Stuffed Pizza

Inspiration while travelling

One of the things that a first-time traveller to Italy soon learns is that their "bars" are quite different from "bars" in North America. If you want coffee or a snack in Italy, you go to a bar, and yes they also sell drinks. Behind the counter in a bar in Sicily I saw a large piece of pizza that had been folded over on itself like a soft taco, creating an inviting, ready-to-go meal. This inspired the thought that it would be interesting to make a pizza with a crust on the top as well as the bottom. Similar things like calzone have been around for centuries but a two-crusted pizza seemed sufficiently novel that I filed the idea away. Part of the fun of creative cooking is having your own idea even if it's been done before.

When I got home, I discovered that a double-crusted or "stuffed" pizza as I call it is not much more difficult to make than a regular pizza. After I made a few, I did a Google search and found that many things called "stuffed pizza" are already out there so I'm not claiming to be the first. In fact, searching the internet for most things that you can imagine reveals that they already exist.

Making a stuffed pizza
1) Bottom dough with cheese, mushrooms and herbs.
2) Top dough applied and slit before baking.
3) After baking. 

A meal, not a dessert

Around the same time that I was experimenting with stuffed pizza, I was also starting to use fruit and different cheeses on pizza. I've been quite pleased with results using blueberries, cranberries, peaches and black seedless grapes. Surprisingly, blue cheese goes remarkably well with fruit in pizza. I now use it regularly both on top of regular pizza and in stuffed pizza when I use ripe fruit. Although pizza stuffed with fruit might sound a little like a sweet North American fruit pie, the absence of added sugar keeps it clearly in the savoury rather than sweet category.

I previously blogged about pizza with cranberries and blue cheese here:

  http://iberianpixels.blogspot.ca/2016/12/cranberry-focaccia.html

It didn't take long before I tried pizza stuffed with fruit, resulting in the one I photographed for June in my 2017 calendar.

My calendar photo for June 2017

Pizza stuffed with peaches, dried cranberries, mozzarella and blue cheese.

This one has a lovely yellow colour because I used semolina flour. 

Short version of the recipe

If you already know how to make pizza...

• Using two equal portions of dough, roll out one round for the bottom.
• Apply topping, keeping it at least one and one-half inches away from the edge. I use about twice as much topping as for a regular pizza.  
• Roll out the other dough to the same size and pinch the top and bottom doughs together all around the edges.
• Slit the top dough to allow steam to escape. 
• Bake in a very hot oven until it looks done.

Recipe for two medium (10 inch) fruit stuffed pizzas 

Dough

My general recipe for pizza and focaccia is here 

http://res.cloudinary.com/pat222teti/image/upload/v1497819235/Basic_Pizza_and_Focaccia_vtxvye.pdf

The dough part of that recipe will give you the right amount of dough for two stuffed pizzas. It describes a long, slow ferment but you can speed it up by using more yeast, e.g. one package of yeast for same day baking.

Filling

3 cups of fresh ripe fruit, e.g. peaches, apples, black seedless grapes
250 grams mozzarella cheese, sliced or grated
200 grams blue cheese, in small pieces

Prepare the fruit depending on the type you're using. Core and slice apples or peaches. Seedless grapes can be simmered and mashed to reduce their size and liquid content. Small berries can be used fresh and whole. Raisins or dried cranberries can be microwaved with a little water to re-hydrate. Fresh cranberries should be simmered until they pop and sugar added to taste although I suggest using about half the sugar as for cranberry sauce.

Finishing it

Preheat oven to 500 F and place a rack in the middle or upper part of oven.
Divide dough in half, each for one stuffed pizza.

Divide one portion of the dough in two and roll into a circle.
For more details on dough handling, see the link above.

Place rolled out dough on pizza pan, screen, stone, or peel as you would for a pizza.
Distribute half of filling on dough, avoiding the outer 1.5 inches of dough.
Roll out the dough for the top a couple inches smaller than bottom dough and place on filling. The way I transfer it is to fold the dough in half and then half again, plop it onto the filling and then unfold it. Then gently pull on the dough to stretch it into place, keeping it a little smaller than the bottom dough.
Brush water onto the rim of the bottom dough with a pastry brush and roll it up to the rim of the top dough, pinching the top and bottom together.

