Recent Recipes
Homemade Spinach and Feta Pizza
Comments (0) | Monday, July 2, 2012
This is my homemade spinach and feta pizza. It's simple and easy to make as well as less expensive than ordering a take out pizza! My pizza dough is a modification of Tyler Florence's pizza dough recipe here. I added oregano and cracked pepper to my dough to give it a little extra kick.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 Tsp salt
- 1 Tsp sugar
- 2 Tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Yeast package
- 1-2 Cups of spinach depending on preference
- 1 x 4 oz pkg of feta or Gorgonzola cheese
- 1 x 16 oz bag mozzarella cheese
- 1 x 8 oz pkg cream cheese
- 1/2 Cup of butter
- 2 Tsp garlic powder (or one minced garlic clove)
- 1 1/2 Cups heavy cream
- 6 oz Grated Parmesan
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Pizza dough:
This recipe makes enough dough for two 14 in. thin crust pizzas (cut the dough in half) or 1 deep dish 14 in. crust. I usually make the Spinach and Feta pizza as thin crust rather than deep dish and my Pepperoni and Italian Sausage pizza as deep dish.
- In a small bowl, mix the yeast and sugar with the warm water until dissolved. Let it sit for about 3-5 minutes to active the yeast. Once the mixture starts to foam a little, you're good to go.
- Put the flour, oregano, cracked pepper and salt into a mixing bowl and pulse a little to mix them up.
- Slowly add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture on a slow speed until it is all incorporated.
- After all the yeast mixture has all been added increase the speed to full and the dough will start becoming a ball. You'll also want to add a tbsp of olive oil to the mixture at this point.
- Check the dough regularly by pinching it and if it's crumbly, add some warm water and if it's sticky, add some flour.
Once the dough has been mixed good, put it on a flat surface with some flour and fold the dough over itself kneading it for about 2-3 minutes. Grab some extra virgin olive oil and grease a bowl (including the sides) to make the dough easier to get out. Make a ball out of the dough, put it in the greased bowl, cover and let stand in a cool place for an hour as the dough rises. It should be about double it's size when done.
Homemade Alfredo sauce:
- Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat.
- Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth.
- Add heavy cream, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps.
- Whisk in Parmesan until smooth and add salt & pepper to taste.
Roll out the pizza dough on your favorite pizza tray. I use stone pizza surfaces I got from the Pampered Chef. If using the stone surfaces, don't grease or add anything to the bottom of the pizza as you don't want to get that on the stone. You can brush some melted butter on the outside of the dough to add some great flavor and give it a nice look.
Add the alfredo sauce, spooning it out generously on the pizza dough:
Add the mozzarella Cheese.
Add the Spinach and Feta (or Gorgonzola which I used in this case) and drizzle olive oil on top of everything. I also added some semi-course ground sea salt on top. If you do this, be sparing with it as the Gorgonzola has a good amount of salt in it already. Preheat your oven to 375° and bake the pizza for 30 minutes or until golden color on top.
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Basic Fundamental Cooking Techniques
Comments (0) | Wednesday, September 29, 2010
You'll see that I really like http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/ as I have another great article for you guys to read. I am not new to cooking, but I am by no means a gourmet chef (not yet at least). I am really trying to brush up on some of the basic principles of cooking before I get into more difficult stuff. You'll find that with anything I do, I want to learn the basics well before moving on (I did this when I started dancing as well). I believe that once you get the basics down pat, the other things will come naturally. Check out the article Basic fundamental cooking techniques, it has a LOT of good information:
http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/technic.htm
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Simple cooking tips
Comments (0) |
I've been looking for some things to help with my cooking skills and while these may be some simple tips, some of them never reallly crossed my mind! This article gives you some great tips on getting prepared before cooking. Hopefully you gain at least one new tip:
http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/tips.htm
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7 foods experts won't eat
Comments (0) |
I know there a lot of foods out there that are bad for you, but this article covers food that you never really thought about as being bad. With the recent egg problems we've been having, it really causes us to take a closer look at the foods we are eating. After reading this article, It gave me a new perspective on what I'm eating (or more importantly, what I'm buying to cook with). Take a quick read and hopefully it will open your eyes:
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-7-foods-experts-wont-eat-547963/
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About Me
- Jeff McBride
- McKinney, Texas, United States
- My name is Jeff McBride and I have been a craft beer and culinary enthusiast who wants to share my original (and some not so original) recipes, tips, tricks and ideas about cooking food and the craft beer industry.
I originally found a passion for craft beer in the late 80's, well before the craft brew revolution started. Years later this inspired me to become a home brewer (although, I haven't brewed a new beer in about 8 months). I also, over the last 3 years, have become very passionate about cooking fine food. I really like being able to make everything I use from scratch and try to pride myself on not using anything from a package. Using the freshest ingredients and staying away from things that have all kinds of preservatives and crap in them makes for tastier and healthier eating!
Hopefully you'll like what I have to share and please comment on my posts and let me know what you think. I am always looking for feedback on how good or bad I am doing. Check me out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=569187536