Fork in the road

The Long Winding Road has been living on life support for awhile now with semi haphazard updates. That said I have been toying with the idea of changing directions with the blogs content. A week ago I decided to start up a "Cooking Circle" on Google+ (hence the fork in the road). Instead of posting to all my followers I set it up for only those who were interested in cooking/baking recipes and techniques. For the time being some of those posts will show up on here.

Best Regards,

-Dan

Mixing up the pizza idea.

Below is a note I had wrote on my Facebook page a long time ago, ok September 2009, I had forgot about. The note included some of my ramblings about making pizzas, which at that point I was just beginning to fall into that slippery slope of baking bread in a oven instead of a bread machine. That said enjoy my old-ish ramblings about making pizzas. As an aside I still use some of these techniques and ideas in my current baking. 

-Dan 

After baking bread often last year (my roommates can attest to the many different kinds loafs of bread) I tried to take it one-step further. What came about was well rather flat in one respect, fun, and unique in the other. It's amazing what one basic dough recipe can transform into when you take it a step further. When it comes down to it, I've learned more than my fair share of mixing flavors in baking pizzas. Talking to a few friends, most people say what makes a pizza is the sauce. I'll agree with that but for me that's not the pivotal point on a pizza. For me it's the Crust. Thin, Thick, Stuffed, or dessert or whatever way you like to throw it what goes into the dough it the one thing people will remember because it's "usually" the last thing their taste buds will remember. Therefore, here are a few tips I've come to live by through trial and error when making pizzas.

• NEVER, buy a pre-made or packaged instant crust
• If you’re going to add spices to a crust, know what the toppings on top and sauce are going to be and use spices in the crust to accent them.
• Adding a hard cheese (Parmesan, Romano, or Asiago) within crust can help make it softer
• Milk can add just the right amount of creamy texture
• don’t be afraid to mix a little of the sauce into the crust to bring out a little extra flavor and it's something most people never expect
• sugar or a sweetener is great but not in excess because you risk killing the yeast
• Sea salt over convention table salt
• Use bread flour not multipurpose because throwing will be 10X easier
• Don’t be afraid of trying something new because unique isn’t boring, it either a hit or back to the drawing board.