Ohio Valley style - DiCarlo's Pizza recipe

Ohio Valley style - DiCarlo's Pizza recipe:

Dough

Bread flour 1# (get your kitchen scale and weigh it) (454 g)

Water 1.25c (295 g)

Active dry yeast 1/4 tsp

Salt 2 tsp

Sugar 3/4 TBSP

My first attempt I will use warm water with the sugar and a little flour in it for a slurry, add the yeast, then let it bubble up over 1/2 hour of so.  Then add this to the remaining ingredients and combine until it forms what I hope to be a nice dough ball.  Then I will put it in the fridge to slow rise for a day or two until I decide to make the pizza.  That day I will take it out and let it come to room temp before stretching to the dimensions of the pan.

Sauce

96 oz crushed tomatoes w basil

2 cloves garlic

1/2c finely diced onion

1/2c finely diced green bell pepper

1/4c EVOO

This is a bit different proportion wise from the one on the pizzamaking.com site, but I wanted a little more robust sauce.  What Italian uses 2 garlic cloves in a sauce made from 450oz sauce?  None I know of. 

So, I sweated the garlic, peppers and onions in olive oil for 10min or so until the onions were translucent, then added the tomatoes, brought it up to temp then simmered on low for 4 hours.  I plan to can what extra I have (10# pressure for 20 min). 

Cheese

Krogers sells a generic "Pizza Cheese that is probably 75% mozzarella and 25% provolone and romano.  This is actually a pretty good cheese.  To get that weird granular quality rather than the long strings of cheese I froze the 32oz (2#) of the cheese and then put it in the cuisinart food processor and pulsed it until I got the consistency I was looking for. Then I let the cheese come to room temperature.

Pepperoni

Went with Hormel.  Use whatever one you like best.

Baking

Here's where there is a departure between what I had ever done before and what I leaned at pizzamaking.com.

Put your large rectangular baking stone into the oven and preheat to 525 degrees.  Yep.  You heard that right.  For 1 hour prior to baking!  This gets the stone super hot and ready to crisp the bottom of the pizza.  1 used an 11x17 well broken in aluminum baking pan that I bought some time ago at Sam's Club in their industrial food section.  I rubbed it down with a paper towel soaked with olive oil then stretched the dough to fit the pan.  You could roll it out then slide it into the pan as well.  I made sure the crust edge went up the side of the pan and went flush with the top of edge of the baking sheet.  Then I spread the sauce out onto the dough.  Slide the baking sheet onto the baking stone.  I have it in the upper third of the oven.  You may want it higher or lower.  I found 20min browned the crust edges and got the sauce pretty hot.  Remmeber I am living at 2000ft so if your altitude is different you will need to adjust your baking time.  Take the pizza out of the oven and spread your granular cheese over top of it.  Then spread out your pepperoni.  I thought I might have to cover it to get that melty cheese thing going but as it turns out that was unnecessary - I turned out just fine on its own.

The result?  It's not perfect yet.  The sauce ended up maybe a little too robust, but for me that was fine.  One could easily adjust down some of the ingredients.  I like a little garlic salt on mine afterward.  Please try the recipe and let me know what you think.  I am just starting out here so any and all help and adjustments to the recipe are welcome.

THE PANS

If you want to locate those 16 x 16 pans, they can be procured from
The Twin Team
Twin Supply Inc
866-630-4747
www.twinsupply.com

Ask for 16 x 16 x1 Tapered design BLACK steel, reinforced heavy gauge steel wire.
$32.00 per pan, plus shipping and handling
This item is not on their web site, please call and order on the phone"



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Quick and Easy Fudge Brownies Recipe | King Arthur Flour There, fixed it for you!

Quick and Easy Fudge Brownies Recipe | King Arthur Flour: There, fixed it for you!

Ingredients

• 1 cup (120 g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 1 cup (90 g) natural cocoa, Dutch-process cocoa
• 2 cups (400 g) sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt*
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional; for enhanced chocolate flavor
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons, 4 ounces, one stick) butter, melted
• 1/4 cup (50 g) vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• *Increase the salt to 1/2 teaspoon if you use unsalted butter.
• 1/2 to 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 to 1 cup pecan pieces
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut chips (Trader Joe's)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.
2. Put all of the ingredients (up to the add-ins) into a large bowl in the order in which they're written. Stir, then beat the mixture until it's smooth.
3. Stir in the add-ins (chocolate chips, pecans, coconut) until coated.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
5. Bake the brownies for 25 to 30 minutes, or until they're just barely beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.
6. Remove the brownies from the oven; let them cool completely before cutting. Store any leftovers, well-wrapped, at room temperature for 5 to 6 days. Freeze for longer storage.

