Pizza, Focaccia, Flat and Filled Breads For Your Bread Machine: Perfect Every Time

By Lora Brody

Don't unplug that bread machine. Lora Brody's back with a guaranteed winner: Pizza, Focaccia, Flat, and Filled Breads from Your Bread Machine. As sales of this amazing machine continue to mushroom, demand for new and exciting recipes continue. Lora's new book fills the bill. Using the machine to make doughs for more than two hundred varieties of breads, pastries, and baked dishes, Lora expands the scope of the bread machine in ways that will appeal to bread machine devotees as well as new converts. Choose from such innovative recipes as Porcini Mushroom Focaccia, Ploughman's Pizza, Blue Corn Bread Sticks, and Macadamia Lavosh.

Try Lora's newest creation: Quitza, a cross between her favorite dishesquiche and pizza. For anchovy lovers there's finally a pizza with enough anchovies. For those with solid-gold palates there's a recipe for caviar pizza. Have a hankering for crackers? Try Pesto Crackers, Spicy Beer Cheese Crackers, or Cheddar Crisps. Also included are invaluable hints on buying and storing ingredients and on troubleshooting, as well as a mail-order guide for ingredients and equipment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9780062029607

Lora Brody

Lora Brody is the author of twenty-two cookbooks including The Kitchen Survival Guide, The Entertaining Survival Guide, Bread Machine Baking: Perfect Every Time, Desserts from Your Bread Machine: Perfect Every Time, Growing Up on the Chocolate Diet, and Pizza, Focaccia, Flat, and Filled Breads from Your Bread Machine: Perfect Every Time. Her recipes have appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times. She lives outside of Boston.

Book preview

Pizzas

Sam’s Pizza

My son Samuel likes his pizza the old-fashioned way: crust not too thin, not too thick; traditional red sauce and extra cheese. He used to prefer frozen pizza until I came up with a recipe that approximates the store-bought kind.

With an eye toward nutrition, I use nonfat dry milk and an amount of whole wheat flour for the crust. While Sam doesn’t taste any difference, he does get a calcium and fiber boost, and the dry milk makes the crust easier to roll out.

You can make the dough up to three days in advance and store it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. And you can cook the entire pizza, cool it at room temperature, and then freeze it, wrapped in plastic wrap. To reheat it, put it partially defrosted in a 350°F oven for fifteen minutes.

MAKES ONE 14-INCH PIZZA

FOR THE DOUGH

1 tablespoon yeast

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour or White Wheat flour (page 5)

3 tablespoons cornmeal

1½ teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water, plus up to an additional ⅓ cup or more to make a smooth dough after the first few minutes of kneading

Place all the ingredients in the machine, program for Dough, Basic Dough, or Manual, and press Start. At the end of the final cycle, remove the dough to a lightly oiled work space, cover it with a clean towel, and let it rest 10 minutes.

TO FINISH THE PIZZA

1 cup (8 ounces) pizza sauce, homemade or commercially prepared

1 generous cup (about 4 ounces)

grated mozzarella cheese (whole or skim-milk)

Preheat the oven to 475°F with the rack or pizza stone or tiles in the center position. Sprinkle a pizza pan, baking sheet, or pizza peel with cornmeal. Roll the dough out to a 14-inch circle and place it on the prepared pan. Spread the sauce in a thin layer over the dough, leaving a very small unsauced edge, about ½ inch. Sprinkle on the cheese.

Slide the pan into the oven, or the pizza from the peel onto the pizza stone, and bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Mystic Pizza

Did you see the movie? If not, rent it to eat with this version of the pizza it inspired. There’s nothing like sharing a great pizza meal with Julia Roberts.

MAKES ONE 11-INCH PIZZA

FOR THE DOUGH

2 teaspoons yeast

2½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon olive oil

¾ cup plus 3 tablespoons water

Place all the ingredients in the machine, program for Dough, Basic Dough, or Manual, and press Start.

