So that's right, my yearly Christmas episode got pizzaed
I mean what do you expect? Christmas turkey? No.
Come on be serious. Ramen? Ah, next year
Hey guys, salut it's Alex so this special episode I want to offer you a quirky alternative to
the traditional Christmas dinner
or at least, well, part of it. I want to make it lighter, more fun
yeah, I want to make pizza for Christmas. Is that sacrilege?
Not really.
I mean maybe
It's quite a mission so I am glad this whole episode is a collaboration with Google
and their brand new, smart little helper, the Google Home Mini.
That device is a gem in the kitchen especially when you're about to get
your hands dirty. Speaking of which,
let's make some pizza dough. OK so I'm going
to be using a very simple pizza dough which involves only three
ingredients: flour, instant yeast and
salt and
uh...[stumbles], ah dammit. You need
to use 520 grams of Tipo 00 flour
also known as superfine
high protein, wheat flour. Our dough is 70%
hydration, which means we'll need...hold on a second
OK Google [beeps], 70% of
520
"The answer is 364."
Ah! 364!
Dilute a gram of instant yeast
then you want to add a bit of the flour there is no exact proportion
a touch, we want to create a buffer before
adding the salt. Not to kill our instant yeast
Add the remaining flour and combine everything
properly. Oops! Let it rest covered for about
30 minutes. It allows the
dough to relax and to become more uniform
Ok so it is now kneading time. I'm gonna do it
All by hand just to set an example and to show you that
the old man's still got what it takes. But if you have a stand mixer
then please by all means, use it also if you feel that the wet
dough situation is just beyond you then
lower the hydration to about
60% then everything should be fine. 15 minutes
kneading starts now! Ok Google, [beeps]
play some music "Alright, music on Google Play music,
here you go!"
At the end the dough should be more elastic
less tacky, but still a bit sticky
let it proof in a warm environment until it has
doubled in size and for that usually I use my
oven without any, you know, heat or whatever, just
the light on
Ok Google, [beep], set up a 2 hour timer
"Alright, 2 hours! Starting now!"
Now let's talk about all thinks Christmas. And, spoiler alert!
I'm facing a humongous
dilemma. So basically, I want to do a Christmas pizza
Christmas is turkey. I should be doing turkey pizza
it's logical. It's never that easy, right?
The truth is I can hardly see anybody willing to swap
you know, that legendary bird for a slice
or two of pizza as good as as they might be, nah.
So, I think it's fair to say "Farewell" to turkey pizza and just
try to think of something else, let's
try to think of something else...
hmm, yeah I got nothing. So, let's just go and see the dough
Ohhhhhhh
that's what I call a proper rise
and I am now dividing it into 300 grams
dough balls. All you need to do now is build
up some tension by folding the edges back
a few times and then make it an actual dough ball
the dough feels great. It is super soft and pleasant
back in the container and in the fridge they go
yeah so that's basically the second proofing happening in the fridge
behind me, right now. It's super flexible that
part 3 hours up to 3 days, which, uh,
give you a lot of options just to wrap your own schedule
around this recipe
Uh which basically means we've got plenty of time to fix that pizza
topping situation...which is killing me
Yeah I might have thought of something else, like,
just listen, OK Google
What is a traditional Christmas dinner
"According to wikipedia, traditional Christmas dinner
features: turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy,
cranberry sauce, and vegetables such as carrots,
brussel sprouts, turnip, parsnips, etc"
Oooofff
And that's precisely my point. Instead of
you know, messing around with the holy main, let's just
play around with the side dishes, the vegetables.
Yeah so basically I'm thinking of 3 Christmas side pizzas
the first one will be made of potatoes
the second one will be made of stuffing and brussel sprouts,
bear with me on this one I've got some nice trick up my sleeve
and the third one, I know it said like
carrots and parsnips and [sigh]
turnips. I want to slightly express my
technical reservation, about you know, making a pizza with it
so let's not decide too quickly and just
you know start with the first two ones
the first Christmas side pizza is pizza con patate, it's a
classic italian pie. Get the dough out
of the fridge, dust it with flour and gentle open it up
by spreading it into a disc
you want to push the air out
usually that is made with rosemary unfortunately I couldn't
find it fresh so, uh, lets use that beautiful
thyme instead. Add a dash of
olive oil
A nice dusting of semolina on the
pizza peel, a few sprigs of thyme
then slice up a few potatoes
very finely and place them on the pizza
2 layers, sprinkle that with flakey salt and
another drizzle of olive oil and slide this in
the oven for about 5 minutes
Ok Google
Start a 5 minute timer, "Alright, starting now"
Always put your oven to the broiler mode or grill mode
and always, always the highest temperature available
then you want to
put the rack on the upper position and use
a pizza stone, or better, a pizza
steel. More heat capacity
and more heat transfer, so it's better
woooooowwwww
that's my job right here
Christmas dinner got so much better
funny because I was a bit worried about the potato doneness
yeah, absolutely fine
second christmas side pizza starts with stuffing
finely chop half an onion and a quarter of an apple
season with salt and roast in the oven for a few minutes
meanwhile remove the skin from a good quality sausage
now mix those ingredients together along with a bit of dried sage
now let's talk about something quite controversial
brussel sprouts. Ok Google,
brussel sprouts vitamins
"On the website whfoods.com, they say
they are an excellent source of vitamin C,
and vitamin K. They are a very good source of
numerous nutrients including folate, manganese,
vitamin B-6, dietary fibre, choline,
copper, vitamin B-1, potassium,
phosphorous, and omega 3 fatty acids
Yeah so basically you want to include those as much as possible
Within your christmas diet. The question is, how?
it smells green, it smells nutty, it smells fresh
instead of boiling them, or doing anything stupid that will
obviously get them over cooked
you should roast them at the
highest temperature possible and for
the shortest amount of time possible. Pizza
Cut them into slices, not too thin otherwise
They will just burn, a bit of olive oil and a
bit of salt
on the pizza they go along with the tiny stuffing meatballs
and pop that in the oven
oooohlalalalalala
The first flavour is the sage
then you've got the sausage, the sweetness, the chili
because we roasted it for a very short period of time even the brussel sprouts
still is a bit crunchy
ummm so
you know while we were baking the first
two pizzas I think I came up with the
perfect solution for the christmas carrot pizza
problem. It's so simple!
How could I have missed it in the first place
Let's not use carrots and use chestnuts instead
I said I had a solution I did not say it was fair
and so starts pizza number 3
add a generous amount of smoked cheese, I'm using
smoked raclette cheese here, I gotta be french somewhere
Crumble a few roasted chestnuts over it
and now pop that in the oven
you wanna finish that off with a few shavings of
mushrooms and a nice crack of black
pepper
I swear I wanted to say something in the first place but
I don't know what to say it's just good
Hello?
hello?
I really hope that you guys enjoyed those
recipes and if you did
please give the video a big thumbs up, like it, and share it over all
your social media with your friends and your family because
it's christmas right? Of course a big thank you goes to google and their brand new
smart google helper the google home mini
that thing is precious in the kitchen. Fun story but true fact
it does understand even a slight and you know subtle french accent
like mine, what? And last
click subscribe because I make new videos about food every week
you know it's always about challenging the status quo
it's always bout trying to get
smarter in the kitchen, I mean sort of
anyways, take care, buh bye, merry christmas and salut!