Slit or poke holes in the top dough and bake in the middle or upper part of oven until it looks done, about 8-10 minutes.

Repeat for the second stuffed pizza.

I like stuffed pizza because it's different, it's easy to eat (and reheat), and fun. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it doesn't show off the toppings like a regular pizza.

Knife and fork pizza

The Pizza

In 2015 I was in southern Italy and had this pizza at a restaurant in Ostuni, a lovely hill town in the heel of Italy's boot. I'm blogging about it in 2017 because this is the photo for the month of May on my 2017 Bread and Pizza calendar.

This pizza was as delicious as it looks but the reason I included it on my calendar and the reason I'm writing about it is that it represents a whole category of "pizze" (plural of pizza) that are common in Italy but quite different from most North American pizza. I call it "knife and fork pizza" because you can't pick up a slice and eat it without the topping falling off because the toppings aren't plastered to the crust with melted cheese. In this case, fresh toppings were added to the crust after it came out of the oven. This expands the range of what a pizza can be and I love it because it's different than the way I make pizza.

I've always made pizza that sticks together as opposed to pizza for a knife and fork because it's the original pizza of creation, I like to eat pizza by hand, and pizza that stays together is easy to keep and re-heat. It's hard to knock these advantages but having eaten pizza with a knife and fork at restaurants in Italy inspires me to try new ways.

If you want to use pizza crust as a base for a salad or other fresh topping, keep in mind that if you bake a crust with no topping it will probably puff up into a pita. If that happens you can simply press it flat while it's hot and apply the toppings. Another alternative is to make a "white pizza" for which there are many recipes online. For example, you could top it with ricotta and/or mozzarella and then dress it with fresh toppings when it comes out of the oven.

The Calendar

The back cover of my 2017 calendar has thumbnails of all the full-page images (photo below). Every bread or pizza pictured is mine except the "Pizza Italy" from Ostuni for the month of May. At the beginning of each month this year, I'm posting a story here about my calendar photo for that month. At least that's my plan. With this post I've blogged for 4 of the 5 months.

The back cover of my 2017 bread and pizza calendar

However you eat it, enjoy your pizza!

Travelling bread

Delicious and durable 

Food is so intertwined with travel that it's hard to think of one without the other. Even if we don't travel, our food does. It's been estimated that the ingredients in an average American meal have traveled 1500 miles from farm to plate (http://www.worldwatch.org/globetrotting-food-will-travel-farther-ever-thanksgiving). 

Average distance from farm to an American dinner plate

Fortunately, some of my favourite travel destinations are places that have excellent local food. In Italy, I can eat locally while enjoying some of the best food in the world. However, I still have some food-related challenges even when my destination has great local cuisine. My problem always seems to start within a day of departure regardless of whether I'm driving or flying and usually has to do with missing my homemade bread or cereal - things that can't be found away from home. Italy is famous for their food but not for their healthy or filling breakfasts. My solution is to travel with food and that's where this bread comes in.

If I have the time to plan ahead, one of my favourite travelling breads is a heavy, grainy, healthy loaf like this one. It's loaded with nuts, fruit, veggies and flavour. Much of its flavour and dark colour comes from ground cinnamon which you'll want to buy in bulk if possible. If this loaf is sliced and dried, it will keep for weeks. It's heavy enough to make a good breakfast and if thinly sliced and dried to a crisp, even satisfies the munchies.

I like making bread with a long, slow ferment but this recipe can be speeded up by starting with warm water and using up to a full packet of instant yeast.

With walnuts, raisins, apples, flax seed and carrots, this bread is almost a balanced meal. 

Two loaves or two large flats of fermented travelling bread

3 cups water
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups grated carrots, microwaved until steamed
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup flax seed
2 cups grated apples
2 cups chopped walnuts
1/3 cup cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
Unbleached flour as needed, approximately 6 cups

On the first day, add 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast and the whole wheat flour to cool water and mix. Cover and let sit overnight.

On day two, add all the other ingredients except the salt and unbleached flour. Cover and let sit overnight.

On day three, add the salt and start blending in the unbleached flour until the dough can be turned out. Keep dusting the outside of the dough and the work surface while kneading until most of the stickiness is gone. Cover and let sit at room temperature for about two hours. This dough will not double in bulk.


