As soon as my mom mentioned that she wanted to throw a pizza party for her and my sister’s birthdays (known collectively in our family as “the January birthdays”) I just knew that I’d be tasked with making the dough. That’s what I get for bragging about my sourdough pizza crust on this blog! Instead of whining about it, I decided to use this as an opportunity to do a pizza crust tasting. I’ve tried many different crust recipes over the years. However, because I am usually only cooking for Robert and myself, I typically just make one dough at a time - I never get to try the pizzas side by side to determine which crust I truly prefer. For our pizza party, we were planning on making five or six pizzas - assuming that one batch of dough makes two pizzas, this meant that I could try three different crust recipes.

I was really curious to see how a sourdough crust would measure up against a yeast-based crust so, for my first dough, I used the sourdough crust recipe that I wrote about in my last post. I followed the recipe as written except that this time I let the dough rest overnight in the refrigerator hoping that the long rest period would allow the dough to develop a more complex sourdough flavor. For my second dough, I used this recipe from Cooks Illustrated. This is an unusual recipe in that it calls for cake flour. Cake flour has a very low protein content which makes it a soft flour - it is ideal for delicate pastries and cookies but not so great for breads and, one would presume, pizza crusts. According to the folks at Cooks Illustrated, the cake flour makes it easier to replicate the thin, crisp crusts found in Neapolitan pizzerias. Finally, I made the basic pizza crust recipe from How to Cook Everything but, to keep things interesting, I followed the variation that calls for replacing 1/2 cup of the flour with 1/2 cup cornmeal. I didn’t have any cornmeal on hand so I ground up some coarse polenta instead.

We made three different pizzas: Margherita (mozzarella and basil), Italian sausage and sweet pepper, and delicata squash with gorgonzola and sage. The sausage and the squash pizzas were the favorites as far as toppings, but I was mostly interested to hear which crust my family liked best. The Cooks Illustrated crust was immediately declared the loser of the three. It was (not surprisingly) much softer than the other two, and it didn’t have much in the way of flavor. The cornmeal crust and the sourdough crust both had better flavor and a pleasantly chewy, crunchy texture. Members of my family were split as to which they preferred. Most agreed that the cornmeal crust had the best flavor overall, but it was too gritty for some (my fault for using polenta instead of true cornmeal - had I used a finely-ground cornmeal, the cornmeal crust surely would have been the winner.) The sourdough crust, while not quite as flavorful as the cornmeal crust (despite my extra long rest period), did have a better texture. Next time I make pizza, I might just have to split the difference and try a sourdough-cornmeal crust!

I’ve been enjoying baking even more than usual since I got my hands on some sourdough starter. Yeast certainly has its place in the kitchen, but using sourdough starter makes me feel like a serious baker. I’ve used my sourdough starter to make sourdough loaves, rye bread, ciabatta and the very festive Red Wine Loaf with Pine Nuts and Figs that I made for the holidays. Last night, I decided to make a household favorite – pizza. Only this time, instead of my regular yeast crust, I thought I’d make a sourdough crust!

Simplicity is the key when it comes to pizza. The sourdough crust recipes that I found online were exceedingly simple: starter, flour, salt and olive oil. In fact, after all the baking I’ve been doing, I was kind of taken aback by their simplicity. Most recipes listed amounts in cups rather by weight. I’ve gotten really accustomed to bread recipes being by weight (a much more accurate way of measuring ingredients) so this really stood out to me. Even more surprising was the fact that they all simply called for “starter.” What kind of starter? 100% hydration? 50%? Fed with what type of flour exactly? I guess I’m turning into a bit of a baking nerd.

I generally keep my starter at 100% hydration which means that I feed it with equal parts water and flour (by weight.) Some people prefer to keep their starter on the firm side by feeding it with a higher ratio of flour to water. Obviously, the hydration level of your starter impacts the amount of additional flour needed to make dough which is why I was surprised to see so many recipes calling for generic “starter.” Starting with 1-1/2 cups of 100% starter as the base from which to build my dough, I mixed in just under 1-1/2 cups of bread flour, a bit of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. The dough seemed a little stiff so I added small amounts of water until I had a nice, soft dough.

Many of the recipes I read said that, for sourdough pizza crust, rising wasn’t required and that the starter was only added for flavor. I was dubious so I ignored those recipes and let my dough rise anyway - seeing dough rise is one of my favorite aspects of baking! I put my dough together after work and, by the time dinner rolled around, it had nearly doubled in size. As I was rolling the dough out, I was struck by how much more elastic it was than my regular yeast dough. On the one hand, this was great because I was able to really stretch it thin without fear of ripping a hole in it. On the other hand, the elasticity made rolling it out pretty difficult – the dough really wanted to snap back into place. Eventually, I got it to relax (and I got the benefit of a workout in the process.)

