Pizza Experiment #5

In which I have decided to try and punch the living daylights out of our taste buds.

#4 was an improvement over #3... but still, the crust was too too bland.
Kris has twice suggested now that I do a garlic butter brushing onto the edges of the crust.  I am trying hard to develop a recipe that does not require that added step, because dammit- the rest of this is effort enough without me having to go and make yummy garlic butter as well.  (Not to mention the additional dishes THAT would make.. we don't have a dishwasher dammit!)

Changes this time are that I doubled the "salt," added another half teaspoon of garlic, removed the rosemary, and replaced it with balsamic vinegar.  Also, I picked up some "Better for Bread" flour, and am using that for the first time tonight.  (I've been using All Purpose until now) And the final change is that I noticed after the pizza had been in the oven for 9 minutes, that the oven was set to 450 instead of 425.  Shock horror!

Pizza Experiment #5

1/2 – 3/4 c. warm water
1 T. dry active yeast
1 t. brown sugar (for the yeast)
2 c. flour
1 T. Olive Oil
1 T. Balsamic Vinegar (its called experiment for a reason folks!)
2 t.  Russell's Original Spice Blend (or Salt- though probably a little less salt)
1.5 t. chopped Garlic (I use the freeze dried stuff)
1 T. Corn Meal

1. Combine 1/4 c. water with yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve the yeast, set aside until bubbly (about 5 minutes)
2. Mix flour, salt, garlic, then add the oil, and the balsamic vinegar
3. Preheat the oven at 450˚
4. Stir the yeast mixture into the flour mixture, adding water until it forms a ball you can work with. Knead for a few minutes until doughy.  Cover with cloth and let stand for 10 minutes.
5. Dust parchment paper with the corn meal, and spread the dough out on parchment.  
6. Add desired toppings.
7. Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone using the parchment for a smooth transition.
8. Bake at 425˚ for around 10 minutes- until cheese is just turning golden. 

RESULTS:
Well... finally the crust had some flavor!  But, the crust was ridiculously hard to cut, and was at times unpleasant to chew.  I am going to assume that was due to the accidental higher temperature, though it could be the new flour.

Kris's review remains a steady "good, but nothing exceptional."   After getting that review, the follow up questions revealed that he was unaware that I had made the dough from scratch... which led to a "it was better than last time" praise.  Improvements none the less.

 

Pizza Experiment #4

So...
Pizza Experiment #3 turned out pretty well.  The texture was great, but overall the flavor was bland.

And now for #4!
Tonight, I used the recipe from last time, but made ta couple additions to potentially punch the living daylights out of our taste buds.  Another thing I did differently tonight was that I spread the dough out on parchment paper, then used the parchment to transfer the pizza onto the stone.  This was a tip given to me by my dentist on Monday.  How evil of him to start a discussion about making homemade pizza as he is giving me a Novocaine shot to do a filling! 

Pizza Experiment #4

1/2 – 3/4 c. warm water
1 T. dry active yeast
1 t. brown sugar (for the yeast)
2 c. flour
1 T. Olive Oil
1 t. salt (though, really used 1 t. Russell's Original Spice Blend... BEST STUFF EVAR)
1 t. finely chopped fresh Rosemary (she choppin' rosemary!  She chop!  Ungh!)
1 t. obliterated Garlic (I used the freeze dried stuff and chopped it nearly into dust... I felt all cheffy, even though I know I was doing something very uncheffy)
1 T. Corn Meal

1. Combine 1/4 c. water with yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve the yeast, set aside until bubbly about 5 minutes.
2. Mix flour and salt, then add the oil.
3. Preheat the oven at 425˚ -
4. Stir the yeast mixture into the flour mixture, adding water until it forms a ball you can work with. Knead for a few minutes until doughy.  Cover with plastic wrap or another bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.
5. Dust parchment paper with corn meal, and spread the dough out on parchment.  
6. Add desired toppings.
7. Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone using the parchment for a smooth transition.
8. Bake at 425˚ for around 10 minutes- until cheese is just turning golden.

 

Halfsies on the cheesies.  Fresh moo cow Mozzarella on the left, and baa goat Mozzarella on the right.

Pizza Experiementation Continued

Making another pizza from scratch again, and writing the post as I go.

Here is the recipe I am going to try tonight.  It is a blending of a couple of recipes... one that I have already tried, and another one that I have just come across on ze internets.
Recipe A + Recipe B =

RECIPE C

1/2 – 3/4 c. warm water
1 T. dry active yeast
1 t. brown sugar (for the yeast)
2 c. flour
1 T. Olive Oil
1/2 t. salt
1 T. Corn Meal

1. Combine 1/4 c. water with yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve the yeast, set aside until bubbly about 5 minutes.
2. Mix flour and salt, then add the oil.
3. Preheat the oven at 425˚ -
4. Stir the yeast mixture into the flour mixture, adding water until it forms a ball you can work with. Knead for a few minutes until doughy.  Cover with plastic wrap or another bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.
5. Dust a pizza stone with corn meal, and spread the dough out on the pizza stone.  
6. Add desired toppings.
7. Bake at 425˚ for 10 or 15 minutes- until cheese is just turning golden. 

Now that I have nailed down my recipe, here are the "secret" variation I have up my sleeve- fancy yuppie flavored salts.  Tonight I am going to use the Spanish Rosemary infused salt.  

Off to the kitchen I go....

26 minutes later, I am between step 4 and 5.

I have this tendency to up the salt measurements when making food, because my husband likes his food to have a lot of flavor.  I put in the .. oh.  OH CRAP NOT AGAIN!  I mistakenly thought it was a teaspoon of salt, not a half teaspoon- which I realized just now as I came to update the post.  Crap.  Oh well.  The Spanish rosemary salt is very mild... so it would probably would have been fine.  If only I hadn't added a heavy sprinkling of the Hawaiian sea salt to amp it up a bit.  SALT-AY!  We'll see how it goes, but I am prepared for another (all too common) over salt mistake.

9:09 pm, and I took it out of the oven about 5 minutes ago.  As per our usual, half Goat Cheese Mozzarella that lactose intolerant me can eat,  half regular cos cheese for Kris.  I convinced Kris to give fresh mozzarella a try, and he opted for the italian seasoned marinated stuff.  Pretty sure he is never going back now.

If nothing else, it appears that I have finally figured out how to spread the dough out all nice like on the stone.

Just gotta wait for it to cool a bit so I can cut it up and see how bad the salt level is.

 

Post eating... it was pretty damn good!  The doubling of salt was not at all perceptible, in fact... even I want a little more flavor out of my crust.  Perhaps I shall add a garlic'd butter brush on the crusts next time.  But the crusts were super fluffy, and a nice texture- if maybe a little dry.  Maybe more olive oil?

In the end, I baked it for about 12 minutes, and while it was fully cooked, Kris and I both agreed that it would have been even better.

Hey Mom!  I'm getting better at cooking!