Homemade pizza... how do you roll?
 

Tried out Serious Eats' "Foolproof Pan Pizza" this evening... went pseudo-gourmet with this one, got some premium aged mozzarella, real parmigiano reggiano, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, and thinly slice prosciutto.

Best pizza I've made to date. Out. Standing.

http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/6/img3989pr.jpg

So when you do homemade pizza, what do you do? Basic? Go all out? Pre-made crusts?

Simple margherita. Make some dough in the automatic bread maker and par-bake it for five mins, then add some homemade red sauce, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil.

Damn you, FMB. I hate your threads because I always have to check out what you are cooking and am immediately depressed I can't try it.

If it was springtime and I had some basil in the yard, I would have added some of that... love a little fresh basil on a pizza.

C'mon over, md. I've still got some homemade bacon.

:spock:

It's a thick-crust pizza.

My "craziest" delicious pizza:

Cayenne pumpkin puree "sauce," chorizo, jalapenos, arugula, goat cheese, and toasted pecans. Awesome.

Now thats some pizza. :p

I tried for years to duplicate my Dad's pizza making abilities, but failed each time. He owned several pizza restaurants in his younger days...good stuff.

What's the advantage of doing it in a pan?

What's your problem? That was a damn good pizza.

Allows you to use some oil and get a different texture on the crust.

As for dough, I use Bittman's recipe. Needs a food processor, but it's so freaking easy and fast:

Makes: Enough for 1 large or 2 or more small pies
Time: 1 hour or more

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as needed
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a food processor. Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and the oil through the feed tube.

2. Process for about 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. If it is still dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process for another 10 seconds. (In the unlikely event that the mixture is too sticky, add flour a tablespoon at a time.)

3. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand for a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball. Put the dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap; let rise until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours. (You can cut this rising time short if you’re in a hurry, or you can let the dough rise more slowly, in the refrigerator, for up to 6 or 8 hours.) Proceed to Step 4 or wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap or a zipper bag and freeze for up to a month. (Defrost in the bag or a covered bowl in the refrigerator or at room temperature; bring to room temperature before shaping.)

4. When the dough is ready, form it into a ball and divide it into 2 or more pieces if you like; roll each piece into a round ball. Put each ball on a lightly floured surface, sprinkle with flour, and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rest until they puff slightly, about 20 minutes.

It's been a couple of years since I made one. But when I do...

Homemade crust
Pizza stone
Sauce from a jar or can
Quality toppings and lots of them.

This one had caramelized onions, green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, lots of sausage, and fresh parmigiana.

Got something against round pizza? ;)

Oh hell yes on the caramelized onions. I'll caramelize about 5 onions for an hour until they're just ridiculously sweet and basically just a "jam" (I often throw a some thyme in during the process for a little more complexity). Then I'll spread that on the dough. Use roasted chipotle sweet potatoes or acorn squash cubes for the "meat" (my wife is a vegetarian) and fresh parmesan for the cheese. Top with arugula when it comes out of oven. Just amazing.

Mine are almost always square because I'm usually making 2-3 at a time, so I use the back of my cookie sheets as the pan instead of my single pizza stone.

That looks incredible! nice job.

Since you asked...

I use a pizza stone that I get really hot in the oven before throwing the pizza on top. That means I have to make the pizza on a separate pan and slide it over to the stone. I put cornmeal on the bottom of the pan so it is easier to slide. On top of that, my dough is really elastic, so it is always trying to contract. Moving the pizza to the stone is always a moment of high drama. I get some weird looking pizzas, but they taste mighty fine.

I swear, you make the most threads about food on this board.

Every time I open a thread of yours, I get hungry.

Subscribing to this thread.

Here's a pic of one of mine:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...76455565_n.jpg

I think that was pumpkin puree, chorizo, goat cheese, fresh shaved parm, jalapenos, and toasted pecans.

Don't throw away that excess sourdough starter when you feed the jar... use it for pizza dough (sourdough pancakes, too). Fluffs up when you par-bake it, so I just toss it directly on a hot pizza stone in the oven. Build it up on parchment paper first for easy transfer to the heated stone.

Sourdough pizza dough
Pesto for pizza sauce
Mozzarella & Parmesan
Onions, mushrooms, black olives

Pumpkin puree?

That's just wrong, man.

So what's you guys favorite frozen pizza?

I'm giving this a whirl this week.

http://www.womensdailydiscounts.com/...aBox-post.jpeg

Sorry. Wasn't recognizing the fun... :thumb:

Nope. It's ****ing awesome. Put a little chipotle and/or cayenne in it.

Barley crust with apricot preserves topping, splash of liquid smoke.

Jesus christ.. Goat cheese and jalapeños? I want for eats!

