Even later

Here are some fired pieces from the last firing. What can I say? I'm a slow-motion blogger.

Whale teapot, mantis pasta and barn owl platter are special orders. The rest are just going into my booth when Saturday Market opens.

Za!

Heart-shaped deep dish pizza!

Chicago-Style Pizza (revised)
This is sized for my 15-inch deep pizza pan.

Crust
1-1/2 cups warm water (120-130° F.)   
1-1/2 T. honey               
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 T. dry yeast
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup melted butter
3 T. olive oil
1 large egg
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour

Heat water in microwave until warm. Add honey. Whisk together the first set of flours, yeast and salt. Place in stand mixer with paddle attachment, and add water mixture. Mix on low; add butter, oil and egg. Continue mixing on low 5 minutes.

Switch to dough hook, and stir in remaining flour. Mix until it forms a dough, then continue another 2 minutes. Turn out onto a floured board and knead gently four or five times. Form into a ball and slip into a clear cylinder (a large plastic pitcher works well) that you've prepared with pan spray. Cover, and mark the height of the dough with a dry-erase marker. (This makes it easy to see when the dough has doubled in volume.)

When the dough has doubled, press down, cover, and begin preparing filling.

Sauce                       
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
14 shakes oregano
16 shakes basil
12 shakes red pepper flake       
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp olive oil

Toppings
1 lb. mozzarella, divided
10-12 button mushrooms, white or cremini
3 links sweet Italian sausage
3/4 cup grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Whisk together sauce and set aside. Shred about a quarter of the mozzarella; thinly slice the rest. Slice the mushrooms.

When dough has doubled in size the second time, press out into a buttered 15" deep-dish pizza pan, pulling up on sides. Arranged sliced mozzarella on bottom in a single layer. Spread sauce over the entire bottom, cheese, crust, everything. Lay on the mushrooms, distributed evenly, then squeeze out sausage filling, arranging little blobs every inch or two. Top with shredded mozzarella, then sprinkle the parmesan on top of that.

Bake 40 minutes at 375°, until crust is golden. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. It will be wonderfully messy and gooey, with a thick, soft crust.

Cranky

I was down to 200 lbs. of fresh clay, 300 more that I recycled, so I called Clay Art Center in Tacoma to place an order. Need another ton of Cone 10 DWS (Dakota White with Sand, a nice, textured stoneware). No problem! They're only running two-three weeks behind.

Well, carp.

I'd kinda scheduled the next few weeks out, throw pots, take time out to do taxes, glaze pots, open Saturday Market, fire pots. This is not necessarily impossible to schedule around, but it has the potential to be. Which is almost more stressful.

One of the things I need to make for the next firing is donations for the Empty Bowls sale, coming up in May. Because they're not going into my booth, where they need to match the rest, I figured I'd pick up some cone 10 stoneware from Georgies, save the DWS clay for my own pots.

My first surprise was the price. For 100 lbs. of Umpqua White, I paid 78 bucks! Were I getting a ton (my usual order), it'd be nearly $1600. Don't know how much I'll be paying Clay Art for the DWS, but I don't think it'll be that much, even with shipping.

The second, worse surprise came when I opened the back. The clay was roughly the consistency of cream cheese, and if anything, got looser and sloppier as I wedged it. I had to leave it out in pieces all day to dry out a little, then wedge it up and portion it out. It also seemed to dry unevenly, more like porcelain than stoneware, so getting it properly mixed with no hard lumps or air bubbles was a challenge.

But I threw forty bowls the next morning, flipped them over to let the bottoms dry after supper, and this morning, discovered that they were almost too hard to trim. Struggled through it, although my arms and shoulders are really feeling the pain this afternoon. I'm really tempted to take the other 50 lbs. to Georgies for a refund. Terrible stuff.