Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas | Tuesdays with Dorie

These Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas are made from pita dough and a mixture of tomatoes, shallots, garlic, lamb, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and pepper. It's pretty difficult to make this pizza look pretty... the pita is kind of pale. I guess I should have done a mint or parsley garnish, but the reality of this pita is that it doesn't brown much because the baking time is so short. Enough excuses. This pizza is delicious.  Who cares what it looks like.

This pizza is baked on a pita dough. The dough only puffs up on the border because the middle is weighed down by the topping. To see how to make pita, check out this post.

This week, the Tuesdays with Dorie group is making Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas.

I was surprised by how much I loved these pizzas. I salted the tomatoes and left them in a strainer for about and hour to concentrate their flavors as I did in this recipe. It's an amazing way to extract serious tomato flavor.

I took some leftovers to work today and reheated them in a toaster oven. Everyone wanted to know what smelled so good. This is such an amazingly healthy and flavorful dish.

Eastern Mediterranean Pizza Recipe

Adapted from Baking with Julia: Savor the Joys of Baking with America's Best Bakers.

Topping

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 C chopped shallots

2 to 3 cloves minced garlic

1/4 pound ground lamb

8 ripe plum tomatoes, chopped, salted, and drained in a mesh sieve over a bowl. 

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat. 
2. Add the shallots and garlic and cook until fragrant, for about 3 minutes.
3. Add the lamb, breaking it up, and cook until no longer red. 
4. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the tomatoes. Cook for another 3 minutes. If there is still too much liquid, drain it at this point.
5. Add the spices and stir for a few seconds and set aside. 
6. This topping can be made a few days in advance.

Bread

1/2 recipe Pita dough, fully risen

Instructions

1. Divide the dough into eight well formed balls, covering each with plastic wrap.
2. Place a pizza stone on the lowest rack of your oven and preheat it to 500 degrees F.
3. Roll each ball, one at a time, into a 6 to 8 inch round, and top with 1/8th of the topping, throw it on the stone, and bake for about eight minutes. Remove with a spatula and place on a cooling rack. 
4. Continue baking each piece until done. 
5. Serve immediately or store wrapped in foil and reheat as needed. 

Yum!

Check out Tuesdays with Dorie for more versions of this recipe. 

Mini Chocolate-Espresso Pots de Creme

These mini chocolate espresso pots de creme are the perfect ending for a dinner party. Each serving is only 1/4 C, so there is no reason for feeling guilty for having dessert, yet their flavor is amazingly rich. They are perfect served with a cup of coffee or a digestif.

They are as dark as espresso and full of bittersweet chocolate. There is only 1 tablespoon of sugar added to the mixture beyond what is in the chocolate.

I like to serve them with a bit of whipped cream on top and a demitasse spoon. If you really want to be elegant, you can serve this in espresso cups and saucers. How fancy is that?

Chocolate-Espresso Pots de Creme

Adapted from Bite-Size Desserts: Creating Mini Sweet Treats, from Cupcakes to Cobblers to Custards and Cookies by Carole Bloom.

Equipment needed: 8 2 1/4 inch ramekins or espresso cups.

Ingredients

1 1/4 C heavy whipping cream

2 tsp. instant espresso powder

3 ounces of bittersweet chocolate (about 65% to 75% cacao) finely chopped

3 extra large egg yolks

1 T granulated sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

2 to 3 cups of boiling water for the water bath

Instructions

1. In a 1 quart saucepan, bring the heavy cream and espresso to a boil, whisking to dissolve the espresso. 
2. Remove the pan from the heat, add the chocolate, and whisk until all of the chocolate is fully incorporated. It sometimes will take a while. 
3. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F with a rack in the middle. 
4. Using a stand mixer, hand mixer, or a whisk, mix the egg yolks to break them up. Add the sugar, vanilla, and salt and continue whisking until well blended. 
5. Slowly add the chocolate cream mixture while whisking/mixing constantly to thoroughly blend the ingredients. 
6. Strain the mixture into a 2 cup measuring cup. 
7. Divide the mixture evenly among the 8 ramekins. 
8. Place the ramekins into a quarter sheet pan or a 2 quart casserole and bring 2 to 3 cups of water to a boil. I usually do it in a large Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave. It makes it easier to poor into the pan. 
9. When the water is boiling, pour it into the baking pan so that it comes about half way up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan tightly with foil and carefully place it in the oven.
10. Bake for 25 to 27 minutes, until the sides are done but the middle is still slightly soft. 
11. Cool the ramekins on a cooling rack. At this point, you can serve them warm if you like for a soft dessert.
12. To serve cold, once they have cooled, cover loosely with wax paper and then cover tightly with plastic wrap. Chill for at least 2 hours. They are great for making ahead of time. 
13. Serve with a tiny spritz of whipped cream. 

Rheinbrot - A Winey Bread

This bread is called Rheinbrot because it contains Riesling in the sponge/starter. I've made bread with beer, but never with wine. This was going to be an adventure.

