Happy New Year! The host for this recipe is Paul from the Boy Can Bake. To see the other bloggers baking this recipe, click here. As with the other TWD recipes, this one comes from the book Baking with Julia.
I made this pizza over the weekend while visiting my mother in West Palm Beach, Florida. Boy was it nice there. It is such a pretty place with beautiful palm trees and lots of flowers. It is so nice to visit during the winter break. I use the time to think about and plan the year ahead. Of course the husband and kids went too, so it was not all lounging around by the pool. In fact it was very little lounging. It is like that when you have two 4 year olds. We did make it to the zoo one day and to the pool most other days.
I made the pizza with the goat cheese, parmesan cheese, and black olives that the recipe recommends. Then I bought some mild ground sausage to add because I like sausage on my pizza.
I prepared the ingredients on Saturday, with the thought of making it for dinner on Sunday. First, I made the dough, starting with the sponge and progressing through two risings, the second of which was done in the refrigerator overnight. Then, I made the onion confit. My mom helped by using a mandolin to slice the onion. Then my daughter helped me cook the onions down on the stove. I don’t usually let her near my gas stove top at home, but since my mom has an electric one, it was easier and less hazardous for her to be helping me to stir.
Everything went into the refrigerator until the next day.
On Sunday afternoon, I let the pizza dough sit out for a few hours to come to room temperature. Then I split the dough in two and rolled them out into big pizza circles. The kids helped me put on all the toppings.
Aside from the goat cheese and black olives, I used up all the onion confit and sausage on the two pizzas. Then I sprinkled parmesan cheese on top of everything.
Cooking the pizza was easy enough. I did let them cook for about 20 minutes until they browned. One pizza was cooked on a perforated pizza pan and the other on a jelly roll pan. Out of the oven, I cut them with a pizza cutter and served, what my husband later called “crackers with sausage”.
Yep, the pizza had the crunch of a thick cracker. I wonder if any other TWD people else had this cracker crust.
Was it good? No, not particularly. But you know, back in the 90′s when this book was written, things like this were uncommon, and so it was probably a fabulous mix of flavors. Now goat cheese and flatbread pizzas are very common and so this pizza is nothing special. But it also could have been my miscalculation in adding sausage.
Next month will be the one year anniversary since I started cooking through Baking with Julia. In that time, I have made between 2 and 3 recipes a month. I have found a few of them to be excellent, but many of them to be good. I recently realized that if I am going to spend my time and money on a recipe, I need there to be a good chance that it will turn out excellent. And so for that reason, I am going to stop baking with TWD as diligently as I have been. I am going to pick and choose recipes more to my liking. I really like making cakes and so I want to find another group that will allow me to expand in this area. If you know of any, please let me know.
On the horizon for January, I have both my birthday cake to bake and the birthday cake of my twins. I have a pretty good idea what I am doing for both. Check back to see.
Until next time…
I hear you about not enjoying all the recipes in this book. I think I was expecting more from each recipe too. I didn’t have the issue of cracker like crust. I found the first day with the dough that it was stiff. So that pizza was a little tough. But I left the other half of the dough in the fridge overnight and it was so much better.
As for other groups, I am only baking with one other group and it is Baked Sunday Mornings. We bake from the Baked cookbooks. I have had a great time baking along with them. They are a fantastic group. And the books are fabulous. (probably my favourite cookbooks ever) And that is saying a lot, as I have a lot of cookbooks. Have a look on my blog and see what you think about the group. I have a link to it on my site.
Good luck.
Thanks for the comments. I think I was in the minority with disliking this recipe. I definitely baked the crust too long.
I have never heard of the Baked books, so I will take a look at them. And for you to say that they are your favorites means alot! Thanks so much.
Marlise, that is too bad that you are dropping out ot the TwD but that does not mean, of course, that I will stop looking at your wonderful blogs – I always enjoy your posts and your photography (especially of your cute “sous chef” twins)! Maybe we should start a small but fun online baking group ourselves, across different continents….- I have been thinking about that for a few months now and I have been debating a few wonderful baking books…
Hope you and your entire family had a great start to the New Year!
Wow Andrea! Yes, I would love to do something with you and others! I loved your series of traditional German cakes from this past summer. Maybe we could do something across continents where we pick recipes that are traditionally from the country selected. I also love the Great Cakes book by Carole Walters and although it is a little older, there have been some wonderful recipes there. And Rose Levy Berenbaum has a more recent (maybe a few years old) book on cakes that looks great. There was an online baking group for that book but it finished a while ago. Anyway, I am very interested in starting something new. Let me know your thoughts when you have time. Best regards.
Hi Marlise, please let us know what new group you may be starting, or joining. We have also looked into adding a new adventure to our agenda, although we quite like the challenge of converting the TWD recipes into gluten free ones as well. Since we discovered your blog through TWD, we have always enjoyed reading your posts and will continue to do so. Wishing you and your family a very Happy New Year.
Thank you so much for your comment. I will certainly let you two know what I do. It is so nice of you to say that. And it is nice to have the support of others as I go forward. Best regards.
I’m with you on the fact the recipes have not been great in this book (this is one of the very few I did like). I even mentioned in my post I would have no problem dropping out if it was not for all the great bakers in the group and would feel like I lost a good friend if I did. I hope you find the group you’re looking for!
It was not an easy decision. I too think about all the great bakers and the friendships I have made. I am still going to participate sometimes (cakes mostly), so I do expect to stay in touch with many people. Thanks for the comment.
Sorry this didn’t work out so well for you.
Have you considered The Daring Bakers? – it’s not always cakes, but they only post once a month and there are some great challenges from all over the world. It has definitely pushed my baking repertoire.