water, the oil, the herbs and the starter in the center.

3. Start to mix everything from the sides working your way towards the center until you get a soft dough. Knead until you see that the dough is soft and tender.

4. Divide the dough into 4 balls and let them rise for 45 minutes.

5. Roll in each ball giving it a round shape.

6. Place in oiled 32 cm pizza pans. Pour some tomato sauce over it. Cover with plastic wrap (or a kitchen towel) and let it rise until it doubles.

7. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

8. Bake the pizzas for around 15-20 minutes (then add the desired toppings and bake again until it´s done.)

12 Comments

Filed under Phoebe, bread