Pies and Pints | Brussels Sprout Pizza

The tradition continues in week two of Pies and Pints!  My roommate turned me on to the glory of roasted Brussels sprouts, for which I am quite grateful.  Usually I'll saute some thinly sliced Brussels sprouts up with some bacon, dried cranberries, candied pecans.  Or--a newly discovered and newly beloved preparation from the blog Five and Spice--I'll pan roast sprout halves, adding kimchi in the last minute.  I seriously can't get over Brussels + kimchi.

But back to the pizza.  With our shared love of roasted Brussels sprouts, we thought it'd be a great idea to put them (along with some cheese) on top of a pizza.  As for the crust, we wanted to continue testing different recipes in our search for the Best Crust Recipe(s) Ever.

This week's Pies and Pints selections...

• Toppings:  Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Provelone Slices, Apple and Onion Slices, and shaved Parmesan

• Crust: Spelt Crust, adapted from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck

• Beer:  Sierra Nevada's Ruthless Rye

Spelt Crust
from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck
Makes 2 pizza crusts

Ingredients:
2 cups whole grain spelt flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1/4 cup whole milk
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 large egg
coarse cornmeal for dusting the peel and pan

Preparation (by hand):
Whisk together spelt flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center.

In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, milk, oil, and egg.  Beat with a fork until smooth.  Pour the ricotta mixture into the well you made in the dry ingredients.  Combine with a fork, stirring from the center and gradually incorporating the flour from the sides until a fairly moist dough comes together.

Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface.  Lightly flour your hands and briefly knead 5 to 7 turns to get a smooth yet slightly tacky dough.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30-45 minutes to allow the brain in the flour to soften.

To roll out your dough, see Assembly instructions below.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Preparation:

Wash and halve each Brussels sprout, cutting it so that each half remains attached at the "base" part of the sprout. Heat about 1-2 tbsp. (depending on the amount of Brussels sprouts you are roasting) of peanut oil over medium-high heat (so a drop of water sizzles when added).  Place the sprouts in the pan, cut side down, and cook for several minutes until deeply brown.  Stir the sprouts and cook for a few more minutes (4-5), until the sprouts are just beginning to be tender and easily pierced with a knife tip.  Remove from heat to limit any additional cooking.

Assembling the Pizza:

Place your pizza stone or an upturned baking sheet in a cold oven.  Next, preheat to 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Meanwhile, unwrap your dough, transfer to a lightly floured work surface, and cut into 2 equal pieces.  Lightly flour your hands and briefly knead one piece until smooth, about 7 to 10 turns.  Roll or pat your dough out until it is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.

Generously dust an upturned baking sheet or pizza peel with cornmeal, so your dough doesn't stick to it and will transfer easily to the preheated stone/sheet.  Lay your dough on top of the cornmeal.

It's time to assemble the pizza!  On top of your dough, brush extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle minced garlic. Place a layer of provolone slices, then apple slices and onion slices (both made with a mandolin or very thinly sliced with a knife).  Next, add your roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted side up.

Generously dust the hot pizza stone or upturned baking sheet with cornmeal, so you prevent your pizza from cooking onto the stone/sheet.  Carefully transfer your assembled pizza onto the hot stone/sheet.  We've found that using a combination of lifitng the front edge with a spatula + sliding the remainder of the pizza onto the stone/sheet to work best.  And after a few times, you'll scatter a lot less cornmeal around the oven and floor, I promise!

Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is done and cheese is browned.  Carefully slide your pizza from the pizza stone/upturned baking sheet onto a pizza peel (or wood cutting board or another upturned baking sheet), using the spatula + slide technique.  Sprinkle liberally with shaved Parmesan, cut, and dig in!

Our thoughts on this week's selections...

• The Toppings:
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Provelone Slices, Apple and Onion Slices, and shaved Parmesan
• Loved the Brussels sprouts. Roasted, almost charred...but practically flavorless without additional seasonings. Alas, none of the other toppings did much to help in this area, so I can't even say this was my favorite part of the pizza.
• Provelone, apple, and onion....not much flavor here either. Sigh.  Total bust in the flavor department.