Sorry, man. That'll probably continue awhile... my new years resolution is to make something at least twice a week that I've never made before. Last night I made Filipino chicken adobo.

Pretty dang imaginative.

And I should add:

I'm not using some shitty canned pumpkin puree. I'm using good, cooking pumpkins/winter squash (like a Blue Hokkaido or a Queensland Blue) that I roast myself. Then I make a puree from them. It's an entirely different beast than the canned crap.

I'll use the puree to fill green enchiladas and for a variety of dishes that week after making it on a Sunday.

Boboli

Ignore. :)

Kidding, I enjoy them. But not when I'm on a study bender and haven't had food for way too long.

Try my ballsack in your mouth, n00b.

(;))

Foolproof, no-skill required pan pizza


It's a pan pizza that requires no kneading, no rolling, no stretching, no special equipment or experience whatsoever, just a scale, a bowl, a pan, and bit of time.

Make the No-Knead Dough

http://i.imgur.com/VZb6bYHh.jpg
Combine dough ingredients. For each 10-inch pan pizza, I use 200 grams bread flour, 5 grams salt, 2 grams yeast, 135 grams water, and 4 grams extra-virgin olive oil. Just put it in a bowl, stir it up with your hand or a spoon until there's no dry flour left, and let it be.

Cover and rise

http://i.imgur.com/I1WSh8rh.jpg
Cover tightly in plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature overnight. No kneading required!

The next day...

http://i.imgur.com/6zDySn7h.jpg
The next day it should look something like this. Rap the bowl and the whole thing will deflate. This is ok.

Dump

http://i.imgur.com/quYwGO9h.jpg
Dump it all out onto a floured surface, then divide it into balls (the number of balls will depend on exactly how many you planned for at the start)

Oil a skillet or cake pan

http://i.imgur.com/MiVCpw2h.jpg
Spread olie oil in a 10-inch cast iron skillet or round cake pan and place a dough ball in the middle. You can repeat for multiple pizzas, or store the doughballs to be used later. Up to 3 days in the fridge (in a sealed zipperlock bag), or indefinitely in the freezer (in a sealed freezer bag).

Coat

http://i.imgur.com/NlA5H9Lh.jpg
Rub the dough ball around and flip it a couple times until it's completely coated in oil and the oil completely coats the bottom and sides of the pan. Cover in plastic, and let it sit for another couple hours without touching it. Watch som Breaking Bad, rescue some princesses, plan your zombie apocalypse emergency supply kit, whatever. Just leave it alone until...

Spread

http://i.imgur.com/acLjjRIh.jpg
...it spreads out on its own. The dough should naturally stretch out until it fills the pan. This takes about two hours.

Dock

http://i.imgur.com/DepLZ6Uh.jpg
Dock the dough with your fingertips to get rid of the super-large bubbles, but be gentle. you don't want to get rid of all of them.

Lift

http://i.imgur.com/wb1FS8jh.jpg
Lift the edges gently to allow any trapped bubbles underneath to escape.

Get your toppings ready

http://i.imgur.com/A7B4QaWh.jpg
Have your toppings assembled and ready to go.

Sauce

http://i.imgur.com/6WBg0MHh.jpg
Cover the pie with sauce, going all the way to the edges. You can use store-bought sauce, or homemade (my go-to is this one: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/new-york-style-pizza-sauce.html).

Cheese

http://i.imgur.com/gI3k0Nsh.jpg
Cover with cheese, going all the way to the edges. Why all the way? Because as that cheese melts, it drips down the cracks, turning into crispy, browned shards of awesome. That's why.

Add more toppings

http://i.imgur.com/s38K9I8h.jpg
I'm using some slab bacon cut into lardons and applied raw. They'll cook in the oven.

And more

http://i.imgur.com/DWbvuQmh.jpg
Pepperoni. This is my favorite from Vermont Smoke and Cure (http://www.vtsmokeandcure.com/). It rules.

Grate some hard cheese, but don't add yet!

http://i.imgur.com/Fp9A9j2h.jpg
Grate some hard cheese, but set it aside for now.

Get ready to...

http://i.imgur.com/WQoeY70h.jpg
Finish off the pie with a drizzle of oil, and whatever other toppings you want. Here I've got some homemade pickled banana peppers and some fresh basil.

Bake

http://i.imgur.com/uqA0tZ5h.jpg
Bake the pizza in a 550°F oven directly in the skillet or pan until golden brown on top and sizzling around the edges, about 15 minutes.

Now the cheese

http://i.imgur.com/6ycADcZh.jpg
NOW add that grated hard cheese. I like the contrast that the bubble brown mozzarella and the sharp parmesan or pecorino romano has.

