Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘pizza dough’

Pizza Skewers

Posted by terrepruitt on August 30, 2021

If you know my love-hate relationship with pizza dough you may wonder why I thought it would be a good idea to try to make these Pizza Skewers. Sigh. I saw them and thought they looked great . . . . of course, they did look great, but not the ones I made. But they were still yum.

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PIZZA SKEWERS

PLEASE SEE NOTES BELOW

10 to 12 wooden skewers
12 to 24 mushrooms
12 to 24 pieces of sausage – cooked
10 to 12 cherry tomatoes
pizza dough (prepared)
Italian Seasoning
olive oil (2-3 tablespoons +/-)
garlic powder
shredded mozzarella (1 cup +/-)
tomato sauce (1 to 1 1/2 cup)

If you are using wooden skewers soak them for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375° F

Wash the mushrooms, leave them whole, put them on a lined baking sheet, sprinkle them with garlic salt and put them in the oven at 375° F for ten minutes.

While the mushrooms are cooking you can cut up the sausage and roll out the dough. The dough should be rolled out to about 12 inches by 16 inches. After it is rolled out, sprinkle dough with Italian Seasoning and garlic powder. Then cut it into about 12 strips.

Put one of each item (tomato, sausage, mushroom) on the skewer spaced out – if you can fit an extra on go ahead – then secure the dough under the first item and spiral it up the skewer weaving around each item. Then place on a lined baking sheet. Brush each completed skewer with olive oil and sprinkle more Italian Seasoning (if you would like) on each. Then bake at 375° F for ten minutes.

Take them out of the oven and sprinkle with the shredded cheese and bake for 10 more minutes or until dough is cooked to your liking.

Serve with tomato sauce for dipping.
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NOTES:

  • Again, I have a horrific track record with dough and didn’t get it rolled out well enough to have 12 skewers – we end up with 9.
  • I used prepared dough.
  • I partially cooked the mushrooms with a tad bit of salt so they would end up fully cooked on the skewer PLUS to get some of the moisture out.
  • I put two pieces of sausage on my husband’s skewers and one mushroom. I had two mushrooms and one piece of sausage.
  • The tomatoes we had were VERY large, more like PLUM sized tomatoes than cherry.

These were fun and yummy. What do you think?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , | 11 Comments »

Full Belly Farm Pizza Dough

Posted by terrepruitt on October 7, 2020

We haven’t had outside prepared food since February or maybe March.  I really wanted a pizza . . . now I kinda want anything that I would normally have just to have a treat . . . for now we are not having takeout of any kind, so I am making pizza.  I don’t make the dough.  Dough and I have a love-hate relationship; I LOVE to eat it, but I HATE to “deal” with it.  It always just sticks to my hands and I can’t deal with that.  People say to use more flour but then I just end up with flour all over the place and dough stuck to my hands.  A friend who used to make pizza every Friday night says she uses a bit of oil.  I tried that and realized it works.  So I use more than a bit of oil.  At first I was just putting it in the bowl with the dough (bringing it to room temperature seems like a must) and flouring the pan, but then I decided to put oil on the pan.  My niece gave me the idea to use parchment paper to roll out the dough because I was ending up with dough all over my hands AND my rolling pin.  I have to put oil on the parchment paper so it doesn’t stick, but I am able to just wipe the roller off because there is no dough or even oil on it at all.  Parchment paper (and my niece) to the rescue.  So this isn’t really a recipe, it is just me showing how I “make” pizza.  And the terrible job shaping that I do.

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I take the one ball of dough and split it to make two pizzas . . . a his and a hers.

I LOVE mushrooms on my pizza and I prefer they get cooked FIRST, so I have to cook the mushrooms.  I don’t really LOVE tomato sauce so I usually just put that on my husband’s pizza.  I just use a bit of olive oil.  Most times it is just mozzarella and mushrooms, sometimes breakfast sausage.  But I asked for Ricotta (my husband does the shopping) and they didn’t have the regular kind and my husband bought some out of the deli case.  I don’t know about your grocery store, but things in the deli case at our supermarket tend to be the more “gourmet” kind of stuff and definitely more expensive.  This ricotta was sooooooo good.  It was so smooth and creamy.  Yum.  I wish I would have noticed the lid was upside down when I took the pictures.  I turned the tub so I could read the side but didn’t even notice the lid.  I was focused on the reflection of the pizza dough label.  (Ok, so I can’t take pictures NOR deal with pizza dough!)

