Still a demon dish

They almost look alright don't they as they sit on our dinner table ready to be eaten last night? Even almost pretty good. But reader - alas - I failed yet again. Pizza is still my demon dish - perhaps I should say top demon dish - I have others. They look almost as good as the Smitten Kitchen version but obviously a long way away from the real deal on the right. But then I was never expecting to reach those heights. And actually, now that I look at all three, I'm wondering whether The Smitten Kitchen version might also not have been quite up to scratch.

Moreover I have leftovers - we had half of what you see here, and so there is another full meal to come. Which isn't that awful but no they were not good - not even as good as I have occasionally made before. Mostly because the base was doughy not crisp on the outside and puffy, and not bread-like in the middle. Definitely doughy.

So let me take you through it briefly with my thoughts on why it failed.

You may remember that I had to stop writing in the middle of my post to prepare the dough - I was already at least an hour behind Deb Perelman's 'quick' schedule. But I thought I might be just alright. So this was probably error number one.

I halved her quantities but it wasn't nearly as sticky looking as hers had been. Mine was definitely drier even though I had added at least a quarter of a cup more liquid than she suggested. So I suppose I could have added more? My yeast came straight from the fridge - does that matter? And I used baker's flour because that's what we have, but she did say that was OK. Nevertheless maybe that was all crucial. Smitten Kitchen on the left - mine on the right.

I left it to rise in the kitchen first of all, - it was a warm day - but since it was looking much the same as when it went into the bowl I put it outside where it was warmer - upper 20s yesterday. But still nothing going on. So in desperation I put it in my wonderful oven at it's 'dough proving' setting - 40ºC with steam and this did make a small difference. But nowhere near at least double the original size, whichit was supposed to be, and not nearly as stretchy. Smitten Kitchen on the left - mine on the right. Pretty solid looking isn't it?

Whilst the dough was proving I made a tomato sauce - I grated about six smallish tomatoes, before softening half a thinly slicef shallot in olive oil with some chopped thyme from the garden, and crushed garlic. The tomatoes were added with a bit of tomato paste and cooked down to a suitable consistency. I didn't purée it however, because I preferred it as it was.

I prepared the tin I was cooking the pizzas in by smearing with oil and sprinkling over some polenta. I divided my clumpy dough into two and stretched into two roughly oblong shapes - maybe too thick or too thin? - and covered them with the tomato sauce. Maybe this is what I do wrong? Too much tomato sauce? But I do love tomato sauce. Then salami for David, salami and anchovies for me, topped with grated mozzarella mixed with more chopped thyme and a little bit of parsley.

The oven had been cranked up to it's highest temperature - 240ºC - and a baking sheet put into the oven so that it was hot, hot, hot. And it was set to my oven's pizza setting - which is fan forced with the heat coming from the bottom.

And after almost 20 minutes they were done. Looking reasonable - even marginally tempting - albeit with no amazing puffiness. Maybe a few minutes more would have made a difference - a bit more charring? A bit more puffiness? But now that I look at the Smitten Kitchen finished product, which obviously had much less tomato sauce, and no salami I notice that it's even paler than mine, and really not all that puffy. Moreover nowhere on her post does she have a picture of what it looked like inside as it were. Maybe hers was doughy in the middle as well in spite of all her protestations that:

"they were deeply flavored, complex like a great loaf of artisanal bread, and the texture was out of this world, the crust’s exterior crisp like a thin cracker, giving way to a stretchy interior."

Here's a pretty terrible photo of my finished pizza to show the interior, on my plate. I took it to show you how grimly, solidly doughy it was in the center, but I see that bit looks rather better than it actually was. And the salami became somewhat glued to the cheese, and so the topping sort of slid off the sauce.

Nice flavours, wrong texture. And actually I reckon cheddar is sometimes better than mozzarella - this was all mozzarella - the cheap solid kind with all the mouldy bits cut off which left me with a rubbery interior - as it should. I think cheddar doesn't clump together quite as much.

An interesting experiment but not to be tried again I think. I might go back to either the no-knead bread lady or Jamie/Gennaro, next time I feel like pizza.

YEARS GONE BY

March 10

2025 - Nothing

2024 - So ordinary

2023 - Camouflage or hidden?

2022 - Beauty for the street library?

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing 2019 - Nothing

2018 - Nothing

2017 - Bread pudding - coincidence - I almost wrote about this today. Good job I didn't.