Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza

There's no rest for the full stomach! After Thanksgiving, I packed some of the leftovers from my aunt's dinner for the next day's lunch. What's a great way to use up all those leftover turkey meat and vegetable medleys? Pizza!

The small, tiny science part of me wanted to test the flours that the kind folks at Robin Hood sent us. So I took out some containers, labeled them, and mixed it with yeast, salt, and water.

Pizza Dough
(Makes about 1 large pizza)

250 grams of All-Purpose flour, Tastes Like White flour, or Omega-3 & Fibre flour
1/2 gram of yeast
8 grams of salt
175 grams of water

1. Sift the flour, yeast, and salt together. Add water.
2. Mix until dough forms. Knead it three to five times until combined and set in container.
3. Cover with plastic wrap, towel, or lid and let it sit in room temperature (away from cool breezes, open windows, or air conditioning).
4. Leave overnight for at least 18 hours.
5. Transfer dough to a floured work surface. Gently shape into a rough rectangle. Turn corners side down and mold gently into a ball.
6. Let dough rest, covered with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel for about an hour.
7. Carefully stretch dough into pizza shape (because it doesn't have to be a perfect circle) and place on parchment paper over a baking pan.

Look at the dough go! I woke up the next morning to a "pop" because the dough pushed the lids off! You'll notice that nothing happened with the Gluten Free dough, as it shouldn't because I didn't add xanthan gum (my bad).

Note the colours of the different pizza doughs. The All-Purpose one produced the largest amount of dough and it was also the most damp and sticky pizza dough to work with. Tastes Like White followed, the dough also being very pliable. The Omega-3 & Fibre dough produced a whole-wheat-looking colour and was drier and firmer. The texture was easier to shape if you used a rolling pin.

Just take out all the leftover food from the fridge. Pour some tomato sauce over the dough, some freshly sliced pieces of mozzarella, and pile on the turkey, broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 260°C (500°F) or until you notice the crust and toppings start to brown. The cheese should be fully melted and bubbling a little.

The Omega-3 & Fibre crust was easy to spot, darker in colour and firmer in texture. It almost tasted like whole wheat pizza crust to me.

The original All-Purpose flour and Tastes Like White performed similarly. Both were light and chewy and the salt in the dough came through. So depending on what you're looking for in nutritional value, you can easily substitute the two.

We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and next day lunch!

Disclaimer: The new Robin Hood Nutri Flour Blend varieties were sent to us for review. All opinions are our own.

Cranberry Almond Biscotti

This year, my aunt was hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her house. She was doing all the heavy lifting with the turkey, gravy, potatoes, vegetables, and various other side dishes. The least my mom and I could do was to bring over some cranberry almond biscotti for the coffee and tea portion after dinner. I know, it just doesn't sound fair!

We made one batch of biscotti with Robin Hood's All-Purpose flour and the other using the Omega-3 & Fibre flour blend.

The Omega-3 & Fibre is an all purpose flour blend made from whole wheat flour and flax seeds. We're just trying to insert some goodness after the heavy Thanksgiving meal!

Aside from what the flours are composed of, the most obvious difference between the two flours is the colour. You get white with All-Purpose and a light brown or beige with the Omega-3 & Fibre.

Cranberry Almond Biscotti
Makes about 18-20 biscotti

3/4 cups of almonds
1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups of All-Purpose flour or Omega-3 & Fibre flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of cranberries
1 large egg
2 tablespoons of water

1. Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F).
2. Place the almonds on a baking sheet and bake in the preheating oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Flip at the 5 minute mark to evenly toast the other side of the almonds. Remove from the oven and cool.
3. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix briefly.
4. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix on low until combined. Add in the cranberries and give it a short mix (less than a minute).
5. Using a spatula, mix in the almonds until it is evenly distributed into the batter. 
6. Divide the dough in two and place it on a silicone mat or parchment paper over a cookie sheet. Shape the dough into a log about 3 inches wide and 10 inches long.
7. Whisk the one egg with the water and use a pastry brush to coat the top and sides of the logs with the egg wash.
8. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top is firm. Remove from the oven and carefully flip the biscotti over and place it back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
10. Carefully transfer the logs to a cutting board and using a serrated knife, cut the log into even slices.