• The Crust:
• Not something I'd ever like to revisit. I like my pizza crusts to have both a crispy, crunch crust and a chewy interior.  This spelt crust had absolutely no crunchy crust or chewy interior. Just a lot of soft and crumbly bread, almost like a very dried out quickbread (blurgh!).  
• However, the fact this dough didn't use yeast meant it came together incredibly quick, thanks to no rise time

• The Beer:
• This is one of my first opportunities to try a rye beer, and I must admit to enjoying it! 
• There's a slight tang from the rye that makes this brew different and interesting.  Paired with its medium body (not too light or heavy) and generally balanced flavors, Ruthless Rye would go well with a variety of savory foods. One I'd be happy to drink again.

Guess we failed in the toppings and crust department...but there's always next week!

Pies and Pints | Sausage, Fontina, and Egg Pizza

Last summer and fall, my dear roommate and I made a tradition.  We went to a marvelous weekly event called Burgers and Beers at our local liquor store, The Party Source, where we'd enjoy a gourmet burger (new toppings each week!) with stunning array of beer samples (a new theme with new beers each week!).  It was very much a tradition because we only missed a handful of these weekly gatherings over the course of 3 months.  We eagerly anticipated every Thursday, even the perilous part of the short drive from work to The Party Source, when you're fighting to merge across two lanes of traffic to the exit while those two lanes are, perversely, trying to merge onto the highway, directly into you.  And all this happens on a very short bridge.  It makes you wonder how traffic planners could be so dense at times...but that's another thing entirely.  The important thing is we made and loved this tradition of Burgers and Beers.

Since Burgers and Beers doesn't happen during the winter, we decided to create another weekly tradition -- Pies and Pints!  Inspired by another event at The Party Source, Pies and Pints was a chance to try gourmet riffs on pizza pies paired with different beers (hence the pints part, though I'm not sure if the samples were a full pint...).  We've never been to a Pies and Pints at The Party Source, so we have the freedom to make it entirely our own.  Each week, we're going to make a different type of pizza and enjoy it with a different beer.

It's quickly become our new favorite tradition. Especially since it immediately follows our boxing class where we get to pound out the week's frustrations.

Cheers to our inaugural session of Pies and Pints!

This week's Pies and Pints selections....

• Pizza:  Sausage, Fontina, and Egg, inspired by a dish from a local restaurant, A Tavola
• Pizza Crust:  Rushed dough recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
• Beer:  Mt. Caramel Brewery's Amber Ale - A Cincinnati local!

Rushed Pizza Dough

from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
Makes one 12oz. dough (approximately 1 medium/large pizza)
Requires 10-15 minutes prep + 30 minutes to rise

Dough Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water (about 110 - 116 degrees Farenheit)
1 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast*
1 1/2 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for the counter
1 tsp. table salt
Olive oil

Dough Preparation:

Turn your oven on to warm (about 200 - 225 degrees Farenheit) for 5 minutes; then turn it off.

If mixing the dough by hand...
Pour 1/2 cup warm water into a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the water, and let it stand for 5 minutes.  Add the flour, then salt, and mix with a wooden spoon until a rough, craggy mass forms. Turn dough and any loose bits out onto a lightly floured counter, and knead for 5 minutes or until a smooth, elastic dough forms.

If mixing the dough with a mixer...
Pour 1/2 cup warm water into the bowl of your electric mixer, sprinkle the yeast over the water, and let it stand for 5 minutes.  Add the flour, then salt, and mix with your dough hook at a moderate speed until the mixture starts to form a craggy mass.  Reduce thes peed to low and mix for 5 minutes, letting the hook knead the mass into a smooth elastic dough.

For either method...
Coat inside of a heat-safe mixing bowl with olive oil, place the dough back into the bowl, and lightly coat the dough with olive oil (adding a drizzle more if you need).  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the previously warmed (but now off!) oven for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.  Remove dough from the oven, turn it out onto a floured counter to roll it out for your pizza!

Before rising...

After rising...

Sausage, Fontina, and Egg Pizza

inspired by A Tavola restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio

Ingredients:

Prepared pizza dough

Garlic, chopped

Extra-virgin olive oil

Italian sausage, casings removed and cooked

Fontina cheese, sliced thinly or shredded

Fresh sage leaves, washed and roughly chopped or torn

Eggs

Pizza Preparation:

Put your pizza stone (or a baking sheet with its bottom facing up) in the middle of your oven.  Then turn your oven on to 400-500 degrees Farenheit (or whatever the instructions for your particular pizza stone say).  This is absolutely critical -- pizza stone FIRST, oven turned on SECOND.  If you reverse the order, you can break your pizza stone.  So if you forget, forgo the pizza stone and use an upturned baking sheet.  Just preheat it in the oven too, so your crust gets extra crispy.

