Farmer’s Market Pizza Day ~ !!!!

Not everything here will be sweet. I do love savories. Earlier in the day, between baking and kids and laundry and dishes and andandandand, I put together some pizza dough to rise so that we would have pizza later after picking up toppings at the Farmer’s market. This could become a semi-regular Wednesday routine considering how many options of fresh delicious toppings I can find down at the market.

Every once in a while I’m off on a search and test mission for a thin, crusty, flavorful pizza dough. Missions such as that are short-lived, my attention span and awareness that I’m too lazy to deal with a pizza stone every time, heat the oven to 500 degrees, and still not be happy with the end result often equals mental notes such as, ”I won’t try that recipe again.”

At home this is the crust of choice. It has just enough Other-Unusual in it to satisfy me, distracting me from a thin crust quest. This is a soft dough, it’s the milk and olive oil. I’ve made it with one rise, two rises and no rise when the fridge was looking sparse and afternoon slipped away from me. Hey. I’m a middle-aged mom with small kids. I’m tired. I’d take gingko-biloba if I could remember to buy it.

From a *fabulous* cookbook. If standing in front of the cookbooks on my bookshelves and someone said I could only keep one (who IS that voice?), this would be the cookbook. Maybe. Could be. I’m pretty sure.

Slightly varied from the original ~ but not by much

Scant 1/3 c. warm water - 110 degrees or so
A pinch of sugar, or a drop or two of honey, or a sprinkling of brown sugar
2 ½ tsp. yeast

Scant 1/3 c. milk
3 T. cornmeal. Some ground corn, fine or what have you.

2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 ¾ c. flour
2 T. rye flour
Lotsa fresh ground pepper
Pinch o’ cayenne
Chopped up rosemary or other herbs of choice

Dissolve the yeast in the water and sweetener (which is optional). Let sit.

Warm the milk to room temperature, add the cornmeal. Let sit a while to soften the cornmeal.

Mix dry ingredients. Okie dokie - pile the ingredients together, mix ‘em, mix ‘em some more, knead it via hand or mixer.

Place luscious soft dough into an oiled bowl and let rise until double. Punch down and let rise again if you have the time. Use when ready.

This will cover a half sheet pan. You can make two smaller pizzas. Bake off anywhere from 425-500 degrees, depending on how you want the end result. If you use 500 degrees, start checking at 8 minutes. I use the bottom shelf of the oven and hover at around 475 in my gas oven.

Notes ~

• A film of olive oil before putting on any topping will stop that wet layer. I will spread out a film of oil, then add a sprinkling of kosher salt before toppings.

• Aren’t sliced tomatoes so much easier, fresher and yummie-simple instead of making pizza sauce? Yes. Two of my three children do not agree. Harumphf.

Xoxo
Toodles!