What's Cooking

MENUS

First comes a text from Denis of a picture of beautiful crusty loaves of bread. Then minutes later a text from a friend looking for a good bread recipe. Because while the sun was shining today and it is mid-April, it doesn’t feel like at all like spring. And the winter chill had her craving a good bowl of soup and some crusty bread. Of course, Denis sent the recipe right over, but there was a twist - this recipe does double duty. It is a pizza dough recipe that when baked in loaf pans turns into a delicious loaf of bread worthy of any homemade soup.

I figured they couldn't be the only ones with bread on their mind so now I am sharing with you!  With a shelter at home order currently in place, many of you have time on your hands. And knowing that many grocery stores are out of yeast means that plenty of you have yeast in your pantry. Enjoy making the recipe whether you decide to serve your family pizza or soup! And of course, stay well!

Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon yeast

1-1/3 cups warm water

3-½ cups high-gluten or bread flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1-½ teaspoons kosher salt

Mix yeast and water in a small bowl; let stand five minutes.

Add the flour, sugar, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. With mixer on medium-low speed, add water to flour. Mix to combine, adding more water or flour as needed to form a ball. Knead dough for 8 minutes.

Turn out dough onto floured board and knead an additional minute by hand. Divide dough in two and form each half into a ball.

Place each half in separate floured bowls, sprinkle with additional flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Set in refrigerator; let rise until doubled in size. Remove from refrigerator ½ hour before forming dough.

If making bread, instead of forming a pizza, flatten it a bit. Gently rolled it into a loaf a transferred it to a lightly floured 8 inch loaf pan.  Cover it with a towel and let it rise slightly, for about ½ hour.  Bake it in a 375 oven for about ½ hour to 40 minutes.  It should sound hollow when you tap on it.