Easy-Peasy Pizza Dough

My mom turned me on to my new favorite book recently: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Expect to see my next several posts come from there.  The idea is to make one big batch of dough, then store it in the fridge.  You can tear off what you need within the next week or two and soon you will have something yummy baking in the oven.  There are instructions for pretty much any type of bread or pastry you can imagine using one of their basic recipes.  They also have ideas for playing with the ratios so you can add whole wheat flour or other grains to the mostly all-purpose flour recipes and end up with something a little healthier.

I decided to use the olive oil dough recipe for pizza.  It was easier than any I've ever made, and the texture and taste were wonderful.  Out of the one batch, I was able to make three pizzas plus I have about half left in the fridge.  I plan to make stromboli one evening this week for dinner.  For my pizza I used olive oil, spinach, mushrooms, red pepper, and mozzarella.  Yummy!  I was immediately hooked on this concept and ordered my own copy from Amazon.  I'm not going to type the recipe here because I think you should reserve this book from the library and discover the concept of five minutes a day bread baking for yourself!

Bread Update

Since my last post, I've made the American Sandwich Bread twice.  Both times I made a double batch and they turned out beautifully.  Definitely can't do three loaves at once though - two barely fits in my mixer bowl.  The recipe freezes well, and lasts at least a week out of the freezer.  I love bread making day watching my pretty loaves do their thing and then the heavenly smell as they bake into their yummy goodness.

My good neighbor let me borrow Homestead Blessings: The Art of Making Bread and I finally got around to watching it yesterday.  Very cute with a very homespun feel.  It doesn't explain the how's and why's of making bread, but goes through the process of making bread step-by-step.  If you are nervous about trying to make your own bread this will show you how easy it really can be.  My husband and I giggled though at their bare feet (that for some reason the camera kept showing) and how obvious it was that the girls are siblings as they keep correcting each other.