Amish Friendship...Pizza?
Hi. My name is Brig, and I'm an Amish Friendship Dough addict.
Last night, Kara said that she'd like to make pizza for lunch/dinner today. I volunteered to make the dough with AFB starter. She wasn't entirely convinced that it would taste pizza-ish, so she asked me to make some pizza crust out of my Pseudo-Sourdough, too. (I think she's just chicken.)
Unfortunately, finding a recipe for Amish Friendship Bread pizza dough is next to impossible. I scoured the web and found...nothing. Several people asking for such a thing, but nobody posting it. I found recipes for every possible variation of AFB using whole wheat, wheat germ, oatmeal, and arrowroot powder, but nothing on pizza. So I asked myself: WWMGD? (What Would MacGuyver Do?)
I found this site, which describes several methods for creating pizza dough, and adapted one for AFB use. Did it work? I should say so! The dough wasn't as sweet as it is in breads, and wasn't as elastic as I'd expect pizza dough to be--it required some serious time with the rolling pin, but it made for a tasty pizza.
Amish Friendship Bread Pizza Dough
Prep
You're going to need Amish Friendship Bread starter for this, so add 1 1/2 cups each of milk, flour (self-rising is optional), and granulated sugar a day or two before making this dough. The earlier you prep the starter the better the results (read: flavor) will be.
Ingredients
1 1/2 c Amish Friendship Bread starter
1/2 c warm water
3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil (plus a few Tbsps for coating dough)
Directions
If you're using a mixer, use a dough hook. Combine flour and salt, then add wet ingredients and mix on low until the dough begins to clump around the hook. Dough should be smooth and slightly elastic.
Coat the dough with a thin layer of olive oil and place in a large bowl also coated with a thin layer of olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 12-18 hours in a warm place.
Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Then, working on a floured surface, roll out to approximately 10-inch circles. Add toppings and bake at 500F for about 7 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden.
To get a great, golden crust, I used a 12" dutch oven lid--turned upside-down--in the oven in place of a pizza stone.
Comments
1. Is there any sweetness to the dough? It seems like with all the sugar in the starter there would be.
2. Can the portions of the dough be frozen? Can they be frozen after I bake them? I have no one to give starters to so when I baked the sweet bread, I made a triple batch and froze a lot of it. I don't need anymore bread at this point so I was hoping to stock up on some pizza dough.
Yes, pretty much anything you make with AFB starter is sweet--but not necessarily glazed doughnut sweet. More like...banana smoothie sweet. Or vanilla yogurt sweet.
I've never tried freezing this dough, but I've got a bag of commercially made dinner roll dough in my freezer so I don't see why not! I'd make the dough, divide it into portions, then freeze them individually before they rise. Then, when you're ready for pizza, leave the dough in a lubed bowl on the counter until it rises, punch it down, then make your pizza crust and bake!
Let me know how it goes!
Also for those who are curious, I cut the sugar I add to my AFB (per a friend and fellow AFB-lover's suggestion) and add about 1/2 a cup less for the "feeding" days. It is enough to keep it alive without letting it be as sweet as usual. I still add the full amount on days when I split my AFB.