koko's corner

I had 6 roma tomatoes that have seen better days, so I blanched them quickly in boiling water, peeled and seeded them. Once peeled and seeded I put them in a saucepan to simmer and reduce. I also added some garlic, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes while they were simmering. 

I usually have some pizza dough in the freezer, so all I had to do was defrost one of them and roll it out. Look at those beautiful yeasty bubbles, the dough was full of them, beeeeautiful.  

 Since my slab is 12X8" I rolled out the dough to about 11-1/2 X 7-1/2"

 Place the dough on a pizza peel, or rimless cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal, before adding toppings. 

Spread the tomato sauce, or your favorite pizza sauce over the dough. 

Put your favorite toppings on the sauce. I used Mozzarella cheese and a mixture of cooked spicy Italian sausage and green bell peppers. 

Put the Himalayan salt slab in a cold oven. Crank up the oven to 500*f. When the oven comes up to temp, slide the pizza onto the slab. 

Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.  

Hot out of the oven. I couldn't wait to peek at the crust, it's a beautiful golden, crunchy, crust. 

This was my favorite part of the pizza, the bit of cheese that oozed off the crust onto the slab and became a crispy, cheesy, cooks treat. I could hear the pizza still sizzling as it came out of the oven. 

Here have a bite. 

I've used this pizza crust recipe several times and it hasn't failed me yet, and it's so easy. 

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Pizza Dough Ruhlman

breads, pies/pastry

  to measure by volume
4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt or coarse sea salt
  to measure by weight
500 grams flour
300 grams water
2 grams active dry yeast
10 grams kosher salt or coarse sea salt

Combine the flour, water, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer
fitted with a dough hook. Mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth and
elastic, 5 to 10 minutes. Depending on the size of the bowl, you may need
to
stop the mixer and remove the dough from the dough hook if the dough is not
developing thoroughly.
When the dough looks smooth, cut off a piece and stretch it. If it
stretches to the point of transparency, it’s mixed enough. If not, continue
mixing until it will. Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover it with a
pot lid or plastic wrap/cling film.
Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size and does not spring
back when you push your finger into it, 2 to 4 hours. Turn the dough out
onto a work surface and knead it to release the gas and redistribute the
yeast.
Cut the dough in half and press each half into a disk. Cover the disks with
a towel and allow to stand for about 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C/gas 8. Stretch each disk, or roll it with a
rolling pin, until it is as thin as desired (the thinner the better). Top
as desired and bake on a rimless baking sheet/ tray or baking stone until
the edges are golden brown and the bottom is crisp, about 20 minutes. Serve
immediately.

COOKING TIP: If you don’t have a bread peel and are baking a pizza on a
stone, put the dough on a sheet of parchment/baking paper before topping
it. The paper will make it easier to transfer the pizza from work surface
to oven.

MAKES 2 PIZZAS Make the dough at least 3 hours before you need to bake it.
The dough can also be prepared up to a day ahead and refrigerated, or it
can be frozen for a month or so. This recipe will yield enough dough for
two medium pizzas. This recipe can be halved, doubled or tripled provided
you weigh all the ingredients.

Ruhlman, Michael; Ruhlman, Donna Turner (2011-10-19). Ruhlman's Twenty: The
Ideas and Techniques that Will Make You a Better Cook (p. 158). Chronicle
Books. Kindle Edition.

Notes:  Michael Ruhlman Ruhlmans Twenty Cookbook


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 And that's that