i did an experiment today with the white bread recipe i usually make.  i wanted to make a tomatoey dough with pizza flavors, so i substituted spicy V8 for the milk, olive oil for vegetable oil, and garlic salt for the salt, and added some pizza seasoning to the flour.

• 1 c active sourdough starter
• 6.5 c bread flour
• 1 c spicy V8
• 1.25 c water
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp garlic salt
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp pizza seasoning
• pepperoni and mozzarella cheese (optional)

make the bread in the exact same way as the white bread recipe referenced above.  when it comes time to roll up the dough into a loaf, first add pepperoni and cheese, then roll it.  i made one with the filling, one without.

during the first rise which should be 10-30 mins, i think i let it sit for about an hour.  i probably should have shortened it as something weird happened later.  after a proof of about 1.25 hours, which is shorter than usual for this bread, the un-filled loaf got all lumpy and holey.  i didn’t notice when this happened, but my guess is that it somehow got over-proofed and started to deflate.

when it came time to bake, the un-filled one took the regular 25-30 mins, but the filled one took much longer to get up to 190-195 degrees.  i probably baked it an additional 15-20 minutes – measuring the internal temperature about every 5 mins.

the finished product is more orange colored in the middle with a hint of pizza flavor, but not too much.  i think next time i’ll basically add more of the flavorings: pizza seasoning, tomato juice, filling.  i was thinking about trying pizza sauce instead of juice, but would probably need to add more water as well.

haven’t tried yet, but i’m guessing this would make a nice grilled cheese with mozzarella and pepperoni…