Sun-Dried Tomato & Goat Cheese Pizza; Ice Cream Cookie Pizza; Banana Bliss

    I liked the idea of an ice cream pizza.  I especially liked the idea that I could make the entire thing ahead of time and put it in my freezer until we were ready to eat it.  I didn't like the fact that the recipe called for pre-made dough for sugar cookies.  I suppose that it would be nice if you wanted to whip up something different for a dessert after a day at work, but I had the time, and I wanted to make my own cookies.
     Not ever having purchased cookie dough in a roll (okay, yes, I had purchased a few in college just to eat right out of the package, but that was a long time ago...), I didn't know how much cookie dough to make to have the same amount as the two "tubes" the original recipe for which the original recipe called.  I tried looking up the products I knew about on Google, and I could not find a description of how many cookies were in a tube.   I sent a text to my friend, Karen, who works at General Mills and asked how many cookies a tube makes.  She replied that it depended upon how big I was making them and how thick.  It was a good point, but it didn't help me make any determination about how much cookie dough to make.  She then suggested that I look at how much a tube of dough weighed and make that much.  That would have been a good suggestion if I could have found any weight listings on line.  If I was able to see a tube in person, I would be able to see how many cookies (and see the suggested size and thickness) and make a recipe accordingly.

     It didn't matter, however, because I was out of eggs and had to go to the store for those.  While I was there, I looked at the weight, the number of cookies, and the thickness - both of the Pillsbury brand and the Cub brand.  They both were 16.5 ounces per tube.  Pillsbury made 12 half-inch thick cookies, and Cub made 24 quarter-inch cookies.  The ice cream pizza recipe called for two tubes.  I chose a recipe that claimed to make 36 cookies, but it didn't indicate how thick or what diameter.  Interestingly enough, though, I weighed the dough when I was done, and it was slightly over 33 ounces, so I thought it would be the perfect amount.
     What I didn't realize was that the original recipe made two 12 inch pizzas.  I only wanted to make one.  Once I had gotten my cookie dough together and weighed it, I spread half of the dough in each of two 12" deep dish pizza stones and baked them (as per the instructions).  I had it in my head that the pizza was going to be a type of sandwich - that one cookie was going to be on the bottom, and the other was going to be the lid.  I didn't realize that was not the instructions until I pulled both of my giant cookies out of the oven.  I suppose I could have still used one as a lid, but I wanted the contrast of the M&M's against the ice cream.

     I altered a couple other components of the recipe as well, because the ice cream portion of it was supposed to be strawberry.  Now, I know that a lot of strawberry ice creams do not actually contain any strawberry, and it is really only the seeds that Jeff is allergic to, but I wasn't willing to risk him rejecting the pizza based on strawberry flavoring.  I purchased chocolate.  It also called for mini M & M's, and I could only find those in the small, Halloween themed packages.  I wasn't going to buy a whole bunch of those just to make pizza.  I opted for the regular sized ones, and I switched them to dark chocolate.
    The other item was the white chocolate.  I really think that stores should sell white chocolate (and dark and milk, for that matter) curls - chocolate that has already been shaved into curls.  They sell chocolate chunks, they sell pre-made frosting flowers, they sell pre-made genache - why not sell pre-made curls.  I think that there is an untapped market here.  Anyway, I had "chocolate curls" on my shopping list, and didn't come up with any.  I had white chocolate at home that I had intended to shave into curls, even though I have never had any success doing that, but after I had gotten the ice cream in the pan and the M&M's sprinkled over the top, I had forgotten about the curls and rushed my creation to the freezer.

ICE CREAM COOKIE PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pint chocolate ice cream, slightly softened

1/2 cup dark chocolate M&M's

Preheat oven to 375º F.  In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth.  Add egg and vanilla.  Gradually add the dry ingredients.  Divide dough in half (reserve one half for another use).  Spread one half in the bottom of a greased 12" pizza pan or stone.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden.  Let cool completely.  Spread the softened ice cream over the the cookie and sprinkle with the M&M's.  Freeze or serve immediately.

     While the cookies were baking, though, I started my dough for the goat cheese pizza.  This was a new recipe for me.  The pizza recipe had called for dough for a 10 inch pizza, but it didn't specify which kind.  The book offered two kinds - "rustic" and "thin and crispy".  I opted for rustic.  The instructions on that dough indicated that the recipe would make two 10 inch pizzas or one 14 inch pizza.  I am not much of a mathematician, but that didn't really compute for me.  Once the dough had come together, I decided that I was going to use the whole thing.  A ten inch pizza to me sounds like a personal pizza, and I was going to be serving a crowd.  Even though we were going to have other things to eat, I wanted to make sure that the pizza was big enough for everyone to try it.  I rolled the dough out into a 16 inch circle once it had risen for a while.

     Now that I had a larger pizza base, the ingredients didn't seem like enough.  I smeared about a tablespoon of the oil from the marinated sun-dried tomatoes over the crust.  When I put the four ounces of goat cheese over the top, it looked silly and anemic.