Check out the air bubbles!

http://i.imgur.com/DMbynInh.jpg
Perfect hole structure, with absolutely no kneading or shaping!

The bottom

http://i.imgur.com/yJ0CkBsh.jpg
The bottom ends up golden brown and crisp like it's been fried, because... it has. It's been frying in that olive oil the whole time. It's crisp as a cracker and infused throughout with olive oil flavor.

Serve


A pie is big enough to serve 2 normal people.

Newman's Own is my favorite.

Making my own pizza, I'm a simple guy. I actually got stuff for pizza at target this morning. pepperoni, 2% milk mozzarella, a green pepper, and chef boyardee dough mix that I'll make with beer and a few spices. Nothing fancy, just quick, easy and inexpensive (I had coupons for the pepperoni and cheese, even better).

I get to have pizza, it doesn't require much effort before or after, and my 23 day streak of not going out to eat remains intact.

Pizza crust from the bread machine...Don Pepinos sauce and loads of meat and cheese.

I'll also occasionally get a small boboli thin crust, top with Buffalo Wild Wings Wild sauce, mozzarella cheese, and some chunks of chicken tossed in more Wild Sauce. Cook about 15 minutes, mix up my own Serrano Ranch dressing and enjoy!

Saved this recipe and totally making a badass homemade pizza for SB party.

I have issues with making the dough. Ended up just buying dough and making a square pizza.

Was epic.

I'm viewing this thread as I look at histologic sections of atherosclerotic plaques

ROFL

I make a chicken, spinach, ranch pizza. It's a bit white trash, but I make some Hidden Valley Ranch dip from the packet, jazz it up with some cayenne or chipotle, grilled chicken, spinach, and pickled red onion. I fire it on my Weber One Touch.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9431/pizzajz.jpg

Out of curiosity, where'd you get this? This is the same recipe, directions, and many of the same pictures from the Serious Eats page I linked in the OP, but some pics have been added and they rewrote it to sound like it's theirs.

Here is mine. Simple homemade thin crust with grilled chicken breast, mushroom, onion, olives,feta, blue cheese, franks hot sauce, jalapenos, pepperoncini, garlic clove, tomato, sauce and mozzarella.

http://i541.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps63cbe041.jpg
http://i541.photobucket.com/albums/g...psea01f5ef.jpg
http://i541.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps2b77c5ac.jpg
http://i541.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps247b7291.jpg

Nice. I'mma try some of these ideas.

As for me, I do the Lahey no-knead dough (it and his no-knead bread recipes have both been in the NY Times if anyone wants to see them) and make sauces depending on the toppings I'm going to use.

I don't have a stone and I don't really like pan pizza all that much so I just flip my cast iron and use the bottom like a pizza stone.

that sounds killer.

I've always wanted to try one of these killer pizzas.
so far, only have gone the route of the boboli with the stard 'ol toppings.

one of my favorite pizzas ever is in Pensacola at a place called Ozone Pizza /Pub etc. Every time I visit him, it's a must stop at some point during our time down there. I get this:

NUTTY IDEA PIZZA $15.75 - $23.99
Created with a unique combination of our three cheese blend, cream cheese, ham, pepperoni, cashews, and tomatoes.

dollops of cream cheese.

I need a good thin crust dough recipe.

See my recipe below, which is just Mark Bittman's recipe (if you want to bookmark it online).

I generally form 3 dough balls, which allows me to get the pizza thinner. I also, as someone else said, prebake the pizza on as high as my oven will go before adding ingredients for a few minutes. Bring back out, add ingredients, then put back in. The key to a crisp crust is super high heat.

I'm a "kitchen sink" guy.

I like pepperoni, canadian bacon, and sausage with green peppers, onions, black olives, tomatoes (fresh or sun-dried), mozarella parmesan and feta cheese.

This is a 100% tits app recipe that I've been toying with the idea of trying to do in pizza form; I just can't decide if it would be too much in those quantities.

Also, I've been thinking about a jamon serrano/date or fig (I'd go with quince but they're just too hard/irratic to locate in non-paste form) /manchego thing as well.

how do those pizza stones work? they make good pizza?

They are part gimmick part good tool. I like ours, but the key is preheating them. When people buy them and follow the directions which involves preheating the stone it gives you nice crust. You can get similar results with a good metal pizza pan though in my opinion.

We do pizza night on Fridays. I think I've done every variation of crust, sauce and toppings imagineable.

Of all the things that make a difference it's whole milk mozarella. Not the gooey bland fresh stuff, but the moz that comes in a block. It's kind of hard to find, but look in the deli at the grocery store. The part skim milk stuff is just aweful and that's about all you can find. I also blend some provolone and cheddar with it.

Pretty much this.

