Pepperoni Garlic Knots

I guess these were pretty good - there weren't many left... the recipe is from Serious Eats.

I didn't make them in a cast iron pan - I used a 9x13 pyrex casserole (for a double batch) - just greased the bottom of the pan with some of the garlic/pepperoni mix.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 4 ounces pepperoni, cut into 1/4-inch squares
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 6 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tablespoons)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives (optional)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling
• Flour for dusting
• 1 pound homemade or store-bought pizza dough   
• 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese (I just used some more Parmesan) 
• Homemade or store-bought pizza sauce for serving

Procedures

1. 1
   
   
   Heat butter and oil in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat until butter melts and foaming subsides. Add pepperoni and cook, stirring, until pepperoni begins to crisp, about 2 minutes. Add pepper flakes and garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add parsley and chives and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in Parmesan cheese. Do not wipe out skillet.
2. 2
   
   
   On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into two even pieces. Working one piece at a time, roll or stretch into an oblong about 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. With a bench scraper or knife, cut crosswise into 12 strips. Repeat with other half of dough.
3. 3
   
   
   Tie each strip into a knot and transfer to bowl with pepperoni/garlic mixture. Toss and fold with your hands until every knot is thoroughly coated in mixture. (It seemed there was too much left over after coating the dough) Transfer the knots to the skillet in a single layer. Drizzle with more olive oil, cover tightly with plastic, and set aside until doubled in size, about 4 hours. Alternatively, refrigerate until doubled in size, 12 to 16 hours.
4. 4
   
   
   When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425°F and adjust oven rack to center position. Unwrap garlic knots. Sprinkle with Romano cheese (just used more parmesan). Transfer to oven and bake until golden brown and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes.
5. 5
   
   
   Remove from oven and immediately brush with more extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle lightly with more Parmesan. Serve right away with warmed sauce on the side.

New York Style Pizza Dough

This is the dough I used for the pepperoni garlic knots - it makes about 2.5 pounds of dough, so for the garlic knots I used about 2 pounds for a double batch and the rest for a small pizza for me ..

The recipe came from Serious Eats

Ingredients

• 22.5 ounces (about 4 1/2 cups) bread flour, plus more for dusting
• .5 ounces (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) sugar
• .35 ounces kosher salt (about 1 tablespoon)
• .35 ounces (about 2 teaspoons) instant yeast
• 1.125 ounces Extra Virgin olive oil (about 3 tablespoons)
• 15 ounces lukewarm water

Procedures

1. 1
   Combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in bowl of food processor. Pulse 3 to 4 times until incorporated. Add olive oil and water. Run food processor until mixture forms ball that rides around the bowl above the blade, about 15 seconds. Continue processing 15 seconds longer. ( I did all this by hand )
2. 2
   Transfer dough ball to lightly floured surface and knead once or twice by hand until smooth ball is formed. It should pass the windowpane test ( You can google this if you don't know what it means - but if you poke the dough lightly it should bounce back). Divide dough into three even parts and place each in a covered quart-sized deli container or in a zipper-lock freezer bag. Place in refrigerator and allow to rise at least 1 day, and up to 5. Remove from refrigerator, shape into balls, and allow to rest at room temperature for at least 2 hours before baking.

Alfajores

From Food52 - I needed a way to use a can of dulce de leche - and this was it ...
and they can be frozen!

100 g butter - room temperature

40 g powdered sugar

75 g cornstarch

75 g flour

about 4 tablespoons dulce de leche

Cream the soft butter together with the powdered sugar until the mixture is fluffy. If your butter is very soft already, this should take no more than a couple of minutes with a handheld mixer.

1. Whisk together the cornstarch and the all-purpose flour, then combine it with the butter and sugar using a large wooden spoon until the dough starts coming together into a ball.
2.  Line a sheet pan with non stick foil. Place the disk of dough on a floured surface, dust it with some extra flour, then carefully roll the dough out to a thickness of no more than 5 millimeters (less than 1/4 inch - I did about 1/4 inch).
3. Using a 5 centimeter (2 inch - I used a one inch) round cookie cutter, cut out 24 cookies (you will have to re-roll the dough a couple of times to do this), and place the dough circles on the prepared sheet pan, leaving about 1 centimeter (about 1/2 inch - they don't spread - so don't worry about spacing) of space between the cookies.
Preheat the oven to 350° F (175° C) and place the sheet pan in the fridge for approximately 10 minutes, so that the cookies can firm up.


1. Bake them for 12 minutes, or until they’re just starting to color around the edges. Lift the cookies onto a cooling rack and leave them to cool.
2. Once they’re at room temperature, top half of the cookies with dulce de leche, using about 1 teaspoon on each one. Then sandwich those cookies with the plain ones. As you press the cookies together, carefully rotate the two cookies in opposite directions, which will help spread the dulce de leche all the way to the edge of the cookies.