Pumpkin, Bacon, Onion and Cheese Pizza

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Fall is nearly here. We are currently enjoying a few more gloriously sunny days but in the evenings you can already tell - not much longer until we can break out the winter cardigans, cook stews and soups and watch the leaves turn all kinds of amazing colours.
So, to put us into the mood, I made a pizza. With a flavour combination that just makes me smile. The pumpkin and bacon work really well together because the sweetness of the pumpkin brings out all those salty, slightly smoky flavours in the bacon. And together they make me feel like I'm in a cabin somewhere in the woods. Perhaps I should make some pumpkin soup sometime soon (with caramelised bacon sprinkled on top, perhaps).
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this pizza as much as I did and are anticipating all the great things about fall as much as I am.

Pumpkin, Bacon, Onion and Cheese Pizza
1/2 recipe Basic Pizza Dough
1/2 tbsp Flour
1/2 tbsp Butter
125 ml Milk
50g Grated Parmesan
Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg
2 Rashers Bacon
200g Pumpkin (I used 1/2 of a super cute tiny Hokaido one)
1 small Red Onion
1/2 Ball Mozzarella

Preheat your oven to 220˚C.
Heat the milk and a pinch of salt in a saucepan and keep it near boiling until the next step is done. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the flour and allow the mixture to bubble away, letting it brown slightly. You're aiming for a golden colour, not something dark brown. Take the flour mixture off the heat and start stirring in the milk. Once the two are combined return the saucepan to the heat and allow things to thicken. Stir in the parmesan, then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Set aside.
Cut the bacon into smaller pieces (slightly larger than an SD card - sorry, that's the only thing I have on my desk right now that is approximately the right size) and gently fry those pieces until the edges start to crispen up (not any longer, otherwise you'll end up with extra-crispy bacon pieces on your pizza.
Peel (if needed) and cut the pumpkin into slices. Most of my pieces were just under a centimetre thick. Cut the onion into 12 pieces (lengthwise) and dice the mozzarella.
Roll out the dough and lay it onto a lined baking sheet. Spread the cheesy white sauce onto the dough, then top with the bacon, pumpkin, onion, and mozzarella. You can grind some more pepper on top of everything if that is your kinda thing.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is brown in places and the crust looks done (as you can see on the picture above I was really hungry, gave up at some point and just took the pizza our of the oven a few minutes earlier than that....what can I say?! I had just come home from a run...it was slightly undercooked pizza or starvation).

What is your favourite thing about fall?

Weekend of Pizza Part IV

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With the weekend pretty much over (if I close my eyes and pretend it's still the weekend, right?), we're on the last instalment of our pizza trilogy of four :)
Today we're using up some of the leftovers of Saturday's pizza on another sweetish topping.

Apple, Bacon & Stilton Pizza
1/2 recipe of Pizza Dough
1 cup Milk mixed with
1/2 tsp Salt
11/2 tbsp Flour
2 tbsp Butter, unsalted
Salt, Pepper & Nutmeg
1 Apple (e.g. Pink Lady)
3/4 cup Stilton, cut into small pieces (that is about how much we had left after making 1 1/2 Tunisian Pizzas)
2 Rashers Bacon, grilled or fried so they are slightly crispy (don't go for super crispy otherwise they'll dry out when you bake them with the pizza later), cut into little pieces

Preheat your oven to 230˚C.
Roll out the pizza dough and transfer it onto a floured baking tray.
Make a white sauce as follows:
In a small saucepan heat the milk and 1/2 tsp salt -  I tend to heat it over a low heat and get on with the next couple of steps while it heats up. In the end you want the milk to be scalding hot but not boiling.
Heat the butter in a saucepan. Once the butter has melted stir in the flour and 'cook' the flour for a few minutes, stirring more or less continuously with a wooden spoon. You want the roux to be slightly golden but not properly browned. Take the pot off the heat and once the roux stops bubbling whisk in the now scalding hot milk. If the milk was hot enough you should end up with a lump-free white sauce (if you have lumps, strain it through a fine sieve). Allow the sauce to thicken for a minute or two and season it with some more salt, pepper and some nutmeg.
Cut your apple into slices that are approximately the same thickness as a £1 coin.
Spread the white sauce over the pizza base.
Top with the apple slices and bacon pieces, then cover everything with the cheese.
Bake the pizza for 8-12 minutes and enjoy it once it's cooled down slightly (I mean it's lovely super hot, but my second slice was definitely more exciting on the flavour-front).

