Big Sur Bakery Cookbook - Michelle Wojtowicz [9]
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INGREDIENTS
Bread flour, for dusting
6 bacon strips
1 recipe pizza dough, shaped into 2 balls and refrigerated at least overnight
½ cup grated Parmesan
2 cups grated mozzarella
6 eggs
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons minced chives
2 whole scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 shallot, minced
Makes 2 pizzas (serves 2 to 4)
At least 1 hour before you start baking, adjust the oven rack to the lowest position, put a baking stone on it, and preheat the oven to 450ºF.
Generously dust the surface of a pizza peel (a flat wooden or metal shovel with a long handle) with bread flour.
Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the bacon strips, and pan-fry until crisp. Put the bacon on a plate lined with paper towels, let it cool, and then chop it into bite-size pieces.
Lightly dust a work surface with bread flour. Working with one ball of pizza dough, dip your hands and the dough in the bread flour to make them less sticky, and pat the dough down into a disk shape with the tips of your fingers. Once the disk is large enough, drape the dough over your fists and carefully start stretching and expanding the dough from underneath to form a round that is 10 to 12 inches in diameter. (If you’re feeling lucky, try tossing the dough over your head in a circular motion to stretch it.)
Place the dough on the prepared peel. Sprinkle it with half of the Parmesan, mozzarella, and bacon, and crack 3 eggs over the top. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Before you put the pizza in the oven, do the “stick test”: shake the peel slightly to make sure the pizza is not sticking (if it is, carefully lift the section that is sticking and sprinkle a bit more flour underneath). Then slide the pizza directly onto the baking stone and bake it for 8 to 12 minutes, checking on it after 5 minutes and rotating it if necessary to ensure that it’s baking evenly. When the crust is golden, the cheese is melted, and the egg yolks are cooked to medium, use the peel to remove the pizza from the oven and transfer it to a cutting board. Let it cool for 2 minutes and sprinkle with half of the parsley, chives, scallions, and shallots. Slice and serve immediately.
Prepare your second pizza the same way.
Photographs by Sara Remington
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Nine-Grain Pancake
Baked in a cast-iron skillet, this is a real pan “cake.” At the Bakery, we prepare it in the wood-fired oven, where it puffs up to an inch thick in just a couple minutes. We top it with huckleberries or strawberries, or serve it with maple syrup and butter—or even eat it with a thin European-style yogurt. One pancake should be enough for one person. If you want to serve the pancakes to a group of people, cut them into slices and allow your guests to help themselves.
We buy our nine-grain mix from Giusto’s Millers & Bakers out of San Francisco; it’s a combination of steel-cut oats, millet, amaranth, barley, soft wheat, winter wheat, rye, flax seeds, and corn grits.
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INGREDIENTS
¼ cup brown rice
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons nine-grain mix
2 tablespoons flax seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
¼ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats
¼ cup molasses
4 cups buttermilk
4 egg yolks
6 egg whites
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Makes 4 pancakes
Place the brown rice in a small saucepan, add 1 cup water, and