Grilled Pepperonni Pizza with Thick Pizza Sauce

I put Grover to work again.  He sure is good at making pizza dough.  The focus of this post is the pizza sauce.  Here are the cast of characters (first in picture form).











I made a lot. I used what I needed for the pizzas and froze the rest for later consumption.

Ingredients (Note: I have no idea how much of the spices I used.  I just dump what I think is right amount in.):

• Two 29oz can's of tomato sauce
• Two 8oz can's of tomato paste
• 2 tbls sugar
• 2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
• 6 cloves of chopped garlic
• oregeno
• basil
• ground thyme
• marjoram
• red pepper flakes
• 2 bay leafs
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat oil over medium heat.  Add in garlic and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly.  Don't burn the garlic.  Add in all the spices and cook for about 30 seconds.  This helps bring out the flavor in the spices.  Add in tomato products and simmer on low for about an hour stirring every five minutes or so.  That's it.  This is a thick zesty sauce.  Try it out and see what you think, or come over and I will make you some (yes, I am serious).

By the way, the crust was awesome grilled.

America's Test Kitchen Cupcake Test with Peanut Butter Frosting

I planned on making chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting using the same cupcake recipe I posted before, but I changed my mind after watching an episode of the American Test Kitchen on PBS while I was working out on the Arc Trainer at the gym.  I was inspired.  As soon as I got home, I looked up the recipe and got started.

From there website here is the recipe:

From the episode: Chewy Brownies and Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Use a high quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate for this recipe,
such as one of the test kitchen's favorite baking chocolates,
Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate L-60-40NV or Ghirardelli Bittersweet
Chocolate Baking Bar. Though we highly recommend the ganache filling,
you can omit it for a more traditional cupcake. The cupcakes can be
made up to 24 hours in advance and stored unfrosted in an airtight
container.
Ingredients
Ganache Filling

   * 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine (see note)
   * 1/4 cup heavy cream
   * 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Chocolate Cupcakes

   * 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine (see note)
   * 1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
   * 3/4 cup hot coffee
   * 3/4 cup (4 1/8 ounces) bread flour
   * 3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
   * 1/2 teaspoon table salt
   * 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
   * 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
   * 2 large eggs
   * 2 teaspoons white vinegar
   * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
   * 1 recipe Frosting

Instructions

   *

     1. FOR GANACHE FILLING: Place chocolate, cream, and
confectioners’ sugar in medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave
on high power until mixture is warm to touch, 20 to 30 seconds. Whisk
until smooth; transfer bowl to refrigerator and let stand until just
chilled, no longer than 30 minutes.
   *

     2. FOR CUPCAKES: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat
oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-size muffin pan (cups have ½-cup
capacity) with baking-cup liners. Place chocolate and cocoa in medium
bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in
refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. Whisk flour, sugar,
salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
   *

     3. Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into cooled
chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk
until smooth.
   *

     4. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Place one
slightly rounded teaspoon ganache filling on top of each cupcake. Bake
until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool
cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about
10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on
wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.
   *

     5. TO FROST: Mound 2 to 3 tablespoons frosting on center of each
cupcake. Using small icing spatula or butter knife, spread frosting to
edge of cupcake, leaving slight mound in center.

America's Test Kitchen

America's Test Kitchen is a 2,500-square-foot kitchen located just
outside of Boston. It is the home of Cook's Country and Cook's
Illustrated magazines and is the workday destination for more than
three dozen test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission
is to test recipes until we understand how and why they work and
arrive at the best version. We also test kitchen equipment and
supermarket ingredients in search of brands that offer the best value
and performance. You can watch us work by tuning in to America's Test
Kitchen (www.americastestkitchen.com) on public television.

My adjustments were that I used all Trader Joe's chocolate and made my own peanut butter frosting.  Otherwise, I followed the directions.  I weighed the ingredients for the frosting.

Ingredients:

• 400g creamy peanut butter (I used JIF)
• 1 stick of butter softened
• 1 tbls vanilla extract
• 690 g confectioners' sugar
• 160 ml cream

Directions:

In a large bowl beat butter and peanut butter together with a hand mixer until well blended.  Add vanilla.  At low speed, gradually add the confectioners' sugar.  Beat at low speed until creamy.  I used a star tip and a pastry bag to pipe the frosting on the cooled cupcakes.

