I’ve been watching Chef’s Table Pizza and getting a little bit obsessed with pizza in general (in the world of cooking shows it does feel like pizza is the new cupcake, it’s just everywhere). It’s kind of becoming my go to end of week meal when there’s a weird assortment of odds and ends left in the fridge, they become pizza toppings. A couple weeks ago I did an elote pizza and a play on a Hawaiian pizza (pineapple habanero jam for the sauce with pickled blueberries, bacon, jalapeños and mozzarella). To which my husband said “oh so neither of them are real pizza.” In the words of Michael Jordan: “And…I took that personally.” First I looked up the definition of pizza. It’s controversial. It’s possible that what I made wasn’t technically pizza because it didn’t have tomato sauce. But like….it’s round yeasted dough with a sauce, toppings and cheese, cooked in a high heat oven and sliced. I used a pizza peel and a pizza stone. So the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana can stuff it as far as I’m concerned. So then I thought, if I’m already outside the guidelines of pizza, why not go even further? I’ve done Sourdough Pizza before, why not one of my favorite kinds of bread, rye bread?
The combination of a rye bread recipe with a pizza crust recipe involved a lot of arithmetic and muttering grams and teaspoons to myself, but I think it came out pretty well, and it adds a lot of flavor to the pizza crust. I used this with standard pizza flavor combinations and it totally worked, but I also used it for some traditional rye bread flavor combos. I whipped cream cheese with greek yogurt for a faux creme fraîche and added capers, red onion, dill, smoked salmon and lemon juice. Another option (which I haven’t tried) is using Russian dressing as your sauce and topping with corned beef and Swiss cheese.
Rye Pizza Dough Recipe
Makes 2 Standard Round Pies
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
- 1 tablespoon mustard seeds (any color)
- 2 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
- ⅔ to ⅞ cup (152-198 g) lukewarm water
- 3 tablespoons (37 g) olive oil
- ¾ cup (170 g) pickle juice
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) salt
- 1 tablespoon (13 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup plus 2 teaspoons (52 g) potato flakes
- 2 ¾ cups (337 g) all purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (155 g) rye flour
- Semolina flour for dusting
Instructions
- Gently toast caraway and mustard seeds in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant.
- Combine all ingredients (including toasted seeds) in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Start with the lower amount of water and add more as necessary. Mix everything together and knead until dough is soft and smooth.
- Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to rise about one hour. It should be noticeably puffy but not necessarily doubled in size.
- Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a rough circle and rest, covered, for 15 minutes.
- If using a pizza pan, sprinkle semolina four on pans (if you’re using a peel and stone, use parchment paper or wax paper for this step then transfer your dough to the peel to put it in the oven). Stretch dough to the edges of the pan. If it shrinks back dramatically cover and rest 15 minutes then repeat. When you have filled the pan as much as you’d like, cover the dough and allow to rise for 90 minutes.
- In the last half hour of the rise preheat oven to 450℉ (with pizza stone if you’re using one). Add the toppings to your pizza, reserving soft cheeses and fresh greens, and bake for 8 minutes. Remember if you’re using a peel to add toppings on the peel, not before you transfer. Add soft cheeses and bake another 10 to 15 minutes until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted and bubbling. Add herbs or fresh greens, lemon juice, and a drizzle of olive oil after the pizza is out of the oven.
vtx kitchen 