Mushroom, Corn & Pancetta Pizza

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This pizza is the result of a Sunday night fridge clean-out. I had a few items that only had a few good days left and I didn’t want to let them go bad only to throw them away while shaking my head and wishing I could get my life together.

I had assorted mushrooms, an ear of corn and a little package of diced pancetta sitting in my fridge. I also had milk and gruyere cheese.

I threw them all on the counter and waited for something to hit me.

Pizza!

Who doesn’t like pizza?

People that shouldn’t be trusted, that’s who.

So I decided to make a “white pizza” (i.e. no red sauce) and use Mornay sauce instead. Mornay sauce is a basically a béchamel sauce with gruyere cheese. It’s insanely good.

To make a béchamel you make roux (50/50 fat/flour mix), add milk and cook until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a line made with your finger.

Add some salt and nutmeg and you have a standard béchamel sauce.

Add gruyere cheese and you have Mornay sauce.

This should be the consistency of your sauce:

So. Fucking. Good.

Now set the sauce aside and make the dough (full instructions at end of post) and let it rise for about 30mins.

(Side note: I used a Williams-Sonoma pizza dough crust mix that had sundried tomato and basil in the crust (very delicious, if you are wondering), which is why those specks are in the dough. I have included a recipe for a plain pizza dough at the end of this post.)

Boil the ear of corn until the color changes and they look swollen then allow the corn to cool before cutting off the kernels.

Then cook off the pancetta and reserve the rendered pancetta fat to cook the shrooms in.

Now gather all the ingredients, roll the dough out, form into pizza pan, add toppings and bake.

Mamma mia.

RECIPE

Ingredients

For Mornay Sauce:
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
about a cup of milk
1 cup grated gruyere cheese
pinch of nutmeg
S+P, to taste

For Pizza Dough:
1 packet dry active yeast
3 cups flour + more for dusting (all-purpose flour for chewier crust, bread flour for crisper crust)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water (105F-115F)
1 Tbsp oil

For Pizza:
4 oz pancetta, diced
1 pint mushrooms, sliced if particularly large
1 ear of corn, boil and cut off kernels when cool
1 green onion/scallion, cut into little rings

Directions

For Mornay Sauce:

  1. Melt the butter in a pot and then add the flour and whisk together until a paste forms (a.k.a roux).
  2. Once paste has formed cook for about a minute to remove the raw flour taste but not too long that you brown the roux.
  3. At this point add the milk while whisking until you have the consistency of a stew.
  4. Bring the sauce to a boil and reduce it to simmer and whisk to prevent any lumps from forming.
  5. Continue to cook the sauce until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a line made with your finger.
  6. Now add a pinch of nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible) and S+P, to taste.
  7. You have a béchamel sauce! You can use this to make lasagna or an insanely good mac + cheese, etc. etc.
  8. To make this a mornay sauce, add the grated gruyere, turn off the heat and stir until melted. Ta dah! That easy.
  9. Now set the sauce aside and move on to the next phase, the pizza dough.

For Pizza Dough:

  1. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl with the dough hook attachment,
  2. While it is on medium/low speed, pour in the warm water and oil and knead until a ball forms. It should be slightly tacky and elastic.
  3. Cover the mixing bowl and place it somewhere warm for about 20mins to rise.
  4. Once risen, divide dough in half for two regular 12inch pizzas, in thirds for 3 thin crust 12inch pizzas or use it all for a deep dish 12inch pizza (which is what I did, carbs are life).
  5. Roll dough out on a floured surface and then transfer to pizza pan and add toppings as desired and bake in a 500F oven that has preheated for 30minutes for about 12-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

For Pizza:

  1. Cook the pancetta until crisp but not too crisp as it will cook further in the oven.
  2. Transfer the cooked pancetta onto a paper towel to drain, while still reserving the rendered pancetta fat in the pan. Cook the mushrooms in the same pan with the rendered pancetta fat until golden brown.
  3. Gather all the pizza toppings: mornay sauce, mushrooms, corn, pancetta and green onions.
  4. Form the dough into a pizza pan and top with a spoonful of mornay sauce at a time, you have the desired amount. Make sure to leave the edge of the pizza unsauced.
  5. Top the sauced portion of the pizza with the mushrooms, pancetta, corn and scallions. Add more sauce/grated gruyere on top, if desired.
  6. Bake in a 500F oven that has preheated for 30minutes for about 12-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Chewy Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies (Halloween Edition)

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This recipe is a solid chewy chocolate chip recipe and you can change it up however you like. This time I added salt and Halloween-themed chocolate chips. It’s the little things.

Begin by gathering all your ingredients.

Set aside the chocolate chips for now and combine the wet and dry ingredients. (Sugars count as wet ingredients. Weird but true.)

