Pipe Dream #177: To Find It Easy To Be Green – Deep Dish Tomato and Spinach Pizza

Oooooh-kay. I realize that this picture has been tantalizing you on the side of my blog for weeks without a link. It has been tantalizing me for weeks. Except, I had the link, and I ate this pizza, so I can’t tell if the tantalization of this savory delight was worse or better for you than it was for me.

My father made a decent deep-dish frozen pizza and asked me, “Why is this so addicting?”

I replied that it hits his fat and salt spots, and everyone in the room nodded sagely, because obviously I am sage (not). Being that your salts spots are not hit too often on this blog, and being that that is the weirdest phrase ever, I would like to present you with this deep dish pan pizza, including homemade sauce, spinach for iron and much, much cheese.

Oh, and speaking of being wise (not), there is fresh sage in this recipe. You just don’t see that in dessert recipes all too often. Or do you?

If I were to do this again, I would have used less dough. The dish was quite deep enough, when all was said and done, and let’s be real, I could have made another dessert pizza with half the dough. I also would have made the sauce a little less runny. Somehow. Maybe I would have drained the tomatoes a little better.

I only put spinach on half the pizza. It was for the sake of my sister, who loves pizza, but has an aversion to the green things on her life’s plate. You can have an aversion, too, I guess. I’ll judge you a little, but just a little, since most of my diet is frosting. Kidding. Except for #saturdays. Am I allowed to hashtag like that? Whatever, doing it.

Get your health kicks, friends. It’s all about the green.

So easy being green,

L

Deep Dish Tomato and Spinach Pizza

Adapted from Girl Versus Dough and my friend, Chrissy

Boughten pizza dough (enough for a 12 inch pizza)

8 ounces (1 cup) canned crushed tomatoes

1 teaspoon sugar

salt and pepper, to taste

fresh thyme, sage, oregano and bay leaf

garlic paste or crushed garlic, to taste

olive oil (or truffle oil)

8 ounces provolone cheese

5 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and thoroughly drained

Let pizza dough rise according to package directions. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil, spreading around with a paper towel.

Combine tomatoes, salt, pepper, chopped herbs, bay leaf, sugar and garlic in a small saucepan, simmering over low heat while you prep the pizza.

When the dough has risen, press into the prepared skillet halfway up the sides of the skillet. Bake four 9-10 minutes until crust has just set. Remove from the oven and top with 4 ounces provolone cheese. Remove the bay leaf from the simmered sauce, then spread the sauce over the cheese. Top sauce with the spinach, then the other 4 ounces of cheese. Drizzle with a bit more oil.

Bake for another 15-20 minutes, until cheese is bubbling and crust is golden. In a perfect world, I would have used less dough, so that things weren’t spilling over the edge. Let cool 15 minutes before cutting.

Chocolate Chip Buns, A Variation

Remember these orange buns and all their variations?

Welp, here’s another. In the form of chocolate buns and a rich cream cheese icing. Hello. You could add cinnamon. This could be the best day of your life. It’s Tuesday, and I have no photos to show you except these. What up.

L

Pipe Dream #176: To Be As Far From Rihanna As Audrey – Kicky Fudge Brownies

It might have been a while since you have seen something really chocolate on this blog.

Sidenote, I just went to check on that statement to see if, in fact, it really had been a while. Imagine my surprise when I discovered dark chocolate sugar cookies  and chocolate lava cakes and Nutella cupcakes all in December. Clearly, I went on a kick. More clearly, I have a problem.

All the same, though the end of 2012 was rife with cacao, we now find ourselves at the end of February with naught but stray foil wrappers leftover from V Day, am I right? Clearly, it is time for a fix.

I was playing around with the idea of a Nutella brownie, since we still had Nutella in the house (Incidentally, the promise of Nutella on toast is the reason I get out of bed in the morning during the work week [not kidding], so it is a good thing we still have some). I found some decent recipes promising crackly tops and extreme hazelnut flavor, but I found myself worrying that it just wouldn’t be enough. So I went crazy did the only possible thing a girl could do and added insane amounts of chocolate and booze. 200 grams of semi-sweet chocolate, Frangelico, creme de cacao, cocoa powder and, oh, a buncha browned butter later, we have ourselves a brownie.

Needless to say, these should do the trick.

Crackly top? Chewy edges? Underdone middle? Check check check. Because of the nearly-double amount of chocolate and lack of leavener in this recipe, these brownies are as far from “cake-like” as…as Audrey Hepburn is from Rihanna. Best metaphor I’ve pulled all year maybe.

You should likely have more milk handy than I do. And don’t even think you can slice these larger than 1 inch square. Man, please. Your fudge tolerance is not high enough.

Also, I have it on good authority that these pair well with coffee, for dessert or, you know, for breakfast.

Just can’t get enough? Check out these other chocolate fixes:

Minted Cocoa Brownies

Flourless Chocolate Torte

Secret Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Whiskey Truffles

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Incredibly Moist Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Chocolate SMBC

Blood Orange Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Chocolate Churro Cake

Kickin’ it in style,

L

Kicky Fudge Brownies

Inspired by Raspberri Cupcakes

200 grams semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

100 grams butter, browned

scant 1/4 cup creme de cacao

scant 1/4 cup frangelico

2 eggs

heaping half cup Nutella

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8″ baking pan with parchment, letting the paper hang over the edges for easy removal.

Place butter in a small saucepan on medium heat until it melts, stirring occasionally and scraping up the bits until the butter turns an amber color and smells nutty. Set aside to cool.

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and melt in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until just melted. Stir in the Nutella until blended.

Whisk together the flour, sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Add the melted ingredients, creme de cacao, Frangelico and eggs. Stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Do not overmix. Pour into the prepared baking pan.

Bake for around 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. (Check at around 18 minutes.) Remove from the oven and place tin on a wire rack. Cool completely in the pan before removing and cutting into tiny squares. Serve with much milk.