Enjoy with tea, coffee, or hot chocolate!

The photos above depicts the biscotti that used the All-Purpose flour, notice the lighter colour. The photo below shows the Omega-3 & Fibre biscotti in a darker colour tone. The flavours are also noticeably different, but I liked it! Mom didn't, claiming that she detected bitterness and found it more difficult to work with as the dough was stickier. I rather enjoyed the taste (not bitter to me, in fact, it tasted sweeter) of the biscotti made with the Omega-3 & Fibre, but maybe it's because I liked thinking that I was eating something healthy!

Disclaimer: The new Robin Hood Nutri Flour Blend varieties were sent to us for review. All opinions are our own.

Robin Hood Nutri Flour Blend

I'm excited to tell you about the new Robin Hood Nutri Flour Blend varieties! They're easy to spot in the grocery stores thanks to their new packaging. Yes, a part of me misses the nostalgic paper bag, but those large sacks of flours sometimes rip or leak near the seams. I like that they kept the bag flexible because I rarely use a metal spatula to level off the top of measuring ups. I actually use the sides of the bags to do a clean sweep (this is probably frowned upon, but it works for me)! Plus, these bags are resealable!

The one I was most excited to see was the Omega-3 and Fibre, this is blended from whole wheat flour and flax seeds! The Gluten Free is made from a blend of rice flour with sugar beet fibre and potato and tapioca starches. While Tastes Like White is a combination of unbleached flour with oat hull fibre.

Now that I'm armed with four bags of flour, what should I make? Well, I'm going to make some simple pizza dough and maybe some cookies so that I can compare their tastes and textures after baking. Be sure to stay tuned for my baking experiences this Thanksgiving long weekend!

Disclaimer: The new Robin Hood Nutri Flour Blend varieties were sent to us for review. All opinions are our own.

Dulce Strawberry, Peach, and Mango Cobbler

We meant to make a Dulce Peach Cobbler dessert for our friend's holiday potluck party on the weekend. It was going to be a nod to one of our favourite dessert at this little barbecue place near their house.

But after searching two grocery stores and not finding the frozen peach, we eventually picked up a bag of frozen strawberry, peaches, and mangoes.

This was fine by us, those are still three of our favourite fruits!

Dulce Strawberry, Peach, and Mango Cobbler
Recipe adapted from Robin Hood® Bake Some Memories™ Recipe Booklet
(Makes 8 servings)

Filling:
1 can (300 mL) of Eagle Brand® Dulce de Leche caramel flavoured sauce
1 bag (600 g) of Europe’s Best® Caribbean Treasure, frozen

Topping:
1 cup (250 mL) of Robin Hood® all-purpose flour
½ cup (125 mL) of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 mL) of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
¾ cup (175 mL) of unsalted butter
¼ cup (50 mL) of boiling water

Preheat your oven to 190°C (375°F). Grease a deep 9” round dish. Or if you want to make individual servings like us, eight cocottes (notice our red, green, and white ones - keeping it festive) or ramekins.

To make the filling, pour the dulce de leche over the frozen fruits and mix them together in your dish.

To make the topping, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Blend in the butter using your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in the water and mix with a spatula. Scoop out the batter and drop it over the fruit mixture. The topping spreads when it bakes, so don't worry about how neat it looks. If you like, you can sprinkle ⅓ cup of sliced almonds, walnuts, or chopped pecans.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 55-60 minutes or until the topping is golden. You can also insert a toothpick in the centre, if it comes out clean, it's ready!

We like eating these after 15 minutes of cooling. There's something very comforting about eating warm cobbler by the fireplace in the winter.

I like to mix the cobbler up so that I get a bit of everything in each bite. Yum! The cobbler was delicious on its own, but feel free to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with it!

Look! The elusive peach!

Disclaimer: This holiday season, A Baked Creation partnered up with Robin Hood®, who is celebrating the 30th anniversary of their annual Holiday Recipe Collection. They were kind enough to send us a baking package with Robin Hood® all-purpose flour and Eagle Brand® Dulce de Leche caramel flavoured sauce.