As I often do, I jumped into the recipe without reading it all the way through, and didn't realize that the sponge needs about 14 to 16 hours of fermentation. Starting at noon (which I did) meant that I would have to mix up the final dough around two in the morning. I love baking bread, but I love sleep too.

I figured out I should have started around 6pm and then let the starter ferment overnight. Fortunately, I was able to slow down the fermentation by putting the starter in the refrigerator after about ten hours and leave it there until the next evening. While the original recipe does not call for a cold fermentation, I am including it in my directions.

What else did I do differently? Instead of baking the loaf in a steam oven, I baked it in a preheated cast iron Dutch oven. While the dough was very loose, the oven spring in the cast iron pot was amazing. Other than the timing and the cast iron pot, I followed the recipe as written.

How was the bread? Soft, moist, and chewy with a fairly thin crispy crust. The flavor was wonderful, perfect with the rest of the bottle of Riesling.

This recipe was introduced to the Bread Baking Babes by Astrid of Paul Chen's Food Blog.  She found the original recipe on this forum and translated it. I'm so glad she did.

Rheinbrot Recipe

Ingredients

Sponge

50 grams of semisweet Riesling

50 grams bottled water

100 grams unbleached all purpose flour

50 grams of 100% sourdough starter

Dough

All of the sponge

250 grams unbleached all purpose flour

135 grams water

6 grams of salt

Instructions

1. Whisk the wine, water, and sourdough starter together in a 1 quart bowl.
2. Mix in the 100 grams of flour. 
3. Cover and ferment the sponge for four hours at about 80 degrees F. I usually heat up a cup of water in the microwave and then put the dough in there. 
4. After four hours, stir the sponge and recover with plastic wrap. Let it ferment at room temperature for 10 to 12 hours. Alternatively, after a few hours, move the bowl to the refrigerator and let it ferment for 18 to 24 hours. 
5. Remove the sponge from the refrigerator about 1 1/2 hours prior to mixing the dough. 
6. Add the flour and water, mix until you get a shaggy ball, cover, and let sit for about 45 minutes, covered. 
7. Add the salt and pinch the dough with your fingers to fully incorporate it. Form the dough into a ball and place it into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it ferment for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Fold the dough over itself at 60 minutes and 90 minutes. 
8. Form the dough into a boule and place it into a floured bowl or basket (I used a plastic brotform sprayed with oil and sprinkled with rice flour). Cover with plastic wrap. Let it proof until doubled in size, about 60 to 90 minutes. Meanwhile, place a cast iron Dutch oven in the oven and preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.
9. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven, remove the lid, and dump the dough into the pot. Slash the dough, cover, and place in the oven. 
10. Bake for 10 minutes, and then remove the lid. Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees F and bake for 20 minutes more. 
11. Cool on a wire rack. 

Stir-Fried Cilantro Chili Noodles with Egg and Crab | Wok Wednesdays

This Stir-Fired Cilantro Chili Noodles with Egg with some added lump crab meat is heaven in a bowl. There are about 13 ingredients in the dish, not including the crab meat, and there is a full cup of chopped cilantro tossed into the noodles. Rice noodles, chicken broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, eggs, Anaheim chiles, ginger, sugar, salt and pepper, and sesame oil, along with the cilantro and crab meat. So good.

Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This sourdough cinnamon raisin bread is pretty phenomenal. It's loaded, I mean really loaded, with with plump raisins. I love the contrast between the sweet raisins and the mild sourdough. It makes the absolute best toast for breakfast (with butter of course).

The dough is fairly high in hydration, so it's a little sticky. When working with it, lightly flour your work surface and your hands, and be sure to have both a dough scraper and bench knife to work with the dough. Keep dipping your hands in flour. It's messy, but it's worth it.

You can control the amount of cinnamon sugar you add and cut back on the raisins if you like. I chose to go really light on the cinnamon sugar swirl but go full on with the raisins. When I am running late in the morning, two slices of this toast makes a quick and totally filling breakfast.

This bread takes about five hours to make (most of this time is inactive), but don't let that intimidate you. It is actually really easy. Just be sure to use freshly fed and bubbly sourdough starter.

The original recipe for this bread calls for a biga, which is a mix of flour, water, and a little bit of yeast that is allowed to ferment in the refrigerator overnight. I adjusted the flour and water for my 100% hydration sourdough starter. The recipe has been adapted from Amy's Bread, Revised and Updated: Artisan-style breads, sandwiches, pizzas, and more from New York City's favorite bakery.

For a sourdough raisin bread with no additional yeast, be sure to try Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread. 

Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

2 ounces warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)

1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

397 g ripe sourdough starter

13 ounces room temperature water

600 g unbleached all purpose flour

12 g Kosher salt

425 g dark raisins

1/4 C plus one T sugar mixed with 1 T cinnamon (I used only about a tablespoon of this mixture and reserved the rest for cinnamon toast)

Extra flour and water to make adjustments to the dough

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the warm water and yeast and let stand for about 3 minutes. 
2. Add the starter and room temperature water and stir until everything is dissolved. 
3. Add the flour and salt and continue to stir with a dough whisk or wooden spoon until you have a shaggy ball of dough. 
4. Knead with the dough hook for about four minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for for 20 minutes. 
5. Knead with the dough hook for about 5 minutes, adding flour or water by the tablespoon until the dough is tacky and elastic. The dough should be fairly sticky but just clear the sides of the bowl. 
6. Place the dough into an oiled dough rising bucket or bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise for 60 minute. 
7. At the 60 minute mark, reach into the bowl and gently push down on the dough. Pull the dough up from all four "sides" and stretch it and fold it over itself. Flip the dough over and place it seam side down. Re-cover the dough and allow it to rise for another 45 minutes, until doubled (mine was tripled). 
8. While the dough is rising, place the raisins in a bowl and add just enough warm water to reach just below the level of the raisins. 
9. Oil or butter two 9 inch by 5 inch bread pans and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and drain the raisins. 
10. Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Lightly flour your hands and press the dough into a 14 by 12 inch rectangle. With a bench scraper, cut the dough into two pieces. 
11. Sprinkle the pieces with the cinnamon sugar and then press the raisins into the dough. There are a lot of raisins. Just go with it. 
12. Roll up the dough pieces into logs and place them into the two bread pans, seam side down. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until doubled. 
13. Bake the loaves for 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 375 degrees F. 
14. Bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until the internal temperature of the bread reaches about 190 degrees F. If the loaves are getting too dark, tent with foil. 
15. Cool the loaves in the pans for 5 minutes, and then remove them from the pans and cool completely on cooling racks. 

Enjoy!

Submitted to Yeastspotting

Transitional Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

This transitional whole wheat bread is perfect for when you want to get your whole grains, but still want a bread that is mild enough for sandwiches. The loaf is 56% whole wheat flour and 44% bread flour, and the recipe includes milk, honey, and just a little bit of butter.

The dough is super easy to work with, and rises beautifully both prior to baking as well as in the oven. Ah, the joys of "oven spring," where I sit on a stool in front of the oven window to stare at my baking bread.

The bread requires a little bit of planning. The day before baking, you mix both a soaker of whole wheat and milk, and a biga of bread flour, water, and yeast.

Soaker? Biga? Biga is an Italian term for a preferment... meaning you take some flour and water and add a little big of yeast and let it develop flavor overnight or maybe a bit longer. It can also be referred to as a sponge. A soaker is a mixture of grains and/or seeds with a liquid left overnight in order to soften the grains/seeds and develop more flavor.  Once the soaker and biga have been given enough time to develop, they are combined with the rest of the dough ingredients to make the bread.

To view and print the recipe, go my post on the Grain Mill Wagon site.

Disclosure: I am participating in the Grain Mill Wagon Challenge and received a WonderMill grain mill as part of the challenge. And, yes, I milled my own whole wheat flour! How cool is that?

For the recipe, click here.

Braised Carrots with Leeks

These braised carrots with leeks will surprise you with their savory-ness. At least they surprised me. Their flavor is fresh and reminiscent of vegetables from a Provencal marche.

This is an easy dish that can be made right before serving, or made in advance and served at room temperature the next day.

You can use spring carrots, or if you cannot find them, you can cut regular carrots cut into thinner pieces by quartering the fat ends and cutting the thin ends in half lengthwise.

To clean the leeks, cut off the root ends and the dark green parts, slice the pieces length wise, place them into a bowl of cold water, and swish them around. Drain the leeks and and place them back into cold water. Once the water in the bowl is clean, the leeks are ready.

We had this with a goat cheese, onion, mushroom, and red pepper tart with a filet mignon. It was definitely a luxurious dinner with an amazing combination of flavors.

For another great dish with leeks, check out this Asparagus, Pea, and Leek Stir Fry. For another great carrot dish, check out these Sauteed Carrots.

Braised Carrots with Leeks Recipe

Adapted from Mark Peel's New Classic Family Dinners.

This recipe serves four.

Ingredients

3 T olive oil

1/2 pound of leeks, white and light green part only, cleaned, with the root trimmed off, and cut into thin lengthwise strips

3/4 tsp Kosher salt

1 garlic clove, minced

1 pound peeled carrots, either small spring, or cut as described above. They should be about 4 to 6 inches in length. 

1/2 C water

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 T fresh chopped chervil, or 1 tsp dried chervil

2 tsp fresh chopped tarragon

Instructions

1. Heat 2 T of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. 
2. Add the leeks and a bit of the salt and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. 
3. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. 
4. Add the carrots, water, and the rest of the salt, and bring to a simmer. 
5. Simmer over low heat, covered, for about 15 minutes, until the carrots are fork tender. 
6. Transfer the carrots to a platter and bring the rest of the ingredients to a boil.
7. Add the rest of the oil, the lemon juice, the chervil, and the tarragon to the pan and cook for about a minute. 
8. Spoon the contents of the pan over the carrots.
9. Serve immediately, or tent with foil and serve later at room temperature. 
10. You can also refrigerate overnight and serve the next day.