Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Pizza & Sausage Rolls.... and Sunday's Banana Cream Pie

Monty posing with today's pizza and sausage rolls. As impressive as this heap of food is (for only $26.00) we already ate two pizzas and five sausage rolls!

Pizza & Sausage Rolls


I've got a GREAT and fast pizza dough recipe that I use not only for pizza but for sausage rolls as well - so today, it's pizza and sausage rolls.


I double this recipe for each (pizza & rolls):


1 1/4 cups warm water

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp yeast


Dissolve sugar and salt in warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top and let proof (5 minutes or until bubbly)


Add to yeast mixture:


2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup milk (or water)


Begin to add flour, one cup at a time up to

4c flour


Turn dough onto floured work surface and knead for 8 minutes or so (until you poke the dough and it springs back)


Cover with damp dishtowel/cloth and let rise for 1/2 - 1 hr.


Use this time to shred cheese, and prepa

re any toppings you'd like for your pizza.


Preheat oven to 450F


When dough has risen, punch down and remove from bowl onto lightly floured or oiled (I use oil) board. Separate into whatever size you'd like depending on crust thickness, etc. If you are uncomfortable stretching your dough, you can roll it out - rolling is also MUCH faster.


Place dough on greased or parchment lined cookie sheets BEFORE topping them. If you have any extra alfredo sauce or spaghetti sauce in the fridge use that for your sauce. I use a pasta sauce that has lots of veggies and spinach so that it's kind of snuck its way into the pizza without anyone knowing it. Bake for 12-14 minutes and let cool for a few minutes before cutting.


If you plan on baking for the freezer, I fully cook my pizzas before freezing. That way I can pull a few out before I go to bed and they're lunch-ready in the morning. Let the pizzas cool completely before freezing.


Sausage Rolls


Use the same dough recipe from the pizza, double if desired. While dough is rising I like to slightly brown my sausages so a lot of the grease cooks off before getting in the oven.


*I buy breakfast sausage in bulk. I don't always like buying bulk because for most people it means throwing more away. Buying frozen breakfast sausage made in Canada from Canadian meat can cost less than $2/lb if you're buying from a wholesaler such as National Grocer's or Costco. Price check, ingredient check (sometimes you don't want the cheapest option) and stock up! *


Roll dough into a flat 1 cm sheet. You may need to measure your sausage on the dough before you start cutting. Roll each sausage in enough dough to go around it ONCE and pinch the seam together. Bake at 425 F for up to 20 minutes depending on whether or not you've precooked your sausage and if the dough is browning nicely.


VEGETARIAN ALERT

Why let us meat-loving savages have all the fun? Red peppers are always on clearance (who can afford them full price?). Roast some peppe

rs and stuff the rolls with feta and peppers instead of sausage. Brush the inside of the roll with a bit of olive oil (and herbs if you'd like) to make it even more delicious.


These are great cold, hot, lukewarm, etc. The kids love a sausage roll in their lunch next to a half-sandwich. We usually have these eaten before we need to freeze them, but they'll last in the fridge for up to a week if you want to plan on a sausage roll week!



Breakdown:

$8.00 flour

$8.00 cheese

$2.00 spaghetti sauce

$3.00 pepperoni

$5.00 sausage


$26.00 made : 30 AMAZING sausage rolls and 29 DELIGHTFUL pizzas.

Take that, recession.


Banana Cream Pie


The family was invited to my parents house for dinner on Sunday, so I "splurged" and spent about $3.00 on making a banana cream pie to bring for dessert.












This recipe is adapted from Cooking Nook.com

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla or banana flavouring
2 to 4 bananas, sliced thinly
1 - 9" baked pastry shell

Combine sugar, flour, and salt in a saucepan. Add milk gradually. Cook, stiring constantly, over medium heat until boiling. Cook and stir an additional 2 minutes and remove from burner.

Stir small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks, immediately add egg yolk mixture to hot mixture and cook for 2 minutes, stiring constantly. Remove from heat.

Add butter and vanilla (or banana flavour) and stir til smooth.

Slice bananas into the cooled baked pastry shell. Top with pudding mixture and cool.

I chose to top mine with leftover chocolate ganache from a few weeks ago, but you could make meringue from the leftover egg whites or top it with whipped cream.

*Don't throw away your egg whites - I'll be making marshmallows soon, and that is something you definitely want to try!*

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