It’s a shame that I haven’t been able to post anything on the blog since July. But between getting back to work after a really long summer holiday, translating my old posts into English, and trying to setup a mini home studio for food photos, I realized that I’m a major league procrastinator.

To break the funk I’m in, I decided to pack my cooking stuff and some ingredients and get away for the weekend. Sapanca is only an hour’s drive from Istanbul, but we don’t come here often enough. The kitchen is small but cute. The garden is amazing. And the relative solitude is very conductive for good blogging.

On my first day here I baked my first pizza ever, and made cornelian cherry preserves. on the second day I baked two savory pies. Lets start with the pizza and I’ll write about the others in a couple of days. I will. Seriously.

My first pizza ever consisted of a whole wheat crust, a mixture of cheeses and some broccoli. Healthy and yummy, I think I’ll be making this pie quite a few times more in the near future.

Ingredients:

For the crust(enough for 4 single pies):

• 650 gr flour (I used half whole-wheat, half plain)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water

The toppings (for a single pie):

• 2 tbsp labne cheese
• 1 ball of mozzarella,grated
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup broccoli florets (more if you like)
• 1/2 cup blue cheese, diced

Method

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a deep bowl.
2. Add the olive oil, milk and water and mix thoroughly. If you’re mixing by hand, like I like to do, keep a bowl of room temperature water near by. If you keep your mixing hand wet, the dough wont stick to it.
3. Knead the dough until it comes together, and has a slightly tough consistency. It should hold it’s shape but be slightly sticky.
4. Divide the dough into four equal parts. Place them into freezer bags with a little olive oil and leave on the counter to rest for one hour.
5. At this point you can freeze your dough for later use, place it in the fridge to keep for a few hours more, or you can go ahead and make your pizza.
6. Set your oven to 250 C and line a baking tray with baking sheet.
7. On a well floured surface, roll out your dough in to an approximately 10″ round and place on the baking sheet.
8. Dot the surface of the dough with labne cheese.
9. Scatter the finely chopped up garlic.
10. Cover the whole pie with shredded mozzarella, leaving a border of about 1/4 inch.
11. Sprinkle the broccoli florets and blue cheese.
12. Place it in the oven for 10 minutes. If the cheese isn’t grilled enough for you, keep your pie under the grill for an additional 2 minutes.