Pizza Freak: Herbed Flat Bread with Roasted Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Cheese; Pizza Sandwich; Swizzle

I was very excited when the herbed flat bread came up on the schedule. As I have mentioned before, my herbs are booming, and I have more than I can keep up with, so anytime I can use them, I do and then some. The sandwich pizza called for refrigerated bread dough, which I have not had good luck with. It never seems to cook properly with ingredients on it, it never seems big enough, and it is just boring. I decided to replace it with the same herb dough I was going to make for the appetizer.

HERBED PIZZA DOUGH

(makes two 16" pizzas)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 cups warm water

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

6½ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons fresh basil

1 tablespoon fresh sage

1 tablespoon fresh oregano

Mix the sugar, water, and yeast in a small bowl. Set aside for at least five minutes. Mix the bread flour and salt in a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the olive oil and the yeast mixture and stir on a low speed until the dough just starts to come together. Add the herbs and continue on a low speed until and well-combined and the dough clings to the hook. Knead the dough a few times until it becomes smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover with a towel, and place in a warm spot to rise for an hour. Punch dough down, divide and roll out as directed in the pizza recipe.

FOR THE FLAT BREAD: Roll into a 16 inch circle, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with course salt. Bake on a preheated stone in a 500º oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

While the dough was rising, I started working on roasting my garlic for the flat bread. The garlic bulbs that I had gotten at Cub were a little puny, so I hoped that there would be enough for our purposes.

ROASTED GARLIC

¼ cup water

¼ teaspoon chicken bouillon

4 whole heads of garlic

2 tablespoons butter

Course Salt

¼ cup dry white wine

Preheat the oven to 350º. Combine the water and the bouillon in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 30 seconds (just until boiling). Stir to make sure all bouillon has dissolved. Slice the garlic heads across the top to remove the very top portion of the cloves. Peel a few layers of the paper from the entire bulb, leaving the bulbs in tact. Place in a small baking dish. Slather the butter over the tops of the garlic and sprinkle with a little course salt. Pour the wine and chicken stock into the pan. Either place lid on pan or cover with aluminum foil and bake until soft, about one hour. Remove the lid (or foil) and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

The directions called for adding ¼ cup of vegetable stock and ¼ cup of dry red wine to the bottom of the baking dish before roasting the garlic. I didn't have any vegetable stock. I could have made some, I suppose, but once again, my day had gotten away from me. I had instant chicken stock on hand, and since it was only a small amount, I really couldn't see making stock or trekking out to the garage to get a frozen block of home-made chicken stock to thaw. If I had been smart, like my sister Jennifer, when I made the chicken stock, I would have frozen it in ice cube trays first, so I could take out just one cube at a time.

Ah, but hindsight is 20/20. I will be smarter next time.

I placed a little instant stock in a measuring cup and filled it to a quarter cup and threw it in the microwave. Unfortunately, I misread the ingredient list and used white wine instead of red. I didn't realize that until much later. I think I will have to roast some more later to see if it makes any difference.

Wednesday was my brother-in-law Roger's birthday, and he had to work out of town. I offered to make a cake in case he was able to stop by on his way back home later tonight. While the garlic was roasting and the dough rising, I started in on a rum fudge bundt cake.
This is the traditional Freese family birthday cake. For years, I thought my mom had made this cake from scratch, slaving over it all day for us kids when it was our birthday. When I moved away from home, I asked her to give me the recipe so I could make it for other people. It turns out that it was made with a cake mix. Who knew? The up-side to this is that it is really easy to make, and it is still quite delicious. I tweak her recipe a little bit, because I like more booze than water (see her recipe on my August 4th, 2011 entry), and I use whatever cake mix or pudding mix I have on hand. Occasionally, I will make it with different liqueurs, depending on what I have on hand, or what I am in the mood for. I just went with the regular rum, because I had it, and I wasn't sure how he would feel about any deviations I may make.

RUM FUDGE BUNDT CAKE

1 (1lb 2oz) chocolate cake mix

1 (4½ oz) instant chocolate pudding mix

3/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup light rum

1/4 cup water

4 eggs

1 (12oz) package chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350º. Put the cake mix, pudding mix, oil, rum, and water in a large mixer bowl. Mix at a low speed for one minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating at medium speed for eight minutes. Fold in chocolate chunks. Grease and flour a ten inch bundt pan (use cocoa instead of flour for better color). Pour batter into pan and bake for about 55-60 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pan. Invert onto a serving plate.

I put the cake in with the garlic, since they cooked at the same temperature, and then I was ready to roll out the dough for my two pizzas. I started with the sandwich. It called for rolling the dough into a 9x18 inch rectangle. I have a hard enough time trying to get a circle, much less something with corners! I did the best I could, stretching and pulling on the far points to try and square them off a bit. I ended up with a rectangle-like shape that was approximately 12x18 after all of my tugging.
This rectangle was supposed to be cut in half to make two 9x9 squares, which would then form the bread of the sandwich. In other words, my sandwich was going to be a 12x9 rectangle instead of a 9x9 square. More of it to love, though, right?

