Keep the pizza coming….

All stretched out and ready for action

Mushroom and basil and pepperoni

A thin and crispy pizza. Think I am getting the hang of this now. Thanks for the recipe Abby! I like this one. This one was made with dough that had sat in the fridge for 48 hours previously. Baked at a scorching 260 C in my little oven at the weekend.

Edit : Abby says it’s ok to post the recipe so here goes with my version of it: This makes enough for 5 225g pizzas.

680 g strong bread flour (I ran out of strong bread flour so added in some soft plain flour to make up the weight about 200 grams)
12 grams salt
3 grams instant yeast ( I used active instant yeast and I think I should have used a bit less as it’s more potent than regular instant yeast)
Sugar or honey or agave if you like (just a bit)
482 grams water, at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

Combine all ingredients  at least the night before you want to have pizza. Mix to a rough dough, leave for 20 minutes and then knead lightly either by hand or machine till you get a smooth dough which Abby describes as being somewhere between sticky and tacky.
Put a little oil on a work top. Move the dough onto it. Coat your hands lightly with oil and stretch and fold the dough. Divide the dough into 5  225 gram pieces and round into balls. Figure out how to keep them in the fridge till you need them. I put mine in little plastic pudding bowls with snap on lids, which I had lightly oiled.  Abby used freezer bags which she misted with oil.

I didn’t use the dough for 48 hours, by which time it was pushing the lids of the tubs in the fridge.

I took the dough out about an hour before I used it. It was a very warm day, so you might need to take the dough out earlier if it is cooler.

I shaped the dough into pizzas using a floured worktop, some people do it with oil but I find flour easier, providing you use the minimum you need. I flatten the dough a little with the palm of my hand and then reshape it into a tightish boule. Leave it to rest for 15 minutes or so while I organise the toppings and put the oven on as hot as it gets and put the kiln shelf in ( my equivalent of a bread stone currently).

Then I start stretching the dough. I flatten the boule to a smallish circle and then drape it over my fist and see how far I can stretch it that way before I panic. Forgot to say, I use fine semolina on the peel so that when you shove the peel into the oven, the pizza should slide off as if it’s on ball bearings.  So I carry on stretching the pizza dough out, leaving a lip round the edge. This dough got a bit too thin in the middle, so I sprinkled or shook the tomato sauce over the dough with one of those silicon pastry brushes, rather than drag the brush across the surface and risk ‘holing’ it. Then added toppings, mozarella slices, mushrooms, italian pepperoni,  as above and baked for about 7 minutes.  I added the basil and  a drizzle of olive oil after the pizza came out. Apparently you can freeze the dough too and I will try that and see how it goes.   I met Abby through Mellow Bakers, we are having a great time. If you fancy having a go at French bread or bialys or some heavy duty rye bread that’s what we might be doing this month coming… or not… depends how we feel :)

I’ve got one more pizza crust recipe to try as well that Oggi recommended… that one uses ice cold water.

First Dip in Henleaze Lake

No excuse today, temperatures soaring, so I walked the dogs first thing and then dug out my swimming kit and have just come back from an hour of heaven messing about in the Lake.

Ironically I lived here for four years before I worked out that the lake I had read about in wonderful Waterlog by Roger Deakin was …..

…… less than five minutes away and just behind the woodland where the wild garlic and elder grow and the dogs play most days. A quarry originally, with steep rocky sides, a few ducks, full of pike and other fish. The anglers have half the lake, the swimmers the other half.  You wouldn’t dream you were so close to the centre of such a big city as Bristol when you float in the middle of the lake, weightless and relaxed.

We swam in the Thames when I was little, usually ballasted in elderly yellow lifejackets, clutching at boat ropes, trying not to swallow the oily diesel floating in rainbows on the surface of the water.

We swam a little in Lake Malaren when we were holidaying in Sweden,  a cold and northerly lake, and I can count on one hand the number of swims I had in Loweswater in the Lake District, as our summertime visits to my father rarely coincided with hot weather and the lakes are deep and very cold.

Zeb has a midsummer swim In Loweswater

So I don’t rate as the most intrepid wild water swimmer, but when the water temperature is around the 20 C mark, my thoughts turn to a cool airy swim outdoors.

No chlorine, no lanes;  the sound of other swimmers laughing and playing absorbed by the willow trees, a huge elemental space,  fresh water, a warm breeze on your shoulders, blue sky, swifts scissoring overhead,  shadow and sunlight, what else do you need?

Edit: I’ve edited this post to include a picture of the lake that I took in the summer!

Around and about (1)

The nuts are on their way…

In the garden the catkins have been replaced by nuts…

The second batch of ‘cold’ steeped elderflower cordial

On the kitchen window is the second lot of cordial, made differently from the first. Time will tell if they fizz, bubble, explode…. how exciting !

As inspired by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Jars of this and more tomato things are looking for a home on the shelves of the garage following Brian’s purchase of 12 kg of tomatoes the other week.

A rolled up babka thingy

One bit of test baking that sort of worked. But I can’t give you the recipe….

The lime trees are flowering….

I am going to  harvest some of the flowers and make my own linden blossom tea this autumn.  Lime trees, beloved of town planners for their sticky sap which stops people parking under them, and a great and glorious tree when left unpollarded like this one at Ashton Court.

American Readers please note : this isn’t a citrus lime tree (Citrus aurantifolia), but a tree also known as a small-leaved lime, one of the family of tilia trees and yes they get big! In England the tilia are commonly called lime trees. This is not confusing for English people as we don’t have citrus trees growing outdoor as you do in the USA, only a few in conservatories behind glass. I have just had a little scoot around and in the US they are usually known as linden trees. The tea made from the blossom of this tree is variously known as limeflower blossom tea, limeflower tea, linden tea, tilleul in French. Widely drunk in Europe, (Proust et al) and it is one of the safest teas to drink in the herbal range. I have some lovely scent from Jo Malone which is lime blossom too. You could say I am a bit of a limey :)