by Sylvie Rowand / Photography by Molly McDonald Peterson
2 servings as a main dish, 4-6 as Appetizer
½ pound of mushrooms, cleaned, and trimmed
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided (more as needed)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and sliced thinly
½ whey pizza dough recipe (see below)
¼ cup crème fraiche
¼ teaspoon finely minced rosemary and/or thyme
Preheat oven (and pizza stone if using) to 475F.
Slice or cut up mushrooms in even-sized pieces. Melt butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet (do not use non-stick) on high heat. When the butter foams, add mushrooms and cook on high heat for a few minutes until the mushroom starts to give off water and turn color. Stir as needed. Remove mushrooms from heat, salt and pepper to taste.
Put pan back on medium heat, add remaining oil and mushroom slices. Salt, sauté for 10 minutes until onion soften. Remove from heat.
Roll out the dough on lightly floured parchment paper to the shape you desire. You may make several small pizzas if you prefer. (Any trimmings, should be gathered, kneaded briefly, and rolled out again)
Arrange onion slices and mushrooms on pizza. Top with dollops of crème fraiche. Sprinkle the herbs.
Immediately transfer the pizza (still on parchment paper) to the pizza stone. Bake for 12 to15 minutes until the edges are nicely brown and puffed. If you do not have a pizza stone, bake on parchment paper on a sturdy cookie sheet for 20 to 25 minutes, lowering the heat to 400F at the 15 minutes mark.
Whey Pizza Dough
The dough might be prepared up to three days in advance and refrigerated until ready to use.
Makes 2 pizzas each serving 2 as main meal, 4 as appetizer
1 cup whey
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/3 cup all purpose or bread flour (or combination)
½ teaspoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
Heat whey until warm to the touch (about 115F), stir in sugar, sprinkle yeast. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes until yeast foams gently.
Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Make a well in the middle. Add the yeast mixture, mix with your fingers, then with your hands until all the liquid is incorporated and the dough holds well together – no need to knead. The dough should be sticky (if using bread flour you may have to use 1 or 2 extra tablespoons of water.) Shape the dough into a ball. Pour the olive oil on top of the dough and roll the dough gently in the bowl to coat it with the oil.
If you are making one pizza, split the dough in 2 even portions. Store one half in the fridge in a slightly oiled airtight container, much larger than the dough to give it room to rise – up to three days – for another future pizza. The dough will slowly rise in the fridge. Remove from fridge 1 hour before using. It’ll then be ready to roll out.
Leave the other half of the dough in the bowl, covered with a wet and wrung-out kitchen towel, and let rise at room temperature until it doubles in volume, about 1 to 1 ½ hours in a warm room. It’s now ready to be rolled out.
Sylvie Rowand of Washington, Va., grows, forages, and preserves food; cooks for others and teaches the pleasures of growing your own food and eating seasonally through workshops and her blog, www.laughingduckgardens.com.
