The Foodie Files

So we've talked about my Dad's world famous pizza before, but we haven't discussed his recent preoccupation with einkorn flour.  Long story short, einkorn is an ancient grain...which means it doesn't have any of the unnatural nonsense you'll find in modern processed flour.  Einkorn is packed with nutrition, high levels of protein and is lower in gluten than it's regular counterpart.  Making einkorn pizza dough is a little bit different than the pizza methods we've discussed in the past so I wanted to do a quick overview of one of my Dad's recent creations.  Though it goes without saying, there's some mega deliciousness going on here...

Ingredients:

For Starter:
1/2 cup einkorn flour
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp molasses

For Dough:
1 1/2 cups mature starter
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cups einkorn flour

For Toppings:
Extra virgin olive oil

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated reggiano or locatelli cheese

About 2 cloves sliced garlic

4-5 sliced figs

1-2 sliced peppers (hot or mild)

1/2 cup sliced tomatoes

1/4 black cured olives

(Makes 2 large pizzas or 6-8 personal pan pizzas)

There are 2 ways to ferment the dough...using starters, you can use a 'warm rise' or a 'cold rise'.  My dad usually uses the warm rise method and leaves the dough covered with a kitchen towel out in a stainless steel bowl overnight.  For the starter, mix flour, water, yeast and molasses and let it stand until the next day.  Using this starter requires less yeast and jump starts the dough.

The next day combine your mature starter with olive oil, salt, and flour.  Mix ingredients, working in the flour until you have a soft dough. If the dough gets too dry, add some more starter. If you've used all the starter, add a bit of water.

Once you've kneaded the dough, use a kitchen aid mixer with a dough hook.  Cover and let rest for half an hour to an hour more...it should double in size (this lets the dough relax so forming the pizza is easier).

Preheat oven to 450F (some people prefer hotter...try 550F if your oven will take you there).  Heat pizza stone inside oven (we used an out door brick oven, but that's another story).

Pat down and shape your dough to whatever size you want.  Once the dough is rolled out, spread a little corn meal on a pizza peel.  Spread 1-2 TBS of olive oil on dough, then add mozzarella cheese, grated cheese, sliced garlic, sliced figs, sliced tomatoes, olives and a dash of salt and pepper.  Shimmy the pizza dough off peel onto pizza stone and bake 10- 15 minutes watching carefully.  Simple and scrumptious!