I had originally planned a very pared back pizza, where the interest would stem from three simple flavors coming together beautifully: a delectable rye crust redolent of caraway seed, thin slices of Swiss cheese beautifully melted along its surface and some juicy top quality pastrami strewn across the top, the whole acting as an homage to the classic deli sandwich of pastrami on rye.
L. on hearing what we were having for dinner, pronounced it one of the most boring dishes he had ever heard of and asked that we expand the horizons of this pizza. A quick trip to the grocery store and my simple pizza was now glammed up to include sauerkraut and homemade Russian dressing - it became positively "Reubenesque". (See what I did there).
Make either version. Or forget about that and add your own favorite toppings. The true star of the show is this crust. This recipe made enough for 2 large thin crust pizzas and, since we ate one, I have every intention of turning the remaining half of the dough into butter stuffed rolls. Stay tuned.
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup rye flour
1 tsp salt
1 + 1/2 cups water
1 tsp brown sugar
1 package active dry yeast
2 Tbsps olive oil
In a small bowl, mix the sugar and yeast with 1/2 cup of the water, which you have slightly heated. I usually skip this step as unnecessary but, since rye flour can be a pain in the neck to work with because it is so dense, I wanted to hedge my bets. Set aside for 10 minutes while you measure the other ingredients into a large bowl. It will bubble and froth nicely while you do.
Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the rest, including the yeast mixture. I used a stand mixer and started the kneading process mechanically. Once the ingredients formed a cohesive ball, I turned the dough out onto a lightly oiled board and kneaded by hand for a few minutes until the dough was glossy and felt like a baby's bum. Books always say that but it is true. The oiled board thing is new for me as I usually go the traditional floured bowl route, but this was a Paul Hollywood trick and I liked the fact that it kept me from adding too much flour to my dough which would toughen the end result.
Once the dough was properly kneaded, I tipped it into an oiled bowl, flipped it a couple of times so that the dough was oiled on the entirety of its surface, covered it with a damp tea towel and placed it in the fridge overnight for a long first prove, another Paul Hollywood suggestion.
The next morning when I took the dough from the fridge, it was tripled in size and made an audible sigh when I knocked it back.
Rather than find a nice warm place for it to prove as one is supposed to, I let it rise slowly in my 65 degree dining room, all afternoon, covered with the tea towel which I had dampened again. The end result after 5 hours was a dough that had tripled again and was stringy with gluten (which is a good thing).
I rolled half of it out into a circle, rubbed a tiny bit of oil over the top and a generous sprinkling of caraway seeds, and placed it on a parchment lined baking tray in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, I took the crust out, added my toppings and put it back in the oven for 3 minutes until the cheese had melted and the sauerkraut and pastrami were heated through. An additional drizzle of Russian dressing and we were good to go.
The texture and taste were amazing.
Inspiration recipe, here.