As a part of USD 435's Parents as Teachers Good, Cheap & Nutritious grant, provided by the Community Foundation of Dickinson County, we've been doing a series of cooking workshops using recipes from the cookbook Good and Cheap,by Leanne Brown. This morning during a playgroup, parents made batch of pizza dough to take home and we then assembled a Potato Leek Pizza. Below are both recipes with notes about our additions and things that could be added to each.
Potato Leek Pizza Makes 4 pizzas
Note: Dividing the dough into 4 pieces makes a smaller sized pizza so perhaps 3 pizzas is a more realistic yield!
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| We used a mandolin to quickly create thin potato slices. |
Pizza dough for 4 pizzas
2 tablespoons olive oil —
divided use
1 russet potato or 3 small
potatoes, sliced into thin circle
3 leeks, white section sliced
(see cleaning instructions below)
Salt & pepper
1 lb. mozzarella, shredded
Other things we added: fresh herbs + dried red pepper flakes, we also drizzled the rolled out crust with olive oil before adding the toppings
Other things we discussed adding: roasted red pepper, Canadian bacon, cooked & crumbled bacon
1.
Turn the oven to
500° F.
2.
Put a large pan
on medium heat and add l tablespoon of olive oil.
3.
Once the oil is
hot, add the potato slices evenly to the pan, making sure each slice is
touching the bottom. (If you slice them thin enough, they’ll turn out almost
like little chips.)
4.
Let them cook
until they start to crinkle around the edges and turn brown.
5.
Flip them over
and brown the other side, then move them to a bowl.
6.
Sprinkle with
salt and pepper, then toss with your hands (after they cool down) to make sure
they’re evenly coated.
7.
Heat up another
tablespoon of oil in the same pan, then toss in the leek slices, stirring
occasionally until they’re soft, about 5 minutes.
8.
Toss them with
the potato slices and add a but more salt and pepper.
9.
Clear a space on
the counter and sprinkle with flour. Divide your dough into 4 equal pieces.
10. One at a time, stretch the doughs into crusts. You can
use a rolling pin or just slowly use your fingers and hands. Make them as thin
or thick as you prefer.
11. Once the curst is the desired shaped and thickness,
dust the back of a cookie sheet (or pizza pan) with flour or cornmeal to keep
the crust from sticking, then transfer the dough to the sheet.
12. Now layer it with ¼ of the potato and leek mixture and
¼ of the shredded mozzarella.
13. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, keeping an eye on the oven
and the pizza. The crust should be light brown and the cheese melted. NOTE: It took more like 12 to 15 minutes per pizza -- we baked them until the edges and bottom of the pizza were nicely browned and crisp.
14. Repeat the process until you’ve baked all pizzas. If
your oven is big enough, bake more than one pizza at a time.
How to clean and prep a leek . . .
· Slice off the majority of the leek's dark green end, leaving
just a little of the dark green and the part where the color is a pale green and
white. (The upper portion of the dark green part is tough and not really
edible.)
· Cut off the root end of the pale green and white
section; slice lengthwise and wash thoroughly; drain and dry. (Leeks grow in
sand that can get trapped inside the growing vegetable; it may even be
necessary to soak the leek in water to insure a sand-free veggie.)
· Chop or slice as directed in recipes.
Check out the health benefits of leeks @
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/02/08/leeks-benefits.aspx
Pizza Dough Makes 4 individual pizzas
The following directions provide two ways to make
pizza dough: the fast way and the slow way. They’re the same amount of work,
just with different waits. The slow method is convenient for a weekday if you
make it before bed the night before, pop it in the fridge, then pull it out to
rise before dinner.
3 cups all-purpose or bread
flour (or use part white whole wheat flour if you want to up the whole grain
benefits)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ to 1 teaspoon instant yeast (not Rapid-rise yeast)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ¼ cups water @ room
temperature (about 110° F.) for Fast Method; cold for Slow Method
Other things we added: about ½ teaspoon granulated sugar to help feed the yeast
Other things that could be added: Italian seasoning, about 1 teaspoon or more to the dry mixture to add more flavor to the dough
Fast Method
1.
Measure out the
flour, salt and 1 teaspoon of yeast into a big bowl. Mix the oil into
the flour with your hands, crumbling it until the texture is a bit sandy.
2.
Then add the room-temperature
water. Keep mixing with your hands until it comes together.
3.
Knead the dough
on a lightly floured countertop for 5 to 7 minutes, until it becomes a smooth
elastic ball. The dough will be smooth but quite wet.
4.
Add a small
amount of oil to a bowl.
5.
Place your dough
ball in the oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
6.
Let it rise for 1
½ to 3 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. It’s done rising when it
has doubled in size. Then it’ll be ready to shape into your favorite pizza!
Slow Method
If you’re organized enough or have the time to make
the slow dough, this method results in the best dough.
Use the same process as
listed above, but add only ½ teaspoon of yeast to the flour mixture. Rather than
room temperature, the water should be very cold.
After you place the dough
ball in a bowl and cover it, leave it in the fridge overnight (this gives the
dough a better flavor; it also makes the dough more elastic and easier to work
with).
The next day, 2 to 3 hours
before you want to bake your pizzas, remove the dough from the fridge to return
to room temperature.
1.
Measure out the
flour, salt and ½ teaspoon of yeast into a big bowl. Mix the oil into
the flour with your hands, crumbling it until the texture is a bit sandy.
2.
Then add the cold
water. Keep mixing with your hands until it comes together.
3.
Knead the dough
on a lightly floured countertop for 5 to 7 minutes, until it becomes a smooth
elastic ball. The dough will be smooth but quite wet.
4.
Add a small
amount of oil to a bowl.
5.
Place your dough
ball in the oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap; put in fridge and leave
overnight.
6.
The next day, 2
to 3 hours before you want to bake your pizzas, remove the dough from the
fridge to return to room temperature — it’s done rising when it has doubled in
size. Then it’ll be ready to shape into your favorite pizza!
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| Parents working on their take-home pizza dough (above and below). |
And, just for fun, we made an extra batch of pizza dough for the toddlers to manipulate, stretch, and twist as they worked on gross and fine motor development . . .
To date we've also prepared Cornmeal Crusted Veggies + we had a pasta party that featured the homemade tomato sauce in the cookbook.
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