Gwyneth Paltrow's 'My Father's Daughter'
I know what you were thinking when you first started seeing the publicity for Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook, My Father's Daughter. I know because it was my first thought also- another celebrity who employees a full-time chef putting their name on some recipes and deeming that they have wrote a cookbook.
I'm glad that I moved past my initial thought and ordered this one! It really does feature some great (yet simple) recipes for everyday meals as well as beautiful photography. My recent pastime has been making homemade pizza dough. This always seemed to time-consuming and complicated to me but once I gave it a try, I have been eating a lot of pizza! I compared several recipes for pizza dough and this one from Paltrow's cookbook was the winner. It had simple, easy to follow directions. Although Paltrow makes her pizzas on a wood-burning oven, I have no such luxury in my backyard so I went with the old, stand-by grill and the result was exceptionally good. The secret is King Arthur's Bread Flour.
Here are the basics from My Father's Daughter:
For the dough, whisk together 3/4 cup warm water, 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, and three packages (or 2 tablespoons plus 3/4 teaspoon dry active yeast) in a large bowl and let stand until surface has a few little bubbles and is creamy, about five minutes. Add 1/2 cups water, 3 and 3/4 cup flour, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, and 1 tablespoon course salt, and stir until smooth. White stirring, gradually add up to another cup of flour until the dough starts to pull itself from the edges of the bowl.
Knead the dough on a generously floured surface until elastic and smooth- it will take about 8 minutes of hard work. Dust the surface with flour as you go- you don't want the dough to stick. From the kneaded dough into a ball, dust with flour, and gently place in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. let ruse in a warm spot until doubled, about 1 and 1/2 hours. (You can let it sit up to a couple of hours or even overnight in the refrigerator.)
Tandoori Chicken Pizza- for this pizza, we marinated chicken in tandoori sauce and grilled prior, then added to the dough green and yellow bell peppers, a jalapeno pepper, cherry tomatoes, and smoked Gouda cheese.
The "Blythe's Blueberry Muffins" recipe is another one of our favorites which we have made several times. It just goes to show that you can't always judge a book by its cover.
Happy Reading (and Cooking)!
Rebecca
This post is linked up to Weekend Cooking, a weekly meme hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads.