Divide dough in two. For loaves, roll them out into two log shapes, place them on a flour or cornmeal dusted sheet and bake at 500 F for 30 minutes or until interior reads about 85 C with an instant read thermometer. For flatbreads, roll one of them out to a little smaller size than your large cookie sheet, transfer it to the dusted sheet, and tease it out to full size. Optionally, brush top with yogurt or egg yolk and sprinkle with seeds (e.g. sesame, sunflower) and/or coarse salt. Bake at 500 F for 7-8 minutes or until it looks done.  Repeat with other half of dough.

Cranberry focaccia

Also known as Cranberry Pizza

In the fall of 2015, I was at a market in Florence with Jane and saw an unusual flatbread topped with black grapes called "schiacciata all'uva" (pronounced ska-CHA-ta). I bought a piece because I'd heard of it but had never tasted it. It was intensely grape-y and delicious even with the slight crunch of seeds which were neither tough nor bitter. I learned later that this treat is found in Italy only in October when the right grapes are available.

Schiacciata all'uva at the Mercato Centrale in Florence. 

The idea of using fruit on pizza was in the back of my mind when fresh cranberries appeared in my grocery store around Christmas. I had wanted to make something inspired by "schiaccata all'uva" and cranberries seemed appropriate, if a bit unusual. Although not as sweet as grapes, they compensate with flavour AND they're grown here in BC.

It inspired this experiment using cranberry sauce. 

Canned cranberries might work for the sauce but I recommend using fresh. In fact, you could even put raw cranberries directly on the pizza dough, cover them with cheese and bake it that way but the berries will tend to roll off so it's better to make them into sauce first. I've made sauce by simmering fresh cranberries with a little water and sugar and I've simmered berries with a little maple syrup and no water. All have turned out great but if you're trying this the first time I would recommend simmering a 12 ounce package of berries with a cup of water and 1/2 cup sugar (enough for more than two 10" pizzas) until the berries pop. That's half the sugar suggested for cranberry sauce on the package.

I've made this without cheese but I prefer it with cheese. My favourite combination is with blue cheese and a little shredded mozzarella. The strong flavour of blue cheese goes really well with cranberries. In fact, it's delicious on other fruit pizzas as I will blog about later. I've used it with blueberries, peaches, nectarines, and black grapes.

This version has blue and mozzarella cheeses.  

Recipe

This is just a variation on my basic pizza recipe which you can download at

http://res.cloudinary.com/pat222teti/image/upload/v1497819235/Basic_Pizza_and_Focaccia_vtxvye.pdf

For a 10 inch cranberry pizza, I used the following topping:

• 150 gm cranberry sauce (e.g. according to a package direction or cranberries simmered with a bit of maple syrup as in the photo below)
• 60 gm blue cheese
• 60 gm shredded mozzarella

and baked it at 500 degrees F for 7 minutes.

I've baked pizza on solid sheets, sheets with punched holes, stones and screens. For everyday baking when I'm using a kitchen oven I prefer a simple mesh screen.

Is it pizza or focaccia? 

I used to think that pizza was any flatbread with tomatoes and cheese regardless of other ingredients and that focaccia was flatbread without tomatoes and cheese. However, on trips to Italy I've seen focaccia with tomato topping, I've seen flatbread without cheese labelled "pizza" and I've seen regional names like "schiachiata" used for something that I would have called "focaccia". Although confusing, this adds to the charm of being a food tourist. The variety of food and food names between Italian regions and even between towns is part of the fun.

Until someone comes up with a better name, it seems to me that since tomatoes are a fruit, it's not too much of a stretch to call any flatbread baked with fruit and cheese "pizza". An added justification is that the variety of fruit and cheese combinations I've tried have turned out delicious and worthy of the name.

Here are some steps in making what I call "cranberry pizza".

1) These cranberries were simmered with a little maple syrup and placed on dough. 2) Blue cheese and mozzarella were added. Edges were turned up to prevent overflow. 3) After baking at 500 F for 7 minutes. 

For more ideas, do a Google search for "schiaccata all'uva" or "cranberry pizza" and click the Images tab.  

