Ciabatta Focaccia Pizza!
We are learning what to do and how to make do, as we mill wheat berries and feed the yeast starter on the counter. Tonight we used our ciabatta dough recipe and tried our hand at making a focaccia style pizza. Having fresh foods is not always possible right now, so we kicked it up with lots of canned toppings -- olives, artichoke hearts, mushrooms!
Ingredients
- 6 cups Whole grain flour (We milled wheat berries and sifted to about 70%.)
- 1.5 cup sourdough starter (May substitute 4 tsp active yeast)
- 4 cups water
- 4 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar (Optional. If you want a sourdough flavor, omit the sugar.)
- 1 28 ounce can of tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons Basil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 pounds Grated mozzarella cheese
- Toppings (e.g. mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts, veggie sausage or veggie pepperoni)
Instructions
We are grinding wheat berries fresh and using a sieve to remove 30-40% of the bran, which we use for other purposes. There is a lot of dust sifting flour, and since we have cloth masks around ....
Place all of the ingredients in your food processor with a dough blade (or your Kitchenaide with dough hook if you have one). And process for five minutes. The dough will be super wet as if you were making a traditional ciabatta.
Divide and pour the dough into two large storage containers with tight fitting lids. And let rest and rise until doubled in size, 4-8 hours depending on your starter.
After the dough has risen, pour it out onto a lightly floured cutting board and divide in half.
Line four baking sheets with parchment paper.
Carefully lift the dough with a scraper and place in the middle of the parchment paper and gently use your fingers to press and stretch the dough until it mostly covers the entire baking sheet.
Let the dough rest and rise again in a slightly warm oven. In some cases just having the oven light on is ample heat.
After another hour or two, turn the oven on to 425 and bake the focaccia without toppings for 15 minutes.
Remove blind baked crust and add your favorite pizza cheese and toppings. Bake another 20-30 minutes until crust is done and toppings are bubbly.