(Pizza) Muffins, they're not just for breakfast anymore!

Well, I did it. I made pizza muffins. It's amazing how a blizzard, and impromptu Superbowl party at my house, and no trips to the supermarket will spark the cooking imagination. Ok, fine, I have mentioned pizza muffins here before so I guess that wasn't imaginative, but Rob and I had homemade pizza the night before so I wasn't really in the mood to "just" have pizza again. I'm not sure if these are anything like what I vaguely recall making with my Dad, but they got rave reviews at the Superbowl party so I'm going to go with it.

First, you will need the dough recipe from here and the marinara recipe from here. You will also need grated mozzarella cheese, italian seasoning, crushed red pepper, olive oil, a muffin tin capable of making 12 muffins and Pam (or something like Pam). Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Take your dough and divide into 12 little balls (I was only able to make 11 muffins, but I was too generous with my early dough balls and I was too lazy to remeasure to get the 12th but I am positive you can easily get 12 muffins out of 1 dough recipe. I promise.). Take your rolling pin (or empty wine bottle) and roll out each little ball into little round dough circles. After spraying the muffin tin with Pam, press each little round dough circle down into the muffin openings. You want there to be a bit of dough sticking above the top of each opening. After your press down all the little dough circles, brush them with olive oil and, using a fork, make little holes all around each dough circle to better aerate while baking. Place the muffin tin in the oven to pre-bake the dough, they should be in the oven for just a few mins, you want the dough to be slightly baked, but the edges over the top of the muffin tin should still be malleable.

In each muffin, place a dollop of marinara sauce in the bottom, stuff in a bunch of mozzarella cheese, and sprinkle with italian seasoning and crushed red pepper. Next carefully fold over the dough edges into the middle of the muffin tin. place another dollop of marinara sauce on top of the edges and a little bunch of mozzarella. Place back into the oven until the dough looks slightly browned and the cheese on top is bubbly. The muffins should be nice and firm at the bottom.

I left out a little bowl of warmed marinara for a dipping sauce as well. These muffins only had cheese and sauce in them, but I am sure you could add pepperoni, mushrooms, salami etc to the muffin, though you might have to sacrifice a little cheese and that, my friends, would be a travesty.

A slight disclaimer: I didn't actually eat one of these pizza muffins. I had had pizza the night before and was well, pizza'd out after making dough and smelling pizza smells for two days. But really I was told they were quite yummy. Maybe Rich will post a comment to corroborate that last statement :-) Hi Rich!

And voila, that is what I made for my Superbowl guests yesterday!

When the moon hits your eye....

Let's talk about pizza. Pizza is wonderful. Pizza has cheese on it. Pizza can have pretty much anything you want on it. Making pizza dough is my earliest cooking memory; I think I was about 4 years old. I can remember vaguely making dough with my Dad, and then also making something called "pizza muffins" with the leftover dough.

I'm also from near New Haven, CT. The best pizza is from New Haven, CT (I'm a "Modern" person). In fact DC even has a "New Haven style" pizza restaurant, Pete's Apizza in Columbia Heights, their dough style tends more towards Sally's or Pepe's than Modern (they are saltier than I prefer, Modern slightly less salty), but it is definitely New Haven style. So I have spent a lot of time refining my pizza dough recipe. I have tweaked it many different ways; at this point I wouldn't say I'm done tweaking, but I'm pretty happy with where it is. This recipe will make enough dough for 2 thin crust pizza's or 1 thick crust.

Since we have switched to all whole grains here at Chateau Rob/Michelle, I have switched to a Whole Wheat pizza dough recipe. I also have been making dough for so long that I don't really measure out much stuff. I sort of eyeball things, I've given measurements that are about what I go for. For a few things I really do just use a pinch or a palmful, so try a pinch or a palmful, you can always change the amounts next time. For this recipe you will need: 1 1/4 cups warm water, 2 1/4 tsps Active dry Yeast (this is also the amount in 1 package of yeast), a pinch of sugar, 1/2 palmful of salt (preferably kosher), 2 glugs of olive oil, 1/2 cup unbleached white flour, 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 pizza pans brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with corn meal (not necessary if you don't have any), and whatever toppings you would like.

"Michelle, wait, what do you mean 1/2 cup unbleached white flour? I thought this was whole wheat dough?" Well here's the deal, whole wheat flour made into dough, all by itself, well it's a little dry. In my tweaking of this recipe, I found that adding 1/2 cup unbleached flour, well it cuts the dryness. Makes the dough better. Trust me or ask Rob he was on the receiving end of all of my attempts.

First up we are going to take the warm water and pour it into a large glass mixing bowl. Add the yeast to the warm water, stir it, and let it sit for a few minutes. I let it sit until a see a few bubbles, or I get a good yeast smell from the bowl. This step allows the yeast to "wake up". Side note: always keep your yeast in the refrigerator, keeps it fresher and livelier, longer. Back to the bowl of water and yeast, after you let it sit, add the sugar, salt and 1 glug of olive oil, stir to mix. Now it is time for the flour, I start by adding the unbleached flour first, and then immediately 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour. Mix it all up, the bowl will be a watery gloppy mess. Next we are going to add the rest of the flour slowly, about a 1/2 a cup at a time, stirring constantly. At some point you really won't be able to stir any longer. You're going to need to mix it with your hands; get in there and knead the flour into the dough. After you have kneaded in all the flour, we are going to let the dough rise, pour the 2nd glug of olive oil over the dough, put saran wrap over the top of the bowl and wrap in a towel, or with a couple of hand towels, place in a warm spot. In total the dough will need a little over an hour to rise. After about 45 minutes I usually punch down the dough and then let it rise for 30 mins more.

If your dough is not rising, you could try turning your oven on, and placing the bowl on top of the stove top by the back vent, it will be warmer there. If it still isn't rising, well the yeast might not have been good, or the water not warm enough. In this case I suggest you throw out your dough, go to your takeout menu drawer and call the nearest pizza place. If it is early enough in the evening you can try again.

After the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and split the dough in half. Lightly dust a clean counter top with flour and roll it out with a light floured rolling pin, or an empty wine bottle works just as well. You need to roll out the dough until it is slightly larger than the pizza pan you are using. While you are rolling out the dough, you should flip it over a few times. Once the dough is large enough place it on top of the pan, roll the edges over to form the crust. Then brush the dough with olive oil and using a fork aerate it. The aeration marks with keep the dough from bubbling when baking. Place the dough in the oven to pre-cook it for about 7 minutes. Yes 7 minute.

The pre-cooking will ensure that your crust can hold all of the toppings, and not be too limp. Now as for toppings, you can use whatever you would like, I'm personally fond of my marinara sauce, fresh basil, and buffalo mozzarella. Rob likes marinara, mushrooms, salami, and mozzarella. Be creative.

And voila, that is what I'm making for football watching tomorrow.