Saute the chopped garlic in a few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil over low/medium-low heat, until the garlic just barely turns golden-brown.  Remove from heat to stop cooking...or else you'll have some very burnt garlic!

Cook your sausage and convert it into pieces.  We poached the sausage in water (casings on) over medium-high heat until it was fully cooked.  We then removed the casings and cut thick slices of the sausage.

Work your pizza dough out into your preferred pizza shape - we just kinda went with oblong here.  Set up a pizza peel or another upside-down baking sheet as your assembly platform.  Dust it liberally with cornmeal.  Don't hold back, you need this for the dough to slide off the assembly platform and on to the pizza stone.  Brush the dough with your garlic + olive oil mixture, all the way to the edges to get a lovely golden-brown crust.  Top with cheese, sausage, and sage.

We also cracked an egg onto the center of the pizza before we began cooking...but....we're going to advise you to wait until your pizza is almost done before adding your egg.  Add your egg when you have 2-3 minutes remaining.

Dust your pizza stone liberally with cornmeal.  Don't be stingy, or else your pizza will be stuck on the stone!  (We don't recommend putting the cornmeal on the stone until this point, or else it burns quite a bit)  Transfer your pizza from the assembly platform to the pizza stone.  We use a spatula to help us guide the pizza as it slides (sometimes with a little shake of encouragment) off the assembly platform and onto the pizza stone.  Try to position the pizza on the stone during this transfer - it's not terribly easy to maneuver once it is on the stone, especially if your dough is thin, if you didn't use enough cornmeal, or if you have a lot of toppings.

Set your timer for 10 minutes.  When you check on your pizza, you can tailor its level of doneness to your preferences.  I like my crust deeply golden-brown and my cheese bubbling, so my pizza took about 14-15 minutes.  If you think your pizza is close to being done, add your whole egg in the center of the pizza, so it doesn't ooze off the crust.

Our thoughts on this week's selections...

• The pizza:
• A great combination of toppings.  Melty and mildly flavored cheese, spicy Italian sausage, the earthy flavor of sage and garlic, plus a delicious fried egg.  
• Sadly, our eggs were too far done to be the runny mess we were hoping for. Just imagine that velvety egg yolk oozing over the sausage and cheese....Mmmm!  Next time, we'll add the eggs a minute or two before the pizza is removed from the oven.
• The crust:
• Very quick and easy to make, thanks to warming the "room" where the dough rises.
• Good crunch on the exterior + good chew on the interior.  A winning combination in my book!
• The beer:
• Mt. Caramel's Amber Ale is my all-time favorite from this brewery.  It's a rich amber color with medium body and a great balance between roasted malt and hop flavors.  Perfect for pairing with foods, since it doesn't have any overly assertive flavors of its own but still tastes great.

Any suggestions for pizza combinations?  We're excited to try new ones!

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pizza

Sometimes my curiosity leads me to click link after link after link.  It happens on Wikipedia pages all the time.  I'm reading an article I originally searched for, but get distracted by a link to another page...which inevitably spirals out of control and I've lost an hour and my original train of thought before I know it.  This is especially common when I'm on Deb Perelman's fantastic food blog, Smitten Kitchen.  Between the end of her writing and before the recipe, she has links to her recipes from years past.  It never fails that I click on at least one of those links...and you know where that goes.

Thankfully, Deb's recipes have never yielded a flop or a less-than-edible creation.  I've come to trust her implicitly and discovered quite a few flavors and dishes from her.  I would never have taken such a simple approach to pizza toppings - goat cheese, lemon, summer squash.  Straying from tomato sauce on a pizza is nearly anathema to me, as is the lack of a gooey melted cheese and toppings that pack a wallop of their own flavor.  But these three ingredients, plus salt and pepper, come together for a pizza unlike any I'd met before. Creamy and tangy and harmonious. Oh, and incredibly simple, especially if you're using store-bought dough or dough you'd made before and stored in the freezer.

Deb's cookbook debuts this week. While waiting for my pre-ordered copy (because I am quite a bit of a foodie nerd), I'll be baking her apple and cheddar scones, which won me over to the apple + cheese camp I'd assiduously avoided for my lifetime.  They're the perfect fall treat, especially for the first day after baking. If you aren't a fan of Smitten Kitchen yet, check her out!

