Dorothy made pizza for our Christmas Eve dinner this year. The dough recipe makes enough crusts for two regular or four personal size pizzas, which left us with enough dough for another crust. But I had other plans. Plans to make something I saw online. I believe I saw it on a Pinterest post that links to a recipe from ChefSteps. You need the ChefSteps Studio Pass to access the recipe, but they showed seven photographs that provided enough information for me to get the gist.
The first step, not including making the dough, is to shape it into a rough circle. My circle was really rough and not really a circle, which is not really a problem considering what happens three steps from now. Step two is to cut your filling ingredients down to uniform size, as necessary, and mix them in a bowl. I used quartered pepperoni slices, sausage crumbles, chopped mushrooms, Italian style six cheese blend, and Italian seasoning. These first two steps can be done in either order, of course.
None of these ingredients were weighed or measured but they looked, to both Dorothy and myself, like they were perfectly proportioned, so I proceeded. Step three is to transfer the filling to the center of your shaped dough and fold the edged of the dough over the filling. Step four is to use a bench scraper, or equivalent, to chop the filled dough into large pieces, turning the dough over on itself once or twice. This will incorporate the filling into the dough while forming natural seams, allowing easy separation.
As for step five, place the combined dough and fillings into a prepared pan. I used one of our 8″ x 3″ round cake pans. Cover and let it rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. Pre-heat your oven to 400°F. Finally, bake your focaccia/monkey bread/pizza hybrid for 30 minutes blah blah blah bread talk. Dorothy heated small bowls of pizza sauce in which we dipped this fun and foolproof alternative to your regular pizza. The only thing I would do different next time is place a parchment paper disc into the bottom of the pan for hassle-free release.
This is just how I made it, on my first attempt, without a recipe. But I think I was successful in capturing the spirit of the dish. I made this from dough that had been cold proving for three days. I’d like to try it again with freshly made dough to see how it rises after the chopping and the mixing. Not that the bread didn’t turn out great this way. But maybe it could have been even better. If you were to ask me, “Should I make this?” My answer to you would be, in the immortal words of the Godfather, “Doooo iiiit!”