TO FINISH THE PIZZA

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1½ cups tomato or pizza sauce or more if you’re an extra-sauce fan

1 to 1½ cups grated mozzarella cheese

When the dough cycle is completed, transfer the dough to a floured work surface and let it rest for 5 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly dust a heavy baking sheet with cornmeal and set it aside. Roll out the dough to an 11- inch circle. Transfer the dough onto the baking sheet. Brush the olive oil over the surface of the dough and then shake on salt and pepper. Leaving a 1-inch border, spread the sauce over the surface of the dough and top the sauce with the mozzarella. Bake the pizza for 20 minutes until the crust is a nice golden brown.

Grilled Pizza

So, where do you like to eat pizza in Boston? is a typical question I’m asked. Providence (as in Rhode island) is always the answer. Johanne Killeen and George Germon welcome old friends and friends-to-be to Al Forno with equal parts warmth, charm, and exuberance. They celebrate both New England and Italian food with flair and success that other restaurateurs can only dream of.

My idea of heaven is George and Johanne’s grilled pizza: wafer-thin, crisp as a tuxedo shirt. Imbued with the just-right light smoky taste from the fire, this is one pizza I won’t share—everyone else at the table knows enough to order their own.

Grilling your own pizza takes a little patience and practice. This recipe, inspired by the one in George and Johanne’s book Cucina Simpatica (HarperCollins, 1991), has been adapted for the bread machine. This dough can be made up to three days ahead, stored in a large plastic bag in the refrigerator, or frozen for up to three months, then defrosted still wrapped.

SERVES 2 TO 3

FOR THE DOUGH

2 teaspoons yeast

3 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup finely ground cornmeal

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water, plus 3 or more additional tablespoons if necessary

Place all the ingredients in the machine, program for Dough, Basic Dough, or Manual, and press Start, adding the extra water if necessary to make a soft dough that forms a relaxed yet discrete ball.

TO FINISH THE PIZZA

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup mixed fresh herbs, such as basil, thyme, oregano, and chervil

½ cup shredded soft cheese, such as fontina

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

6 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, cut into quarters

Preheat a gas grill or start a charcoal fire. Place the rack 3 to 4 inches above the coals.

At the end of the final cycle, transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface and use your hands to push and flatten the dough into a rough 10- to 12-inch circlewithout a lip. Or divide the dough in half and make 2 smaller circles. This is a free-form pizza(s)—don’t make yourself crazy trying to get the circle(s) perfectly round. An even thickness is more important than an even edge.

Lay the dough on the grill and let it cook for 1 minute, or until it puffs slightly and the underside stiffens and grill marks appear. Use a wide spatula or tongs to turn it over and place it on the side of the grill (off the direct heat). Quickly brush the top with half the oil and distribute the garlic, herbs, and cheeses over the top. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and finally drizzle on the remaining oil. Slide the pizza back to the middle of the grill and continue cooking while you rotate it to assure even cooking. The pizza is done when the cheese has melted, about 5 to 6 minutes. Serve immediately.

HINT: You can grill almost any pizza dough as long as it is rolled out very thin. Be sure to have your toppings ready and your fire hot.

Sourdough Chèvre Pizza

The perfect marriage of a slightly tangy, chewy crust with a creamy goat cheese and thyme topping makes a pizza inspired by the French countryside. Since your milkman probably doesn’t deliver goat’s milk to your door, you can find either fresh goat’s milk or the powdered version in your local health food store. The starter must be made the day before you plan to make the pizza.

MAKES ONE 15-INCH PIZZA

FOR THE STARTER   MAKES 1½ CUPS

¾ cup fresh goat’s milk or 3 tablespoons powdered goat’s milk dissolved in ¾ cup water

1 teaspoon yeast

¾ cup rye flour

Heat the goat’s milk to 90°F and stir in the yeast. When the yeast dissolves, stir in the flour, mixing well. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in a warm place for 12 hours, then refrigerate for 12 hours.

