Thursday, March 4, 2010

A Hit and a Near Miss

First, the hit! I used the pizza dough I made a few weeks ago (and stuck in the freezer) to make one killer pizza :) Even after freezing, I was able to roll it out thin so it was nice and crispy after baking on my pizza stone.


All of the prep work for this pizza can be done ahead of time (my preferred way to do things). I happened to have a lot of shallots thanks to a farm haul from friends of the family (thanks david & al!), so I made some caramelized shallots one night when I had a little extra time. Another night I was roasting veggies and threw in an extra head of garlic to have some roasted garlic. The mushrooms and spinach can also be cooked up ahead of time as well.


The roasted garlic got mixed with some creamy goat cheese, and the rest of the ingredients topped the pie, resulting in a fabulous dinner! I was totally in love with the flavors in this pizza, and will definitely be making this again soon :)


Woodsy Pizza
(or Pizza w/Caramelized Shallots, Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese, Mushrooms and Spinach)
Recipe by Shannon


Pizza Dough (I used 1/4 of Jenna's recipe made with all white whole wheat flour)
2-3oz goat cheese
~2c thinly sliced shallots (or sweet onion)
2-3T EVOO, divided
2t balsamic vinegar
4-5 cloves of roasted garlic
4oz sliced mushrooms (I used a mix of Shiitakes and Baby Bellas)
few lg handfuls of baby spinach (I used ~3oz, or half of a 6oz bag)

For the Caramelized Shallots, I heated ~2T olive oil in a heavy skillet on med-hi. Add the shallots and stir to coat. Cook for a few minutes, then lower the heat to med-low add balsamic vinegar and season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Cook for ~20min, until the shallots have become soft and delicious- err, caramelized. Remove from heat and let cool. Can be done ahead.

Combine roasted garlic cloves with goat cheese and mix well. Store in fridge until assembling the pizza.

