Winter Farmer’s Market Pizza

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

Guest post by Jenna Huntsberger of the Modern Domestic

Photo courtesy of Jenna Huntsberger

March can be difficult time at the farmers market if you’re a baker. You’re already sick of the apples and pears of winter, but it’s too soon for rhubarb season. After this particularly snowy winter, most of us are thinking wistfully of the peaches, cherries, and berries that flooded the markets this summer.

But bakers, take note, there’s more at the farmer’s market than just fresh produce — you can also use the excellent local cheeses in a number of sweet and savory baked goods. If you’re not too tired of apples just yet, you can use a local cheddar cheese in a cheddar pie crust, which is always a great option to spice up apple pie. You can use a local blue cheese in scones, biscuits, or a quickbread. Or, if you’re feeling like dinner, use a local cheese on your pizza, which is what I did.

This pizza recipe uses a feta cheese with tomato and basil from Keswick Creamery, a Pennsylvania farm that sells at the Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market. All their cheese is made from raw Jersey milk, and their cows are exclusively grass-fed.

Unlike grocery store feta cheese, which can be dry and harsh, this is creamy and tangy, with just a hint of tomato and basil. Because I wanted the flavor of the cheese to stand out, this pizza is simple — topped with just the cheese, fresh basil, and a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Feel free to adapt this recipe to your tastes and whims. Pizza with very thinly sliced apples and Havarti would be lovely, as would a cheddar pizza topped with crumbled bacon. A good pizza crust is the perfect vehicle for whatever is in season, making it an excellent recipe to have on hand for the local shopper.

Farmer’s Market Pizza with Feta and Basil
Pizza dough recipe from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum
Serves two

Ingredients
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour (4 ounces), preferably unbleached all-purpose or Italian-style
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 liquid cup water at room temperature (70 to 90 degrees)
4 tsp. olive oil
3 oz feta cheese with basil and tomato
Handful fresh basil leaves
Olive oil to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, instant yeast, and sugar. Whisk in the salt (this keeps the yeast from coming into direct contact with the salt, which would kill it).

2. Make a well in the center and pour in the water. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, gradually stir the flour into the water until all the flour is moistened and a dough just begins to form, about 20 seconds. It should come away from the bowl but still stick to it a little, and be a little rough-looking, not silky smooth. Do not overmix, as this will cause the dough to become stickier.

3. Pour the oil into a 2-cup measuring cup (to give the dough room to double in size) or a small bowl. With oiled fingers or an oiled spatula, place the dough in the oiled cup and turn it over to coat on all sides with the oil. Cover it tightly. If you want to use the dough soon, allow it to sit at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled. For the best flavor development, make the dough at least 6 hours or up to 24 hours ahead, and allow it to sit at room temperature for only 30 minutes or until slightly puffy. Then set the dough, still in the measuring cup, in the refrigerator. Remove it 1 hour before you want to put it in the oven.

4. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees 1 hour before baking. Put an oven shelf on the lowest level and place a baking stone on it before preheating.

5. With oiled fingers, lift the dough out of the measuring cup or bowl. Holding the dough in one hand, pour a little of the oil left in the cup or bowl onto the pizza pan, and spread it all over the pan with your fingers. Set the dough on the pan and press it down with your fingers to deflate it gently. Shape it into a smooth round by tucking under the edges. If there are any holes, knead it very lightly until smooth. Allow the dough to sit for 15 minutes, covered, to relax it.

6. Using your fingertips, press the dough from the center to the outer edge to stretch it into a 10-inch circle, leaving the outer ½ inch thicker than the rest to form a lip. If the dough resists stretching (as will happen if you have activated the gluten by overkneading it), cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for a few minutes longer before proceeding.

7. Brush the surface of the dough with any remaining olive oil. Cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to sit for 30 to 45 minutes, until it becomes light and slightly puffy with air.

8. Set the pizza pan directly on the hot stone and bake for 5 minutes.

9. Remove the pan from the oven and spread the cheese and fresh basil leaves over the dough. Lightly drizzle pizza with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Return the pan to the stone for 5-10 minutes or until the toppings have melted and the crust is golden; or, for an extra-crisp and browned bottom crust, using a pancake turner or baker’s peel, slide the pizza from the pan directly onto the stone. After 2 minutes, slip a small metal spatula under one edge of the pizza; if the bottom is golden, raise the pizza to a higher shelf.

10. Transfer the pizza to a cutting board and cut with a pizza wheel, sharp knife, or scissors. Serve hot.

Green Your Small Business: Q&A with Jennifer Kaplan

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

Jennifer Kaplan, author of Greening Your Small Business and founder of Greenhance, sat down with us to talk about easy and inexpensive ways to go green, her top online resources for small businesses, and her favorite green things to do in DC.

1. Tell us a little about how you got started with Greenhance. What was the inspiration behind the company?

My background is in market research and I was doing a project for a client who wanted to green her small retail store. I found that there is good information about going green for homeowners and for large corporations that have sustainability departments, but very little for small businesses.

There is actually a lot of information but it is all over the place. I thought: Someone should serve compile an extensive list of resources for small businesses that want to go green.  It quickly became clear that it could be a business and book. Then, along the way, someone I respect deeply suggested, albeit politely, that my writing a book of resources was a small idea. He was totally right.

There is so much more to greening a small business then simply changing business practices. For example, there’s a whole advocacy piece. The time a business invests in impacting policies and standards can be as valuable to environmental progress as installing new light bulbs.

And then of course, because I’m a marketer, there’s a whole marketing piece. How effectively a small business communicates its environmental commitment, objectives, and successes to customers, employees, and other stakeholders will in large part determine how much value they get out of a green program.

2. What are your top three cheap and easy ideas for businesses that want to be more green?

Use less. Virtually everything you use in your business can be assessed to determine if you can use less. We can all use less paper by employing double-sided and multiplex printing, and storing and distributing documents digitally.

Any business can use less energy by turning computers and lights off at night and by using power management strategies that power down electronics when they are idle.

We can also use less by reusing instead of purchasing new. When we use items that are refillable, refurbished, remanufactured, repairable, reusable and just plain used we reduce manufacturing and transportation related emissions, and keep those things out of landfills. The greatest waste prevention savings often come from not having to buy new things.

Buy local. This is a simple but important (and easy and cheap) greening strategy. In addition to the environmental benefits there are significant social and economic benefits to creating local economies. As a result, dozens of cities and towns across the country have adopted programs to label and promote locally owned businesses.

It is simple to check with vendors about the availability of local products and materials. Buying locally provides businesses with a variety of benefits: Reduced travel-related emissions, more control over materials and end products, shorter time to market, and lower inventory holding costs.  Also, buying locally isn’t limited to goods. Purchasing materials and goods from local suppliers, and hiring local subcontractors, will reduce transportation miles and fuel use.

Reduce business travel. There is a simple environmental truth about travel: It consumes a lot of energy and generates a lot of waste. In fact, airplane travel, lodging, and rental car usage can consume as much as one-quarter of a business’ carbon footprint and as much as 3% of its revenue. So, implementing green travel policies will often make it possible to reduce your carbon footprint, lower your expenses—and many believe—improve productivity.

Since airplane and car travel are such intensive greenhouse gas–emitting activities, the greenest thing you can do is find ways to reduce the need for travel or to eliminate travel altogether.  One quick way to do this is to use web-conferencing. But, if you just have to hit the road you can try to take fewer, longer trips.

Can you share a couple “can’t live without” online resources for green businesses?

I’m a big believer in cloud computing because it is inherently green; not only is buying less IT equipment more cost effective and efficient than owning your own data center, but data centers that house the software and store the data running in the cloud are inevitably more energy efficient than your IT operations.

So, my must-have online resources are all SaaS sites. I love Echosign.com, an electronic signature service that digitally stores and records documents with legally binding e-signatures. I also love paperlesspost.com, an online invitation site. Their designs and user interface are really clever and classy. And finally, Constant Contact, for email marketing and database management. All of these sites allow you to have cost-efficient technological capabilities that used to be reserved for large companies.

4. What’s your favorite green thing to do in DC?

I love taking my kids and dog for a walk in Rock Creek Park and buying local produce at the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market. I also love to eat at Sweetgreen–I get a kick out of their refuse station.  It’s a great example of how business owners can choose not to promote landfill-only disposables.

Join Jennifer for a lunchtime discussion (12-1:30) of her book at Bethesda Green on March 9th.