This week's menu was a carb-lover's dream. Potatoes on pizza crust with a cinnamon un-"roll" for dessert? I was loving the sound of that combination!
I started working on the pizzas on Wednesday, because I was going to be in class all day on Thursday. I figured if I could knock out the dough for both, make the frosting for the cinnamon pizza, roast the potatoes, and saute the leeks, I would be set for Thursday.
The cinnamon pizza recipe called for one pound of frozen bread dough to make two pizzas. I was sure that I had some in my freezer for ages gone by - I am sure I purchased a large package of them for another pizza at another time. Amazingly, I found them right away. They were relatively close to the front of the old freezer in the basement.
There were two loaves-worth left in the bag. I only needed half a pound for the cinnamon pizza, which would have been half a "loaf". I didn't want to try to cut the frozen dough in half, nor did I think I would want to refreeze the dough once it had thawed enough for me to cut it in half. Interestingly enough, the potato leek recipe listed two pounds of purchased dough as one of the crust options. I decided that 1½ pounds was going to be suitable, and I put the bag in the kitchen freezer and set a reminder for myself to put them out on the counter before I left for class in the morning.
The potatoes were the next task on my list. I hadn't done any research on "new potatoes", and I wasn't exactly sure what they were when I went to Cub earlier in the week. I assumed that they were just small potatoes, but I wasn't completely sure. Cub only had smallish red potatoes that were labeled " 'B' Size Potatoes". They were a little bigger than what I thought I should be looking for, and the recipe said it was better if there was a variety of color in the two pounds.
I bought the B potatoes and researched the term when I got home. Apparently, the term "new potato" just refers to a regular potato (or any kind of potato, really) that was harvested early. Therefore, it tends to be smaller. "B" size potatoes are simply potatoes that fall into the size range of 1½ to 2½ inches, so usually, they are also "new". I found an interesting fact along the way, too: Because they are younger potatoes, they haven't had the time to develop as much starch as a regular potato, so there are less carbs per gram in the new potatoes.
My B potatoes weren't uniformly sized. There were some larger ones and some really small ones. I decided to cut the larger ones in half, so that they could all roast together with relatively similar outcomes. After the suggested thirty five minutes, the potatoes were just as the recipe said they would be - tender, but not falling apart. A couple of them had browned a little, and the garlic that had fallen off of the potatoes had darkened significantly. I sampled one of the potatoes to make sure that the almost-burnt garlic didn't impart a bitter flavor to them. They were fine.
While the potatoes were roasting (can you call it "roasting" if they don't get brown?), I worked on the leeks. These are funny vegetables. They look like giant scallions, but they are much more delicate in flavor. A little history lesson for today: In 640 AD, the Welsh wore leeks in their hats to distinguish themselves from the Saxons they were fighting. I am sure that would be a strange sight to see. I wonder if they won the battle because the Saxons were too busy trying to figure out what was on their heads to fight effectively.
The one leek I purchased from Cub was enough to fulfill the 2 cups of slices for which the recipe called. A long slice lengthwise after the root end was sliced off revealed all of the beautifully coiled layers of the onion-cousin and all of the sand and grit that resided in-between them. I fanned the layers out under running water to wash away all of the sand and dirt. Once they were clean, I sliced them up. I sauteed them in a little olive oil with a couple of tablespoons of fresh thyme from my deck and set them aside to cool. Once the potatoes and the leeks had sufficiently cooled, I bagged them up and tossed them in the fridge for the next day.
I actually remembered to take the dough out of the freezer before I went to class Thursday morning. Of course, the alarm I had set for myself helped, but it doesn't always. When I came home from school, they were still a little cold. I took them out of their package, cut the one dough ball in half for my cinnamon pizza and squished the other half into the remaining whole dough ball for the other pizza.
Since I was substituting pre-made dough for the cracked pepper dough that the potato-leek recipe suggested, I decided to add some peppercorns to simulate the same flavors. I coarsely ground enough pepper to fill one tablespoon. Then, when the dough had warmed up to room temperature, I kneaded the pepper into the dough. I kneaded it for about 15 minutes, trying to make sure that the pepper was evenly distributed.
I let that rest while I worked on assembling the cinnamon pizza.
Return to top of the pageWhile the potatoes were roasting (can you call it "roasting" if they don't get brown?), I worked on the leeks. These are funny vegetables. They look like giant scallions, but they are much more delicate in flavor. A little history lesson for today: In 640 AD, the Welsh wore leeks in their hats to distinguish themselves from the Saxons they were fighting. I am sure that would be a strange sight to see. I wonder if they won the battle because the Saxons were too busy trying to figure out what was on their heads to fight effectively.
The one leek I purchased from Cub was enough to fulfill the 2 cups of slices for which the recipe called. A long slice lengthwise after the root end was sliced off revealed all of the beautifully coiled layers of the onion-cousin and all of the sand and grit that resided in-between them. I fanned the layers out under running water to wash away all of the sand and dirt. Once they were clean, I sliced them up. I sauteed them in a little olive oil with a couple of tablespoons of fresh thyme from my deck and set them aside to cool. Once the potatoes and the leeks had sufficiently cooled, I bagged them up and tossed them in the fridge for the next day.
I actually remembered to take the dough out of the freezer before I went to class Thursday morning. Of course, the alarm I had set for myself helped, but it doesn't always. When I came home from school, they were still a little cold. I took them out of their package, cut the one dough ball in half for my cinnamon pizza and squished the other half into the remaining whole dough ball for the other pizza.Since I was substituting pre-made dough for the cracked pepper dough that the potato-leek recipe suggested, I decided to add some peppercorns to simulate the same flavors. I coarsely ground enough pepper to fill one tablespoon. Then, when the dough had warmed up to room temperature, I kneaded the pepper into the dough. I kneaded it for about 15 minutes, trying to make sure that the pepper was evenly distributed.
I let that rest while I worked on assembling the cinnamon pizza.
Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
1/2 lb frozen bread dough, thawed
2 tablespoons of flour, for rolling
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2½ tablespoons cinnamon
3/4 cups superfine sugar (or powdered sugar)
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Set dough in a warm place, covered, for about an hour or until doubled in size. Preheat oven to 400º. Roll or stretch into a 12 inch circle and placed in a lightly greased pan (I used a deep dish pizza stone). Pour melted butter over dough and brush it around to cover the entire dough. Combine the sugars and cinnamon in a bowl. Sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mixture over the whole crust. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Whisk together the superfine sugar and heavy cream. Drizzle mixture over slightly cooled pizza.
I had a couple of issues with this recipe. I rolled out my dough to 12 inches and placed it in the bottom of my stoneware deep dish pan, but it was awfully thin. I went with it anyway. What could I do at this point? I suppose I could have made more dough, but that would have delayed the whole process, and we can't have people standing around waiting for food for too long. I had weighed the dough before I set it to rising, so I knew it wasn't the amount of dough. Had my dough been frozen for so long it wasn't rising? The other portions of dough that I had for the potato pizza seemed just fine.
Then, when I poured the melted butter over the dough, there was so much of it that it pooled over the top. Now, this, to me, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Butter makes everything taste better and more just makes it even better, but I was worried that the dough would come out deep fried instead of soft and fluffy like a cinnamon roll should be. After brief consideration, I decided deep fried wouldn't be so bad either.
The original recipe made two pizzas, and I was trying to cut everything in half to make just one. Apparently, my calculations were a little off, because I came up with roughly 5 tablespoons of cinnamon for half of a 1/3 cup of cinnamon. I think my line of thinking was to convert the amount into tablespoons and then divide it in half, but I failed to come through on the second part of the equation. So, 5 tablespoons of cinnamon went into my sugar mixture. I thought it was an excessive amount at the time, but I also thought that the amount of sugar was rather excessive too.
The original recipe called for 2/3 cups of sugar for two pizzas, so I used 1/3 cup of each - that math seemed pretty straight forward.
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2½ tablespoons cinnamon
3/4 cups superfine sugar (or powdered sugar)
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Set dough in a warm place, covered, for about an hour or until doubled in size. Preheat oven to 400º. Roll or stretch into a 12 inch circle and placed in a lightly greased pan (I used a deep dish pizza stone). Pour melted butter over dough and brush it around to cover the entire dough. Combine the sugars and cinnamon in a bowl. Sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mixture over the whole crust. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Whisk together the superfine sugar and heavy cream. Drizzle mixture over slightly cooled pizza.
I had a couple of issues with this recipe. I rolled out my dough to 12 inches and placed it in the bottom of my stoneware deep dish pan, but it was awfully thin. I went with it anyway. What could I do at this point? I suppose I could have made more dough, but that would have delayed the whole process, and we can't have people standing around waiting for food for too long. I had weighed the dough before I set it to rising, so I knew it wasn't the amount of dough. Had my dough been frozen for so long it wasn't rising? The other portions of dough that I had for the potato pizza seemed just fine.
The original recipe made two pizzas, and I was trying to cut everything in half to make just one. Apparently, my calculations were a little off, because I came up with roughly 5 tablespoons of cinnamon for half of a 1/3 cup of cinnamon. I think my line of thinking was to convert the amount into tablespoons and then divide it in half, but I failed to come through on the second part of the equation. So, 5 tablespoons of cinnamon went into my sugar mixture. I thought it was an excessive amount at the time, but I also thought that the amount of sugar was rather excessive too.
The original recipe called for 2/3 cups of sugar for two pizzas, so I used 1/3 cup of each - that math seemed pretty straight forward.