The wood pizza oven you may already have

A regular kitchen oven can do a good job on a pizza if you turn it all the way up to 500 F, but there's nothing like pizza baked in a much hotter wood-fired oven - one of the reasons to go to a real pizzeria. 

I don't have a wood pizza oven but I've used them while travelling so I appreciate how great they work. They're common in southern Europe where they're the focal point of pizza parties. The disadvantages are that they have to be preheated for a few hours, they require a lot of firewood, and they're expensive. Fortunately, some of the desirable qualities of baking pizza in a wood oven can be achieved by other means. The simplest is re-heating leftover pizza over a campfire or wood coals. 

Reheating focaccia and pizza on a campfire

A few years after I discovered this, I realized that I could bake pizza indoors in a wood heating stove.

The wood-fired pizza oven you might already have in your house

Baking pizza in a wood heating stove

During the heating season when the wood heating stove is going, I bake pizza and other flatbreads as shown in the photo. I put the dough on an uncoated stainless steel pan sprinkled with cornmeal, add the toppings, place the pan on a pizza pan support (described below) and hold it in the back of the stove over hot coals. I pull the pizza out frequently to check the progress and rotate the pan as needed. It's done when the top starts to scorch. It doesn't take more than a few minutes and comes out as in the photo below. Of course, the baking has to be done with the stove door open but there's so much uniform heat coming from the stove that baking is very fast.  

If you're making more than one pizza, be sure to close the stove door (for safety of course) and leave it for a few minutes so the interior can re-heat.  

Wood stove pizza with corn, chopped beet tops, fresh mozzarella balls, and Parmigiano Reggiano

Based on my experience, there's not much difference between pizza baked this way and pizza baked in a real wood oven. The high temperature results in similarly charred edges and flavour. In theory, you might expect a proper wood-fired pizza oven to bake the bottom crust faster because the dough is in contact with preheated stone. However, if your pizza pan support is thin and perforated, the heat flow into the bottom of the pizza pan is sufficient to bake the bottom crust rapidly.

There are advantages and disadvantages to a real wood pizza oven and my wood stove method. You can't beat an outdoor wood oven as a focal point of gatherings but they're expensive, require lots of firewood, and hours to preheat. If you already have a wood heating stove with a sufficiently large interior, all you need is a way to support a steel pizza pan over the coals. 

The pizza pan support

I started with a folding campfire griddle made of perforated steel to which I had attached a four-foot wooden handle. The griddle originally had a non-stick coating which burned off after several seasons of use over a campfire. What was left of the griddle worked great for supporting a 12 inch stainless steel pizza pan as shown here. 

Perforated campfire griddle, attachment of extension handle, and stainless steel pizza pan 

Cookware Canada has a perforated stainless steel griddle for sale online (Premium Pizza Pan, Item 420122C) and an extension handle could be attached to the one displayed there. If you use something like that, I strongly recommend placing your pizza on a non-perforated stainless steel pizza pan and then placing the pizza pan on the griddle. 

Later, I made a new pizza pan holder out of one-eighth inch by three-quarter inch steel, three-quarter inch plumber’s strapping, some one-quarter by 20 nuts and bolts, baling wire, and a wooden pole as shown below. Do not use aluminum because it might soften in the high temperature. Also make sure that the steel parts extend at least a foot back in the direction of the handle so that the wooden handle can be kept out of the stove interior.   

My improved pizza pan support. This supports a stainless steel pizza pan, not the pizza itself. 

Tips for baking pizza in a wood heating stove

• Build a large, hot fire in your stove, let the flames die down and spread the coals out evenly. I've baked 6 ten-inch pizzas on a load of Douglas fir.
• Do not use an aluminum pizza pan or aluminum in the pizza pan support. 
• Do not use any items with non-stick coating. Use a stainless steel pizza pan and steel for the pizza pan support.  
• Sprinkle cornmeal or flour on the pizza pan before placing the dough. It's OK if the cornmeal smokes or catches fire in the wood stove. It will burn off. 
• My stainless steel pizza pan got slightly warped by the high heat but is not otherwise damaged. 

"Wood stove pizzas" with tomatoes, black grapes, peaches, cranberries, onions, blue cheese, and mozzarella cheese