Forays into the World of Teese

Alright, recently I acquired 2 cute Teese logs. Chicago Soydairy is promoting their vegan cheese by putting out coupons for buy one get one free. It is a pretty nice deal. The ones to which I am in proximity are the Cheddar and Mozzarella. I have used both of them and I am a fan. They have a similar texture and flavor to cheese (especially when melted) while still being of their own complete identity. They melt a lot like cheese too, which is what I really appreciate. In terms of cheese substitute these have been thus far the best. I am not sure which ones I have actually had, but the dining hall of my alma mater offered a few choices in cheese substitute - they were not very good. I believe the one I had was american cheese substitute. I was not a fan. I have also had a grilled cheese with substitute, it was particularly unsavory. It was just not melted correctly. Teese on the other hand melts wonderfully. It has a nice texture and flavor when it is melted. Tonight it was used on a pizza.

I used another recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart - Pizza Napoletana. I made a half recipe though since the full one makes 6 balls of dough that are 6 oz a piece. With the half recipe I also cut the dough in 2 for 2 bigger pizzas rather than 3 smaller ones. The full recipe is as follows -

4 1/2 cups of flour or 20.25 oz(I used regular unbleached flour, but you can use bread flour as well)

1 3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp instant yeast

1/4 cup of olive or vegetable oil (this is optional, but I like putting it in there)

1 3/4 cups of cold water

Mix the dry stuff.

Pour in the wet stuff.

Mix well until it's hydrated.

Turn the bowl clockwise and work the dough with a spoon for about 5-7 minutes. Every once in awhile switch up and go counter-clockwise. After this is done, cut it into however many pieces you want, depending on how big you want your pizzas (the crust should be thin). Mist liberally with oil then put in a food grade bag. I just put it in a plastic sandwich bag. Let it sit over night and it's ready to use the next day. It will stay in a refrigerator for about 3 days. In the freezer it will last a couple of months.

Anyway, I also made a thicker marinara sauce (I like a little bit of a thick sauce on my pizza). I heated up my pizza stone for about 45 mintes at 500 degrees. Right before I put it in the oven, I sauced up my pizza, put on some chopped broccoli, onions, and green pepper, pour half a log of shredded mozzarella teese all over it, dropped it on my pizza stone, and baked for 8 minutes. Then it's set to go. One thing that is annoying, you need to put a bunch of semolina down on a flat surface (I have an edgeless cookie sheet that I used), put the dough down, spread it out, and do your thing with toppings. Here comes the annoying part, moving the loaded up pizza to your hot pizza stone (obviously you can leave it on your baking sheet if you want). It is just a pain for it to actually slip off. I eventually got it onto the stone without much problem though. The first time I did this I made a bit of a mess because I didn't put semolina down to allow for the dough to easily slip. I really enjoy pizza because the preparation is very easy. I still have another ball of dough and more teese, so it's probably pizza again for dinner. No complaints.