I recently started making pizza at home after nearly a decade since I last time I regularly did..

I have known for some time that it would be a very good thing if I eliminated all dairy products from my diet as they instantly cause mucus to form in my head and body..

In that vein I have been experimenting with pizzas that do not contain any cheese..Today I made two different thin-crust pizzas..

I pulled two 10" thin-crust pizza shells out of the freezer to defrost on a cooling rack while I prepared the toppings..

Both pizzas were baked on a 7/16" thick baking stone that had been pre-heated at 475F for 40 minutes..

Both pizzas started out by having the dough brushed lightly with a spicy green olive oil..

The first pizza consisted of a base of spicy uncooked tomato sauce topped with cooked, drained ground turkey that had Penzey's Turkish spices, salt, and ground ancho clilli powder added to flavor the meat..It was baked for 7 minutes at 475F..

The second pizza had a layer of pesto spread onto it, baked for three minutes at 475F, removed from the oven, topped with a mixture of carmelized green cabbage and yellow onions, sprinkled with diced bacon bits, and baked for a further 4 minutes..

Both tasted real good, although my favorite was the tomato sauce and ground turkey pizza..

I am curious as to how many other members here that might choose not to put cheese on their pizzas, and what combination of toppings that you use..

Of course, not to be prejudiced, I suppose I must ask those that make their pizzas with cheese what their favorite topping combos are..(tounge in cheek!!!!)

Thanks, Bruce

My family is originally from the Middle East (several generations ago) and it is pretty sad that every time I attempt to make Pita bread I do not get that classic hollow flat bread but instead I get something that resembles a puffy tortilla. Although there is nothing wrong with tortillas that is not really what I am after. What am I doing wrong? How do I get that classic pouch (for filling with falafel of course)? Does it have to do with the type of flour, or amount of time I knead it, or quantity of yeast? If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Also, if anyone has a great pita bread recipe please inform me of it. I recently made a sourdough starter and am wondering if it  is possible to make a sourdough pita?

I hate buying tortillas.  And I have found a recipe that I really like for flour tortillas.  I got it on here.  Someone posted it from I think Epicurious.  Anyway, I really like wrap sandwiches on the flavored wraps.  Has anyone made tortillas with flavoring?  I take it you would do the same thing you do to flavor pasta.  But how much herbs, or spinach, or tomato paste or whatever would you add?  Any ideas?

I am experimenting with rolling the pizza dough through my KA pasta roller attachment- and its quite interesting. I am aiming for a thin crusty result, and I may be on the right track. Has anyone else done this?  Obviously the pizza is oblong, not round.

Has anyone ever made anything like the Pretzel-thins at Trader Joes or the old snack, Mr. Phipp's Pretzel chips? I love dipping them in salsa, but I feel like I should be able to make it at home.

I've tried making them by using a preztel recipe and rolling out the dough, but they still puffed up enough that they weren't crunchy. I've also tried a lavash cracker (a la Reinhart) and then put it in a baking soda solution prior to baking, but the results were less than satisfactory.

I'm planning on doing a bit more of a rigorous experiment to make these, but I thought I would ask the collective wisdom of TFL before I got too far along. I'm thinking that my next attempt will use baking soda rather than yeast. Thanks all!

Tonight I tried two new pizza doughs out of Reinhart's American Pie.  Let me say YUMMY!!!  The crust on both were thin and very tasty.  I have not made dough that had that much flavor ever.  I made the Neo-Neapolitan dough as well as the Roman dough.  The Roman was thin and had a nice cruch to it.  My husband really likes thin crust and both of these delivered.  For all of the doughs in American Pie you make the dough the night before and retard over night in the fridge.  I made on mistake and used AP flour in the Neo dough instead of bread flour.  I am wondering is that is why I didn't really get a bigger crust.  But I am really anxious to try this dough out in my wood fire oven this weekend.  We are still curing it.  I cooked the pizzas in a 550 deg oven on tiles.  I am very happy about pizza night tonight.

Sorry the picture is not better.  I need to read the info on taking food pictures on this site.  Will work on it!

I have owned the book, Flatbreads and Flavors for some time now..I have been meaning to start making my own flatbreads at home, but for various reasons have put off doing so..

Last week I took the plunge and started with wheat flour tortillas..Because I am seldom happy with a recipe straight out of a cookbook, I naturally modified it to suit my mood and the ingredients I had on hand..

Bruce's Wheat Flour Tortillas ---- Yield = 12,  approximately 10" diameter tortillas

100g King Arthur white whole wheat flour

50g Lindley Mills organic whole rye flour

395g Gold Medal bread flour

5g table salt

75g I Can't Believe It's Not Butter stick margarine

25g Crisco vegetable shortening

250g water, 80F (approximately)

The flours and salt were added to a 7-cup food processor and pulsed several times to evenly combine the ingredients..The fats were added and pulsed for 20-30 seconds to cut them evenly into the flour mixture..With the food processor running, the warm water was added until a ball formed and moved around the bowl in one homogeneous mass..The dough should be slightly sticky..This amount of flour is really taxing a 7-cup food processor, not so much because of the weight of dough, but because the dough ball is too tall for the bowl..It should really be made in an 11-cup food processor, or by hand in a bowl..I recommend reducing the recipe by one fourth if using a 7-cup food processor..

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and hand knead for 1-2 minutes..Divide into 75g portions, which should yield an approximately 10" tortilla..Round each portion into a ball, then flatten the balls into approximately 3" rounds of dough..Cover with a non-scented plastic bathroom or tall kitchen garbage bag that has been scissored open to allow unfolding..Allow to rest for 30 minutes..Pre-heat a 12"-14" heavy cast iron or stainless steel skillet so that it is just below smoking hot..On a floured surface flatten the first dough circle as far as possible with the palm of a hand..Using a rolling pin and as much flour as needed to prevent sticking, roll out the tortilla as evenly as possible until it is approximately 1/16"-1/8" thick..These tortillas need to be thinner than one might think if you have never made tortillas before (these were my first!!!)..Too thick, and they will not cook properly in the skillet..

When the tortilla is thin enough, carefully transfer it using two hands to the skillet, taking care not to have any wrinkles, or overlapping dough..I rolled out the first couple of tortillas to fit my 10" cast iron skillet, which made them too thick..As a result, there were a dozen, or so, spots in the first two tortillas that were translucent where the dough had not fully cooked..I then set aside the 10" cast iron skillet for my 14" SS-aluminum-SS clad skillet..I rolled out the subsequent tortillas thinner, and larger than the first two..Voilla!!!..Problem solved!!!..

I gave up after the first two tortillas in trying to make perfect circles of rolled out dough..Too much angst in trying to make a perfect circle..The remaining tortillas were more, or less, about 10" in diameter..Most resembled Rorsach blobs in shape, but tasted divine..When the tortillas are rolled out to the proper thinness for quick cooking in the skillet, they will immediately bubble up as moisture (fat) pockets in the dough flash into steam..I found that an Ateco 10" offset icing spatula was the ideal tool to flatten out the air pockets in the tortillas so that they browned more evenly, as well as to lift the edges of the tortills to check for doneness..When the skillet was hot enough, the tortillas took about 30-45 seconds per side to cook through and brown properly..

I used a dinner plate covered with a folded over cotton tea towel to stack the tortillas as I cooked them..If I had been trying to keep them as hot as possible for immediate consumption I would have placed them inside a folded over clean cotton bath towel laid on a 1/2 sheet pan placed in the gas oven pre-heated to the WARM setting for 10 minutes, and then turned off..I cooled them on a wire rack, and then stored them in a 2-gallon zippered plastic food storage bag, which was ideal for this purpose..

I encourage anyone that has been wanting to make their own flour tortillas to do so..It is dead simple..You only need a bowl, a surface to knead and roll the tortillas on, and a skillet to bake the tortillas in that is large enough to cook the size tortillas that you want to make..All other tools are a luxury, although an 11-cup food processor is a real time saver for this size recipe..

I should have done this a LONG time ago..I cannot for the life of me think how I ever thought I would be harder than it turned out to be, but I did..Silly me!!!..

Bruce

Their thin crust is excellent, but it doesn't have much of a rise...I'm not sure what you'd compare it too, but just wondering if anyone has tried to make a similar type of crust?

thanks

I started this project last night and it culminated in pizza today. Yum. Probably the best pizza I've -ever- had. Fresh mozzarella and home-grown herbs on a soft, flavorful, chewy whole wheat crust.

The problem is that the dough recipe makes 5 personal-sized pizzas and there's only two of us. The recipe says that the dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours before using - but nothing about freezing. I'm not REALLY in the mood to have pizza two nights in a row. Can this yeasted dough be frozen? If so, what steps do I need to take to freeze it and thaw it before baking next time?

I've been making no knead breads and started using that method for ciabatta. I do however like adding non fat dry milk powder to my ciabatta dough. Can I add this when mixing, and keep it out 18 hours? Some recipes for ciabatta are 2 steps, adding other ingredients on day 2 and mixing. I want to avoid the second stage of using a mixer.

Rob