Weekend of Pizza Part III

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Today's topping is very different from yesterday's one.
My friend Katie is completely addicted to Thai chicken pizza and when we had our board-game night that ended up involving no board-games at all Katie showed me how she makes it.
Oh, and now I'm craving Thai chicken pizza all the time.
Again, the quantities are approximations (I mean they are the amounts we used but you could easily use more or less)

Thai Chicken Pizza
1/2 a recipe of Pizza Dough
1/2 sachet Satay Sauce
1 Carrot, grated
1/2 Chicken Breast, cut into strips
Some Olive Oil
1 ball Mozzarella, cut into small pieces
A handfull fresh Coriander, cut into large pieces

Preheat your oven to around 230˚C.
Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the chicken breast strips until they are cooked through and start to brown. Take the pan of the heat and transfer the meat onto a plate lined with a couple of pieces of paper towel.
Roll out the pizza dough and transfer it onto a floured baking tray.
Spread the satay sauce over the pizza base, then top with the carrot, chicken breast and come coriander.
Cover everything with a generous layer of mozzarella cheese and bake for 8-12 minutes.
This pizza is lovely hot but it's also super nice once it's cooled down a bit.

Weekend of Pizza Part II

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Today's topping was originally inspired by a meal I had back in November when I drove down Highway 1 from San Francisco all the way to San Diego in 4 days (I know...you don't have to tell me that you really need more time for that trip, but that was all I had so in my book that's still better than never going) anyhow, I got to relax for a bit and I stopped at Crystal Cove Beach where I had what they called a 'Tunisian Pizza' which was made with a grilled flatbread and a very intriguing mix of dates, blue cheese, roasted tomatoes and bacon.

To me it was one of those meals you have and then can't get out of your head for the next 10 years. Do you get that? You have a meal and then you can't forget it because it pretty much blew your mind away?

Anyhow, I'm digressing, I've been thinking of making this pizza for a while now and when we decided to have another boardgame evening I finally got a chance.
Oh, and I don't know about you but I don't measure things when I'm making pizza so here's a list of the ingredients with rough estimates of amounts.

Tunisian Pizza
A handfull of Dates
3 or 4 rashers of Bacon
Some Slow-Roasted Tomatoes (if you don't have any, sundried ones would probably work as well, if you don't know how to make your own, have a look at the Smitten Kitchen one or the two peas and their pod one, they're both super easy and pretty much what I do when I make them)
Some Blue Cheese (such as Stilton)
1/2 a recipe of Pizza Dough

Turn on the grill in your oven and heat it until it's nice and hot (mine has a temperature gauge and I tend to turn it to 250˚C).
Lay out the bacon on a piece of tinfoil and grill it in the oven for a few minutes (you want it to cook but make sure it doesn't go too crispy, it will go on the pizza and we don't want to end up with bacon-charcoal).
Once the bacon is done, switch your oven onto it's normal setting and let it get to around 230˚C (if you have two separate compartments you can do this before you deal with the bacon).
Roll out the pizza dough until it's about the size of you baking tray. Sprinkle some flour onto your baking tray and then transfer the dough onto the tray.
Mince the dates (i.e. play the game of 'how small can I cut the dates'), you want to end up with something that is starting to resemble a paste.
Spread the dates over your pizza (I've made this recipe twice now and the first time the dates were fairly dry so all I could manage was sprinkle them on top of the dough, the second time they were super fresh and I actually managed to spread them out like some slightly unruly butter).
Cut the bacon into little pieces (I don't like the fat so I cut that off beforehand, if you like it obviously leave it on) and spread them out on top of the dates.
Crumble some blue cheese on top of that and then add some of the tomatoes. If you have fairly large chunks you might want to cut them into smaller pieces.
Stick your pizza into the oven and bake for 8-12 minutes until the crust is golden (or until you're starting to get worried that the tomatoes or the bacon are turning into charcoal, whichever happens first).
Hmmmm....pizzapizzapizza :)

Weekend of Pizza Part I

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I thought we could have a weekend of pizza recipes for a change - I've been writing about too much sweet stuff lately.
This series of posts was inspired by yet another evening of boardgames and pizza (though this time we ended up chatting all evening and forgot to play Risk).