I took the garlic out of the oven. Apparently, I was supposed to be basting it with the wine/broth mixture that was added in, but it had all evaporated, but it still looked lovely. It was all warm and squishy and brown... I was tempted to try it right then, but I held off.

I increased the oven temperature to 400º for my sandwich bread. I put it in the oven for about ten minutes. It fluffed up and puffed up. Maybe I should have forked these rectangles before putting them in the oven. Either way, they were going to make a hearty sandwich. Once they were cool, I was ready for assembly.

SANDWICH PIZZA

½ recipe herbed pizza dough (see above)

Cooking spray

1 cup pizza sauce (I used leftover marinara sauce from last week)

3 ounces thinly sliced Canadian bacon

2 ounces thinly sliced pepper turkey

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400º. Roll dough into a 12 inch by 18 inch rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half, forming two 12 inch by 9 inch rectangles. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Place the two rectangles onto baking sheet side by side. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

Once dough has cooled enough to handle, spread pizza sauce on one of the rectangles. Then, layer the Canadian bacon, turkey, mozzarella, and cheddar over the top of the sauce. Place the other rectangle of crust on top of these toppings to form a sandwich. Return sandwich to the oven for 8 minutes or until cheese has melted. Let stand for two minutes, cut, and serve.

I had substituted the ham in the original recipe for Canadian bacon, because there was a closeout on Canadian bacon at Cub this week. I couldn't bring myself to buy regular, plain, old sliced turkey. I find it bland, boring, and tasteless. I kicked it up a notch with an oven roasted turkey that was studded with coarsely ground pepper. I was a little concerned that the pepper may get lost in the mix, but my aversion to bland tasteless meat was stronger.

The other adjustment I made to the original recipe was the cheese. It called for American cheese slices. Again, I refused. It's not that I mind the taste, but its texture would just be all wrong here. While American cheese makes a nice grilled cheese sandwich, I find that when it is combined with other things, it takes on a plastic-like texture, it sticks to the roof of your mouth, and it just isn't worthy of my herb crust. Sharp cheddar (which I already had on hand) was my chosen replacement.

As I was placing the second rectangle on top of my "toppings" (or would they be "fillings"?), Pam arrived with a swanky new haircut.

She got settled in with a glass of tea and a chair while I worked on the sun-dried tomato cheese. I read through the instructions. Oh yeah, I was going to make home-made yogurt cheese for this, as it called for, but it takes 12 hours or more, and I hadn't done it yet. I was lamenting about this, when I remembered that I hedged my bet and also bought the alternate cheese listed in the ingredients - cream cheese - in case I didn't get around to the yogurt cheese.

SUN-DRIED TOMATO CHEESE

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil

6 ounces goat cheese crumbles

8 ounces neufchatel cheese

2 tablespoons oil from the sun-dried tomatoes

Salt

4 dashes of habenero sauce (or you can substitute Tabasco sauce or any other pepper sauce)

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor fitted with a metal blade or a VitaMix or a blender. Process until smooth. Serve at room temperature.

I threw all of the ingredients in my VitaMix, and this spread came together in no time flat.
Jennifer and Grace arrived (Jonah was at baseball practice) and asked if I had any wrapping paper they could borrow to wrap presents. I bartered with them. I hadn't wrapped Roger's presents from us, either, so they could use my wrapping paper if they wrapped them for me.

Since all of my eaters had arrived, I put the "sandwich" in the oven to melt the cheeses. Once that was accomplished, I turned the oven up to 500º and baked the flat bread. It didn't exactly turn out flat. It was fluffy and soft and very fragrant.

I squeezed the roasted garlic into a bowl and put the sun-dried tomato cheese in a bowl. I was having difficulty with it, though. It didn't want to stay together. The oil kept leaching out of the mixture, giving the bulk of the spread a curd-like appearance. It wasn't very appetizing, so I tried stirring it vigorously before placing it on the table.

At this point, it was time to drink.

SWIZZLE

2 measures light rum (such as Bacardi Silver)

½ measure fresh lime juice

½ measure agave syrup

Pour ingredients into a glass filled with crushed ice. Swizzle with a swizzle stick and serve with a straw.

Again, I had chosen a refreshing summer sipper. It was fruity and cold and easy to make. It was also easy to drink, which made it a little dangerous. It was a lot like a daiquiri on the rocks.
The sun-dried tomato spread was delicious. It was tangy, slightly sweet, with just a hint of the hot sauce. The hint was just a flavor, no heat, but it was there. It was clearly the hit of the two toppings for the "flat" bread. The roasted garlic was all but abandoned once the cheese spread was tasted.

As for the sandwiches, they were soft and comforting. They were little pillows of dough with meat and cheese inside. the tomato sauce gave it a little pizza feel, but it was a sandwich. The melted cheese held the sandwiches together beautifully, and the cheddar with the Canadian bacon was a match made in heaven. The turkey itself did get lost, but every few bites, I got a zing of a peppercorn, adding interest.