My Review.
They were okay.  I like my other chocolate cupcake recipe better.  I mean with chocolate and peanut butter you really can't go wrong.  But after watching the episode, I had very high expectations and was slightly let down.  I made them to take to a fellowship welcome party for my wife's new job.  Most of them were eaten and I received no complaints.  I also made the Mexican wedding cookies that I have posted before.

Lower Fat? Chocolate muffins

 

I am back with a new recipe.  My chocolate muffins.  For about two weeks I was craving something chocolatey, but at the same time, I did not want something too dense.  I decided a muffin might do the trick.  I did not make these to give away, but a couple did get away,  I made them for purely selfish reasons.  I wanted chocolate, good chocolate.  I did not hold back in my ingredient choices.  I used Extra Brute cocoa powder and Callebaut chocolate.  Were they good?  Let's just say I ate 6 in about 6 hours.  I labeled them low fat because I these did not require a lot of added fat.  Here is my recipe.  I am giving it in metric because it's just the way to go for these.

Ingrients:

•  250g  AP flour
• 67g  cocoa
• 300g sugar
• 1/2t baking soda
• 1t baking powder
• 1/2t salt
• 295g vanilla Kefir
• 1 egg
• 45ml canola oil
• 1t vanilla extract
• a handful of chopped milk chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Weight flour, cocoa, and sugar in a large bowl.  Add baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Wisk well.  In a medium bowl, weight Kefir, and oil.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Mix well.  Poor wet mixture on dry mixture and stir together with a red large spatula (yes, it must be red).  Do not over mix!  Fold in the chocolate chunks.  Using a spoon or ice cream scoop, fill 14 lined muffin tin's no more than 3/4 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes rotating pan's halfway through.  Use a toothpick to test for doneness.

I actually sprinkled sugar on top of mine before baking, but I don't think that was a good choice.  These did not need it.  Baking in a new oven for the first time, I had to keep a close eye on them.  I  made the mistake of overfilling mine, so some of them got too large and they did not bake quite evenly.

Overall, I will defiantly make these again with the notes I mentioned above.  Hope you enjoy.  Do yourself a favor and use good cocoa powder.

Update

Sorry I have been slacking off lately.  I have been in the process of moving, so I depleted my kitchen supplies before the move.  I will finally be moved in for good later this week.  Hopefully, I will get some new stuff up soon.

Grover In Action

Finally, I put Grover to work.  He is responsible for the pizza pictured above.  I followed the directions from here for the crust.  I made my own sauce.  I used sharp aged provolone and parmigiano reggiano cheese.  The only topping I used was turkey pepperoni.

A note about the cheeses:  I highly recommend spending a little extra money and buying good cheeses.  It makes a huge difference in taste.  I have found the best prices at Sam's Club and Costco.  Per pound, this is the way to go.  You might think you are buying more cheese than you need, but you don't have to use it all right away.  When you get home, cut the cheese in half and freeze half.

I did not write down what all I put in my sauce, maybe I will post that recipe next time. 

As far as what I thought about Grover's performance, I would say he gets a B.  I have made better crusts using the other starter I posted.  I think Grover lacked rise power.  I have not given up on him yet though.  He is currently resting in the refrigerator.  I thought he might need a nap.

Product Review: PB2

I randomly ran across this stuff while roaming around a Rochester grocery store (as I have mentioned, one of my favorite activities).  I was just too curious to pass these buy without buying some.  What is this stuff that is 85% less fat than peanut butter?  I thought surely it can't be that good.  I was wrong.  This stuff is awesome check out there website because they do a better job of explaining their product than I will.

I went through this bottle in less than week.  I just received 4 lbs more today that I ordered off the above website.  I will try it out is some recipes.  I will keep you updated.

Product Review: Late July Milk Chocolate Sandwitch Cookies

I could not resist buying a box of these when I purchased the peanut butter crackers.  These where just as good.  I would like to buy more of these, but I probably won't because I am too likely to eat an entire box at once.