FOR THE DOUGH

3 cups all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons salt

1 cup starter

¼ a cup olive oil

⅔ cup water

Place all the ingredients in the machine, program for Dough or Manual, and press Start. The dough will be extremely wet and will not form much of a ball. At the end of the final knead, turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead it briefly, adding only enough flour to form the dough into a very soft ball. Cover it with a clean cloth and let it rest on the work surface while you prepare the topping.

TO FINISH THE PIZZA

12 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped into very small pieces

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 475°F with the rack in the center position. Since this dough is so very loose, it’s easier to bake it on a pizza pan or baking sheet rather than letting it rise on a paddle and transferring it to a pizza stone. Select a large (16- inch) pizza pan or baking sheet and roll or stretch the dough to a 15-inch circle, pushing outward from the middle to make it thinner in the center and slightly thicker around the rim.

Sprinkle the dough with the goat cheese and thyme, then drizzle it with the oil, and finally sprinkle it with pepper. Bake the pizza for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the rim is crusty and brown and the cheese is bubbling.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

HINTS: If you want a milder taste, use a plain pizza crust (page 17) or substitute cream cheese for the goat cheese.

Try adding small pieces of sun-dried tomatoes or oil-cured olives to the topping for a more Mediterranean flavor.

Vidalia Onion-Chèvre Pizza

Sweet Vidalia onions appear in grocery stores in early spring. They are also available by mail order (page 301). The onions in this recipe must be caramelized before they go on the pizza and the very easiest way to do this is in a slow cooker (for twelve hours). If you don’t have one, you can cook the onions on the stove top or in the oven (for four hours) (recipes follow). This can be done several days before you plan to make the pizza. The sweet onions combine with the tangy goat cheese to create a marvelous tapestry of flavors and textures. This crust is seasoned with dehydrated onions which are added to the dough. Spanish onions can be substituted if you can’t find Vidalias.

SERVES 8 TO 10

FOR THE ONIONS

6 Vidalia or Spanish onions (approximately 2½ pounds), about 3 inches in diameter, peeled and left whole

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

1 13-ounce can chicken, beef, or vegetable broth

Place the onions, butter, and broth in a slow cooker and cook on low 12 hours until the onions are golden brown and very soft. Or place the onions, butter, and broth in a heavy pan, cover, and set over very low heat (or on a flame tamer). Every half hour or so, remove the cover and spoon some of the butter over the onions. Cook the onions for about 4 hours, or until they are golden brown and very tender. Alternatively, you can place the onions, butter, and broth in a covered baking dish and bake in a 225°F oven for 4 hours, or until the onions are golden brown and very tender. When they are cool enough to handle, slice the onions into quarters from root end to stem end. Reserve the butter and cooking liquid to use in a soup or stew.

Store the onions in a covered container in the refrigerator. Bring them to room temperature before you place them on the pizza either by removing them from the refrigerator 1 hour before you roll out the dough, or by placing them in a microwave for 60 seconds.

FOR THE DOUGH

2 teaspoons yeast

¼ cup rye flour

1¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus an additional 2 to 3 tablespoons if necessary

4 tablespoons nonfat dry milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons dehydrated onion

3 tablespoons olive oil

¾ cup water

Place all the ingredients in the machine, program for Dough or Manual, and press Start. The dough will be quite moist at first, but do not add any more flour until after the first 3 to 5 minutes of kneading; then add only enough to form a discrete ball.

TO FINISH THE PIZZA

6 ounces goat cheese, either plain, peppered, or herbed, crumbled

Prepared Vidalia onions

At the end of the final cycle, preheat the oven to 450°F. If you’re using a pizza stone, or tiles, lay them in the oven before preheating. Adjust the rack to the center position.

On a lightly floured surface, pat and stretch the dough or use a rolling pin to form a 14- to 16-inch circle approximately ⅛ inch thick and place it on a baking sheet, pizza pan, or pizza paddle lightly dusted with cornmeal.

Immediately after rolling out the dough, sprinkle the cheese over the dough, leaving a 1½-inch border. Place the onion quarters over the cheese. Slide the baking sheet into the oven or the pizza onto the stone or tiles and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the crust is crisp and browned and the cheese is