I tried my hand at Anita's bread and pizza because Anita and James shared their bread recipe with me. I decided to 'have a go' and make a pizza first and then bake a couple of bread loaves! It was SUPER tasty and quick and easy to make!
Read on to See How My Bread and Pizza Turned out... :-)
UPDATE: Anita asked me how the pizza making went, and I told her to have a look at the page you're reading now... and she kindly pointed out that I had not followed her directions—see below!
Anita uses non-stick parchment paper!!! I DO WISH I'd read that earlier. She cuts paper to fit the baking stone, puts the dough on it and lets it rest for 20 minutes THEN Anita bakes the EMPTY crust for about 2 to 3 minutes... and then removes the parchment paper from underneath the crust.
Remember to add the water here in the oven—and I need to add here: be careful what container you use as I shattered my Pyrex glass dish due to NOT having water in it and letting it heat up empty (sigh) so now I've got a tin-foil pie crust pan in there for the water!
NOW it's time to add the toppings after the crust has finished baking. I can't wait to report back to let you know how the spatula remedy worked this time!
My hubby just walked by and said "that was your baseline pizza Susan!" :-) Also, Anita says to add the sauce first, then the cheeses, then the toppings! I'll get it right next time! Look here! I did it right this time: Anita's Pizza Take-Two!
Here's the dough. See pictures below, just after mixing and then two hours later.
Anita kindly shared her bread recipe! Check out Anita's hubby James' newfound passion: he modifies campers!
The photo above shows the rolled out dough for the pizza crust, then the spatula dusted with ground-up oatmeal, and then the crust with the edges rolled in to keep the sauce from rolling out!
Almost ready for the oven! Just need to add three cheeses: about 4 oz. of grated medium Cheddar, maybe 2 oz. of grated Parmesan, and about 3 oz. of Mozzarella. This is what I had on hand in the 'fridge.
I put lots of homemade sauce, with some re-hydrated peppers, and mushrooms on the pastry BEFORE I added the cheese. Of course, you can use fresh peppers and mushrooms too! :-)
Into the oven it went... with a bit of a battle, but eventually I won. But it wasn't a pretty sight. And the photo on the right (above) is what it looked like 20 minutes later!
My husband had all that for his lunch—he deserved it, though. He'd been out mowing the grass for hours on end. I ate the scrunched/messed up part from forcing it OFF the darned spatula... I'm not brave enough to show that mess here! :-)
Here's Anita's bread, and I wrote and asked her if I should have kneaded the bread at all? Answer: "No"—so how easy is that? She said to just "mix it well, and then let it sit for two hours."
Even I can do that!
Here is the bread after its two-hour wait, then lightly floured on top so I could score it. It's now ready for the oven! I decided to "bake" the stone for a short while so it could get really warmed up.
Please note: I only used HALF of the ingredient amounts from Anita's recipe, as it was my first time making it. (Half the ingredient amounts made this one loaf AND the pizza! Yummy.)
Susan Gast began Easy Food Dehydrating in December 2010. Read Susan's story of what sparked her interest in all things related to "food dehydrating."
She is featured on Mother Earth News blog, and on Solo Build It (SBI) who host this site. Read her first SBI interview, and her second SBI interview.
Since 1980, Susan's involvement in publishing - in one form or another - led her to create a "review site" of products related to the publishing industry. Visit ePubTechReviews today, also hosted by Solo Build It. Susan also runs her namesake site SusanGast.com on Solo Build It that showcases the books she has written since 2010.
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