     Unfortunately, I had only purchased the four ounces the recipe listed.  I searched through my refrigerator to see what else I could add to cheese this up more.  I found left-over yogurt cheese from last week, and it was about four ounces as well.  I gave it a taste, and then I tasted the goat cheese to make sure that the two flavors wouldn't clash, but they tasted quite similar, so I went for it.

     The marinated, sun-dried tomatoes I had were pre-shredded.  The recipe called for two whole, marinated, sun-dried tomatoes.  I didn't know how many shreds would make a whole tomato, so I just kept sprinkling until it looked good.  I ended up using about a half cup of shredded tomatoes, and it was pretty.  The finishing touches were a sprinkle of fresh thyme and another drizzle of the sun-dried tomato oil, and it was ready for the oven.

SUN-DRIED TOMATO & GOAT CHEESE PIZZA    

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

2-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

3/4 cup lukewarm water

1-3/4 cups bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons oil from sun-dried tomatoes, divided

4 ounces goat cheese crumbles

4 ounces of yogurt cheese (see 9/13/12 for instructions on making yogurt cheese)

1/2 cup shredded & drained sun-dried tomatoes in oil

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

Freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, and water.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the bread flour and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and stir on low until dough comes together and forms a smooth ball around the dough hook.  Remove dough from mixing bowl and place in a greased bowl.  Brush the top of the dough with a little olive oil, cover with a towel, and place in a warm, dry spot for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven (with pizza stone inside) to 500º F.  Roll and/or stretch the dough into a 16" circle.  Brush the dough with 2 tablespoons of the sun-dried tomato oil.  Sprinkle the goat and yogurt cheeses over the top.  Scatter the tomatoes evenly over the cheese.  Distribute the thyme evenly over the tomatoes.  Grind a little black pepper over the top.  Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of tomato oil over everything.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

  

 It seemed like everyone showed up at once.  Pam was first and apologized for being late.

 I told her she was first, so she couldn't be late.  As she was coming in the door, Paul and Leslie and their two adorable little girls showed up.  Pam and I helped them carry in their stuff - the two unbaked pizzas that they had assembled before coming over, the diaper bags, the car seat, the kids, etc.

  Once they were all loaded into the house, Jennifer and Gracie arrived.  Jennifer brought a lovely vegetable platter made mostly with vegetables from her garden and some hummus for dipping.

     While I was waiting for guests to arrive, I had turned the oven on and set out the ingredients for our drink of the week.  I was a little skeptical about a drink with banana liqueur in it - I am not a huge fan of bananas or banana flavoring, and I was worried that it was going to be too sweet.  However, when everyone got inside, I mixed them up for me, Jennifer, and Leslie.  It was a pretty copper color.  I had one sip and declared it delicious!  The banana flavor was less than subtle, but it was a nice smoothing element to the cognac.  It wasn't too sweet at all, and it warmed my belly the instant it got in there.

BANANA BLISS

2 measures creme de bananes liqueur

2 measures cognac

2 dashes orange bitters

Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice.  Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass.  Garnish with a banana chunk.

     The Dahlen's sausage and mushroom pizza was the first one to come out of the oven.  The dough had risen beautifully in the oven.  There was a good distribution of both the sausage and mushrooms, and there was enough cheese to hold everything together and still be gooey.

  The second pizza they brought was a chicken broccoli alfredo pizza.  I grilled them a little bit on the process.  He said that they used a jarred alfredo sauce over the crust.  They blanched some broccoli and caramelized some onions and sprinkled that around the dough with some chicken that they had sauteed in a frying pan.  It, too, was beautiful and delicious.  I loved the bright green of the broccoli against all of those white and golden ingredients.

     The sun-dried tomato and goat cheese didn't change its looks a whole lot in the oven, but it still was good-looking.  I would say it was in the top four of the evening.  I was still worried about there not being enough cheese, but it was tasty.  It didn't have the stretchy, oozy cheese that I truly appreciate in a pizza, but the flavor was outstanding.  The tomatoes were a little bit sweet, and the cheese was bold and tangy.  The oil drizzle blended the two flavors together and added a little spice to the action.

     When I brought out the ice cream pizza for dessert, I received oohs and ahs from my guests.  unfortunately, though, even though the cookie had copious amounts of butter, it had stuck to the pan.  Getting a decent-looking piece out of there was not a possibility.

     Seeing me struggle to get under the cookie that so desperately wanted to become part of the stoneware, Paul stepped in and took over serving.  He did an excellent job.  He also had to struggle, but he was able to keep the triangle shapes we were looking for.

     I think that the reason the recipe had called for the mini M&M's was because the candy coating melted into the ice cream.  If you have little tiny candies, it probably didn't make as much of a mess, but I rather enjoyed the blue, green, orange, and yellow swirls that ended up in the ice cream.  I think Chelsea was just happy to have ice cream period!

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