For the mushrooms and spinach, I heated a 1-2t EVOO in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add in the mushrooms, stir to coat, and cover for a few minutes to get them cooking. Remove the cover, stir, and continue cooking mushrooms until the water (from covering) has evaporated and they have started to get brown on their edges. Add in spinach, and cook until it has just begun to wilt, stirring as needed. Remove from heat and let cool. This can also be done ahead of time and stored in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 450deg (I keep my pizza stone in the oven while preheating). Roll out dough to the size of your stone. Have the rest of the ingredients out and ready to go. Once the stone has heated, transfer dough to hot stone (careful!). Cover with goat cheese mixture, top with caramelized shallots, then the mushroom/spinach mixture. Bake for 10-15min, until the crust is golden brown. Try to let it cool before handling/inhaling!!


~~~

My (near) miss was my entry into Katie's Artisana contest! I've seen a bunch of sweet entries, but the first thing that came to my mind were Avocado Pancakes and I couldn't resist giving them a tri. I won't share my recipe for the pancakes as they failed (I barely got one to roll up), I suggest you try Heather's or Gourmet's. Not sure what went wrong with the batter, but on my sole pancake, I slathered on some Laughing Cow (cheddar or gruyere would also work, or you could leave it out all together) and thought a black bean-corn salsa would be perfect so I rolled it all up. Yum, for sure! The scramble made from the failed pancakes was also good :) An excellent idea for brunch, should you use a tested recipe for the pancakes ;)

Avocado Pancakes w/Black Bean & Corn Salsa

33 comments:

Elina said...

These both sound great! I mean you know how I feel about shallots but I'm guessing most "normal" people would love this combo. I dig the mushroom, spinach and goat cheese though :)
I've been seeing a few savory pancakes recipes lately in the blogworld. I definitely need to give them a try. Tossed in the pru has whole wheat crepes instead of usual tortilla wraps and they are awesome. I think it's kind of a similar idea :)

Lauren said...

Roasted garlic goat cheese sounds fabulous! Definitely keeping that in mind for multiple dishes.

vanillasugarblog said...

avocado pancakes? wow! aren't you a creative little one. I MUST make that.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Well, it *looks* gorgeous!
Entered you :)

Dewi said...

That avocado pancake sounds so good Shannon. I like avocado so much, I am pretty sure I will like this one as well.

Sarah said...

Your pizza looks DELISH! I love pizzas with 'exotic' ingredients- any departure from the usual. Last week I made a great one- whole wheat crust with fire-roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, red pepper flakes, and extra sharp cheddar. It was so good, I think I'm going to post it soon.

Avocado pancakes sound interesting, I've been toying with the idea of making some savory ones recently. Love the idea of scooshy pancakes with lots of toppings.

brandi said...

ooh, both recipes sound great! avocado pancakes? yum.

Joanne said...

You are the pizza topping master! These sound amazing.

I'm sorry the pancakes didn't work out. I've never baked with avocado before (although I'm planning to make Joy the Baker's cake...soon) so I couldn't tell you what was wrong, but the concept is definitely there!

Jess said...

That pizza looks so wonderful. I've been using white whole wheat for the crust as well and it's great.

Kristen @ Change of Pace said...

I've actually had pizza similar to that at a local restaurant near me. It was sooo good! I never thought of doing a savory pancake. Good idea :)

Theresa@ActiveEggplant said...

That pizza sounds (and looks)GREAT! I don't cook "from scratch" very often, but this looks like a good one to try!

AND - even if the pancakes didn't roll up the way you wanted, the pic looks delish!

Lisa (bakebikeblog) said...

that pizza looks so good! One of my favourite dishes ever :)

Kerstin said...

Now that's my kind of pizza - goat cheese and caramelized shallots - yum!

The avocado pancakes sound so creative and yummy too!

Anonymous said...

brilliant avocado roll up!! i attempted some regular pancake roll ups yet they wouldn't stay in roll form...oh well! yum your eats are so gorgeous!

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Bridget said...

YUM! Homemade pizza is soooo good, esp when you can get the crust nice and thin like that. Looks awesome!

That avocado pancake sounds like an amazing meal with all the toppings you suggested!! At least it turned into a yummy scramble:)

Mary Bergfeld said...

Your pizza looks and sounds delightful. You sound disappointed with your pancake recipe. Could it be the pancakes were too thick to roll? They sound wonderful. I stopped bu just to say hello and stayed longer than I planned You have a lovely blog and I will be back often.

Reeni said...

Your pizza looks excellent - love the toppings! And avocado pancakes sound delish!

Kelly @ Healthy Living With Kelly said...

YUM!!! That pizza looks fabulous!

Anonymous said...

The pizza looks excellent with the thin crispy crust! I do like the idea of avocado pancakes.

Danica's Daily said...

Your pizza not only looks fantastic, it sounds fantastic too!

I LOVE the pancake creativity too!

Diana said...

It doesn't LOOK like a fail! Avo pancakes sound pretty intensely good actually.

More importantly, I want that pizza. In fact, I just called the pizza place. No time for homemade when the belly speaks.

sophia said...

Whoa!! Roasted garlic goat cheese? Oh be still my heart....It's just pumping with excitement!
And holy cow avocado pancakes...you're just never failing in incredible creations, my dear! Fail or not, that was a creative attempt!

Anonymous said...

love homemade pizza. I've never thought to freeze the dough. I just made my first pizza dough, I baked the dough and freezed the baked dough. I'll try next time freezing the dough.
Also I found that the dough was really sticky, not manageable with rolling pin, does it happy to you too?

Shannon said...

You wouldn't know from the picture that the pancakes weren't a success. Looks delicious!

Thanks so much for the sweet comment and congratulations on my blog. I really appreciate it :)

Anonymous said...

that pizza is making my mouth water!!

and avocado pancakes sound marvelous!!

beautiful food as always!!

happy Sunday!

Anonymous said...

That pizza sounds amazing!! I love goat cheese on anything - but being any kind of an onion hater, I'd leave that out.

Sorry about the pancakes - I've had my fair share of disasters in the kitchen - at least yours looks pretty!

Erica said...

oh my goodness- the pizza looks so good! There is truly something amazing about creamy goat cheese on pizza! Ohhh kitchen disasters! The result looks gorgeous though

Kelly said...

Wow, that pizza looks amazing. I totally agree with you that my preferred way of doing this is prepping everything early!

Chef Fresco said...

Look at the pancake wrap... oh man how interesting I sure would like to try one!

MichellePC said...

Both of these recipes sound fantastic, but the avocado pancakes look exceptionally amazing! I'm always looking for new, nutritious breakfast ideas - thanks for sharing!

Shannon said...

What a perfect weekend to be pet sitting! It was gorgeous out! I hope it sticks around....

Nicole Chow said...

How is that a fail? It looks pretty yummy to me! Avocado pancake, huh? That's pretty creative and sounds like it would be right up my alley. Your Woodsy pizza sounds divine. Love the name and I can only imagine how yummy it must have tasted. Good to know that freezing pizza dough is OK. I would have guessed that the freezer would have toughened it, but it looked mighty fine to me!

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