October Daring Bakers Challenge

This month I joined the Daring Bakers, a group of bloggers that take on a baking challenge every month.  This month's challenge was homemade and hand-tossed pizza dough.  Coincidentally, I'd been wanting to try making my own pizza dough for weeks.  This was the kick-in-the-butt I needed to actually do it.

The recipe made enough dough for 6 medium-sized pizzas.  I prefer to use whole wheat flour as often as possible when baking.  For this challenge, I decided to use white whole wheat flour. It's 100% whole wheat, but has a lighter taste and texture that traditional whole wheat flour.  It gave the crust a slightly nutty taste, which I didn't mind.

I tested the first three with my brother, Z, and his friend.  Tough crowd.  I bought the necessary non-vegan toppings for them: cheese and pepperoni.  The funny part was that when I went to the grocery store, I couldn't remember where these items were kept.  I also picked up Davanni's pizza sauce and spinach for myself for a simple pizza.  Unfortunately, between my nervousness and my appetite, I forgot to take pictures.  However, the verdict was good: we all enjoyed the pizzas.

Having completed the challenge so early, I tossed the 3 extra dough balls in the freezer and forgot about them until last night.  So I tossed one in the fridge to defrost last night, and I set out to make myself dinner tonight.  I borrowed my mom's pizza stone and heated the oven to 500F.  Then the trouble began.

I split the dough in half to make two small pizzas.  I then tossed the dough and topped the first pizza with some of the leftover white bean and walnut bruschetta topping.  At this point I realized that I had no means of transferring the pizza to the stone in the oven.  So, using my hands and a spatula I clumsily dropped the pizza onto the stone.  It turned out great.  

Then the fire alarms started.  First in the kitchen.  Then in the hallway.  Then in my roommate's room.  I frantically ran to each one, flailing a towel in front of it to fan away the smoke.  As soon as I had one off, another would start again.  I opened my roommate's window, which I'm sure she'll really appreciate when she gets home.

So I took to my second option: the toaster oven.  This worked surprisingly well.  I turned out a perfect, albeit oddly shaped, pizza with tomato sauce, spinach, and basil.  Next time I won't push my old oven to 500F.