Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

This post is for Sue; in her Christmas card she shared that she enjoyed the recipes on my blog. So, I decided to share some of the food hits from our Christmas this year.  This one is for you Sue!

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As a teenager and young adult every Christmas was spent at my eldest sister’s home. The food was great, however since I don’t want to sound bitter or get myself depressed I won’t share the feelings that go along with the memories of those years spending every holiday at her home, with my parents. Nope, don’t want to go there.

On the plus side is that I do have many great recipes from those years. One recipe is Italian Snack Loaf. When we were first married (almost 25 yrs ago) I fixed this frequently but I just hadn’t made it for years. This year I decided to throw it together and it was just as good as I remembered it to be. It was so good that ScienceKid, who is leaving for a few days of winter camping in upstate NY, is taking half-a-loaf with him. This was the first time he had this dish, so for him to want to take it with him you’ve got to know makes it a huge hit.

One problem with making Italian Snack Loaf is finding a great bread dough to use. The original recipe called for using Morton frozen bread dough. Well, I can’t find that at my local store and frankly I like making my own bread. It isn’t that hard to throw a bread dough recipe together, really! A few weeks ago I made a batch of Pioneer Woman’s Dinner Rolls. Umm, they were just as delicious as her pictures. When I decided to make the Italian Snack Loaf I knew I’d use her roll recipe as the bread. It worked great.

Here’s what I did. First, make a batch of Pioneer Woman’s Bread dough. Take the dough as far as the step where she pinches off little pieces forming them into balls. Don’t do that step. Instead cut the dough in half and throw one-half into a plastic bag and into the refrigerator. If it is late at night or dinner is in an hour then throw both dough halves into the refrigerator and continue tomorrow or the day after with the rest of this recipe. (This is a great dough recipe and really is quite easy to work with).

Here are the ingredients we used for Italian Snack Loaf:

1# pepperoni, sliced thin or cube it. Either way I microwave it for 2 minutes and drain off the grease
1# mozzarella cheese, cube it
1/4# sausage, cook it and drain off any grease
Parmesan cheese
Basil
Oregano
Thyme
4 - 6 cloves garlic

Next, spread flour on your clean counter and roll the dough out, 18″ x 15″. I roll mine thin enough so that it is about 3/8 to 1/4″ thick. No, I don’t measure the thickness or the rectangular shape. I’m just trying to give you an idea of how big this flat dough is.

Now comes the part of assembling the items. First I use my garlic press and send those 6 garlic cloves through it and directly onto the dough. Spread the garlic out so that you don’t get all that great flavor in one bite. Sprinkle on the herbs so that they are evenly dispersed. I probable use about a TBL of each across the dough. No, I never measure; just use what ‘looks right’. Finally I sprinkle on the parmesan cheese and here I do try to cover just about every inch of the dough with some cheese. Next evenly disperse the pepperoni, mozzarella, and sausage onto the dough. The surface now looks similar to a pizza minus the tomatoes. It is OK if there’s some dough not covered with sausage, mozzarella or pepperoni.

Next you will roll the dough into a sausage shape. Roll it so that the rolled dough is 18″ long when you are finished. Next you are going to lift this onto the cookie sheet, greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. If you don’t have cornmeal don’t fret about it, it will all still be good. Yes, at times I have trouble putting it onto my greased and sprinkled with cornmeal cookie sheet but then I bend it like a horseshoe.

Place a clean dish towel over the dough’s surface and leave it alone for 2 to 3 hours in a warm place.

When it has risen nicely (you’ll know, it will LOOK risen), 2 or 3 hours from when you first placed it onto the cookie sheet, preheat your oven to 350 F. Once the oven is to temperature, pop the Italian Snack Loaf in, and bake for 20 minutes. It might take an extra 5 to 10 minutes, at least it does in my present oven. The bread should have a nice tan look to it.

Remove from the oven. Place the Italian Snack Loaf on a wooden cutting board and slice off 1″ thick pieces.   This is great as a snack, or a meal with some red wine and a salad. Ummmm.

Next time you make it, put in your favorite pizza toppings; mushrooms, green peppers, olives, ham, …. make it your way.