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I wrote a post about DIY pizza in August 2018, I mentioned thinking the dough needs to be cold . . . it seems easier to handle but the instructions and my professional pizza making friends says it needs to be room temp so when I remember that is what I try to do.

So . . . how do YOU deal with pizza dough?  Do you make your own?  Do you roll it or do you stretch it?  What is your favorite pizza topping?

 

 

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The edges were getting too crispy on this so they were picked off before I thought to take a picture . . . then after it was cooked I completely forgot about taking pictures!

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

DIY Pizza

Posted by terrepruitt on August 20, 2018

Years ago we started having an organic box of produce delivered to our house. Over the years the service has changed and one thing they do is have things you can add on. One time I ordered a quiche. I posted about it (Quiche, Anyone?) because I thought I was getting an already-made-quiche but it was a DIY quiche.  I had to make it.  It was delicious. Well, this time I decided to order a pizza and this time I knew it was DIY. I hate pizza dough and I thought this one would be easier. Let me clarify when I say I hate pizza dough, I should actually say I hate WORKING with pizza dough. I love pizza crust, but I just don’t work well with the dough. I thought this one would be easy. It was ok.

I think the first problem I have is that I might actually believe the directions when it says to stretch it to 14 to 16 inch circle. My pan is 14 inches and it was stretch pretty thin. I can’t see it getting to 16 inches, but then again – I don’t work well with pizza dough.

First I made the mistake of taking all the ingredients out while I cooked the mushrooms. I was thinking proudly, that I would read the directions and make sure I was ready to go. Too often I have waited until the last minute to read the directions only to find out something needs to sit out for 50 minutes or something like that. So, I thought I was being smart. Well, I was had I put everything back in the refrigerator or even the freezer. By the time I tried to grate the cheese it was just melty. And the dough was stuck in the container. So I did end up putting it in the freezer for a bit, but that delayed me actually making the dinner.

Anyway . . . it was pretty good. I didn’t cook it enough. It was very doughy. But we ate it anyway . . . at least most of it. We have some left. I will pop my portion in the toaster over to finish cooking the dough, but my husband said he liked it the way it was.  I really loved Fully Belly Farm’s quiche crust so I thought I would like the pizza dough. And I do, I just need to cook it better.

The DIY box consisted of dough, cheese, and sauce. I added the mushrooms.

Below are pictures from the DIY Pizza.

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Do you make your own pizza dough?

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My Failed Stovetop Pizza

Posted by terrepruitt on June 16, 2015

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYoIf you haven’t seen this and you are interested in making pizza on your stovetop in 20 minutes, I suggest you go check out the video.  It looks pretty cool.  It looks fast.  It looks easy.  It looks yummy.  It looks like you must have a pan you can vent.  It also REALLY looks like the pan should be non-stick.  I really wanted to try this because I would much rather eat pizza with dough that I make than other pizza.  But I am not really good with pizza dough.  Yes, I know it is easy, you know why?  Because people TELL me it is, not because it ACTUALLY IS.  I cannot make a pizza that is round for nothing.  I cannot make the pizza come out even/level.  One side tends to rise more than the other.  My pizza tastes good, but it pretty much always LOOKS like a reject pizza.  And then there is the dough and it so sticky and messy, so you might realize the HUGE appeal this pizza had (notice tense) to me.  I thought I had a vented lid.  I do!  I thought it would fit one of my non-stick pans.  It does not.  It thought I could make it in a pan that does not have that non-stick coating.  I am not convinced I can.  But I made a HUGE error – aside from the pan.  So I can’t say for certain (can you?) that the regular pan won’t work.  I tried this stovetop pizza and here is the result.

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I used red sauce, mushrooms, turkey sausage, and cheese for toppings.

The recipe doesn’t say medium heat but somewhere in the comments that is revealed, but I didn’t read the whole sentence!  (Eyes rolling).  It is medium heat while the vent is closed, then when you open the vents, turn it to low heat.  So I cooked it at medium the entire time and the dough would not come out of the pan.  I bet it might have, if I would have lowered the temperature.  So you obviously understand I am not saying this recipe does not work.  I am saying, “Hello, here is my complete and utter failure at attempting this recipe.”  And I should say “recipe” because I left out a key ingredient and cooked it at the wrong temperature!

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So, SNAP!  What does one feed herself and her hungry hubby at 9:00 pm when the planned dinner totally fails?  I made pizza rice.  Yup, sounds ridiculous and I never would have done it if I hadn’t been at a loss.

