March SRC: Spinach Artichoke Whole Wheat Pizza

My SRC assignment for the month of March was to make something from the site Baking & Boys.

Baking and Boys is a blog managed by the talented Katrina. Katrina has been blogging since Feb, 2008- that means she has been blogging for more than 4 years now. This is how Katrina describes why she started this blog and how it turned out to be what it is today.

I started my blog just thinking I was going to keep my family and friends up-to-date with the boys. I’ve said it before, I just put some cake pictures of Sam’s first birthday party on here and then for some reason my favorite cinnamon rolls. Next thing I knew, this whole wonderful world of food blogging opened up before my eyes. I often say that baking and sharing and blogging are my sanity—which with this house full of boys I often find necessary! Keeps them fed and me sane. Sounds like a good combination. 😉 And here I am, four years later with just noticing yesterday that I now have 400 followers on my blog and 200 “likers” on Facebook.

I am glad she changed from just a daily journal to much more.

As always its a task narrowing on one recipe from your assigned blog.

I had first bookmarked this recipe. Katrina has plenty of no-bake treats that I would love to try some day. But then I had had enough of my share of sweets. So I decided I’ll make something savory from her site. And I chose this Vegetarian Low Fat Spinach Artichoke Pizza Recipe. And I could not be happier with my choice.

I was very last minute with my assignment and am kicking myself for not making this recipe sooner. The pizzas were absolutely delicious. Since Katrina did not post a recipe for the base (just a link), I used my own recipe, one that I found here (I love this dough recipe- gives a great crust to the base). Also, I decided to use the recipe for the light Alfredo Sauce I made for a previous SRC assignment, instead of using store bought sauce. And since, that recipe gives a runnier sauce than the traditional alfredo sauce, I mixed it in with the veggies in the skillet, before putting both on the pizza.

I can not describe how much I loved this pizza, and the fact that it had all these veggies, and that too on a whole wheat pizza bread- I really could not love this recipe more. In fact while writing this post, even though I have already eaten my dinner, I just couldn’t resist another piece of this pizza and went and grabbed myself one.

I am so glad for the SRC, because without it, it might have taken a long time before I tried this recipe. It was great to have found Katrina’s blog.

Notes on rolling & Baking the pizza:

Since the dough yields two medium sized pizzas, I decided to experiment a bit. One of the dough balls, I shaped using my hands. And the other, I rolled out using a rolling pin. The one that was shaped by hand yielded a thinner crust. Somehow while rolling the dough with the pin, the dough kept contracting. A little rest to the dough in between rolling might have helped, but I was hungry and wanted the pizza to go in.

I even experimented a bit with the baking method. For the hand shaped dough circle, I used a tray that was preheated in the oven. While the oven was preheating, I placed a baking tray to preheat as well. Once the tray and oven was preheated, I sprinkled some cornmeal on the back side of the tray, and transferred the rolled out pizza to the tray and quickly topped it with the sauce mixed veggies, sprinkled on some mozzarella cheese and drizzled olive oil, and baked it for 10-12 minutes. The crust came out nice and crispy.

For the rolling pin shaped pizza, I used a tray that was not preheated in the oven. This pizza, probably since it was not rolled as thin as the previous one, did not have as thin and crisp crust as the previous, and needed to be baked for 15 minutes. But once baked, it was pretty crispy, though not as much as the first one. So depending on the kind of crust you want, you can choose your rolling and baking method.

SPINACH & ARTICHOKE WHOLE WHEAT PIZZA

For the pizza base, I adapted this recipe.

For the alfredo sauce, use this light version of the classic alfredo sauce.

For the topping, I very slightly adapted the recipe from my assigned SRC blog, Baking & Boys.

Low Fat Vegetarian Spinach & Artichoke

Whole Wheat Pizza

Ingredients for the Pizza Base

• ¾ cup warm water
• 2 tbsp. sugar, divided
• Pinch sea salt
• 1 tbsp. dry active yeast
• 1 cup plus bread flour (I used about 185 gm in total)
• ¾ cup whole-wheat flour (I used about 110 gms)
• herbs for dough  & onion powder (a sprinkle)
• olive oil for drizzling

 Ingredients for Topping

•  3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 80 gm chopped fresh spinach (2 cups)
• about 1/3 lb. asparagus (10 sticks), cut diagonally in ½ “ pieces
• 1 14 ounce quartered artichoke hearts (use marinated ones , or add a tsp of vinegar)
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 cup low fat mozzarella cheese, grated
• ¼ cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 serving of the light Alfredo sauce (see note in post)
• Black pepper & celery salt, to taste

Directions

For the dough, warm water in the microwave for 20 seconds to get it to 110-120 C. Mix in 1 tbsp. sugar and then stir in the yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes, covered with a towel, until yeast is doubled in size. Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add in the yeast water and mix well with a fork until you no longer can move the fork. Knead for 10 minutes with a dough hook attached to the stand mixer. Make the filling while the dough is being kneaded.  Add more flour if necessary to make smooth non -sticky dough. Once kneaded, coat dough with olive oil and cover with a dishtowel, until ready to bake.

 Preheat oven to 475 F.

For the topping, heat the olive oil in a 10-inch skillet pan. Add the chopped garlic and let sizzle for a minute, until golden. Add the spinach and asparagus. Sauté for a minute, or two. Add the artichokes and sauté for another 30 seconds. Season with pepper and celery salt. Remove from heat. Prepare the light alfredo sauce (see blog post). Add the sauce to the vegetables and let cool.

 Divide dough into two balls. Roll each out to a round. Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. (Check blog post for notes on baking)

Do check out what other great recipes have been stumbled on by other SRC members: