Smoked Tofu and Potato Pizza

Dinner 8/11

Smoked Tofu and Potato Pizza

We broke out the smoker box last night and gave both the tofu and yukon gold potatoes a shot of apple wood -- really nice.

Afterwards we went out on the deck to watch the Perseid meteor shower, but it was a little too cloudy -- we saw two on Friday, but we'll try again Sunday night...

Pizza Shells

(Makes two 14" pizza shells)

7 cups of bread flour
1 tsp. sugar
1 tbs. yeast

1 tbs. salt

3-4 cups of water
Extra virgin olive oil

Note 1: We make this in a 6qt. mixer -- if you have a smaller mixer, split the ingredients in half and make two separate batches.

Note 2: This recipe calls for a pizza stone, pizza pan and pizza peel. If you don't have a pizza stone, just leave it in the pizza pan. If you don't have a pizza pan, you can just shape it into round with a well-floured rolling pin, and cook it on a heavy flat-edge cookie sheet.

-----

On low speed, mix the flour, yeast and sugar with the dough hook. Slowly add 2 tbs. olive oil and 3 cups of water and until the dough gets soft and smooth -- approximately four minutes. You may not need the the last cup of water depending on the humidity and dough type (we use King Arthur organic bread flour).

Add salt, and mix for one additional minute.

Place in a well oiled bowl, cover and let rise until volume is doubled (at least an hour, possibly up to three hours depending temp/humidity)

Alternatively, if you can -- cover and place in the fridge overnight, or at least six to eight hours. We've found the slow rise really helps the taste and texture.

Punch the dough down, and let rise again until doubled (1-3 hours).

Divide dough in half -- oil two 14" pizza pans with the olive oil and sprinkle well with corn meal (or you could just bake them one at a time).

Flour your hands and flatten dough as well as possible (it'll fight you), cover lightly with oiled plastic wrap (so it won't stick) and let rest 20 minutes. Or roll with a well floured rolling pin and cover well with a clean kitchen towel (we have a few towels that we use just for baking).

Form again, flatten as well as possible, to about a 1/2" thick.

Drizzle olive oil on the surface of the shell. Dimple with you fingertips to within an inch of the edge. This keeps it from bubbling up in the middle when you par-bake.

In a pre-heated 450F oven, place pizza pan directly on pizza stone for approximately 10 minutes until faint brown spots appear.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Remove shell from pan with a spatula and place onto a pizza peel lightly coated with corn meal.

Add toppings (don't overload) and leave about an 3/4" between the toppings and the edge of the shell.

Brush exposed edges with additional olive oil and place back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes (rotating once) until the toppings have cooked and/or FYH has melted.

Let cool ever so slightly, cut into slices, inhale...