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Pizza Dough~I here Paulie right now serenading me "Bettini"

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup water

1 tbsp yeast

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp coconut oil

3 1/2 - 4 cups flour

Cornmeal

 

Directions

In the bowl of your standing mixer add 3 cups flour, salt, and oil. Now in a small bowl or measuring glass add sugar to your water that is warm. Not hot. Temperature should be between 100-115 anything higher your at risk of killing the yeast. I usually just feel the water but 105 is great if you want more exact for this recipe. Add in your yeast to the sugar water and allow to sit and work its magic 10 minutes.

Pretty cool, right! Now add your yeast mixture to your bowl of dry ingredients, use a spatula to get any leftovers out and scrape into the dry ingredients. I use the paddle on my mixer but you can use the dough hook. Mix on lowest setting. I do a mix a few turns, stop, mix a few turns, off. I find my kitchen-aids slow isn't really that slow. Now add 1/2 cup of your flour, mix again. If your dough ball is pulling away from the sides of the bowl forming a bowl your good to go if it seems to wet yet add 1/2 cup more flour you should be golden. Take your dough ball and knead on a floured surface a few times. Your dough should spring back when you press your finger into it gently. Grease your mixing bowl and place dough ball in the bowl, cover with damp towel or syran wrap that has also been greased. Let to rise 1-2- hours.

Flour your surface area and pour out dough on surface. Give it a few needs. 4-5 and now you can immediately use your dough or allow time for a better more developed dough and place back in your greased bowl to rise again and hour or so.

2nd kneading on far left and 2nd rise on the right. I reccomend the 2nd rise but not necessary

Now its time to pan up! I used a regurlar round Pizza pan, but if you have a stone or paddle or just cookie sheet it works on all of them. Place on greased surface your baking on. Pull and streatch your dough working with it gently but with confidence until you have the shape and desired thickness you want. If you have alot of toppings I reccomend not going to thin. Also if using more ingredients than say cheese sauce and pepperoni, Pre-bake your crust . If no extras sauce up and get your cheese on and bake at 450* 15-20 minutes. All oven temperatures vary so keep the light on in there and watch. Depending on thickness it might be 25. I pre-baked mine at 450 for 8 minutes.

You see here I used a regular pizza pan sprayed with cooking spray and coated lightly with cornmeal to pre-bake, but after pre-baking I place a drying rack over a baking sheet for the finished bake. Crispy bottom. This way air gets all around and your not stuck with Soggy pizza

On my pre-baked Pizza shell I added my toppings. Alfredo sauce, Steak, onions, peppers, mushrooms, parmesan and mozzarella cheese for a Cheese Steak Pizza. Its delicious and will be posting that recipe as well. The pizza dough was amazing. I could just gobble that. Anyway Bake at 475* for 10-15 minutes. Crust will get golden brown, cheese melted and bubbly. Retrieve from oven and ENJOY

Old Time French Style Bread

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups warm water

2 tbsp yeast

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

5 1/2 cups flour

egg white ~ whisked

 

Preheat oven 450*

Directions

In a medium bowl combine warm water 105-110* and add sugar, stir briefly and add yeast. Let sit and work its magic. In a large bowl combine flour and salt. Stir til combined. Add in your yeast, water, sugar bowl and stir until combined and pulling away from sides of bowl. I used my standing mixer for each step. Same directions, water and yeast and sugar then dry ingredients. Remove from bowl and knead on floured surface until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic, when pressed gently with a finger springs back up .Place dough ball into a greased bowl and turn over once so both sides are greased. Cover and let stand 30 minutes to an hour. Remove from bowl and seperate into two dough balls forming into loaves. Place on greased baking sheet and brush with whisked egg white. Cover and let rise 15 minutes. Remove cover and bake 12-15 minutes until brown and crusty.

 

Honey Brew Bread

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp honey

12 oz hoppy beer great choices (Magic hat ~Circus Boy, ABC brewing~ Jolly Scott, Troegs~hopback, Or a good local brew pub or beer store beer)

I am providing a basic beer bread recipe I am sure you will enjoy. The beauty of it is you can create your own unique flavors by altering your beers and even adding raisins, diced apples, cinnamon, or minced garlic. The options are limitless. Go from a Smirnoff ice to a Redds Apple, Wild Blueberry Ale to Sam Adams summer ale. You want to know the best part? You can use soda. Orange, grapefruit, citrus, even try out a root beer or birch beer. Play with your flavors and ingredients. Create your own custom bread!

Directions

Preheat oven 350*

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl to mix well so you do not over mix after adding the beer. Add  your honey and then pour in your beer until well incorporated and combined but not over stirred. Pour into a greased bread pan or if desiring a round loaf pour into an 8 in cake pan and bake 50-60 minutes. Enjoy right away with a spat of butter or apple butter and enjoy with sandwiches or toasted up with some cream cheese and salsa, hummus, salami and cheese. Its a pretty versatile bread.

English Muffin Loaf Bread

Ingredients

2 packages Active dry yeast

6 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp pink sea salt

2 cups milk~room temp

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup warm water

Cornmeal for dusting

 

 

 

Directions

Combine warm water (temperature 105-110) sugar and yeast  and allow to work its live magic 5 or so minutes. Get it excited. In another bowl combine your flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir around to unite the dry ingredients. Add  your room temperature milk and yeast water mixture to the milk and flour. Beat well into a stiff batter. Spoon into two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch bread pans that have been greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover with greased plastic wrap or damp towel and let rise in warm place for 45 minutes to an hour. Bake at 400* for 25 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool on drying racks . This stuff is excellent for breakfast sandwiches, mini pizzas, toasted with some cream cheese or apple butter.  I grew up with my mom making this. Its wonderful.

