PIZZA WITH 5 MINUTES A DAY DOUGH…I’m a convert! Happy Earth Day too!

It’s Earth Day today. To quote Mother Earth News, April is officially Earth Month, and the great highpoint of the month is Earth Day, April 22. During the 364 unofficial Earth Days, you probably recycle, work to reduce your water consumption and utilize a number of other tricks for living lightly. But April 22 is a day to come together with millions of others from around the globe — to celebrate this glorious planet and all of its life.

Can you tell I’m a AB in 5 convert? For foodies like me, I would like to celebrate with BREAD!! Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread is my call for today.In MARK LUINENBURG words, “Baking bread at home saves hundreds of dollars on groceries every year. With this easy method, each deliciously crusty-on-the-outside, moist-and-chewy-on-the-inside loaf will only cost you about 50 cents and 5 minutes a day. We’re not kidding! “

My first exposure to Artisan Bread in 5 minutes, as I’ve written earlier, was thanks to Paula @ Dragon’s Kitchen. I risk repeating myself, but it was really the best thing to have happened to my bread baking days. There was a time when I was mortified of yeast, a fear I then shared with my good friend Ben, my amigo from What’s Cooking US. Together we moved our strengths from baking powder to yeast, & there’s been no looking back. AB in 5 converted my yeastly thinking completely. How can I even put into words, the luxury & ease of dough, sitting ready-to-use in the fridge. Just take a ball of it, slap it or roll it into shape, & voila, you have bread … Bread in many avatars!

Endless emails & google talk time hours later, I’m happy to have convinced a handful of Indian bakers to begin baking bread, modifying a few bits to suit local conditions. A couple got a frightened by the term ‘pizza peel’ & ended any bread baking thoughts. I don’t have a pizza peel, so I just sprinkle my cookie sheet or pizza pan with cornmeal ,& get on with it. AB in 5 is a nice beginning for bakers who are terrified of yeast. Twittering with ‘Pastry Chef/Co-author Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’, Zoe Francois, I was ruing the fact that the book isn’t available locally here as yet, & was discussing the fear we have of baking here in India; yeast just makes the fear mortal!

Twitter me: Bread baking is non-existent here…most folk are TERRIFIED of yeast, as I was once!
Twitter Zoe: Shame! You have to teach them not to be afraid! 😉 I hear that all the time, which is why we wrote the book.
Her words pretty much sum up yeastly fears across the globe, & I’m happy to say the book has changed the lives of hundreds of home-bakers. I can’t wait to lay my hands on the book, as Peter says there is a nice naan recipe included too. For the moment, I am enjoying this master dough to the max!!

Artisan Bread in 5 minutes … Pizza Dough
adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a day
by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François
Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups plain flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 head roasted garlic
1 1/2 tbsp active dried yeast
Handful fresh chopped herbs
3 cups luke warm water

Method:

• Take a large container that will fit inside the fridge. Pour in the warm water, add salt, yeast, oil, garlic & freshly ground pepper & stir well.
• Add the flours together in one go, & mix in well with a wooden spoon till well incorporated & no dry dough is visible.
• Allow dough to rise in a warm place for2-5 hours, & then refrigerate until use. It’s a good idea to keep it in the fridge overnight because the dough is easier to use the next day.
• Take a small ball of dough, size of an apple, dust it well with lour, & then roll into a circle to line your pizza pan.
• Dust the pizza pan generously with cornmeal before putting the dough on.
• Give the dough a light brush of olive oil (or garlic flavoured olive oil), a slathering of pizza sauce, add toppings of your choice, top with mozzarella, and bake on top shelf at 300C for about 20 minutes till cheese light brown & bubbly & the crust is light brown too. Rest for 10 minutes before serving. (I made a couple of round pizzas & a rectangular one too…moreish I thought!)
• ENJOY!!!

Here’s my pizza sauce recipe, written mainly for Maya in mind, who asked me for it some time back, but I don’t have an email address for her. My 13teen year old cannot tolerate mushrooms on her pizza for some insane reason, so I sneak those into the sauce, with a carrot to keep it company. The kids haven’t figured it out yet, & they won’t coz the daughter does not read the recipe portion of my posts, not yet! They are both happy to eat this pizza, hot or cold, any time of the day!!
Pizza Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
8-10 tomatoes 1/2 kilo; peeled & roughly chopped
1/4 tsp roasted red chili flakes
1 big onion, chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
300ml tomato puree
1 generous handful fresh herbs (I used thyme & oregano)
200gms mushrooms; grated fine
1-2 carrots grated fine
Salt to taste
1 pinch of sugar

Method:

Add olive oil to pan, & simmer red chili flakes for a minute or 2.

Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, carrots, salt & pepper if desired. Add herbs & simmer for 30 minutes till the sauce is nice & thick. Mash any bits of tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Let the sauce cool & the flavours to mature. The sauce can be made 3-4 days in advance & stored in the fridge.