Looking at the recipes for tonight, it seemed we were going to have appetizers for dinner. I do enjoy that from time to time, and I was looking forward to it tonight (especially the garlic cheese). Reading through the recipes, they seemed rather low-key as far as the amount of effort involved. That was a good thing, because I had a horrible night's sleep, and I had a class until one o'clock. When I got home from class I was rather unmotivated to do anything but nap.
I knew I needed to make a crust at the very least before I crawled back in bed. I started that going in my KitchenAid, and while it was kneading, I decided I could press some garlic. I frequently use the minced garlic in a jar for many recipes, but I since garlic and cheese were the only toppings here, I thought I should use fresh. Fresh garlic has a sharper flavor than the garlic in a jar. The jarred version tends to cook down into nutty sweetness, where the fresh stuff retains a good deal of the bite.
Unfortunately for me, my garlic was a little dated. Peeling it was more of a chore than it should have been. Usually, I just throw it in my garlic peeler - essentially a fat rubber tube - roll it around, and the garlic and its papers fall out separately.
However, the papers weren't coming off nicely. I dumped out the tube, and the garlic clove came out with the skin still attached, still wrapped around the clove, but not really touching the clove. They were just too sticky. I ended up finishing peeling half of them with my fingernails. I should have just smashed them all with the flat side of a knife and saved myself the trouble. I may have had the same problem there, too, though.
Fresh garlic is sticky on its own, but not-quite-so-fresh garlic is even stickier. I started loading my garlic press with the garlic, and it would stick to the press' screen. It normally does that to a certain extent anyway, but this time it was starting to clog, and my garlic was shooting out the back side of the press.
After my nap, I laid out the crackers. The recipe was very non-specific about those. It just said 12 large wheat crackers. It didn't say how large, and "wheat crackers" encompasses a whole range of items. We ended up with Wasa brand multi-grain crispbread. Jeff said that was the cracker Steve Skjold always brought for the sardines they ate at their guy weekends. That wasn't a ringing endorsement for me, and they actually reminded me of the hardtack we used to eat in the 80's to lose weight - dry, tasteless, and very crunchy. However, I was looking for something sturdy, because when we had our Whatsa Matzah pizzas, using Matzah crackers, they turned out soggy. These babies looked like they could stand up to sauce, Canadian bacon juices, and gooey cheese.
After my nap, I had laid out the crackers, but didn't add anything to them, because I was still fearing the sog-factor. I mixed the pressed garlic, the mozzarella, and some olive oil together in a bowl. Then, I rolled out the dough for the garlic pizza, brushed it with a little olive oil, and topped it with my cheese-garlic mixture. A couple of ounces of Parmesan went over the top.
Jennifer, Jonah, and Gracie weren't due to arrive until after 7:45pm, because Gracie had a softball game. They showed up earlier than that, but these recipes were so easy, that it was mere minutes after they arrived that I had everything in the oven and baking.
GARLIC CHEESE PIZZA
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
3¼ cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
12 ounces shredded mozzarella
¼ cup pressed fresh garlic (about one bulb)
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Combine the sugar, water, and yeast in a bowl and set it aside for about 5 minutes. Stir the flour and salt together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and combine on a low speed until the dough comes together in a ball that clings to the hook. Shape into a ball and place in a well-oiled bowl in a warm spot for an hour or until dough has doubled in size.
Preheat the oven with a pizza stone on the center rack to 450º. Combine the mozzarella, garlic, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a medium-sized bowl until well mixed.
Roll out the dough into a 16" circle and brush with the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil. Top with the cheese and garlic mixture. Sprinkle two ounces of the Parmesan cheese over this. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cheese starts to brown around the edges. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the top, cut, and serve.
I quartered the Canadian bacon for the crackers and laid out the ingredients for the mojitos. At this point, I was way ahead of the game, so I thought I could afford to start in on the drink of the week. Jennifer told me she was on a sugar fast, so she wouldn't be able to drink. That being the case, I didn't think she would mind if I started without her.
PINEAPPLE MOJITO
12 fresh mint leaves
2 measures white rum
½ measure Licor 43 (a sweet, vanilla-like liqueur)
½ measure pineapple juice
½ measure fresh squeezed lime juice
1 measure club soda
Muddle the mint leaves in the bottom of a collins glass. Fill glass half way full with crushed ice. Add the rum, Licor 43, pineapple juice, and lime juice. Top off with club soda and stir.
I made the first drink with a full measure of pineapple juice and a full measure of Licor 43 with no club soda, as the original recipe dictated. The original recipe called for a full measure of lime, but I got tired of squeezing, and it seemed excessive, so I cut that in half right away. It was very sweet, and the pineapple flavor was so strong that it masked the mint. For the second one, I cut the pineapple juice in half as well and topped it with club soda. It was better, but it still wasn't quite right, still too sweet. I cut the Licor 43 down again and increased the club soda. Either that was right on the money or I was just feeling good by this point and projected my feelings onto the drink. I will have to start out with that combination first next time to make an educated determination.
Just before I was about to make the third mixture of mojito, Jennifer and the kids arrived. I handed her the pizza sauce I had thawed from the freezer and her go to work on the cracker pizzas. I told her to be light-handed with the sauce, because we didn't want the crackers to get mushy. She did a great job, and I laid the Canadian bacon over her handy-work. I then topped them with cheese and put them in the oven with the garlic cheese bread.
CRACKER PIZZAS
18 multi-grain crispbread crackers (like Wasa brand)
1½ cups pizza sauce (I used frozen leftover sauce from recipe on June 7th)
6 ounces Canadian bacon, quartered
4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 450º. Spread a scant amount of pizza sauce over each cracker (about 1 to 1½ tablespoons). Top each cracker with two or three quarters of bacon. Sprinkle the mozzarella and cheddar over the tops. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
We could smell the garlic cooking almost immediately after closing the oven door. It was a warm, homey aroma, and it whetted our appetites for what was about to come. After ten minutes, we checked on them. The garlic cheese pizza was still pale. The mozzarella on the crackers had melted, but the cheddar hadn't quite yet. After another couple of minutes, the cheddar fused together, but didn't really melt. It had softened a little but the threads were still in tact, creating a web over the Canadian bacon. We called them done and took them out of the oven.
The original recipe for the garlic cheese pizza indicated that the crust would be crispy, and the pizza could be cut in such a way that they could be served as chips. However, the crust was so thick and fluffy, that was not the case with our pizza. I can't imagine, with all that cheese, that it would have become crispy even if the crust had been different. After about fourteen minutes in the oven, it was beautifully golden.
It was fantastic. It was yet another reminder that sometimes simple is just perfect. The cheese was thick and melty, the garlic sharp and slightly nutty. After our first piece, I realized that I had forgotten to add the rest of the Parmesan after the pizza came out of the oven. It didn't really need it, but I had already grated it, and it was just sitting on the counter all lonely. Onto the pizza it went. We each had a second piece to determine the extra cheese's effect on it. It was slightly saltier and a little messier, as the Parmesan didn't quite stick to the slick shellac of cheese that was already on the crust.
These were both very easy and filling in their own right. I am going to have to remember the cracker recipe for future entertaining opportunities. I would bet that it would be good with black olives and onions, too, or with whatever happened to be in the fridge at the time. And, of course, the garlic cheese pizza is going to have to return to my table.
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