I added my toppings: roasted red bells, olives, and Italian Field Roast. Then I baked my pizza on a hot stone in the oven. 12 minutes later, I had a crunchy, bubbly, beautiful pizza! Although the dough was made with sourdough starter, it didn’t have a sour flavor at all. You really have to work at developing that sour flavor and 2 hours of rise time isn’t going to do it (refrigerating the dough overnight would probably work.) The crust had a nice clean flavor and a good contrast of crunchy bottom and chewy interior. Robert said he could detect a difference between this and my yeast crust. I think both are good, with the sourdough crust having a slight edge over the yeast crust simply because it was easier to put together.

Click here for my Sourdough Pizza Crust recipe >>

For shame, I’ve gone nearly two months without a winesday post! Now that the holidays and snowpocalypse are over and done with, I have no more excuses - it’s time to get back to a normal schedule including regular winesday posts. This week’s wine is a Siegerrebe from Whidbey Island Winery. Siegerrebe (“victory vine” in German) is a white wine grape that was developed in Germany in the 1920’s. It is a cross between Gewürztraminer and Madeleine Angevine. Like its predecessors, this grape thrives in cooler climates. Besides Germany, Siegerrebe is grown in England, British Columbia and in the Puget Sound Appellation of Washington State.

Siegerrebe grapes are notable for their tendency to reach very high must weights (a measure of the amount of sugar in grape juice.) In fact, Siegerrebe holds the record for the highest must weight ever recorded in Germany. Naturally, Siegerrebe wines can be quite sweet, a popular characteristic among German wines. Siegerrebe wines from the Puget Sound region typically contain smaller amounts of residual sugar and thus have only a slight edge toward sweetness. Siegerrebe wines are pale yellow to golden in color and have aromas and flavors reminiscent of Gewürztraminer - think floral and spice. Flavors include honey, apricots, pears, lychee nuts and soft spices such as clove and anise. These wines are great paired with fruits, cheeses or mildly spicy Asian curries.

For dinner, I made Spaghetti Squash with Indian Spices using the last of my farmer’s market squash. Mustard seeds, ginger, cumin and serrano chilies turn this otherwise bland squash into a flavor-packed treat. I served the squash with a creamy shrimp curry, baby basmati rice, and steamed green beans. The mild spices in the squash and curry were a great match for the spicy Siegerrebe. True to the nature of Siegerrebe, this wine was highly aromatic and just a tad sweet. It was a nice wine, and I particularly love that it is local. When Robert and I take our annual trip to Toby’s Tavern this year, we might just need to stop by Whidbey Island Winery for a tasting on our way home - they have a rhubarb wine there that I’m dying to try!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s holiday. This New Year’s Eve, Robert and I headed out for drinks at Licorous followed by dinner at Lark. While our meal at Lark wasn’t quite as mind-blowing as last year’s, there were still plenty of highlights: an ultra-creamy blue cheese from Rogue Creamery, a duo of caviars (arctic char and sturgeon,) mussels cooked with morcilla sausage and kale, and an amazing quince tarte tatin served with nutmeg ice cream. Then, like I do every year, I came home and fell asleep before midnight (this time I almost made it - I was up until 11:45!)

I may have missed out on the fireworks & late-night reveling but the party wasn’t over just yet. For me, the real celebration happens on New Year’s Day because that’s posole day! Every year, I make a big batch of pork posole for New Year’s Day. Not only is it a delicious first food to have in the new year, it’s also the perfect remedy for anyone who might have partied a little too hard the night before. This year, my family came over to share in the posole feast. We started off with roasted squash quesadillas and mixed veggies with a dip that I made out of sour cream, pumpkin seeds, cilantro, chilies and lime. Then, it was time for the main event - the posole! I keep my posole very simple: just pork, hominy and onions in a lightly seasoned broth. I cook it for hours so the pork is completely tender. On the side, I provide red chili, chopped white onions and white tequila for each person to doctor their posole with as they wish. This year’s posole seemed especially delicious, perhaps because I used the dried hominy that I got in Santa Fe. After dinner, we snacked on bizcochitos (courtesy of Robert’s mom in New Mexico) and took turns playing with my little nephew. It was the perfect way to ring in 2009!