Homemade pizza... how do you roll?

[Fire Me Boy!]

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.



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

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by tooge

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.

[Chest Rockwell]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Speaking of gooey, fresh cheese...

Goat cheese makes great pizza too...

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.

[Chest Rockwell]

Originally Posted by tooge

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.

Can I be your fren?

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

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

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.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by tooge

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.

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

[Frosty]

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.

[Chest Rockwell]

Originally Posted by Stewie

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.

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.

[Chest Rockwell]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Here's a pic of one of mine:


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

Just read this one...awesome.

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

[tooge]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

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

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.

[WV]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

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

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.

[Rausch]

I'm retired...

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by Chest Rockwell

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

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.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Speaking of gooey, fresh cheese...

Goat cheese makes great pizza too...

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

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Speaking of gooey, fresh cheese...

Goat cheese makes great pizza too...

[Chest Rockwell]

Originally Posted by Stewie

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.

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.