Thursday, March 30, 2006

Being lazy


Pizza Crust (from Pizza Margherita recipe)
Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook Copyright 2005

1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
¼ teaspoon sugar
1 envelope ( 2 ¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast
14 ounces (about 2 ¾ cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

I've been making the pizza crust recipes (regular and whole wheat) from my bread machine manual but a few weeks ago I started making this recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, which I checked out of the library. This recipe really tested the limits of my bread machine. Since it's a dual machine, each pan only makes a 1 pound loaf. This dough rises to the very top of the machine, just a fraction of an inch below the lid.

This recipe was actually part of Martha's Pizza Margherita recipe but I only made the crust and used my own choice of toppings. I was going to copy the entire recipe proper but I was too tired last night and since I didn't really make the recipe, I didn't see the point. This book is widely available for anyone who's interested in the entire recipe. The proper recipe I believe has two rises but I just threw this all in my bread machine (in the order that I use with the other bread machine recipes) and let her rip. It only has one rise but I was pleased with the results. More bread-y than the other recipes, which are chewier than this. It's not that one was better than the other, it's just nice to have a change every now and then since I make pizza every Friday.

I really like this cookbook. The recipes seem so much more attractive to me than those in the other Martha cookbooks I own. I only own two others - this was a library book. I do have to amend what I said about her muffin recipe earlier this week. We actually polished them off pretty quickly. I threw them in the fridge and they were rather dense but strangely addicting, to be honest. I may just make them again.

Question of the Day: Do you sometimes change your opinion about a recipe, after a bit of time has passed after making it?

2 comments:

The Cookbook Junkie said...

I do this a lot. I don't realize how much I like something until I eat the leftovers. Often times, if something takes a lot of work or if I taste 'tested' a recipe too much along the way, I just can't judge it fairly right away.

Of course, the opposite happens too. There are times I go to eat a leftover and the magic is gone.

Anonymous said...

I don't do it often.But a while back I made a lime cupcake.I ate one right after I finished them and it was ok.Just not a wow.The next day,they were awsome.The flavors had really developed.