Saturday, August 9, 2008

My current pizza methodology

Lately I've been buying F&E pizza dough and experimenting with it. I've tried making my own dough, but my aging KitchenAid isn't what it used to be.

I cut the dough into two balls, roughly 8 oz. each. I preheat the oven to 450 and put our 12" Lodge Logic cast iron skillet on medium-low. I put 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil (or any convenient oil) in the skillet before heating and use a pastry brush to spread it evenly. I roll out the dough until it will just about take up the whole bottom of the skillet. Once the skillet is up to temp (350 or so), I put the dough into it. I then brush the top of the dough with more olive oil. Once the bottom has gotten a bit of a crisp and browned, I use tongs to flip it over.

I then top it. Since I can't have tomato products of late, I've used pepperoni, ham w/pineapple, and/or mushrooms. I've also used pesto instead of tomato sauce with good results. I sprinkle liberally with mozzarella and then bake it for 10-12 minutes, until the cheese is nicely browned.

I take it out and let it cool on a rack for a few minutes. I usually get a nicely crispy (although with occasional small burnt spots on the bottom if I'm not careful) pizza. The top gets a nice crust from the initial crisping so the toppings don't get it mushy. The pizza is even good cold, which is one of my benchmarks for good pizza.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

this is such funny timing! we just gave up on making pizza (except lavosh pizza of course). we'll have to give it another try!