Authentic Italian Pizza Crust

Many years ago, I was lucky enough to help my mom work on the family cookbook in time for a family reunion. Most of our relatives, from all over Ontario and Italy, sent us their most treasured family recipes... including my Great Aunt's coveted pizza dough recipe.

Mushroom and Chicken Pizza

Since then, I have used this recipe to make several hundred pizzas, flatbreads, bread sticks, cinnamon buns, and sticky buns. It's incredibly versatile, it freezes well, it tastes fantastic with almost any ingredients, and it's almost impossible to screw up.

On Saturday, Shane and I made thirteen small pizzas. Why so many? They make fantastic freezer food, and we had a ton of vegetables from our visit to the farmer's market. Instead of baking them straightaway, we covered the pizzas in aluminum foil and stuffed them in the freezer to enjoy at a later date - making them a fabulous, healthy, preservative-free, fast food for when we don't feel like cooking or have no time.

Authentic Italian Pizza Crust
Makes 3 large pizzas, or a dozen small pizzas. 

Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp Traditional Yeast
1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Cups Hot Water
8 Cups All-Purpose Flour + Extra
Extra Olive Oil

For starters, grab a large mixing bowl and add the yeast, sugar and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Slowly pour in 1 cup of hot water (water should be very warm, but not hot enough to scald your fingers - shower temperature) and mix gently. Let this mixture sit for about ten minutes until the yeast is foamy and bubbly.

Add a cup of flour to the frothy yeast mixture, and stir. Alternate between cups of flour and cups of hot water. Mixture should take three cups of water total (including the water for the yeast mixture) and as much flour as required to make a soft round dough. At some point you'll have to dig in with your hands to work in additional flour until the dough is no longer sticky. 

Pat dough into a soft round ball in the center of the bowl. coat sides of bowl with olive oil and then drizzle oil on top of dough. Spread oil into top of dough with your fingers. Cover bowl with a clean, damp towel and leave in a warm corner of the kitchen for 1 1/2 hours or until dough has risen double. 

Punch down dough, and it's ready to work with! At this point, you can either freeze it in sections or make some hot, fresh, delicious pizza. Pinch off a piece of dough and stretch it with your hands, flattening and pulling it into a perfect pizza crust shape (if you feel the need to toss the dough in the air like the stereotypical Italian pizza chef, now is the time).

Preheat oven to 425F, and either lightly grease a pan or pizza stone with some olive oil or spread with cornmeal. Flatten dough onto pan. Spread with pizza sauce and desired toppings.

The entire time between putting the dough on the pan, topping it and putting it in the oven should be at least twenty minutes to allow the dough some time to rise once more, this way it winds up being a crispy light pizza dough.

Bake in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes, or until edges of crust begin to turn golden brown and cheese is bubbly and delicious. Enjoy with a glass of red wine!

Yummy variations: I've added many different things to this crust over the years. Half a cup of grated parmesan cheese and a quarter cup of minced garlic make a delicious savoury crust. Or sautée some spinach, pesto and garlic together to make a fun, green-flecked crust.

Hot, delicious hand made pizza.

edit: submitted to Yeastspotting. 

Chocolate Fudge Ripple Ice Cream

It's midnight and what are you doing? Normal people are sleeping (I just wish I could sleep!) I, however, am standing in the middle of a chocolate covered kitchen, trying to remember how to work the ice cream maker I found in the basement. 

S's favourite food is ice cream. After finding my ice cream maker (a very exciting birthday present for 19-year old me) hiding in a dusty box in the basement, I decided I should spend some time creating the quintessentially perfect chocolate ice cream. I haven't been doing much wedding planning lately, so making fabulous ice cream seems like a good solution.

I may have succeeded. 

The worst thing about this ice cream is that it is perhaps too creamy. Slightly too delicious. So yummy, in fact, that it was difficult to eat more than a very small bowl at a time.

Chocolate Fudge Ripple Ice Cream

Creamy, Delicious Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup milk

Dash of Salt

1 1/2 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

3 Egg Yolks, lightly beaten

1/2 cup + 3/4 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix together sugar, milk, salt and cocoa powder in a saucepan and heat at medium-low heat. Stir often. Beat together egg yolks in a separate bowl. Slowly add about 1/2 cup of hot milk mixture, stirring vigorously. Gradually add eggs back to saucepan. Heat and stir, slowly adding 1/2 cup of whipping cream. Stir frequently until mixture is thickened, but be careful not to let it boil!

Once mixture is thickened, remove from heat and add the chocolate chips to the hot mixture. Stir until chocolate is completely dissolved. Store in refrigerator until cool, at least four hours or overnight. Once  completely cool, stir in remainder of whipping cream and teaspoon of vanilla. 

(while your ice cream mixture is cooling, you have plenty of time to make the fudge ripple component)

Fudge Ripple Recipe

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup water

6 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix together sugar, corn syrup, water and cocoa powder in saucepan. Heat over medium heat until bubbling, stirring constantly. Continue to cook at a low boil for 3-4 minutes. Stir often. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, and cool thoroughly. 

Once both mixtures are cool, pour ice cream mixture into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions. Mine took approximately twenty-five minutes to freeze sufficiently. The ice cream mixture should be like a very thick, partially frozen soup. 

Ice Cream Maker

Use a large spoon to layer partially frozen ice cream mixture and cooled fudge mixture together in a plastic tupperware for freezer storage. Place container in freezer for 8 hours or overnight. 

Yum!