I've been baking through Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day, and finding recipes to use the refrigerated dough, the same dough that I mixed to make their variation on Brötchen. Here, I cut off the refrigerated dough I needed to make two pizzas and a fougasse.

Eggplant Flatbread Pizza
Serves 4-6

1 handful of refrigerated Brötchen dough (Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe)
3/4 of an eggplant, cut into 1/4 round slices
3 shallots, peeled and sliced
1 fresh long holy mole pepper, rinsed and cut into medallions
1/2 of a large fresh mozzarella ball, cut into 1/4 chunks
Freshly ground pepper, salt,
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350degrees. Drizzle eggplant slices with olive oil, sprinkle with grated salt and pepper and place into the oven. Partially bake for about 10-15 minutes. Do not completely cook or cook the entire way through. Remove from oven, cool.

Raise the heat of your oven to 450degrees and set your pizza stone inside your oven.

While eggplant is cooling and your pizza stone is warming, prepare to roll out your pizza dough on your counter. You'll need a little bit of flour to work the dough, but don't overwork it. Stretch it to fill the equivalent size of your pizza stone, or until your dough is about 1/8" thick. I roll it pretty thin and leave the edges thick. I roll and stretch my dough on parchment paper. The paper will move quite a bit, but it's easier to transfer the pie while still on the parchment paper to the heated stone in the oven.

Place eggplant, mozzarella, shallots, pepper, on the dough, leaving about 1" border on all sides. Drizzle with olive oil. Add salt, pepper to your liking. Pick up the flatbread by the parchment paper and lay it onto your hot pizza stone. Bake for about 25 minutes at 450 degrees. I like a crispy crust. Twice during baking I sprayed a fine mist of water into my oven. Due to my own oven's inconsistent way of baking, I usually rotate halfway through baking time. Remove and cool before serving.

Margherita Pizza with fresh pizza sauce
Serves 4-6

1 handful of refrigerated Brötchen dough (from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day)
3/4 of a cup of pizza sauce
1/2 of a large ball of fresh mozzarella
Fresh Basil and Oregano


Pizza sauce: (This is my staple. For those of you that need a recipe, here it is. You can do this to taste.)

1 quart of canned, whole, peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced.
1 palm full of fresh chopped herbs: oregano, basil
(I grow cuban oregano and hot and spicy oregano in my garden and cultivate a standard basil. If you must, you can used dried spices but once you've tasted the difference you'll never go back to dried spices.)

I make the pizza sauce before I even begin to prepare the pizza. I've used this sauce for many different recipes. I simmer the quart of tomatoes on low-medium heat with garlic and olive oil in a medium stockpot until the liquid is reduced by half. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon and rest the spoon nearby. Sometimes I've even added shallots or onions to the sauce. Stir frequently to ensure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pan. Use a medium size stockpot or larger, so that you don't get burned by the occasional splatter. Time varies, it usually takes between a half hour to 45 minutes. I add the chopped herbs during the last 10 minutes. Taste once or twice to see if you need to add more spices and to ensure the texture is thick enough for sauce. Set the sauce to the side and use when needed.

Follow Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day's recipe for pizza, rolling thin for a crispy crust, and their baking directions. Place sauce on the dough, add mozzarella slices, and fresh herbs. Some Margherita pizza recipes call for placing whole basil leaves on the sauce, you can do that as well. It looks nice. Baking on a hot pizza stone really does make a crispy crust on the bottom, so don't miss out on that step.

Stuffed Fougasse with Butternut Squash and Pears
Serves 4, as an appetizer or side

1 portion of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day refrigerated Brötchen dough
1 medium butternut squash, cut into 1/2" cubes, partially boiled
2 bartlett pears, cored, peeled and sliced thin
2 stems of fresh rosemary, rinsed
Olive oil to brush

Follow Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe for Fougasse Stuffed with Roasted Red Pepper, found on page 154 of their text. Instead of stuffing the fougasse with roasted red peppers, I stuffed it with butternut squash, pears, and rosemary. I kept the baking time the same, around 25 minutes at 450degrees.  The squash and pears need to be about the same texture, so partially boil and cool the squash before layering it between the pear slices. (Raw squash will not cook completely during baking.) I had leftover pear and squash, as to not overstuff the fougasse. Make one row of squash, one row of pear across the dough surface, then lay the rosemary stems across them and lightly drizzle with olive oil before folding and sealing the edges. Bake on a pizza stone. The squash and pears will be soft, and the dough on the outside will be crisp.

Next time I might bake the fougasse with goat cheese, and brush the folded surface with egg white for a nice golden color.