Lahey Pizza

lahey_pizza.txt

The pizza recipe is based on the book "My Bread" by Jim Lahey, which I
HIGHLY recommend. It has  bunch of recipes based around the idea of
"no knead" bread - basically long fermentation times take place of
lengthy, annoying kneading. You can make great loaves with a similar
technique to the pizza recipe below. This is a kind of "Roman" style
pizza where you stretch the dough very thin on two 13" x 18" sheet
pans, cut the ingredients very thinly, layer it, and bake it hot for
about 25 minutes.  To make two pies:

3 3/4 cups or 500 grams Bread Flour
2.5 tsp or 10 grams Active Dry / Instant yeast
.75 tsp or 5 grams Salt
.75 tsp or 3 grams sugar
1.33 cups or 300 grams room temp water

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar.  Add
the water, and using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until blended,
at least 30 seconds.  The dough is a bit stiff, not too wt and sticky.
 Cover the bowl and let sit at room temp until the dough has more than
doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

While the dough is rising, prepare your toppings and preheat the oven
to 500 degrees F. To make the fennel and egg pizza:

Thinly slice 2-3 medium sized fennel bulbs. Toss the slices with
shaved hard cheese (pecorino or parmigiano are good choices), nice
fragrant olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. To make sure
it's seasoned properly, take a bite of the mix. If it tastes like a
delicious salad you'd eat on it's own, then you've done well.

Choose something else for the other pie - crushed canned plum tomatoes
and mozzarella / thinly sliced mushrooms tossed with fresh thyme and
olive oil / just olive oil and sea salt / anything fresh and seasonal.

When the dough is risen:

Oil the rimmed baking sheets. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to
scrape half of the dough onto an oiled pan in one piece.  Gently pull
and stretch the dough across the surface of the pan, and use your
hands to press it out evenly to the edges. If the dough sticks to your
fingers, lightly dust them with flour or coat your hands with oil.
Pinch any holes together. Repeat for the second piece. The dough is
ready to top.

The stretching takes practice but gets easier as you learn the
properties of the dough. Don't be afraid of the oil.

Take the fennel mixture and spread it evenly on the top of the pie,
making it a little thicker around the edges so they don't burn.
Sprinkle some olive oil and more hard cheese on top before you bake.
Bake the pies for 25-30 minutes, until the edges get brown.

To add the egg on top, take the pie out 5 minutes early, crack them on
top, and bake them. If they're still too wobbly for you, broil them
for a minute.

Enjoy guys!