Whole wheat thin crust pizza


1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp active dry yeast 
2 tsbp olive oil
3/4 cup water
1/4 tsp sugar 

In a large bowl mix together your flour and salt and then create a well in the centre. In a small bowl, mix together your yeast, sugar, and water. Once the yeast has bloomed pour your oil and yeast/water into the well that you made in your flour.


Gently mix the dry ingredients into your wet ingredients until a gooey mixture has formed, then fold the rest of the flour into your mixture.

Lightly flour a clean surface and begin kneading the dough until it is no longer sticky. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rise for about an hour. Punch the dough to release built up gasses and let sit for 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 425F

Stretch out your dough and add any toppings that you want to be cooked. Let the pizza bake for about 15 minutes or until the crust is firm. If you have any toppings to be put on fresh, toss them on once the pizza is ready to be cut and served.

— For this pizza I brushed the dough with tomato sauce and artichoke hearts then I baked it. Once the pizza came out of the oven I tossed nutritional yeast and spinach on top.

   
   Light and fluffy pizza dough

  • 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
  • 2 1/4 cups tipo 00 flour

In a large bowl mix together your flour and salt and then create a well in the centre. In a small bowl, mix together your yeast, sugar, and water. Once the yeast has bloomed pour your oil and yeast/water into the well that you made in your flour.

Gently mix the dry ingredients into your wet ingredients until a gooey mixture has formed, then fold the rest of the flour into your mixture.

Lightly flour a clean surface and begin kneading the dough until it is no longer sticky. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rise for about an hour until it has doubled in size. Punch the dough to release built up gasses and let sit for 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 425F

Stretch out your dough and add any toppings that you want to be cooked. Let the pizza bake for about 15 minutes or until the crust is firm. If you have any toppings to be put on fresh, toss them on once the pizza is ready to be cut and served.

— For this pizza I brushed the dough with olive oil and pressed garlic then I baked it with a little bit of arugula on top. Once the pizza came out of the oven I tossed more arugula, and some mixed greens on top with chive flowers.

Rosemary for dessert

Rosemary and rhubarb was a combination recently introduced to me by my boss at a catering event. She has made a rhubarb granite and used rosemary to brighten the flavour of it.

Since then I’ve made a point of using rosemary in my desserts when I can whether it be with rhubarb, apples, pear, or with citrus like it had been used in the salad

For dessert I’ve decided to make a rhubarb apple crumble and added some rosemary into the mix. I had originally planned to do a sweet focaccia with roasted rhubarb and apple on top but then after making the pizza, I’d realized that those are way too similar. So crumble it is.

The nice thing about crumbles is that they are very simple and delicious.

If you already have a crumble recipe that involves rhubarb or apple (or both) then feel free to use that and toss in about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of rosemary and half a tablespoon of ginger and it should taste something similar to the one I’ve just made. As well I used pink lady apples in my recipe versus a tart apple because it allows me to use less sugar overall.

Ingredients:

  • 2.5 cups chopped rhubarb
  • 2 pink lady apples, chopped
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • a splash of lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
  • 1/2 tbsp of fresh grated ginger
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp orange zest
  • 3/4 cup quick oats
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1/3 cup cold earth balance
 Preheat oven to 350F

Combine your first 7 ingredients in a bowl until well mixed and then transfer into a well greased baking pan.
In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, zest, oats, and salt. Cut earth balance into flour mixture until it becomes the consistency of bread crumbs (I find it easiest to do this with my hands). Spread this evenly over top of your filling and place baking pan in oven.
Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the fruit on the bottom is soft.

 

Rosemary and Asparagus: Rosemaragus

So after enjoying my experience with alternative pizza topping on Thursday I’ve decided to try my hand at pizza making. As well someone had mentioned that they were looking for a good whole wheat dough recipe. So I bring you:

Pizza topped with roasted asparagus, toasted walnuts, orange zest, and chive flowers!

Originally I’d planned on just doing the roasted asparagus with rosemary, but I had been asked about pizza doughs so I figured I’d try to combine the two.

The asparagus was simply washed, trimmed, chopped.
Then it was tossed with salt, olive oil, lots of rosemary, and orange zest.
That mixture went into a foil covered baking pan
Then I roasted everything at 400F until tender (about 10-15 mins depending how soft you’d like them).  

For the pizza I’d brushed the dough with garlic oil.
Then I toasted some walnuts, and ground them up. I mixed the walnut with more orange zest and some salt then spread a bit of that mixture on the dough.
Lastly I tossed on the asparagus and baked the pizza for 20 minutes at 400F again Once the pizza cooled a bit I garnished it with chive flowers.

Unfortunately I made too much dough and not enough asparagus. I’d roasted off only about a handful of asparagus so if I ever do this again in the future I’ll make sure to double that. 

That’s the great thing about topping a pizza though, is you can do whatever you want and you can have as little or as much as you like. Same goes with the roasting of the asparagus, roasting is simple enough that it doesn’t require a recipe.

Pizza dough on the other hand is a bit more complicated so a post dedicated to pizza dough will be coming soon!

I’m unsure of what I’d prefer to focus my Sunday blog on this week. I originally planned to discuss rosemary and my favourite ways to use it. However after attending the dinner hosted by Kevin Kossowan I’m feeling like I should really dedicate this week’s upcoming blog to local ingredients, my experience with them, and how easily they have been forgotten. 

I’m not totally sure though. Any thoughts or preference?

I have just returned from a dinner party hosted by Kevin Kossowan and I’d have to say it was certainly a wonderful experience.

I always enjoy spending time with people who love and understand food. Even though the conversations may not always be vegan I can still appreciate them and give input. In his backyard there is a wood burning cob oven where Kevin and a few of the guests cooked pizzas for everyone. 

Originally I was apprehensive about attending  because I’m always nervous to share food with strangers because I never know how they will react to my veganism but everyone was fantastic about it. I’m typically used to people either being very aggressive towards veganism or overly apologetic/sensitive however it was nice for once to share a meal with people I’d never met, who just treated me like I was normal.

The first pizza was made with a ton of different greens, some cooked some fresh, and it was absolutely amazing! I’m not even 100% sure what all of the greens were but I know there was garlic olive oil, maldon salt, arugula leaves, young asparagus, chive flowers, I think there was kale, and then arugula flowers.

Holy crap arugula flowers are so incredible! They start off sweet and then gets kind of nutty and then finally that peppery taste of arugula suddenly hits you.

The second pizza had pink lady apples, mustard greens, canola oil, and I can’t remember the rest. Admittedly I feel bad that this one ended up being a vegan pizza because I can honestly say that it would’ve been ace with something like gorgonzola on top.Nonetheless it was still very lovely.

One of the things I’d found most remarkable was Kevin’s one hour garden, which you can read more about here. Basically it’s his big “F-ck you!” to society and the idea that making and growing your own food is time consuming. The garden is actually in his front yard and the concept around it is that in total, seeding and maintaining the garden, will only take him an hour or less. This hour or less time cap isn’t talking about per day either, he means for the entire growing season. So far he said he’s taken about 22 mins to get as far as he has and it’s looking pretty good. I’d highly suggest reading about it and watching the video if you can.

Edit: I just saw on twitter that the greens pizza had kale, collards, arugula, and lettuce.