The long awaited Pizza post

Its been a few months since I tried making pizza but let me write this lest I forget how I did it.

After my pizza failures, i tried making it 3 more times, talk about persistence, right? After my no-knead pizza failure, I began looking for another pizza crust recipe and found this by Heny Sison: http://www.yummy.ph/recipe/Pizza-Dough.  Seems easy enough.  

I used the bottom of a large clay pot to serve as my pizza stone since I didn't have one and I read somewhere that you can use clay tiles instead.  What I forgot to do, though, is preheat the pizza stone before topping the pizza with the sauce and dried meats.  Huge mistake!  Even after baking the pizza for 20 minutes, the middle part was really soggy that it fell apart when served.  Yikes!  I knew I had to repeat this the following week, I just can't let it defeat me, right? 


So, on with pizza 3 and 4. From previous pizza attempts I made the following adjustments:


1. Preheated the oven at 425- 450F.  (The recipe didn't set a time)
2. Preheated the pizza stone in the oven for 10 minutes before baking the crust on it.
3. Sprinkled some flour on the pizza stone if the crust is kinda moist.  This prevents the crust from sticking.
4. Parbaked the crust for 5 minutes in a preheated oven before smothering it with sauce and toppings.
5. Baked the pizza with the toppings for another 10 to 12 minutes.  Do not overbake.  
6. Spread some butter or oil to the crust before spreading the pizza sauce.  It makes the crust less prone to sogginess.
7. Used a different flour. For some reason, this pizza flour seems to work. Found it in a supermarket but I'm sure our usual all purpose flour will work too.

And here it is, after 4 tries, my thin crust pizza! 

I used the same tomato paste-based pizza sauce as in my earlier post, topped it with sliced bell peppers, mozzarella, basil leaves, canned mushrooms and sliced salame picante.  I made another pizza with the same toppings except I replaced the salame with slivers of bottled spanish sardine, a more healthy version but nonetheless flavorful.  Can't wait to try that one again.

The Unending Quest for an Acceptable Pizza Crust Part 1

PIZZA! Just thinking about it makes me drool. Really. Couldn't think of a better way to open this blog than to write about my love/hate relationship with this food.

For someone who grew up eating homecooked meals, eating burgers and pizza were always a treat.  I'm not as  addicted to burgers anymore but my love for pizza stayed (just don't feed  me pizza everyday).  Been trying to bake an acceptable (note: acceptable, not perfect) one from scratch using recipes either from the internet or from one of my cookbooks but the results usually was.. ahh.. let's just say, far from what I envisioned the crust to be.  

Lately, I chanced upon this no-knead recipe : http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe.html. No-knead, hmmm... that sounds easy enough and since I have this penchant for over-kneaded, tough pizzas, I gave it a try.  

Pizza #1: This was how it looked unbaked.  I used lightly cooked prawns, onions, button mushrooms , mozzarella and fresh basil leaves. 


It was kinda hard forming this into a perfect circle since the dough kept shrinking back.  Oh well.

  

And this is how it looked after about 12 minutes at around 400F.

 

Those who've tried this were right, it was crisp but unfortunately, too tough for my taste.  For those who are thinking of trying this simple recipe, go ahead but bake it shorter.  As for me, its time to search the net again for another recipe. 

For the pizza sauce, this is how I made it:

Simple Pizza Sauce (Good for 2 to 3 10-in pizzas)

vegetable oil for sauteeing

half a head of garlic, minced 

1-150 g Del Monte Tomato Paste

2 T water or more if its too thick

1 tsp sugar 

pinch of ground pepper

pinch of italian seasoning

fish sauce to taste - (Of course you can use salt but the Filipino in me can't help adding this instead of salt)

1. In low fire, sautee minced garlic in oil until golden brown. 

2. Add in the tomato sauce and water.  Sautee for a minute or two.

3. Add the seasonings.  Let it simmer for another minute.  

You're done!