When I sprinkled the mixture onto the butter pool in my pan, I thought that maybe there was so much sugar because it needed to soak up the excess butter. It seemed logical.
I tried whisking my 2 tablespoons of cream (half of the original recipe's quarter cup) into the superfine sugar (1½ cups) , but it barely even wet the massive pile of sugar. I rechecked the recipe. Yep, it called for 3 cups of confectioners' sugar, and I was using 1½ cups for my half-recipe, but there wasn't any possible way to make that into a frosting of any kind. I added another 2 tablespoons of cream to the mix and then was able to get it into some semblance of frosting. I loaded this frosting into a squeeze bottle for easy application once my pizza was cooked.
I wanted to put the cinnamon pizza in after we took out the potato leek pizza, so that it would be hot when we were ready to eat it. Because of this, I set the cinnamon (or should I say sugar) pizza aside for the moment and concentrated on the potato leek pizza.
Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza
1½ tablespoons coarsely ground pepper, divided
1½ pounds frozen bread dough, thawed
2 pounds small new potatoes
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
8 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 cups thinly sliced leeks (white and light green parts only)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
3 cups freshly shredded aged Gouda cheese
Knead one tablespoon of pepper into the thawed bread dough until it is evenly disbursed throughout the dough. Set aside in a lightly greased bowl, covered, in a warm, dry place for at least an hour or until doubled in size.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375º F. Place potatoes in a bowl. Cut down any larger potatoes to make all pieces roughly the same size. Add the garlic, 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) of olive oil, 1 tablespoon coarse salt, and the remaining pepper. Toss the potatoes to get an even coating of oil and spices on all of the pieces. Roast, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Once cooled, slice into ¼ inch circles.
Increase the oven temperature to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute the leeks with the thyme until the leeks are soft, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Roll or stretch dough out on a floured or corn-meal dusted peel or board until it becomes a 15 inch circle. Brush the surface with a tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle 2½ cups of the Gouda evenly over the crust. Distribute the potato slices over the cheese and the leeks over the potatoes. Salt and pepper the pizza and drizzle another tablespoon of olive oil over the entire pizza. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Transfer the pizza into the oven and onto the pizza stone (if using). Bake until the crust is browning around the edges and crisp, about 8 minutes.
This one was much easier to assemble. I rolled the dough out to about fifteen inches, and I had to stand back and admire it for a moment. I had used really coarsely ground pepper in the dough, and I could see it flecked all through it. I couldn't wait to try it - I could just eat the peppered crust. I love that little snap between my teeth when I hit a spot of pepper and the sharp twinge of heat that only lasts for a second.
My potatoes sliced easily after their respite in the refrigerator overnight. It seemed like a large amount of potatoes, but Jennifer and Pam sampled a couple when they came in. They were just making sure that the seasoning was adequate and that there weren't too many slices than would fit on the pizza.
I put Jennifer in charge of assembling the pizza, so I could concentrate on getting something for us to drink. She did a beautiful job.
2 measures gin
3/4 measure apricot brandy
1/2 measure lemon juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a slice of lemon.
The drinks were lovely. It was a perfect balance with the sharpness of the gin and bitters, the sweetness of the apricot, and the tang of the lemon. The apricot was barely perceptible - just a mellowing sweetness beneath the other layers of flavor.
The potato leek pizza came out of the oven shortly after our drinks were ready, and it was gorgeous! The crust was a golden brown, the leeks still a bright green, and the creamy white potatoes with their red skins.
The flavor was outstanding, as well. The crust was crisp, the potatoes were soft and as creamy as they looked. The leeks added texture and the barest of onion flavors to the mix. I think that the cheese got sort of lost underneath the potatoes. I had Jennifer put the entire amount of cheese down before the potatoes, and we all agreed that having all of it buried diminished it's presence (I have changed the instruction on the recipe above to save some of the cheese for the top, because of this). I am sure that we would miss it if it were gone, but we couldn't distinguish it from the rest of the flavors in the pizza.
We interrupted Grace's homework, so she could frost the cinnamon pizza for us.
She wanted to know what kind of pattern she should put on it. I told her it was completely up to her - it was her canvas. She relished in the task.
The cinnamon on the pizza was strong (this is when I realized my mathematical error), but not overly offensive. The overall flavor was nice. It was sweet and warm and buttery - all good things, but there was so much sugar on the pizza that it was a little gritty (I cut back the amount of sugars in the recipe above). Also, if Gracie had used all of the frosting that the original recipe had made, there definitely would have been an overload or a diabetic coma or something. She and Jonah were enjoying squeezing extra frosting on their pieces (and their fingers and into their mouths, etc.). There seems to be no sugar overload when it comes to kids' taste buds. I sent the extra pieces of cinnamon pizza and the frosting home with them and cut the amount of the frosting in half for the above recipe.
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