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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Pizzaiolo

When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's amore...

....or it's the sound of a pizza dough slapping onto your face when you fail to catch it! Did you hear the sound of slapping across the globe? This month the Daring Bakers are up to the challenge of tossing, spinning, and slapping down the best pizza you've ever eaten. This month our Daring Baker Challenge was to make pizza like a real pizzaiola.

Our lovely hostess, Rosa at Rosa's Yummy-Yums certainly set the bar high for us. Rosa chose the Basic Pizza Dough from The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart.

We love pizza at our house. Every Friday we make pizza so this challenge was a welcome one. It also marked the first time I've made a challenge both gluten free and "glutenated" or straight from the original wheat flour recipe.

Original Pizzaiola PizzaThis pizza dough is made the day before and rests in the refrigerator to develop its' flavours. The dough is divided into six portions and spun crazily above your head to gently stretch it out. It is cooked in a very hot oven on a preheated pizza stone. The result is a lovely light crisp dough that is an absolute joy to eat.

Gluten Free

Gluten free dough doesn't have the elasticity of wheat dough. When you are making a gluten free bread, the dough is the consistency of cake batter. Any tossing of a gluten free pizza would be one big splat! Instead the dough is gently spread out between two layers of parchment paper.

For the gluten free pizza, I decided to recreate a family favourite Tuscan Schiacciata in a gluten free version.

The first layer of dough is gently spread out on parchment paper and covered with thinly sliced mozzarella cheese.

The cheese layer is covered with a layer of thinly sliced ham.

A second layer of dough is gently spread over parchment, then flipped over to cover the ham and cheese. (It pays to have a helper do the flipping with you) The parchment is gently peeled away. Some olive oil is spread on top and coarse salt is sprinkled over it.The schiacciata and the parchment paper are gently lifted and put onto the heated pizza stone. This will not work without the parchment paper underneath because the gluten free dough will not hold together.

The result is....

Gluten Free Tuscan Schiacciata

Lessons Learned:
1) Pizza Tossing is fun and should be considered a party activity.
2) Pizza Tossing really does stretch the pizza beautifully.
3) Pizza Tossing will never happen with gluten free dough.


Thank you Rosa for making us toss our pizzas and stretch our knowledge!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

mmmm your Tuscan Schiacciata looks sooo good!!
I think I am going to have to try to make that one of these days.

Anonymous said...

The "slap" heard 'round the world!!
Pizza dough tossing as a party activity, now that's my kind of party!!!!
Great job and may I please have any leftovers??

Anonymous said...

I am impressed with the gluten free pizza. My sister-in-law was just diagnosed with Celiac disease and I am always looking for recipes to make for her. Now I know exactly what to do. Great pictures, great job!

Anonymous said...

How beautifully arranged are those toppings? It looks like a pizza mosaic!

Jeanine - The Baking Beauties said...

Your pizzas look great, beautiful pictures! I love the GF version. Odd though, my dough was sort of dry. That is the first time I didn't have a cake batter consistency with a GF pizza crust. The taste was fantastic though!

Catie said...

drool...

Anonymous said...

Your pizza is beautiful! And that Tuscan Schiacciata looks divine :)

Anonymous said...

I've been thinking about making a filled or layered pizza dough... Now I'm inspired! Looks beautiful.

-Sea

Jenny said...

Very nice. Good idea. At least when I feel like eating again. :-)

Natalie, aka "Sheltie Girl" said...

You did a fabulous job on your pizza and all it's wonderful variations.

Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go

creampuff said...

Mary, that schiacciata has my name written all over it! Nice job!

Anonymous said...

Mmm. Pizza night Fridays sounds like a fun idea.. Looks like I'll be doing the same thing over here :)

Anonymous said...

I'm so impressed with all the GFs who tried this recipe. I loved tossing my dough. Hubby loved it too. So much so that he's asked to be allowed to do it again next time I make the pizza.
But wow that Schiacciata looks amazing! It might even be worth having missed out on the tossing.
Jane of VeganBits.com

Lesley said...

That's really cool, what you made.
And I agree with what you wrote on my site, this is a great pizza dough recipe.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Tuscan Schiacciata! why didn't I think of that? Since I didn't, could you send a nice slice or two my way tonight;)
Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Mmmmmm. If I ate corn and pork products, I'd be all over that Schiacciata! It looks amazing. And I love the coloring on your 'za.