NO-KNEAD PIZZA DOUGH BAQUETTES

Photo by Dianne  Radmore/Fireweed

A LITTLE EXPERIMENT THAT WENT QUITE WELL: NO-KNEAD PIZZA DOUGH BAQUETTES--

I had some leftover no-knead pizza dough in my refrigerator yesterday. We had our fill of pizza for a while, so I considered freezing the dough, but then thought, "Why not try making a couple of baguettes out of it?" Why not, indeed. It's a similar simple dough (see the recipe for the dough at the end of this post).

I have a baguette pan, but it has a hook on one end, which makes it difficult to place inside even my largest roaster.

I decided to line the baguette pan with 3 layers of foil, line the troughs with baking parchment and let the dough rise in that setup (for about 2 hours because the dough was cold).

When I heated up the oven (to 450 Degrees F), I also heated up my big rectangular granite ware roaster.

I stretched and folded the refrigerated dough a few times before shaping it into two loaves.

When the time came to bake, I slid the foil form out of the baguette pan onto the bottom of a baking sheet and then carefully slid that into the shallow bottom of the hot roaster.

The foil kind of spread outward at this point, so I quickly rolled up some more foil into two long "sausages" and used those to prop up the outside edges of my makeshift baguette pan liner (I saved all this foil for another use, BTW).

I scored the tops of the dough with a serrated knife before baking, but not deeply enough, evidently, because you couldn't see the scoring at all after it was baked (I'll use a razor blade on the soft dough next time). However, as you can see, it turned out well, had wonderful flavor (it was in the refrigerator for 2 nights), and disappeared very fast with a vegan stew I made for friends who came for dinner.

Photo by Dianne  Radmore/Fireweed

I'll be doing this again!

Printable Copy

BRYANNA'S NEAPOLITAN-STYLE NO-KNEAD PIZZA CRUST ( or about 4 baguettes)
Servings: 36
Yield: makes about six 11"-square pizzas

This is our current favorite pizza dough-- partly whole wheat and no oil added, but very tender.

6 cups unbleached white flour or unbleached bread flour (use bread flour in the USA-- Canadian all-purpose unbleached flour has the same gluten content as USA bread flour)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp sea salt (fine)
3 cups warm water
1 Tbsp instant yeast

In a large bowl, mix together the two flours and the salt.

In a 1-quart/L container, sprinkle the yeast into the water and let sit for a few minutes.  Stir and pour into the flour mix. Have ready another large bowl, oiled lightly.

Stir the mixture with a Danish dough whisk or large spoon.  Use your hands to mix/knead in the last bit of flour.  Using a dough scraper, scoop the dough into the oiled bowl.  Cover and let rise at room temperature for 2 or more hours (this is flexible). Refrigerate in the same bowl, either covered, or placed inside of a food-safe plastic bag (it won't touch the dough if the bowl is big enough), or in a covered container such as a dough bucket or large storage container. Place in the refrigerator.

You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks, although, in my experience, it gets kind of "soggy" by then.  It does taste marvelous after a long stay in the refrigerator!

Make as many pizzas as you like (refrigerate any leftover dough again) as usual and bake at the highest heat your oven can reach (500-550 degrees F) for 8-10 minutes, using a baking stone or cast iron skillet heated up in the oven as it comes up to temperature.

See these blog posts for tips about rolling out and baking pizza:
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.ca/2006/05/vegan-pizza-night.html
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.ca/2011/10/cast-iron-skillet-pizza-perfect.html

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/6th of one square 11-inch pizza): 93 calories, 3 calories from fat, less than1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 189.1mg sodium, 47mg potassium, 19.6g carbohydrates, 1.2g fiber, less than 1g sugar, 3g protein.

Enjoy!