Hangover Pizza on Canada Day

Yesterday both Wil and I woke up pretty hungover.
The reason for that was a night full of art, hanging out with friends, dancing to BritPop, 80ies music and rock n roll, and, yep, DRINKING TONS OF BOOZE.
Well I actually did not drink that much.
But Wil, who had an art opening and had been working his cute ass off for the last couple of weeks, rewarded himself with plenty of beers and cheap whisky.
In order to cure his massive hangover and to properly celebrate Canada day I decided to make pizza.
Okay, okay, pizza is not really a Canadian thing. I didn't even manage to make it American style with a deep pan crust.
But, come on, who doesn't love pizza?

For the dough I just mixed


15-20g yeast with
1tsp of salt, 
a dash of sugar, 
1tbsp of good olive oil and
210ml of warm water

Then I slowly kneaded in


350g bread flour (special flour for yeast dough)

After kneading the dough for at least 5 minutes I put it into a bowl which I covered with a damp towel and placed it somewhere warm so the dough could rise.
After one hour the dough volume had doubled and was ready to become a proper pizza!

I rolled it out on a baking sheet as thin as I could (which really wasn't that easy...) and brushed the top  with my homemade tomato sauce.

For the tomato sauce I chopped 

one onion and 

two garlic cloves

and fried them in a pan with 

2 tbsp of olive oil

Then I added about 

2 tbsp of tomato puree

150-200 ml of red wine

1 big can of canned tomatos (700g?)

Then I seasoned everything with

sugar

salt

pepper

a dash of hot sauce

a handful of chopped basil leaves

dried oregano

I poured everything into a blender and mixed it until I had a smooth tomato sauce.

After that I poured the sauce back into the pan and let it simmer on low heat for almost an hour in order to reduce the liquids and make it a thick sauce.

What went on the pizza

For the pizza topping choose whatever you like.

I used:


bacon (CANADA DAY!!!!)
mushrooms
black olives
buffalo mozzarella
Gruyere
pine nuts
basil




I baked it for about  25 minutes at 200°C.
Make sure to add the basil a bit later, after about 15 minutes.
Otherwise it burns.

I topped my pizza off with some arugula...

proud & happy

hungry & hungover

...then went back to bed and watched animal documentaries with pizza and the man.

PS: 

I have to admit, the pizza dough didn't turn out as perfect. It was a little too dense and hard.
If anyone knows the secret for the perfect pizza crust, let me know!!!
Feel free to leave me a message.
I'm happy for any advice.

there was a beautiful sunset, too...only for Canada Day!

Hefezopf (braided sweet yeast bun)

Baking with yeast has always been like Russian roulette for me.
Sometimes the dough turned out perfectly soft and fluffy, but more often it was tougher than concrete.

Luckily the April issue of German food magazine Essen&Trinken has a special on how to make the perfect Hefezopf and therefore how to work the evil yeast dough.

The Hefezopf recipe is fantastic.
Besides the ingredients all you need is a stand mixer or a well trained biceps and stamina.

Ingredients:

250 ml warm milk

20g fresh yeast

75g sugar

1 large egg

1.5 tsp salt

500g bread flour  (NO all-purpose flour!)

75g soft butter

coarse sugar

flour for the worktop

Crumble the yeast into a bowl and mix with sugar and some of the warm milk until smooth.

Whisk the egg. Put aside 3 Tbsp of the egg-mix and set cool.

Add the rest of the egg and milk such as salt and flour to the yeast,sugar, milk-mix and knead it with the dough hooks attached to the stand mixer (hopefully) on lowest speed for approx. 3 minutes. 

Increase the speed and knead for another 5 minutes. 

Cube the butter.Thoroughly knead butter cubes into the dough. 

On highest speed knead another 5 minutes.

Cover the bowl with a damp towel and in a warm place let it rise for about an hour.

On a lightly floured worktop knead the dough with your hands and divide it into 3 equally sized pieces.

Cover them up and let them sit for 10 minutes. 

Roll them out into three strings of approx. 40cm of length, very loosely braid them and put the now "Hefezopf" on a baking paper covered baking sheet. 

Again cover the whole thing and let it sit and raise for another 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas 3).

With a brush apply the remaining egg-mix on the Zopf, sprinkle it with the coarse sugar and bake it for 25 minutes. Check after 15minutes. You might want to cover the Zopf with tinfoil to prevent it from getting too dark.  

Best when served warm on a sunny afternoon!

PS: Here are a few tips and tricks on how your yeast dough turns out perfectly (also found in Essen&Trinken magazine).

1. Only use warm milk. Hot milk kills the yeast bacteria. Using cold milk will only extend the time for the dough to rise.

2. You have to be patient. If the dough hasn't doubled its size after one hour, let it sit a bit longer  (I waited for two hours) 

3. Use bread flour. It contains more gluten than all-purpose flour and by retaining gas it helps the dough to rise.

4. Use fresh yeast.

5. Knead excessively and passionate!