I rented "How To Be A Domestic Goddess" from the library and have been waiting - WAITING - to bake something from it forever - I put it off because many of the recipes are involved. This particular one is a double-crust pizza thingy.
Here is the recipe. BTW: I used a different filling than this recipe because I improvised.I decided to try something I knew Kris would eat because sometimes he seems a little perplexed and frightened by my kitchen experiments, especially when I watch Top Chef and get inspired. (Can I PLEASE tell you how much I love that show. I recently watched Hell's Kitchen and no. Tacky, Tacky, Trashy, and Classless - and yes the Caps are ALL necessary.) He likes pizza so much he haggled with me to have it served at our wedding in lieu of any real catering. He could literally eat a frozen pizza or Pizza Hut everyday, so I decided I would make a fancy-pants gourmet version. Anyways, this 'pizza' was...ummmm... involved. BUT very yummy.
OK - before starting this you should know it takes like 2 hours, so don't do as I did and begin at 7:30 pm on a Friday night and expect to be out on the town an hour later. You are hanging out en casa with your oven if you undertake this so don't make plans.
Anyways, First I made the dough - I followed the recipe exactly and then added a little more water, because AZ is hot and dehydration happens. Even for foods. When you separate the dough into two balls make sure one is much larger than the other, not just a little bit bigger but double the size. Trust me - it is imperative unless you are an absolute expert at spreading dough out - I am NOT. While freezing the dough, do the innards (the pizza filling).
It is already about 95 degrees outside so when I took the dough out of the freezer to roll out it got hot and melty and super, super mushy almost immediately. Which was scary and caused me to panic. Also, I could not get an accurate measurement on the depth and width of the springform pan which is also scary and overwhelming - just like its misbehaving friend the dough. Several miscalculations ensued until finally I realized I did not have to make the dough TALLER than the pan, but I should take into account that the pizza will rise and I should just have enough to fold over the stuff inside (see the photo above from the cookbook for illustration of this).
The dough, was, needless to say, a problem...
Anyways I finally got it sorted out and then put in all the stuff I concocted in advance. One thing I did not do is time frying the pork and bacon - by the time the pie was completely cooked in the oven the pork was way overdone. I should have followed the recipe instructions about the frying time or even done a little less to make sure it was perfect. I also added a high quality chedder, but did not slice it thin enough so when the pizza was finished I had big giant tacky cocktail party cheese non-melted cubes distracting my otherwise quite tasty pizza. I also added peppers which were good - I should have also mixed in brocoli and spinach which I will do next time.
After putting the filling in I had further dough-issues when I tried to fold the edges over. For some reason things were NOT cooperating. After many futile attempts I did a 'good enough' job and put it in. This takes a loooong time to cook, but if you follow the cooking time give or take a couple minutes it will be just right. Also definitely follow the cooling advice. Do not serve until this is cooled. Nigella is right - it is MUCH better on day 2 and taste quiche-y. Which probably is because of the 5 million eggs in the recipe (which is akin to 5 million grams of fat).
WARNING: This is definitely NOT diet food so consider yourself aware that you cannot blame me if you make this and eat all 8 slices yourself in 2 days.
This was very yummy - Kris loved it and so, of course, did I because when I am attempting to lose weight and reach a goal eating things that are completely filled with cheesey lard or made entirely of butter and crisco are the only things I can possibly think of consuming.
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