Beers, bets and bites for Michigan football week 5

Michigan football will play the Minnesota Golden Gophers tomorrow in The Big House kicking of at noon. This will be the 106th edition of the rivalry between these two teams. Michigan is coming off a huge win vs USC, while Minnesota comes off a tough loss to Iowa where they allowed over 250 rushing yards. We have a gameday recipe and a prop bet to hopefully go along with another Michigan win. Let's get into it!

Recipe: Homemade Neapolitan pizza

Ingredients

Biga (Italian pre-fermented dough that will give the pizza a complex flavor): 1 cup water, 1/5th of 1/4 tsp yeast, 2 cups flour (00 flour if you can find it),
Dough: 2 1/2 tsp sea salt, 2 cups flour (00 strongly preferred)
Sauce: 14 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, 1 tsp salt, EVOO
Toppings of your liking -- but always invest in a good quality whole milk mozzarella (if able, avoid the shredded kind)-I will share different kinds we have made in the past further down in the article!

Biga and Dough:

Two nights before you plan to make the pizza, measure & mix the biga ingredients. Heat the water to lukewarm in a large tub. Do not use too hot of water otherwise it will kill the yeast. Add instant dried yeast to water and let it rest for a minute and then swish it until dissolved. Next, add the flour and mix it by hand. The consistency at this point should be similar to a pancake batter. Put the lid on the container and let it develop overnight in a room temperature setting (should smell like a good, fermented beer the next morning, with lots of bubbling).

Next, make your dough using the sea salt, flour and you're going to add it to the biga that is already made. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes and then knead for one minute. Place the newly formed dough ball in an oiled dough tub and cover. Let this rise for 45 minutes. Separate the dough ball into equal parts and let them rest in the refrigerator for two to three days.

Making the pizza:

Remove the dough balls from the refrigerator for 60 to 90 minutes before shaping them into your pizza disks. Make your pizza sauce consisting of one can of whole peeled tomatoes (San Marzano style is the best), sea salt, and olive oil. Blend all of these ingredients with an immersion blender. Heat your pizza oven (we use an Ooni) to the highest temperature for thirty minutes. While the oven is heating up, scoop your tomato sauce onto your pizza disks.

Leave a little room between the edge of your pizza and where the sauce stops. One ladle of sauce usually does the trick for the entire pizza! Next, you are going to add toppings! Whatever you choose, always drizzle some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt before placing it back in the oven. One of our favorite pizzas is spicy soppressata, jalapeno and a drizzle of hot honey. Another favorite is spicy soppressata, and gorgonzola and once it is out of the oven, sprinkle on some ground coffee.

It may sound a little different, but trust me, it is amazing! When putting the pizzas back in the oven, you still want the oven at a high heat. You will need to rotate the pizza frequently to prevent any part of it from burning. Cook time will vary depending on your dough and toppings so monitor very closely! Once pizzas are done cooking, add your basil and give your pizza one more drizzle of olive oil. We like to add parmesan and crushed red pepper to ours as well!

My inspiration for pizza comes from the Instagram handle @vicinakitchen. Check her out, she does phenomenal work.

Michigan football week 5 prop bet:

Donovan Edwards 2+ touchdown scorer at +650. We have won our last two Michigan football prop bets, so I am going out on a limb a little bit with this one.

I have always believed in Donovan Edwards even when he seems to be struggling a little bit. He has as good of an attitude as any big-time college football player in the country. I know he was feeling down on himself after fumbling in the fourth quarter last week but I am confident in his resolve to shake it off and get back to work.

I expect the coaching staff to use Edwards in the passing game this week to get some easy completions for Orji. I also expect Dono to get his fair share of carries at running back in this game. The Minnesota defense gave up over 200 yards to Kaleb Johnson last week when they played Iowa.

Michigan football is going to lean on this Gophers defense and I expect Edwards and Mullings to each get at least 15 carries. Donovan is always capable of breaking the big play and he will have the opportunity to do so via air and ground this week. All of these factors combined are going to give Edwards a two-touchdown performance and some big-time cash in our pockets. Go Blue!