Pizza Pizza

For a while now I’ve been on a quest for the perfect homemade pizza. I tried a couple of store-bought mixes for the crust (bag over head in shame). The first was ok but it had ingredients in it that I didn’t want in my body. The second one was a gluten-free mix. It was so awful we didn’t even eat the leftover pizza (yeah, that’s bad). I was so grateful that neither of us are gluten sensitive after trying that.

I was going to try Alton Brown’s pizza dough recipe but then came across this recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. It was getting lots of good reviews so I decided to give it a shot.

Crust spread out on baking sheet
Crust spread out on baking sheet

I found that the crust I spread on the baking sheet was a lot easier to do than the one on the peel. The crust on the peel kept wanting to shrink up, plus the peel is a little smaller so I wasn’t able to make it as big as I’d wanted. Each crust got pre-baked for about 10 minutes before being pulled and topped.

I topped the thinner crust on the baking sheet with sauce (store bought, one thing at a time for me) basil and four cheeses (cheddar, mozzerella, feta and ricotta). The other one that would go on the stone received the standard pepperoni treatment (using Boar’s Head pepperoni).
Crust spread on pizza peel
Crust spread on pizza peel

I was able to safely transfer the completed pepperoni pizza to the hot stone in the oven, something I was particularly proud of. (I totally jacked that up last time.) That crust went to town in the oven – it got huge. It reminded me of the frankenstarter incident for a minute. But the crust ended up nice and crunchy coming off that stone. The four cheese pizza on the pan baked up nicely, but it didn’t really get the desired crunch.

Four cheese basil pizza
Four cheese basil pizza

Ok, so we started plowing through the pizzas before I remembered to take a picture…sorry. It was really good! At least you get to see a pic of the leftovers.

We are sold on this crust recipe. It had really good flavor and texture. But there are always lessons learned. Next time I’m going to pre-bake the crusts on the pans, then cook on the baking stone. (I may have to get another one.) I think this will give us the thinner crust we preferred with the crispness of the stone. (Plus you can pre-bake and freeze, making it quite convenient to make pizza at home.)
Pepperoni Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza

With that accomplishment under my belt, I shall next tackle the perfect homemade sauce…any tips, tricks, comments, or sad stories about pizza sauce are all welcome!

Published by kitchenkungfu

Writer, Toastmaster and tireless champion for the benefits of a ketogenic diet!

6 thoughts on “Pizza Pizza

  1. I like this one too – for the 3 of us I use 2 pie pans and it works out great. This way we get 2 meals out of one recipe.
    For your homemade sauce – use your crock pot – you can simmer for hours and not have to stir it……\o/\o/

  2. Ask mom b about a sourdough crust recipe she has. It would be a change when you want something different. If you like garlic, try putting crushed garlic right into the crust. As for sauce, if you find a good one and post it, I will certainly try it, otherwise I will stick with the ‘C’ kind.

    MT C

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