Recipe 6 - Pizza with Smoked Salmon and Crème Fraiche

After the success with the dumplings I was keen to keep going, so tried the next recipe right the next day. My favorite cheesemonger's facebook status had alerted me to the fact that their Sally Barnes smoked wild salmon was on sale, so I looked for a recipe that would allow me to use it and found it in here:

The book
We got the "California" cookbook from our landlord in San Francisco and his girlfriend (Thanks, Michael! Sorry, can't remember your friend's name right now - Caroline?), when we left for Germany. It's by Janet Fletcher and was part of the Williams-Sonoma "New American Cooking" series (ISBN 0-7370-2039-3). It's packed with great recipes - the creamed steakhouse spinach and the crisp salmon fillet are my favorites - and a nice reminder of the yummy food we had in California, so a perfect going-away present.

The ingredients
Dough
1/4 cup (2fl oz/60ml) warm water (110°F/43°C)
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2-2 cups (7 1/2-10oz/225-315g unbleached all-purpose (plain) flour

Topping
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups (6oz/185g) thinly sliced leeks, white and pale green parts only
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup (4fl oz/125ml= crème fraiche, at room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
yellow cornmeal for dusting
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 oz (185g) thinly sliced smoked salmon, at room temperature
4 lemon wedges

The recipe
To make the dough, put the warm water in a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface, let stand for 2 minutes, then stir until dissolved. Let stand until bubbly, about 10 minutes. Whisk in the olive oil and salt. Stir in 1 1/2 cups (7 1/2oz/235g) of the flour. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, using only as much of the remaining flour as needed to prevent sticking. Shape into a ball, transfer to an ailed bowl, turn the dough to coat it with oil, then cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise at cool room temperature for about 2 hours. Punch down the dough, reshape into a ball, cover the bowl, and let the dough rise again for about 4 hours.
Position a rack in the center of the oven, then line it with with baking tiles or a baking stone. Preheat to 550°F (290°C) for at least 45 minutes. Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a work surface. Shape into a ball. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
To make the topping, melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the leeks, season with salt and pepper, and stir to coat. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until soft, but not mushy, 7-8 minutes. Remove from the heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the crème fraiche, dill, and horseradish. Season with salt and pepper.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 14-inch (35cm) round. Transfer to a pizza peel or rimless baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Spread the leeks evenly over the round, leaving a 3/4-inch (2cm) rim uncovered. Brush the rim with half of the olive oil.
Slide the pizza onto the baking tiles or stone. Bake until the curst is crisp and browned, 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and brush the rim with the remaining olive oil. Dot the surface with the crème fraiche mixture, then spread it to cover the leeks. Arrange the smoked salmon on top. Cut into 8 wedges. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

The testing
Instead of active dry yeast I used fresh yeast (Thank you, Polish supermarket!), because I tend to get better results with that. However, I didn't want to deviate too much from the recipe, so tried to do the yeast in warm water thing as described, but after 15 minutes of resting there were no bubbles at all. Stupid yeast - completely dead! So I had another go, but this time I stuck to my usual yeast dough routine and put the flour into the bowl first, then made a starter dough with the yeast, warm water and a bit of the flour and this time the yeast bubbled like crazy, just like it should be. The crème fraiche mixture I prepared just as described in the recipe. I actually have a pizza baking stone, but had no chance of heating it to 290°C, because the maximum temperature of my oven is 270°C, which still seemed hot enough to me. Half an hour before serving time I realized that I had forgotten to buy a lemon and send Roland shopping for one. I didn't let the dough rest for a third time, because I was getting impatient, hungry and kind of jealous - the dough was getting more rest than me! Couldn't have that.
After testing several recipes I was really happy with the detailed recipe and that they mentioned cups, ounces and grams - makes it much easier for those who don't have the right measuring cups or are not used to ounces.

The result
Yes! Looking good, even though the leeks are a bit - eh - burned.

The verdict
The pizza was very crisp and yummy! It was so crisp that I only cut it into 4 wedges and we just ate with our hands and took bites from the slices. After dinner I found the unused lemon in the kitchen - had completely forgotten that I was supposed to serve it with the pizza. Don't think anyone missed it, though. The smoked salmon was really worth its money as well.
We had friends over for dinner and for 4 the amount of pizza wasn't really enough, but thankfully Mairead had brought her famous profiteroles, which we had for dessert with a cardamom chocolate sauce (no recipe, sorry!), so we didn't have to starve. Our visitors volunteered to help us with eating any future salmon pizzas we might plan, which I think means they liked it.
Even though the recipe requires some planning - that lazy dough needs more rest than someone with chronic fatigue syndrome - it was really easy to make and the separate steps were done quickly.