My friend Julia came for lunch this week, and I decided to make homemade whole wheat pizza dough for a pizza I copied from Cambridge no. 1 in Boston. Two weeks ago I tried baking my first yeast bread, and it was a little bit of a disaster. It didn't rise because I added too much flour, so I decided to scale it back a little and try pizza dough.
In a large bowl combined a teaspoon of yeast with 3/4 cup of warm water, and let it set for a few minutes. In a separate bowl I mixed 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 teaspoon of salt. I gradually began adding this flour and salt mixture into the bowl of yeast and water, because I knew that I probably would not need all of the flour to get the right consistency. Once the dough started to pull away from the sides of the bowl. I floured my kneading surface with some of the leftover flour, and then added a little to the top of the dough ball. I kneaded and added tiny amounts of flour as needed and it turned out perfect.
I broil my pizza dough on an upside down baking sheet with parchment for easy flipping and removal, and brush a tiny bit of olive oil and salt onto the surface. Once the first side is golden I flip the dough and repeat. Then I add the toppings. 1/2 an onion, caramelized with brown sugar and a tiny bit of olive oil, and clumps of goat cheese (1 small package or about 1/3 of a large package), and gobs of freshly ground black pepper. I bake that on the dough for about 10 minutes at 450 degrees, and just at the end I add a little bit of baby arugula. I bake this for about 2-3 more minutes, and then serve. Sweet, peppery, crunchy and gooey -- Tim and I love it. Needless to say I repeated the recipe the next day for dinner. I'm a little more confident now about trying my bread recipe again, and I think it was the flour to water ratio that was getting me. Who knew you shouldn't follow the recipe?!