Before we get to the toppings though, I thought I could talk about pizza bases for a bit. Making a pizza base is super easy (yes, there's yeast involved but we can do this together, I promise :) ).
There is only one thing that you really need - time. If you expect your pizza dough to be done in 30 minutes, go and get some take-out because it's not gonna happen. If you know you won't have much time you could easily make the dough ahead of time, put it into the fridge and then give it half an hour or so to get to room temperature just as you're getting the toppings ready.

Easy-Peasy Pizza Base (makes about 2 pizzas the size of your baking tray)
600g Strong Breadflour
21g (i.e. half a cube) Fresh Yeast
Lukewarm Water
11/2 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp Olive Oil

Put the flour into a large bowl, using your finger, make a well in the middle and crumble the yeast into it. Add a few tablespoons of water to the yeast and combine the two. It's ok if you stir in some of the flour as well but what you are aiming for is a fairly liquid mix - think chocolate malt milkshake.
Give the yeast about 20 minutes or so before you incorporate it into the rest of the flour. Now you can add the salt and more water (you need less than you might think so add some water, knead the dough, and if it still looks like it needs more water then you can add some more. You don't want your dough to go all sticky but at the same time you don't want it to fall apart because it's too dry.
My mum always told me that the dough should be the same texture as the flabby bit of your armpit. I guess that works for us humans, if you are blessed with a body that has no excess flab can you tell me more about your workout, please? ;)
In that case you could ask someone else (I mean, please don't start going round groping strangers...).
Anyhow, knead the dough until the gluten bonds have properly developed. If you are kneading by hand this could easily take 15 minutes (just think of it as a short 15 minute workout). You will know the dough is ready when it starts feeling slightly velvety and develops a slight sheen. I know this sounds weird but it will make sense when  the dough gets to this stage.
Stick the dough back into the bowl, cover the  bowl with a damp tea towel and allow it to proof until it's doubled in size. Since you're not using crazy amounts of yeast this could easily take 4 hours or so. Knock back the dough and allow it to proof for another hour or two. The thing about the timing here is that I don't think you can give the dough too much time (ok, I wouldn't leave it for 3 days or so), you could start knead the dough in the evening, then leave the dough in the fridge overnight (the cold will slow down the activity of the yeast but it won't stop it completely, i.e. things are just going to take a lot longer), then if you want the pizza for lunch take the dough out around 10ish, allow it to come back to room temperature for an hour or so before you knock it back and give it another hour or two at room temperature before you make your pizzas.
To make the pizza, preheat your oven until it's really hot (230˚C works fine in my oven, but if yours is slightly sluggish you might want to go for the highest temperature it can handle).
Roll out 1/2 or 1/3 of the dough depending on how thin you want the pizza to be, flour your baking tray and transfer the dough onto the tray. Cover the base with your choice of toppings and then bake your pizza for 8-12 minutes or until the toppings are heated through and the outer edges of the base look nicely done and crusty.
Enjoy with a salad and in the company of some lovely friends.

Pizza with fresh tomatoes

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I love making my own pizza! Isn't it amazing how little effort it takes and how much fun (or arguments) you can have while deciding on the toppings :)
Juliane and I made pizza the other day using the leftover cheese sauce from a couple of days ago and some fresh tomatoes and some ewe's cheese. Juliane was a bit sceptic at first and we're still debating whether it is still a pizza when you don't have a tomato sauce on the dough. Anyone got an opinion?
Anyhow, let's get going! This should be enough for 2 pizzas:

Pizza with fresh tomatoes
600g Flour
30g Fresh yeast
1/2 tbsp Salt
300-400ml Water, lukewarm
1-2 tbsp Olive oil

10 medium sized tomatoes
Cheesy sauce
150g ewe's cheese
Some basil

Make a dough, make sure you keep kneading long enough! Put it into a bowl and cover with a damp tea-towel. Allow the dough to rise until it's doubled in size (and yes, putting it onto the radiator is cheating!)

Preheat your oven to 210 degrees.

Knock back the dough and give it another 10-15 minutes.

Reheat or make about 1/2  the recipe for the goat's cheese sauce, mix in some milk and once it's bubbling you might want to add some more cornflour to bind it a bit more (but just see how it goes, you might not need any more cornflour).

Divide the dough into two pieces and roll them out on baking trays and give them a couple of minutes.

Cut the tomatoes into slices.

Spread the cheesy sauce over the base, get creative with the tomatoes and crumble the ewe's cheese over everything (if you don't like your ewe's cheese too baked do what we did and add it halfway through baking).

Bake things start looking all fabulous and golden.

Add the basil and enjoy with some amazing company :)