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.

My Pizza

My Pizza: The Easy No-Knead Way to Make Spectacular Pizza at Home
Written by Jim Lahey
With Rick Flaste
Photographs by Squire Fox

ISBN 13: 9780307886156
ISBN 10: 0307886158
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Hardcover: 192 Pages

This cookbook has been getting so much buzz, I knew I had to get myself a copy. Especially when Bon Appétit featured Jim Lahey's pizza on the cover of their March 2012 issue. Since then, I've been thinking about making pizza at home.

The recipe for his famous no-knead dough is available online, so you must wonder, what else does the cookbook provide? There is only one dough recipe and the rest of the book is dedicated to red sauce pizzas, white sauce pizzas, no sauce pizzas, toppings, toasts, soups, salads, and a small section of desserts. So really, once you have the basic dough down, you can do whatever you like. That's the beauty of pizza right? You can customize with any toppings you wish.

However, inspiration and ideas are sometimes hard to come by, so the cookbook offers great topping combinations. Like his bird's nest pie. I would have never thought of it! Or the honshimeji and guanciale pie. It looks so tasty! The spicy eggplant pie makes my mouth water too!

When I saw Lottie + Doof's post on Friday, I knew I would be making pizza the next day. I'm so glad I read his experience first. Because the dough did get crusty and felt a little dry to me. I made the dough on Friday night for it to be ready for Saturday's lunch. In the morning, I was ecstatic to see that the dough did rise (why I was doubting it?)!

I divided the dough into four balls and did my best to stretch each one out into a pie shape. They are personal sized, which is nice for a group of 3-4. Taking Lottie + Doof's advice, I went with the simpler pizza for the first one. I didn't have a pizza stone (we used to ... but gave it away), but a baking sheet works just as well (according to Jim). The oven was cranked to the highest we've ever set it to. This is how it turned out:

Not bad right?? The first pizza we made is an all time favourite pizza of mine. When I have a pizza craving, the simple margherita is so satisfying. Tomato, mozzarella, and basil.

If you prefer, add the basil after, but I like the basil nice and crisp. Yum, I'm craving pizza again while writing this post.

Howard's pizza is just loaded with goodness. Tomato, mozzarella, three kinds of mushroom, proscuitto, and more mozzarella.

Howard made another one, you didn't expect him to be full after one, did you?! This one has tomato, mozzarella, and three kinds of mushroom. After the oven time, we placed thinly sliced proscuitto on top with arugula. Absolutely delicious.

The last one we made for my parents. I asked my mom what she wanted and she took out a Vietnamese sausage and started slicing it. We also topped it with three kinds of mushroom. Then we added basil after it came out of the oven. My dad loved it.

Make yourself an appetizer to go with the pizzas. This one's not from the book, but inspired from one of our favourite pizza places in Toronto. Here, we kept it simple by assembling some arugula on a plate. Covered a thin slice of toast with goat brie and sprinkled diced green apple all over the plate. Lastly, drizzled on some honey.

If you have time, make your own crostini, if not, use Grissol Melba toast like us.

I'd say if you're a pizza beginner like us, My Pizza is a great introduction. It covers equipment, ingredients, adjusting to oven types, and even serving strategies. Overall a simple and thorough foundation for delicious pizza. Try it and you'll never want to go back to frozen pizza again!

DUMBO

On Sunday, we spent a casual day in the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area.

Howard insisted on trying pizza while we were in New York. My aunt and uncle suggested that we go to Grimaldi's Pizzeria in DUMBO. They dropped us off and there really wasn't a need to point us in the right direction. The restaurant with the line-up was Grimaldi's.

Here we are, nearly at the front of the line! It is hard to believe that we were way back there an hour ago!

Teehee. Smallville fans? Okay, I realize that Chloe Sullivan isn't in there and the building has to do with Jehovah's Witnesses.

Lots to look at while we're waiting in line...

The little shop beside Grimaldi's even rents out chairs!

Grimaldi's Pizzeria
19 Old Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201
(718) 858-4300

The restaurant is quite crowded and many people share tables to maximize the space. Howard, my brother, and I shared our table for 4 with the woman who was in front of us in line.

She resides in Italy and was currently in New York City to study English for a month. How fantastic is that? It reminded me of a reversed Eat, Pray, Love. I shared the small pizza with her, we only added mushrooms to ours because she's a vegetarian. Howard and my brother shared a large pizza with pepperoni and sausages.

Here's our small pizza - we couldn't finish it.

The guys managed to finish their large pizza. I enjoyed the pizza, but I don't think we would wait an hour for it again. Howard and my brother said the same thing, the pizza was good, but definitely not worth the long wait.

Tip: To skip the line, call in, and order your pizza for "pick up." Otherwise you'll have to wait in line with everyone else that's there for eat-in and "take out."

We did a lot of walking after lunch. There are lots of shops, boutiques, and restaurants in this area. We took lots of photos of the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge.

There was one more stop we needed to visit before leaving DUMBO:

Jacque Torres Chocolate
66 Water Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201

The Jacque Torres ice cream location is right beside it. Cupcakes are listed on the menu, but when we asked. There weren't any that day. ='(

The chocolate displays, yum! The cute one on the right is called Love Bug, which is key lime ganache.

Time to walk the Brooklyn Bridge!

It was probably a good thing that it was cloudy, because it was hot! It took us half an hour to cross the bridge. No, we're not slow walkers! We did stop along the bridge for photos. =)

There was a drizzle of rain when we made it to mid-bridge. Quite refreshing actually!