I used to have one and it worked fine for what it was, but I decided to downsize and simplify and just couldn't justify keeping it (along with a lot of other mono-purpose kitchen gagdgets).

That's why I switched to the inverted cast iron method.

The "gooey bland fresh stuff" makes GREAT pizza, FWIW.

I read somewhere that you need to preheat it for like an hour. My own experiences say that's true, too.

4 million Neapolitans and the creation of modern pizza can't be wrong.

the wife and I have a gourmet pizza book we got 20 years ago when we got married. We make the dough from the recipes and make different pizzas. My favorite is very thin crust with grated garlic, basil, olive oil, some tomato slices, and grated parmagiano.

FWIW, we have a fireplace in the kitchen that we rarely use because there is another one in the living room very close to the kitchen. I have a plan to have it converted to a brick oven. I'd love to do wood burning oven pizzas in it.

Speaking of gooey, fresh cheese...

Goat cheese makes great pizza too...

:drool:

That's why I've been thinking about doing those two variations I mentioned above.

I think the tart conversion just needs the goat cheese melted with some cream to make a sauce to thin out the onion/caper/anchovy flavors a bit. That's shitload of flavor packed into a small area in the tart version and I think it would just be too much in a pizza.

I'm also thinking some toasted pine nuts could be a good addition to the serrano/fruit/manchego combo...

This may be a Dr. Frankenstien's pizza kitchen weekend...because I need an excuse to drink wine all weekend.

:hmmm:

Can I be your fren?

It's not for the home cook because home ovens don't get hot enough for the pizza to come out right. Whole milk aged mozz is the best thing for home cooking.

Another thing that most Italians do for pizza dough is use 00 flour. Unheard of over here.

This is one of the things I want when I build a house...

I can pretty much only eat homemade pizza now. My wife and I had to experiment for a while but finally came up with a good pizza crust recipe. I used to prefer thick crust but that's tough to do gluten-free. What we came up with is a thinner crust that gets good and crispy on the bottom but is still slightly chewy in the middle. You can't use it with a stone, though, because it is more like a batter than a dough (you have to pre-cook it before topping).

We don't do anything fancy with toppings or sauces. The pizza is almost always pepperoni, mushrooms, olives and pineapple. When it's just my wife and I at home again, we will branch out and try some different sauces, cheeses and toppings.

True re: the heat, but there are workarounds if you want to put in the effort.

That's just a good site for this thread in general, btw:

http://slice.seriouseats.com/the_pizza_lab/

And I wouldn't say 00 is unheard of. Rarer and a little more expensive, sure.

Just read this one...awesome.

Pumpkin and sausage is one of my favorite combos in pasta, never had it on pizza.

Since ours is already a functioning wood fireplace, its really just a matter of getting the correct "brick" and elevating it a bit so it's not right on level with the fire I think. Ours isn't real big, but big enough for a 14 inch pizza or a couple of chickens or something.

I'm not sure what our instructions say are optimal, but as long as I have it in there when I'm preheating the oven it works well. I rarely put the stuff in right when the oven beeps it's preheated though. I think convection helps in this process too, but I could be wrong. I really like convection.

I use it more when I make Stromboli as opposed to pizza because I don't have a nice pizza peel. Not only that, but the size of our pizza stone (rectangle) is better suited for stuff like Stromboli or small pizzas. It works well for frozen pizzas though.

I'm retired...

Most 00 flour I've seen available in the US is low protein (King Arthur 8.5%). The 00 Italian pizza flour is high protein (~12-13%). It's available here and it's expensive.

Oh, here is finally a topic we'll throw down on...

:Lin:

Granted I don't know where you're at or what you're paying but there are several places in my area that I could get imported Italian 00 for $3 a lb or under, which is about 3x the cost of all purpose flour (I usually use all purpose; there is a difference, but IMO all purpose is fine.). Whole Foods also usually has it (though I'm sure you'd overpay for it there).

Amazon has several options that you can get into for under $5/lb shipped.

It's more (and like I said, not worth it to me) but it's not that much more.

One pound is like 2 cups. That's not much for $5/pound. Just sayin'...

You're only using it for pizza...just sayin'. :D

This afternoon's effort:

Tried to make a deep dish with the heat too high?...

I think that's a pizza stone underneath the pizza. Doesn't look overcooked if it is.

You're correct, although not a stone, a pan I bought years ago that has holes throughout. Gives good crispy crusts.

Like I said, I don't use it anymore because I don't find the differences worth it. I was just pointing out its not prohibitively expensive or that hard to find.

$5/lb is the most you'd have to pay for it. With the recipe I use that would come out to $1.25 a pie. Or a buck more than all purpose.

I'm not sure how that would compare to store bought crust/dough but it can't be that much more.