Last month our travels took us into the murky waters of the Coccodrillo Crocodile Bread.  I think it was all the different flours that made our waters so murky and the dough so challenging.  My how we did wrestle that croc, had so much fun with it and finally found success.  I’ve made it twice since my posting. 

This month we ventured into the potato fields.  Not potato to put into the bread dough but potato as topping.  Potato Pizza has long fascinated me.  Last year I tried several recipes.  I loved them.  The potatoes somehow seem to melt and become cheesy.  Nothing can beat rosemary for a gorgeous herb.  I tried a little garlic under the potatoes and thought I was getting close to heaven.  Gorn just wanted his regular American pepperoni that I make with tomatoes and cheese, maybe a little mushroom but never potato!  

Sher and I had talked for months about doing the Sullivan Street Potato Pizza in Maggie Glezer’s Artisan Baking (the same book Karen got the Royal Crown’s Tortano recipe out of.   So with some swift changes in the hosting schedule, I put up The Sullivan Street Potato Pizza for the recipe.  I believe Gorel was the first to have a go at it.  It was THIN and crisp.   Not like other recipes I’d tried for Potato Pizza.  So I got busy and baked up the recipe . . . um . . . four times.  This was not at all a good thing:  1) Gorn is never going to like potato for pizza topping, 2)  the first three times I made it, I got distracted (I think there was some wine involved) and let it get really over done.  But no matter the flour or catching the proper timing, I simply did not like this crust.  

Coming off the croc last month, I knew that a very liquid dough can have thickness and be wonderfully chewy.  This dough regardless of flour comes out thin and very crisp - perhaps partly due to the heavy oiling of the pan.  It is just not to my liking.  If you like thin crisp pizza crust, this should send you over the moon with happiness.

I played with the toppings on this:  I love the simple potato, rosemary and olive oil topping!!  A little garlic under the potatoes is heaven.  I played around and added some parsnip alternately with the potatoes and found it fabulous.  I really wanted to try it with some sliced carrots and maybe even some beets but I know another potato pizza would have sent Gorn over the edge.  I’ll have to save those experiments for another time when there are many more mouths to feed and there are several other things on the menu.

The recipe (Genzno Potato Pizza) that I tried next came from Daniel Leader’s Local Breads: SourDough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers.   The Sullivan Street Potato Pizza is 109% hydration.  This one is only 80%, it requires the same extensive beating as the Sullivan Street recipe and the croc to bring the dough together but unlike the Sullivan Street crust and more like the croc, it has about two inches of light airy chewy crust!  The potato, onion & rosemary topping on either of these is divine.

Find the recipe for the Genzno Potato Pizza here.

Find the recipe for the Sullivan Street Pizza here.

Peter Reinhart also has a recipe for a Potato Rosemary Focaccia in his delightful American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza which I want to try soon.

AND if you’d like to be a Bread Baking Buddy this month, bake either one of these, send me your link by Saturday 26 April, I’ll send you a Bread Baking Buddy Badge and post a round up next Monday the 28 April.