Noodles Optional Vegetable Lasagna/Casserole

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Vegetable Lasagna Recipe.

Ingredients

No-Cook Tomato Sauce (Alternative: Trader Joe's Marinara works pretty well...)

• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes (I also added small can Cento Diced in puree - I like sauce!)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves , minced (or a combination with garlic powder if preferred)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon (or more) red pepper flakes

No-Cook Cream Sauce

• 6 - 8 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (2 cups) We used Gran Padano, but I'd use Fulvi next time!)
• 1 cup whole milk cottage cheese
• 1 cup whole milk ricotta
• 1 cup heavy cream  1/2 cup half & half
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• (Adding ricotta, because mom used to and this needs more of the creamy cheese filling)

Vegetable Filling

• 1 1/2 pounds eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 7 cups)
•   Kosher salt and ground black pepper
• 1 pound zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
• 1 pound yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
• 1 bulb fennel, sliced and diced
• 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced (or garlic powder)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme 
• Added fresh chopped parsley, oregano, rosemary, and basil from garden this time - very good addition)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• Optional: ½ - 1 tablespoon of Italian herb seasoning (if you don't have the fresh stuff above)
• 8 - 12 ounces diced mushrooms, sauteed in EVOO to dry
• 12 ounces baby spinach (about 12 cups) (Other greens, even kale if finely chopped, work too. Used beet greens including stems and it was great.)
• 12 -16 ounces whole-milk mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 3 cups) (or provolone or mixture)

Instructions

• Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
• 1. FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE: Whisk all ingredients together in bowl; set aside.
• 2. FOR THE CREAM SAUCE: Whisk all ingredients together in bowl; set aside.
• 3. FOR THE FILLING: 
• Toss eggplant with 1 teaspoon salt in large bowl
• If adding fennel, toss it in with the eggplant
• Microwave eggplant (and fennel), uncovered, until dry to touch and slightly shriveled, about 10 minutes, (longer if adding fennel) tossing once halfway through to ensure that eggplant cooks evenly. Drain excess water from bowl. Let cool slightly.
• Toss with zucchini and squash.
• Combine 1 tablespoon oil, garlic, and thyme in small bowl (optional).
• Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large enamel on cast iron dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.
• Add dash of red pepper flakes to oil to taste and skip additional balck pepper from here on out if you like)
• Add half eggplant/fennel/zucchini/squash/herb mixture, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are lightly browned, about 15 minutes. (cook more rather than less to avoid excess moisture in the lasagna at the end. If you're adding the noodles, not so much!)
• OPTIONAL(Karen tells me to go easy on the garlic so I omit this step.) Push vegetables to sides of skillet; add half of garlic mixture to clearing and cook, mashing with spatula, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir to combine garlic mixture with vegetables and transfer to medium bowl. 
• Repeat with remaining eggplant mixture, 2 tablespoons oil, and remaining garlic mixture.
• Add mushrooms to vegetable mixture.
• 5. Return skillet to medium-high heat, add remaining teaspoon oil, and heat until shimmering. Add spinach and cook, stirring frequently, until wilted, about 6 minutes. Chop spinach. Stir into eggplant mixture.
• 6. TO ASSEMBLE: Remove vegetable mixture from Dutch oven and then use it to assemble;:
• Spread 1 cup (+) tomato sauce in bottom of baking dish;
• Layer of raw lasagna noodles (optional)
• Spread half of vegetable mixture over sauce then
• half of cream sauce, and 
• 1 cup of mozzarella.
• Layer of raw lasagna noodles (optional)
• Repeat layering 1 (+) cup tomato sauce,
•  remaining vegetables, 
• remaining cream sauce, and 
• 1 cup mozzarella.
• Layer of raw lasagna noodles (optional)
• Spread remaining 1 (+) cup tomato sauce over noodles and 
• sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella.

Cover this tightly with oiled parchment paper then aluminum foil then oven lid.

Bake until bubbling, about 60-70 minutes (or more).

Cool 25 minutes and serve.