Posts Tagged ‘pizza’

Spent Grain Pizza

My husband and I occasionally brew beer and when we do we have tons of grains leftover (we’re talking about 15 lbs worth!) There’s no way I could use it all, but I did find a great recipe to use some of those grains to make pizza dough.

Ingredients:


1 pkg. dry bread yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup flour
1 cup spent grains
1/2 cup water
3 cups additional flour
olive oil for bowl
flour to sprinkle bread board

Proof yeast by mixing with 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 tsp sugar. Let sit 5-10 minutes–a nice layer of foam should prove that the yeast is alive and well. In large mixing bowl, mix together olive oil, sugar, and salt. Blend in yeast mixture. Stir in 1 cup flour until well blended. Set aside while you prepare the grains. Add 1 cup spent grains (drained well, but still wet) and 1/2 cup water to bowl of food processor. Process until you have a semi smooth mixture. It doesn’t ever get really smooth, but you don’t want it too chunky either. Add grain mixture to yeast slurry and mix together well. Add remaining 3 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well with each addition. I do this by hand with a wooden spoon. It goes quickly, but you could do it in a mixer with a dough hook if you wanted. The last cup of flour will make the dough seem pretty stiff if you are mixing by hand, but it’s ok! Don’t worry. It’s still a bit sticky, but will clean the side of the bowl. I just use my hands at the end and knead it together right in the bowl. When you have a rough lump of dough together and the sides of the bowl are clean, push the dough ball to one side and add a bit of olive oil to the bottom of the bowl. Push the dough into the oil and flip it over, smoothing the oil over the top of the dough. Reshape the dough into an even round. Cover lightly and place in a warm place to rise for about an hour.
When ready to use, push dough down, deflating it. Bring sides in to center and flip dough over. Put dough out onto floured board and pat out evenly. Cut dough into equal sized pieces for each pizza you will make. If making all pizzas, you should have 8 equal sized pieces of dough. Shape each piece into an evenly round ball and place on a cookie sheet. Cover lightly and let sit 20-30 minutes. When ready to bake, take each little round of dough and pat it out on the floured board into an evenly round shape. You can use a rolling pin if you want to speed the process up a bit. I like them about 9″ around for a thin crust pizza. Obviously, a thicker pizza would need to be pushed or rolled out to a smaller round.

For toppings I used marinara, crimini mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. It was delicious!!

Pizza Night

Fridays are our normal pizza nights. I’ve been making my own dough for the crust and it’s been getting better everytime.

Base: Homemade pesto

Toppings: 2 Quorn Turk’y patties, 2 small eggplant sliced, a few crimini mushrooms, mozzarella cheese

 

It was sooo delicious, I ate way too much of it last night!

Using Leftovers Pt. 1 – Vegetable Fajita Calzone

Continuing with the reducing waste theme, I used some leftover grilled vegetables and black beans to make a fajita style calzone for dinner and here’s how I did it.

First make a simple pizza dough.

First make a simple pizza dough.

let it rise

let it rise

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and roll out into a square shape.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and roll out into a square shape.

spread on black beans and sprinkle minced garlic on top

spread on black beans and sprinkle minced garlic on top

Get your leftover grilled vegetables out and chop them up.

Get your leftover grilled vegetables out and chop them up.

Spread out vegetables over beans.

Spread out vegetables over beans.

Close it up, trying to keep the dough even.

Close it up, trying to keep the dough even.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the dough is lightly browned.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the dough is lightly browned.

Slice and enjoy!

Slice and enjoy!

This turned out to be a great dinner for tonight. I was tired of fajita tacos and there were tonnes of vegetables left so this was a nice change but also helped use up some of the veggies. I also have made a Mexican style calzone before by cooking up some onion, bell pepper, whole black beans, corn and garlic and sticking that into the pizza dough. I really enjoy that recipe, so it kind of inspired this one.