My most recent pizza making experience led me to an interesting technique. I made a batch of pizza dough, yielding enough for two pizzas. I originally planned to save half for a later day so I put one in the refrigerator and left out the other for a few hours to rise.
My stretching technique resulted in this misshapen blob, typical of my previous efforts. I cooked and ate the pizza, then decided to try one more time.
The dough was cold after its time in the refrigerator. Cold dough doesn't sag and is much easier to stretch into a regular shape. I had read about this technique before but its importance hadn't sunk in. I probably could have made this dough both larger and rounder but I was so happy with my success that I decided to declare victory.
The result was this very pleasing pizza. The pizza guys in New Jersey don't need to refrigerate their dough but they have both talent and skill. Since I have neither, I plan to refrigerate my pizza doughs from now on.
I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...



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