Tuesdays with Julia and Dorie: Pizza with Onion Confit

NOT OUR USUAL FRIDAY NIGHT PIZZA

 Eastern Mediterranean Pizza was on the menu for today's dinner.  This is not your usual cheese and tomato sauce pizza but is topped, instead, with a well seasoned onion confit and can then be topped with olives (my choice), goat cheese, or Parmesan--or any other topping desired.  (I'm certain that an Eastern Mediterranean momma does not use common canned black olives, but we like them at our house.)

The recipe makes enough dough for two large pizzas, but being in a playing mood, I made a double batch of dough, baked the pizza with onion confit, and then made stuffed bread loaves from the remaining dough.  I was worried that my family would not care enough for the onion pizza to fill themselves with that item as main course for dinner.  

Everyone tried the pizza, most liked the flavors, but most also thought it was too rich to eat large slices.

STUFFED BREAD LOAVES

But everyone loved this dough turned into stuffed bread.  I made several loaves filled with provolone cheese, tomato sauce (with some of those lovely onions added), salami and pepperoni.  I gave the loaves an egg wash which held a sprinkling of sesame seeds.  This part of our meal was a hit!

Always fun to try new things.  I think that in mini size today's pizza would make excellent appetizers, but for pizza, I'll stay traditional.

French Froday With Dorie: Pissaladiere

PISSALADIERE WITH A FEW CHANGES

We LOVE pizza at our house!  Hubby could live on pizza; could eat it every day.  Today’s assignment was like pizza.  So, to compare, I made a batch of Dorie’s dough and a batch of my dough...mine has no egg...I wanted to see what that egg contributed to a similar ingredient recipe.

Then, I found a bag of plum tomatoes that had to be used, so I thought, “Good, I’ll have fresh sauce.”

ONIONS SAUTEED UNTIL TRANSLUCENT

And I couldn’t bring myself to add anchovies, so I wondered what might look similar, and... I found lovely Portobelo mushrooms which, when sliced, look just like anchovies, right?  Gills and all.

PORTOBELO MUSHROOMS

ALSO SAUTEED

And, I thought that the 6 medium onions on one “pizza” were a bit much, so I cut the onion amount way down.  Then I sliced my olives...just because that was requested by a drooling bystander.  And to this point, those were my changes.

THE SPONGE HAS RISEN

THE KNEADED DOUGH LEFT TO RISE

THE DOUGH HAS RISEN

Oh, and of necessity, there was one additional change.  Because I had made bread earlier in the week and it did not rise well even though I used fresh yeast...must have gotten hot in Sam’s Club warehouse or truck somewhere and been killed; it’s Arizona...I decided to make a sponge using my new yeast...just to be sure.   I mixed the yeast, sugar, water, and partial flour...just to make certain the yeast was alive, and a sponge for this type of recipe is a good thing.

THE PISSALADIERE IS OVEN_READY

After putting the pizza into the hot oven, I saw that I had actually made other “mistake” changes...in my brain-dead mode I had added some of my freshly made sauce.  Well, don’t most pizza’s have sauce?  Just a habit.  And I had added a little cheese, not much.  Oh well, it was a paperwork day today and it will do it to you.

WHILE BAKING ON ITS HOT STONE, I THROW ON THE OLIVES

Panic...my nicely sliced olives were sitting on the counter, not on my baking pizza.  So, I opened the oven and threw them on...and curled my eyelashes at the same time.  But in AZ we are used to blasts of heat. (Az heat is a good thing for rising dough...mine was ready in 30 minutes.)

 

THE FINISHED PISSALADIERE LOOKS BEAUTIFUL!

I had considered making a fresh garden salad to accompany the pizza, but after sweeping the fridge and finding veges, in addition to those tomatoes needing use, I decided to bake a few vege pizzas and call it good.
 

I baked the pissaladiere/pizzas on my pizza stone in a 450^ oven.  With the crust rolled thin, baking time was only 5 minutes and they were perfectly done.

I cut a piece of the pissaladiere and liked the flavors, however, I thought the onions were a bit oily from being sauteed in a little olive oil, but I’m used to unoiled, fresh veges on my pizza’s.  All the flavors were really good, and I loved my mushrooms.  This was a good choice for me.

MY FAVORITE PIZZA IS READY FOR THE OVEN

MY PERSONAL BEST CHOICE

PIZZA WITH "LEFTOVER" INGREDIENTS

 

THE "LEFTOVERS" PIZZA #2

And my choice to make a few pizzas was good...just as I finished, Hubby and #1 Son and a friend walked into the kitchen and had only 20 minutes before they had to leave for a Town of Gilbert committee meeting.  They were excited to find pizza on the menu.

FRESH SPINACH PIZZA

I love working with dough...works my stresses out.  And all the delicious flavors and smells in Kris’ Pizzeria get my mind off everything else.  The best part is having family come home and be excited about my kitchen work. #1 Son returned here after the meeting and took the leftovers home. ..said he had been dreaming about eating more all through the meeting.  

 

HONEY'S FAVORITE...OLIVE PIZZA

And what about my comparison of Dorie’s “egg” dough vs my more traditional dough?  Not much difference.  Dorie’s dough was a bit softer bottom crust...the edges were crisped just right.  The flavor: not enough difference to write about.  Being a little softer dough, it was an easier roll out for the thin crust....did not spring back into shape as I rolled.  My dough was a similar size batch.....I got several thin crust pizzas from these two batches of dough.  Dorie’s dough definitely makes 3 thin crust home-size pizzas.

 

MY AFTERNOON'S WORK

Note: I know my pans look gross.  After baking the pizzas I put them out on my super old cookie sheets...sheets that are older than some of you reading this post.  I don’t mind hubby using them out on the grill, and I don’t mind pizza eaters cutting their pizzas on these pans...I would not want all the cuts made on my good baking sheets.