Iron

In midlife I am richer in sight than at twenty
Realising that pretty soon I will be closing the circle
Or come out the other side of the woods, if you want to call it that.
And in that grey dusk, in that soft gloaming
I will remember my father
His one great strength amidst the frailties.
Integrity. The iron honesty of farmfolk and mountainfolk
If I leave nothing else behind but that
I will have bequeathed the world a world.

A version of Alice Medrich's coconut sticks

Coconut sticks, a photo by blueflicker on Flickr.

The original recipe (see this) looks fantastic and makes wonderful cookies. However I made quite a few changes to the original recipe to suit the ingredients I had on hand. The result was a cookie with holes, much more rustic-looking, but I dare say just as yummy.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup thawed grated coconut, pressing out a bit of the liquid
• 6 tbsp cold salted butter plus extra for the cookie sheet(s)

Prepare: Cookie sheets, greased with salted butter. You can also line the sheets with parchment paper but I’ve come to prefer the hit of salty butter when baking cookies. Or, a 5-x-9-inch loaf pan lined on the bottom and sides with foil would also work.

First, I combined the flour, sugar and coconut in a large mixing bowl and stirred to blend. Then I cut the butter into small pieces and rubbed the pieces into the flour mixture until all the dry ingredients were damp. The dough started to resemble a big tacky ball, not the coarse meal you would get if you follow the original recipe. Next I dumped the mixture onto the cookie sheet I’d prepared earlier and formed a block about 4 or 5 inches x 10 inches, covered it with parchment paper, and stuck it in the fridge.

Six hours later (two hours is the minimum you want for the mixture to firm up, overnight is even better) I preheated the oven to 350°F and positioned two racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. I took the loaf out of the fridge, unwrapped it and cut even slices about a quarter of an inch thick, using the knife to transfer each slice to the greased cookie sheets, with the slices about an inch apart.

Into the oven they went for 15 - 18 minutes, and to make sure they baked evenly I flipped the cookies halfway through the baking time and also rotated the sheets from top to bottom and from front to back.

When the cookies were nice and golden I took them out and transferred to racks to cool.

Homemade whole-wheat crispy pizza

Homemade whole-wheat crispy pizza, a photo by blueflicker on Flickr.

I didn't have high expectations from a half-whole wheat, half-all purpose flour crust. But this was a revelation, it was crispy and satisfying in every bite.

A few lessons learned from this outing:

1. Season at every step, especially if you're making a vegetarian pizza. Season the flour mixture, season the olive oil that coats the crust, season the tomato sauce base. And finally season the oil that's drizzled over the toppings.

2. A well-preheated oven (at 450 degrees) is optimal for making the crust crispy. I don't much like doughy/yeasty crusts though I love chewy, doughy bread.

3. See, I made two pizzas, one with ham and salami toppings plus veg, and a second that omitted the hams. Olives would have boosted the flavour of the vegetarian pizza.

This is what it looked like before baking:

And now the nitty gritty:

1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups AP flour
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs sugar for the yeast
Optional: A pinch of sea salt for the yeast

Your choice of herbs for the crust (thyme, oregano, chili flakes etc)

In a small bowl combine yeast and the warm water and bit of sugar. Let stand for 5 - 10 minutes until yeast is dissolved and is starting to bubble.

In a large bowl, combine flours and seasoning herbs. Pour in the yeast mixture and mix until everything’s holding together. Knead for 10 minutes (I used the same bowl that held the flour mixture). The dough should be smooth, elastic and tacky (not sticky) when you’re done.

Now transfer the dough over to a bowl that you’ve lightly coated with additional olive oil. Turn the dough over to coat completely. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean and floured dishtowel and let rise in a warm place. You can use a warm oven for this. Let rise for 1 or 2 hours or until doubled in volume.

Punch the dough down and divide it in half. At this point, you can freeze half by wrapping it tightly in saran wrap.*

Roll the dough into a ball and let it rest, loosely covered, for about 10-15 minutes. While it’s resting, preheat the oven to 450F. Grease and Ssprinkle cornmeal over your baking stone or baking sheet. Flatten the dough straight on the sheet and roll it out flat.

Now comes the fun part: laying on the toppings. Brush the top of the dough with a bit of additional, seasoned if possible, olive oil. Next comes a thin smear of tomato sauce thickened with a little tomato paste. Ham and salami slices went on next for the meat pizza. For both meat and vegetarian pizzas I used mushrooms, green peppers, jalapenos, thinly sliced onions and steak tomatoes. Over all that came two different cheeses.

Stick your magnificent creation in the oven and bake 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of your crust.

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Storing pizza dough
* Shape it into a disk, coat with little oil, saran wrap it and then throw it into a ziplock. When you want to use it, take it out the night before and put it (still wrapped) into the fridge. Three to four hours before you plan to use it, unwrap and oil it, put it in a big bowl and leave covered in a warm place to rise. After it has risen it is ready to use.