the quest for the perfect pizza crust
A couple of weeks ago, while watching The Worst Cooks In America, I saw them make pizza dough from scratch. Surely the recipe they gave them was foolproof, right? I decided to try it out myself.
I tried for the first time last week. My crust was rock hard. I think that is due to rolling it out.
I tried that same recipe this week, adding a bit more moisture (I had trouble getting all of the flour mixed in last week) and not rolling it, just forming it by hand. I decided to forgo the pre-bake this week, thinking that may have contributed to the hardness. This time the crust was a bit doughy in the middle, but overall much better. I probably should have given it a pre-bake this time. *laughs*
My facebook friends have been full of suggestions and links to recipes. This morning, my pal Charley showed up at my desk with his wife’s pizza crust recipe. I’ll definitely give it a shot next. It doesn’t even require rise time! It does, however require “pizza yeast”. I didn’t know such a thing existed.
Last week, post rock hard pizza, I wanted something chocolatey. Really, I wanted a chocolate souffle, but that was just way too much effort for 9pm on a tuesday when I’d already spent the last 4 hours cleaning the kitchen. Plus, I didn’t want to make something huge that would hang around for days. I ended up settling on a recipe for chocolate lava cakes that made exactly two. I used this recipe. It took all of about 3 minutes to mix up and was great. While it was baking, I threw some freezerburned raspberries into a pot with some sugar and turned them into a nice sauce (they were only a little freezer burned) and whooped up some sweetened cream. The recipe was so awesome that I repeated it the next night. I need to repeat it once more, I’ve got just enough raspberry sauce left for about one more round.
If next week’s pizza crust is a winner, I’ll post the recipe. Until then, here’s the text of the recipe for those fine lava cakes.
Chocolate molten lava cakes for two
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 TBSP butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for garnish
1 egg
3 TBSP all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBSP Nutella (optional)
Directions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Generously grease 2 ramekins with non-stick cooking spray. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and set aside.
In a medium, microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and butter in the microwave for about 1 and 1/2 minutes. Stir every 30 seconds until smooth.
Add the powdered sugar and mix until incorporated. Then add the egg and whisk until smooth.
Stir in flour and vanilla extract and mix until no lumps remain.
Evenly distribute the batter into the two prepared ramekins and put the baking pan into oven.
Bake the cakes for 12 minutes.
Remove the cakes from the oven and let them rest for 1 minute before inverting onto a plate.
Dust with powdered sugar and a dollop of Nutella if desired. You can also garnish with berries, ice cream or chocolate sauce for a super indulgent treat!
Yield: Two servings