Mock French Bread Pizza

On Friday of last week we had some French Bread pizza for dinner. This is another relatively easy thing to make for dinner, and it can be made even more inexpensively (albeit more time consuming) if you make your own bread. Mine is called Mock French Bread because I didn't do it exactly---I didn't let it sit in the fridge overnight to develop a more sourdough flavor, and I added some seasonings to the dough.

I especially like to make this when I see French Bread Baguettes on sale at the store for a small amount. This works fine with day old bread because you are baking it anyways, and with the sauce on it, a little bit of stale isn't as noticeable. You can use bread heels from homemade bread (or store bought), or bagels, or pretty much any other sort of bread too, for a fast, somewhat healthy, and affordable dinner. I don't make this kind of pizza often (usually I make the flat variety which is not as time consuming) but this was a special request by my darling, who loves fresh whole wheat french bread pizza--with bacon. LOL (so much for healthy).

The ingredients were as follows (with approx. prices):

Wheat Berries (about $0.60/2 lbs, purchased in a 50 lb. bag for $18.00)
Water
Yeast (about $.10, purchased in a 1 lb bag for $1.99)
Dried seasonings: dried minced onions, dried minced garlic, marjoram leaves, rosemary leaves (all purchased in bulk)
Tomato Sauce (1 can=$0.49)
Tomato Paste (1 can = $0.20--they were on sale 5 for a $1 so I stocked up)
A Basil Ice Cube (more on that later---grown in the garden)
1 onion
3 slices of bacon (about $0.40--it was 16 slices for $1.89 at a meat market)
Mozerella Cheese (1/2 lb = $1.50)

I started off making my bread:
I ground 8 cups of wheat berries in my Whispermill. That isn't totally necessary. I like fresh wheat bread, but I've also made it with white flour too.


Next, I mixed 4 c. of warm water, 3 c. of flour, and 2T of yeast together, and let them sponge for about 15 minutes. Afterward, I added some spices to the bread dough, such as minced onion, minced garlic, and rosemary, just to give it some added flavor, before adding the remainder of the flour one cup at a time.




I kneaded the dough on a lightly floured countertop until it was nice and elastic. Kneading is NOT just to "mix" the dough ingredients. The action of kneading dough helps gluten strands to form in the dough, giving it structure for when it rises. Gluten in the protein found in grains such as wheat, and that is why for yeast breads, one uses hard wheat, as it is higher in gluten.



Let the dough rise in a lightly oiled bowl in a warm spot, until doubled in size, and then punch the dough down. Shape the dough into baguettes, and slash the tops of them with a sharp knife. Let these also rise until doubled (about one hour).


To bake, first preheat the oven to 400F with a pan of water in the bottom of the oven (For steam). After the oven has preheated, bake like this for 15 minutes, then remove the pan of water and lower the heat to 350, and continue to bake for another 30 minutes (or until golden brown).

While the Bread is baking, prepare your sauce and toppings. My sauce contains onions, fresh basil (see note below), marjoram, garlic, a can of tomato sauce, and tomato paste. The toppings included some bacon (my dh's favorite), onions, cheese, and a few green peppers from the garden.

Basil cubes? ?Yep! That's how I store my basil. When it is time to harvest the basil (Which tastes WAY better fresh than dried), I process it in the food processor, and put it into ice cube trays to freeze. When frozen, I remove the cubes and store them in freezer baggies. The ice cubes are about 1T of fresh minced basil, and can be used in sauces, or anything else. This works well for most fresh herbs.





After the bread is done and has cooled slightly, I slice them open, and decorate the pizzas, first with sauce, then cheese, and other toppings. The pizzas then go back into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.