Pizza

Pizza. Neapolitan, grandma-style, deep dish, NY-style, Sicilian, montanara. It's all great. When you have a really good crust and sauce, you don't even miss the cheese. My favorite pizza is one with no toppings at all - the classic marinara ("Rosa") pizza from Co. in New York City. (Website: http://www.co-pane.com) Their pizza is neapolitan-style, with a thin, airy crust with a slightly burnt undercarriage, crushed tomato (not too sweet), garlic, chili, and oregano.

It's also pretty easy to make your own pizza, and fun too! Here are some photos from my latest pizza-making session.

Waiting for the dough to rise:



 



















Toppings:

 




















Ready to eat:

Recipe: Soft Pretzels

Mmm...pretzels...soft on the inside with a slightly browned exterior, sprinkled with sea salt and dipped in your favorite mustard. These pretzels are a breeze to make and you may even have all of the ingredients already on hand.

Makes 12 pretzels

Ingredients:

Dough

2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast (for those of you using packets, this is equal to 1 packet)

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used safflower)

Baking Soda Bath

3 tablespoons baking soda

2 cups hot water

Garnish

1-2 tablespoons salt (larger and coarser is better, as this is for the outside of the pretzels)

Instructions:

Proof the yeast. Stir the sugar into the 1 cup of warm water (not boiling, otherwise you'll kill the yeast). Add the yeast and whisk or stir heartily with a fork. Set aside for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, your yeast should develop a thick layer of foam on the top. If your yeast looks the same as when you left it and you don't see any foam, your yeast is dead and you should start over with new yeast.

Make the dough. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, and vegetable oil. Add in the yeast mixture and stir with a spoon until combined. Then, with your hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes. If you feel that the dough is too sticky to work with, add a little more flour (start with a tablespoon at a time). Once the dough is kneaded, form into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot for 1-2 hours (don't place on top of your oven; it will cook the dough). Your dough ball should double in size.

Once the dough has risen, divide it into 12 equal pieces. Since I am terrible at eyeballing things like this, I used a food scale to get my 12 pieces equal, but it's not required. Roll each of the pieces into a ball, place on a plate and cover with plastic wrap for 20 minutes. Each ball should expand a bit.

While the indiviudal dough balls are rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, line your baking sheets with parchment paper (I used 2 baking sheets; 6 pretzels on each), and make your baking soda bath. In a mixing bowl, combine the hot water and the baking soda. Stir to dissolve.

Take each dough ball and roll to a length of about 14-18 inches. Form into a pretzel shape. Take each formed pretzel and dunk into the baking soda bath. Place each pretzel on the baking sheet and sprinkle with large, coarse salt.

Bake for 15-20 or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes, then dip into your favorite mustard and enjoy!

Recipe: Banana Crumb Cake

Ingredients
Crumb Topping
1 1/2 sticks Earth Balance vegan butter, melted (equivalent to 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cake
3 very ripe mashed bananas
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 stick Earth Balance vegan butter, softened (equivalent to 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350º F. Line a 9x9 square pan with aluminum foil by draping 2 pieces of the foil in a criss-cross patten over the pan. This will allow you to lift the cake entirely out of the pan when it's finished. Lightly grease the pan (after foil is placed) with a little Earth Balance, cooking spray, or vegetable oil.

Make the crumbs. Whisk the warm, melted earth balance with the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add the flour and mix in (with spoons or hands). Set aside.

Make the cake. In another mixing bowl, mash the bananas really well with a fork. Then mash in the Earth Balance. Stir in the sugar, applesauce, and maple syrup until combined. Next, add in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Mix until just combined; do not overmix.

Spread batter into greased pan.

Break apart small pieces of the crumb mixture and add to the top. Cover the batter evenly with the crumbs.

Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350ºF. The crumbs should be slightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean.

Recipe: Minterdoodles

My husband asked me to create these one day when we were eating snickerdoodles. "Wouldn't it be great if there was chocolate in these? Ooh, and mint too! Snickerdoodle meets chocolate and mint. Like a...minterdoodle!" And the minterdoodle was born. I suppose you could call these mint chocolate cookies, but minterdoodle is just more fun to say.

Makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup vegan margarine (I used earth balance buttery sticks)

2 tsp peppermint extract

2 1/4 tsp Ener-G egg replacer

3 tbsp hot water

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions

Beat the sugar, margarine and the peppermint extract together. In a separate bowl, whisk the Eener-G egg replacer with the hot water. Make sure there are no lumps and that the mixture looks foamy. Then add it to the margarine/sugar/peppermint mixture. Beat until very fluffy.

Whisk the dry ingredients together. Add to batter and beat until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for approximately 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350º F. Take dough and form tablespoon-sizes balls. Place onto parchment covered cookie sheets and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 1-2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!