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pizza
Dough from Pizza: Award-Winning Pies for the Home Kitchen by Pete Evans
Toppings from Smitten Kitchen (get the original recipe here) 

For the Dough :
(makes 26 oz., roughly enough for four 12-inch pizzas)
Ingredients for the Dough:
1 cup warm water
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 1/4 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
3 cups plus 1 tbsp. flour (bread flour or all-purpose flour)
1 1/4 tsp. salt
Additional all-purpose flour for dusting

Preparation for the Dough:
In a small bowl, mix the warm water, yeast, and sugar together until combined, then leave in a warm place for 5 minutes, or until frothy. Stir in the olive oil.

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Pour the yeast mixture over the flour mixture and use your hands to bring them together to form a dough.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and use the heels of your hands to work the dough for 5 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.  Place the dough inside a lightly oiled bowl, then drape it with a dish towel and leave in a warm place to proof for 45-60 minutes, until the dough is doubled in size.

Dust a clean work surface with flour and put your risen dough on it.  Use your fists to give one good punch the dough.  Stress relieving, right?  If portioning the dough into smaller pieces, do so now.  Working with one portion at a time, use the palms of your hands to cup the dough at its base.  Roll it on the work surface in a circular motion to form a perfect ball.  Repeat with any remaining portions of dough.  Set on a lightly greased baking tray and leave in a warm place to proof for 15 minutes.

At this point, you can either freeze some dough (stored safely inside a freezer plastic bag) or continue on towards immediate pizza satisfaction.

But before we continue on with the dough, we should talk about the oven. If you're using a pizza stone, put it into the oven before turning it on to 450 - 500 degrees Farenheit. If you're not using a pizza stone, place a metal sheet pan in the oven before turning it on to 450 degrees Farenheit. 

This is also the perfect time to prepare the toppings...

Ingredients for Toppings:

1 lemon

4 oz. goat cheese, room temperature

A few leaves of fresh basil

1/2 medium zucchini, sliced as thinly as you can get

1/2 medium yellow squash, sliced as thinly as you can get

Drizzle of olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Preparation for Toppings:

In a small dough, stir together the goat cheese with the juice of half your lemon.  Add salt, pepper, and, if you're feeling it, some lemon zest.  Set aside.

Have your squash slices ready for topping.

Back to the dough. Roll or toss it out into roughly a 12-inch circle. If you're adventuring into tossing pizza dough for the first time, here are my two most important pieces of advice: toss over a counter (or else your dough will meet the floor) and catch the dough on your knuckles (that means curl your fingers into your palms, so your knuckles are the top surface of your hand).  Dust the surface of your pizza peel (or another sheet pan, flipped over to a flat surface) liberally with cornmeal; this will allow your dough to slide off the peel/sheet pan onto your pizza stone.

Once your dough is on the peel/pan, add your toppings.  Spread the goat cheese mixture on top of the dough, leaving a tiny bit of crust at the edge.  Place your thin slices of squash atop the goat cheese mixture, overlapping slightly.  Bonus points for artful patterns! Squeeze the remaining half of lemon over the top, add a drizzle of olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Slide your pizza from the peel/sheet pan onto your pre-heated pizza stone or sheet pan. I find this easiest to do if I pull the oven rack out a bit so I can deposit the pizza squarely in the middle.  It won't move easily once you set it on top, so do your best to position it well. Also, if your pizza gets stuck on the peel/sheet pan, you can use a spatula to help coax the pizza off of it. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the edges are golden-brown and the squash curl up slightly around their edges.  Remove from the oven (I pluck the entire pizza stone out of the oven, but you can also slide it onto your pizza peel/sheet tray) and sprinkle liberally with Parmesan cheese.

Probably the best pizza I've yet made, with a crust balanced between crispy and chewy.  The toppings also shine through - creamy, slightly melted goat cheese, lightly roasted squash, the salty tang of Parmesan, and most of all, the bright flavor of lemon keeping you interested in each bite.  And Deb was right - this goes awfully well with a glass (or two) of crisp white wine.

A note - if your lemon is on the larger side, you may want to use less than half a lemon in each application.  Just taste the goat cheese mixture and add to taste.

Coming soon!  My roommate and I are gearing up for a (mostly) weekly event called Pies and Pints, where we'll be cooking different pizzas each week and trying a new beer with it.