I just scraped the ingredients off of the stuck-to-the-pan-dough (a bit of dough came up with it) and put it over some leftover rice that we had.  Yup, I put a bit of dough on the rice with the sauce, mushrooms, meat, and cheese.  And that was our entrée.  It didn’t taste bad at all.  It was rice instead of dough, but it was kinda odd.  My hubby liked it.  But he loves rice.  He likes rice better than pasta.  He likes rice better than bread.  So he enjoyed the “pizza” on the rice.  I might have liked it better if it wasn’t a huge blaring symbol of my failed meal.  🙂  Also, I was afraid that I had totally ruined my pan.  But I let it soak overnight and the stuck on crust came off.

So . . . have you tried this pizza?  Can it be made in a regular (not non-stick) pan?  Are you going to try it?  Let us know how it comes out!  I will attempt this again – correctly.

Posted in Entertainment, Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Afraid To Fail – Silly, But True

Posted by terrepruitt on December 15, 2011

I have a Nia student who bakes bread all the time.  Challah to be exact.  YUM!  Several times when I’ve gone to her house she answers the door with flour on her.  I have another friend who bakes bread and pizza dough and yummy things all the time.  She even makes her own little slider buns.  So cute.  So yummy.  I am a bread lover.  Bread it awesome.  Bread is so versatile.  I love bread.  It is absolutely silly that I don’t make my own bread.  But I was afraid of yeast.  I know that sounds ridiculous, especially to you bread makers, but it is the truth.  The whole “active” and rising and “proofing” just scared me.  What if it wasn’t active?  What if it didn’t rise?  What is proofing anyway?

I was talking with someone who was telling me someone else wasn’t doing something.  We were trying to figure out why.  Why wouldn’t this person want to do that?  The person talking suggested it was because she was afraid and didn’t want to fail and her comment was, “So what?  Fail, but at least you tried and you can do it again.  Do it until you don’t fail.”  Ah-ha!  It was one of those moments.  What I was not doing because I was afraid of failure was much less serious than what we were talking about.  I am being vague to protect the innocent.  🙂  But believe me, yeast is a lot less serious and traumatic than the other situation.  So I realized how silly I was being.  It’s bread.  It’s yeast.  Whoppedee-do, if it doesn’t work.  Granted I wouldn’t want to waste all the ingredients that go into it, but it is not THAT big of a thing.

Dance Exercise, Nia teacher, Nia class, Nia student, Nia San Jose, San Jose NiaI had even bought the yeast a long time ago (well, not THAT long ago because then again, don’t want it not to be able to be activated).  So I decided to start with something I think of as even easier than bread—pizza dough.  Now you might know that I think of both sandwiches and pizza as the perfect foods.  They are bread/grains, veggies, dairy, and meat —- perfect.  Even more perfect because you can eat it with your hands.  Anyway . . . . I found an easy pizza dough recipe.  After going back and forth, “Do I follow the directions on the yeast package or the directions on the recipe?” I decided to just go with the recipe.  Actually, now that I am typing this up, I bought the yeast to make pita bread, but I let it sit until I had the above mentioned conversation at which time I decided to try pizza dough because I felt it was easier.

Anyway . . . my first shot was ok.  The flavor was good but it was very “bready”.  It was REALLY THICK, so I decided on my next try I would split the dough up and make two crust.  But the second one didn’t rise nearly has much.  Ya see, the recipe says to let the dough rise for 30 minutes.  But a few of the comments said they let it sit longer.  So I did that.  I let it sit for hours, then I rolled it out to as large as my pan, which seemed pretty thin to me, but during the baking it puffed up.  It was like thick crust pizza.  So that is why I decided to split it the second time.  But the second time the ball of dough seemed smaller, so I used it all and rolled it thin and it still puffed up.  Not as puffy as the first time, but thicker than I wanted.  I like thick crust, but I was trying to make thin(ner) crust pizza.  After I cooked it —- and we ate it, I thought, “Oh the temperature.”  Was that it?  Did it not rise as much because it was colder the second time?  I didn’t think about that until AFTER all was said and done.  But it was much colder in the house the second time than the first time.  So bready-people/pizza dough makers the temperature that the dough is left to rise in affects it, huh?

Here is a picture of my second pizza.  This is two meals.  Mine is the bottom portion, a half with spinach and mushrooms, and one with just spinach.  The top portion has mushrooms and raw onions for my hubby.  He is not a bready person, but he says he like the pizza even though the crust is REALLY thick.  I will keep at it.  I will experiment and play.  Now that I am not so afraid to fail I can play.  I am sure that one of these days I will get some bad yeast or I will do something wrong, but that is ok, at least I tried . . . . . and I look forward to all the pizza it will give us!

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments »