Author: jeff

Doughnuts

Savory Doughnuts

jeff 38 Comments

This week is Chanukah and it is all about frying our food, which brings me great joy. I am constantly trying to come up with something new to add to our menu of latkes, jelly doughnuts and all the other traditional fare. These savory doughnuts were inspired by the fried pizzas I had in Naples. We ate them as snacks during the day, to tide us over to the next pizza. Most of the pizzarias sold them outside their front doors to people waiting in long lines or folks on the run. Pizza dough stuffed with ricotta and deep friend; simple, but perfect. My boys love them stuffed with a variety of fillings, so use your imagination and create your own savory doughnuts. Read More

challah

Braided Flatbread Challah

jeff 35 Comments

An interviewer recently asked me, “what’s new in your pizza & flatbread book that you didn’t already cover in “Artisan Bread…” and in “Healthy Bread…”?  My answer:  A lot!  Like how ’bout this Braided Challah Flatbread that requires zero resting time before it goes into the oven?  Braided enriched loaves like these are integral parts of many holiday traditions– Finnish Pulla, Swedish St. Lucia’s Bread, Jewish Sabbath bread, and others.  So this busy holiday season, you can be ready with super-fast festive loaves like these.  Detailed photos ahead… Read More

stuffed naan

Stuffed Naan

jeff 35 Comments

One of the most popular recipes from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is our version of naan. It is a non-traditional way of creating the classic Indian flatbread, and it is incredibly fast and tasty. In Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day we decided to one-up ourselves and create a stuffed naan, made from a dough that has a slight tang from the addition of yogurt. This aromatic flatbread is filled with cilantro and onions, then baked until golden on a hot stone. When it comes from the oven we slather it in ghee and serve it hot. You’ll want to make several, because they go fast and they are as good hot as they are cold. Read More

Pizza with ricotta, arugula, eggplant, and tomato. Lots and lots of vegetables.

jeff 9 Comments

This was lunch today.  If you want to get more vegetables into your diet (or sneak it into someone else’s), pizza is the way to do it.  Nobody ever turns down homemade pizza.  Here’s a vegetable pizza with lots of arugula baked right in, so this is different from what we did with arugula in the book (using it raw as soon as the pizza comes out of the oven)… Read More

Corrections to first printing of Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day

jeff 15 Comments

These errors snuck through, for Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day:

Page 52, first line:  To freeze a prebaked pizza crust… (page XX) should read (page 48)

Page 72 (Ingredient list for Crisp-Yet-Tender Pizza Dough Even Closer to the Style of Naples):  Lukewarm water amount should be 3 3/4, not 4 3/4.

Page 73 Our description of 00 flour is not quite right, the flour is actually not a low protein flour, it is very finely ground and creates a wonderfully chewy and crisp crust.

Page 91 (Corn Masa Dough) The Corn Masa amounts are wrong for the weights. The correct number should be 6 3/4 ounces or 195 grams, not 13 ounces or 365 grams.

Page 95 (Rustic and Hearty Rye Dough), last line:  Use 8 cups whole grain flour, not dough.

Page 174, Step 2 (Thick-Crusted Sicilian-Style Pizza with Onions):  Dough thickness should read “a 1/2-inch-thick rectangle,” not “a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle.”

Page 251 (Intro paragraph for Challah Dough):  Omit (450 degrees F) from Line 6

Secrets of Sicilian Style Pizza Crust

jeff 36 Comments

(photo Mark Luinenburg)  Growing up in New York in the 1960s and 70s, there were two options when you walked into a pizza place:  “regular” (thin-crust) baked right on the hearth, or “Sicilian” (thick-crusted), baked in a pan.  I’m fairly certain I didn’t know where Sicily actually was, and my parents were partial to “regular,” so that’s what we got.  Eventually I started going by myself and tried the chewier, thicker stuff.  It’s a hit with kids, and for many of our readers, a pan-built pizza is an easier trick than the traditional free-form pizza slid off a peel (see Zoe’s post on that). 

But first, we have a winner… of the pizza baking giveaway package from October 25.  The winner, picked randomly from among nearly 800 entrants is:  Dave W, who favors a soppressata, peppadew, and onion creation.  Dave, just answer my e-mail and we’ll ship out the package…

OK, here’s how to make the perfect Sicilian crust. 

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Pizza

Pizza Margherita! (CONTEST IS CLOSED)

jeff 801 Comments

Today our new book is finally available and we couldn’t be happier to welcome Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day into our happy family. We are so excited for you to get baking from it, so we’re posting one of our favorite doughs from the book. I have to admit it took us a while to decide which one to share, since our favorite seems to change with our moods. This Olive Oil Dough is fantastic for a thin crust, a thick crust and so many of our worldly flatbreads. No matter the technique you decide to try, you’ll love the results.

We like to make the classic Pizza Margherita, it’s the ultimate in Italian toppings. In fact, the colors resemble the Italian flag and the pizza was named for the Italian queen, Margherita, because she fell in love with it. Nothing but tomato, mozzarella, fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil. So pure and so tasty.

We want to invite you to visit us while we are on book tour. To find dates and cities please visit our Events page. Hope to meet you! Read More

Finally received our Chinese copies of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

jeff 22 Comments

Chinese version of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

We have been waiting for what seems like a year to get this book in our hands!  We’re so pleased that readers in mainland China can now buy this version, in simplified Chinese characters.  We know that many of you have been coming to this website with questions about the English version, and of course, we support all versions of our books here on the site.  This new edition, published by Thinkdom Media Group in China, joins the British version published last year as the second international printing of our books, and the first translation.  A Japanese version is in the works and will be published in the next year or so…

But the constant preoccupation these days is our upcoming Book Tour to promote Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, which will be released on October 25, 2011.  We’re hitting as many as 12 cities, and some of that schedule is already posted on our Events page.  But more about the Chinese translation of Artisan Bread…

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