Pear Walnut Goat Cheese Flatbread
What is a pizza? What is a flat bread? Jeff and I have had heated discussions on this subject a number of times. He said anything without tomato sauce was a flat bread, I said that was no sense and a flat bread was a square (now that I look back on this argument, wow we both had such strong points…). This came up because at the time I lived in Victoria and Jeff lived in Vancouver so we’d usually only see each others on the weekends. Friday nights were spent driving up to the ferry terminal to pick up the other person, dinner would never be ready until around 8:30ish and we’d both be quite hungry. This one time I promised Jeff I would have pizza ready for him once we got home. I had prepared the dough and all the toppings (caramelized onions, shredded chicken and barbecue sauce) before driving up to the ferry. We got home and I started assembling the pizza only to hear Jeff say: that looks delicious but it’s not pizza and then he gave me his speech about pizza vs flatbread. The man has strong opinions on the subject. This issue is not quite resolved and I still call my non-tomato-sauce-round-dough-things-with-toppings pizza and Jeff still tells me I’m wrong.
This time I gave in and called this recipe a flat bread. It’s round because we cooked it in a cast-iron pan but you can shape it whichever way you like!
This is a perfect thing to serve at a super bowl party, it’s light and refreshing thanks to the pear but you also feel like you are treating yourself thanks to the goat cheese. It is very quick to put together and cooks in the oven in only 4-5 minutes which is perfect for game day. You can make your dough ahead of time, let it rise and once you guests get a bit hungry, turn on the oven, preheat your cast iron pan and bam you have a flat bread.
- Two 12 inch pizza
- 10 minutes
- 15 minutes
Ingredients
Pizza dough
- 2 1/4 cup flour
- 4 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tsp salt
Toppings
- 2 pears
- 1/3 cup walnuts
- 100 g goat cheese
- Drizzle of honey (~1/4-1/2 tbsp per pizza)
Directions
- In a stand mixer, mix the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Use a dough hook and start mixing, add 1 cup of warm water and stir for 5 minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer, mix the ingredients with your hands and knead the dough with your hands for 5 minutes on a counter top duster with flour.
- Let the dough rise in a bowl coated in oil. Place it in a warm place for and leave it for 2 hours or until it’s doubled in volume (I like to cover the bowl with a dish tower soaked in warm water).
- Preheat the oven to 500 F. Put your cast iron in the oven while it pre heats.
- Dust your working surface with flour.
- Spread the dough to about 12 inches in diameter.
- Chop the walnut in small pieces and toast them in a skillet while stirring consistently for a few minutes. You will know they are ready when they smell very nutty.
- Slice the pear on a the smaller setting of a mandoline. Or slice it as small as you can with a knife.
- Get the cast iron pan out of the oven and on to a burner. Turn on the burner and, being careful not to burn yourself, place the pizza dough in the cast iron pan.The burner will keep the pan hot while you assemble the pizza, which helps you get a crispy crust.
- Cover the pizza dough with half of the pears and walnut. Using your fingers crumble half of the goat cheese over the pizza.
- When the oven is ready, take the cast iron out and place it on a stove element on high (this will keep your pan hot)
- Cook the pizza until the dough is cooked (~4-5 minutes, keep a close eye on the pizza as it cooks).
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