Also, I didn’t have brown sugar and it is an important factor in making a cookie chewy but I also didn’t want to run to the store. I happened to have granulated sugar and molasses however, and that’s all you need to make brown sugar! I whizzed some sugar with a drizzle of molasses and kept adding molasses till it was closer to dark brown sugar. Store in an airtight container and feel pinterest AF.

Funny how baking cookies brings certain someone’s out of the woodwork.

That is a spider on my spatula.

Very Halloween.

Very on trend.

Very sad.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until a dough forms.

Once the dough has formed, stir in the chocolate chips and taste to see if additional salt is needed/desired.

Scoop the dough out onto a baking sheet and bake till golden brown on the edges but slightly underdone in the center.

They should cool on the baking sheet once out of the oven to finish cooking gently and achieve a chewy consistency.

I like to use a mini ice cream scoop to get consistent sized cookies but two spoons work fine, just make sure they are all about the same size.

Once the cookies come out of the oven, keep them on the baking sheet until they have cooled.

If you like, sprinkle some more salt on top when they come out of the oven.

Enjoy with a glass of milk!

 

RECIPE

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt + more for garnish
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup halloween chocolate chips (I got mine from Target, they’re by Nestle)

Wet Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks melted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
plash of vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325F
  2. Set aside the halloween chocolate chips. Combine the rest of the dry ingredients.
  3. In another bowl combine all the wet ingredients.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir till combined.
  5. Add the halloween chocolate chips and stir till evenly distributed.
  6. Scoop the dough on a baking sheet 2 inches apart.
  7. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown around the edges and slightly underdone in the center.
  8. Allow cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet. This step is important to achieve chewiness.
  9. You will remove the cookies from the oven while they are still slightly underdone, the residual time on the hot cookie sheets cooks them gently to the perfect state of chewiness.
  10. Sprinkle on a bit more flaky/coarse salt while the cookies are still hot.
  11. Enjoy!

 


Not Your Mother’s Apple Martini

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not your mothers apple martini 11

Apple martinis.

They can be so cliché and cloyingly sweet and leave you with regrets the next day.

This drink will probably leave you with regrets as well but it makes up for that by making you feel very classy beforehand.

It’s inspired by my trip to an apple orchard where I went apple picking.

I picked some teeny tiny apples.

not your mothers apple martini 8

You can’t tell but they are really tiny apples, man.

Like, so cute I cried when I had to cut into them.

This apple martini is slightly sweet and sour but no where near as chemically tasting as a sour apple martini and there is room for adjustment to your liking.

First thing to mention here is the use of shrubs or drinking vinegar in this recipe. For more info you can read this. Otherwise just go with it and trust me you won’t be sorry. It’s waaaaay better than that sour pucker shit.

You can buy or make your own shrub. I decided to buy my first shrub just to have a frame of reference for when I try to make my own.

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I got PokPok’s apple shrub from amazon for like $20 for a 16oz bottle. A little goes a long way and they have loads of flavors to choose from.

It’s perfectly tangy and sweet and it is basically a sweetened vinegar syrup so it hits all over the palate and is good enough to drink simply diluted with sparking water as a refreshing soda.

Next you need a dark liquor, preferably apple flavored.

not your mothers apple martini 4

You don’t need both of these to be honest. You can use either one alone and just use 2 1/2 oz of it for the recipe below. I just used both to build layers and flavors.

If you had to pick one, I would recommend just using the calvados which is an apple brandy. You could also use applejack if you prefer. I used Hennessy because I already had some and I used the calvados just to reinforce the apple flavor.

Finally, you need a hard cider:

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I found this at BevMo! and chose it because of the packaging (it’s a problem I have and it’s only getting worse) and I ended up really liking it, not to sweet and not too dry.

I made a gingersnap rim because Fall.

All you need is a few gingersnaps and some pent up rage 🙂

not your mothers apple martini 1 not your mothers apple martini 2 not your mothers apple martini 3

Once the drink is rimmed, combine the ingredients (recipe below) in a shaker filled with ice.

Shake till very cold and pour.

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I like to garnish with an apple slice and a wedge of cheddar cheese.

Mmmm cheddar cheese

*in Homer Simpson’s voice*

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Mmmm cheddar cheese apple martini with gingersnap rim mmmm

*also in Homer Simpson’s voice*

RECIPE

1 1/2 oz cognac (or your favorite dark liquor)
1 oz calvados (or applejack)
1 1/2 oz apple shrub (a.k.a. drinking vinegar)
4 oz hard cider

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake till cold. Pour into a martini glass.
Garnish with an apple slice in the drink and a wedge of cheddar cheese on the rim, which I have dipped in ground up gingersnaps.