Moms Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

3 whole eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla

2 cups coarsley grated zucchini

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soada

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup chopped nuts

or

1/2 cup chopped nuts and

1/2 cup chopped raisins

Directions

Preheat oven 350*

In a bowl beat the eggs until frothy and beat in the sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Continue to beat until thick and resembles the color of lemons. Stir in zucchini, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and baking powder until well blended. Fold in the chopped nuts or nuts and raisins. Pour into 2 oiled and floured bread pans. Bake 1 hour at 350* Let cool in pans 10  minutes and invert onto drying racks. This recipe freezes well so don't be afraid if you won't eat two loaves before going bad.

 

Peanut Butter Beer Bread

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup peanut butter~I love Better-n-peanutbutter

12 0z dark beer I used Yuengling Black and Tan

Directions

Preheat oven 350*

Spray loaf pan or 9 inch round cake pan with non stick cooking spray

In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients to blended together. A few stirs is suffice. Add in your peanut butter and stir until its lumpy and a bit pasty. Add your beer and stir or whisk until combined. Careful not to over do it but make sure no lumps remain. Bake 50-60 minutes until top is cracked and when a toothpick or fork is inserted comes out clean . Like a cake would look. But the cracking on top is fine and normal. Let cool in pan 10 minutes then remove from pan and cool on drying rack. Enjoy with a spat of apple butter, butter, jam, peanut butter, hummus, or toasted for a sandwich or just eaten plain. It is a very versatile bread I have found to be a favorite.

Milk Bread~Bread Machine

Ingredients

1 cup warm 105* - 110* water

2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp Coconut oil

4 cups All purpose flour

2 tsp yeast

1 tsp vital wheat gluten~if you've never used it its widely available and ancient with history. It is a bakers assistant. Especially when using a bread machine. I don't want to ramble but I don't like bread machines that much. I enjoy the mixing and kneading and punching down and kneading again and feeling for texture and smoothness. But when its above 80* outside all summer.. half of winter and alot of spring and fall you need back up.  Back to the recipe.

Turn Directions

Place warm water, vital wheat gluten, sugar in the bowl of your standing mixer, or if no standing mixer, large bowl. Allow to rest 5-10 minutes to ignite the yeast. Oh I love my magical yeast. Now add in your milk, salt, oil, and 2 cups flour. Turn your bread machine to basic white bread. Start machine. After 10 ish minutes depending on machine, check dough and add rest of flour slowly until dough pulls away from the sides of bread pan. Now just keep that bread machine lid down and allow it to do all the work for you.. When its hot outside a huge bonus still being able to make fresh bread. And this is by far in my top 3 bread machine recipes. machines do not ultimately replace humans when it comes to bread making. We still are superior. Anyway this bread is awesome. Sandwich away, toast away, pick and chew at away. It can handle its own and all you present it with.

Pizza Crust~single rise

Ingredients

6-7 cups flour

3 cups water

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp kosher or sea salt

2 tbsp active dry yeast

1 tbsp coconut oil

 

Directions

In a glass measuring cup or small bowl combine sugar and yeast and add one cup of warm water 105*-110* and allow to sit and work up a magical storm for 10 or so minutes. Meanwhile put flour and salt in a large bowl and stir to blend together. Once your water and yeast mixture is puffy and alive looking pour into bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl. Add in half of flour mixture and 2 cups of remaining water, stir until wet and batter like. I pulse my standing mixer like a food processor a few times to not have flour everywhere and then let it work. Add in another cup of flour and stir/blend until combined. Now add another cup and stir/blend . If the dough is already pulling away from sides of bowl , remove and place on floured surface to knead a  few minutes until smooth and elastic. When pressed with forefinger it should spring back. If still wet and sticky add last cup of flour. It always takes me the 7 cups. Grease bowl with coconut oil and place dough in bowl , flipping once so both sides of dough are greased. Let rise until doubled in size. In my Georgia climate that is an hour or two. Punch down once doubled and cut in half. Each half is enough to make a 16 inch round pizza. Preheat oven 500-550* I typically use 550* but was grilling wings outside as well and needed to allow for moments of misplaced concentration . I get a sidetracked mind when doing to many multip things . Spray pizza pan or baking sheet of your choice with cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place dough on sheet and spread, stretch, and gently but with authority shape dough into shape of pan. If your end up with a hole just pull off a piece of dough from where its a bit thicker and pat down. Dough is forgivable. Spread on your sauce layer, toppings, then cheese. bake 16-18 minutes of until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly and a bit browned and the pizza is looking like you just went out to eat at a pizzeria. Remove from oven and slice, and serve!

Soft Pretzels

Ingredients

1 pkg instant dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water 105-115

4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 egg white

Kosher salt for topping pretzels

 

Directions Preheat oven 400*

Dissolve yeast in warm water and allow to work its magic while you prepar more of the recipe. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and stir to just combine evenly. Once your yeast is bubbly and looking alive and happy add to dry ingredients. Mix until well blended and just starting to gather in a ball. Turn out dough on a floured surface and knead until smooth and a elastic. You really can tell by feeling for texture. It's not hard.I find it usually takes no more than ten fold overs. When you press down on the dough ball and it springs back up thats some good dough. Using a knife or kitchen shears cut dough into 18 pieces. Roll each piece with floured hands into a ball then rolling the ball inbetween hands form a rope about 14-16 inches. You can do this on your floured surface or letting it dangle as your roll between hands. Twist each of the 18 balls into a pretzel shape and place on greased baking sheet. Beat eggwhite until frothy and brush over top of uncooked pretzels and now spinkle with the corse kosher salt. Bake at 400* 15 minutes until slightly browned.

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