• The BIG Italian Sausage Thin 'n' Crispy Pizza Experiment

I’ve been experimenting lately with Trader Joe’s pizza dough. But, past experience quickly led me to the realization that it’s really only enough dough to make a 12 or 13 inch pie at medium thickness, and I almost always make 14-15 inch pies.

In revisiting TJ's pizza dough, my first experiment was to buy 4 packages of dough, then take one, and split it in 3 even portions, then merge each 1/3 portion in to each of the 3 whole portions. This makes for a hearty medium thickness crust 14-15 inch pie. I've been doing this now for the past few months with good results.

My recent experiment was completely different though – in fact, I combined two experiments into one: A thin NY style crust made from Trader Joe’s pizza dough with large hefty sausage discs. I’ve seen very seductive mouth watering pictures from various pizzerias across the country featuring large Italian sausage disc toppings, vs. the small little sausage balls you normally see on a pizza. I just had to try it!

Instead of hand stretching the dough like I usually do, I rolled it out. This is sometimes regarded as a no-no if you want to get the nice “crumb” (those little air bubbles in the inner cooked dough), but that wasn’t my objective. I wanted to see how large a pizza I could get from one package of Trader Joe’s pizza dough without making it too thin, like Neapolitan style.

Assembly Begins:

I rolled the pizza out into about a 15 inch disc:








Then slid the pie onto the Super Peel and added homemade sauce:





Then, added provolone slices and topped with Mozzarella:





Topped with large mild Italian sausage pieces:





And onto the Blackstone pizza oven, running about a 690 degree stone temp:





Pizza was cooked in under 4 minutes.

Right out of the oven, sliced, and topped with a few small dollops of remaining homemade sauce:






Close up:






Side view so you can see how thin the pizza was:





All in all, it was fantastic! The crust had an audible "crisp" to it when I sliced the pizza, and had good structural integrity. I actually like this dough a bit better in the thin version vs. regular thickness, which is what I've been used to. The sausage was very hearty and rich, and added a depth of flavor that really popped.


I'm going to continue the Trader Joe's thin crust style for the foreseeable future. :thumb:


Here's a cool animated gif of the entire cook:

food4thot said:

Great looking pizza, Moose!

Have been in discussions about pizza dough on another forum. One poster claims it's very easy to make at home...I'm too lazy for that. Other posters buy grocery store dough balls but some have complained the dough is too tough to work with. Not sure if any of them tried rolling it out. Have wondered how long grocery store dough balls have been sitting around.

Click to expand...

Thanks!


Here's the most important thing about working with store bought dough, or any dough that's been refrigerated:


It needs to sit a while at room temp so the dough can relax. Then it won't be tough.



Here's what I do:


Take the dough out of the fridge, and let it sit on the counter, in the bag, for at least 30 minutes.


Take the dough out of the bag, and on a floured surface, work the dough into about an 8 inch disc. Put the dough on a plate, and cover it with a towel, and let sit for another 30 minutes.


The dough should be very pliable at that point, whether rolling it out or hand stretching.