Sunday night pizzas w/ Pr0n

[aks801]

After cooking a steak dinner last night, I was happily full. At about 10 PM my wife reminded me that I had promised I would make pizza Sunday evening. So... dragged my butt to the kitchen and made the dough.

Cut to late Sunday afternoon. Got everything prepped up and ready for pizza making. The menu:

- NY style, hand-tossed, cheese
- NY style, hand-tossed, meatball and purple onion
- Sicilian, pepperoni and meatball

The Sicilian dough was prepared separately, as it is more like a focaccia bread, with olive oil in the dough.

I hadn't made pizza in well over a year, so I wondered how it might come out. Everyone seemed happy with it, and isn't that the real test?

Behold, the tools of ignorance:

Cheese pizza. The king of all pizzas. For my pizza cheese blend, I like to use bagged mozzarella, then toss on some cubed fontina cheese. Here it is before the oven:

We have a pizza! This one was mainly for the girls:

Hey, Tony! A slice of cheese!

Here's the meatball and onion ready to go in the oven:

And here it is all ready for eatin'. Wife and I really liked this one:

I'm ready for my close-up! This is my favorite pic of the batch:

Sicilian love letter. You can see how the cheese goes directly on the dough, with a dollop of sauce on top for each slice.

Ooh, now this is promising. I feel like I have a lot of work to do yet to get the Sicilian right. But I like this so far:

One of my favorite aspects of a good Sicilian pizza is the burnt/crispy crust on the edges. This pizza had a fair amount of it, but not as much as I'd like. Still, it was a fair stab at it:

Action shot of the Sicilian.

So it was a good pizza dinner, and I'll probably start making them more regularly for family pizza nights. At some point I'd like to build a wood-fired oven in the backyard, but that is a different story for a different day.

 

[mtime7]

lookin good

 

[Titch]

You can feed me anytime

 

[Stablergetz]

looks great

 

[aks801]

Thanks, y'all. I know it is not bbq-ing (?), but hobby cooking nonetheless.

 

[tom b]

Killer Pies!

 

[Free Mr. Tony]

If you want more edge crust it helps to stack the cheese right up around the edge of the pan thicker than the rest of the pizza. It melts down the sides, and really forms a great cheesy crust. I think hard cheese works better too. I use a mix of parmesan, asiago, and kerrygold (kind of like sharp cheddar) around the edge.

 

[BBQ Bacon]

Good looking pies.

 

[EdF]

Great-looking pies. What's your cooker for those?

 

[Stingerhook]

The pies I ordered never made it to the house, looks great.

 

[aks801]

@ Free Mr. Tony: nice tip on the edge crust. I thought I was putting enough on top at the edges but not enough. Will have to try the mix you mentioned, thanks.

@EdF: these were all cooked indoors, i.e. oven in the kitchen. I have toyed with the idea of building a pizza oven in the backyard (plans at Forno Bravo) but have not made that decision quite yet!

 

[Moose]

Those pies look delish, particularly the Sicilian! Would you mind sharing the recipe?

One option instead of building a wood fired oven would be a Blackstone. There's quite a few very satisfied BS Pizza oven owners here, myself included.

 

[aks801]

Those pies look delish, particularly the Sicilian! Would you mind sharing the recipe?

One option instead of building a wood fired oven would be a Blackstone. There's quite a few very satisfied BS Pizza oven owners here, myself included.

I'll have to check out that Blackstone.

The recipe I use is something I pulled off of the pizzamakingforum. I adjusted it somewhat.

Warm 8.3 oz water to 120 degrees (finger warm, not quite hot). Mix in 1 tsp ADY, let stand until it gets "frothy".

In large mixing bowl, 14.4 oz flour (I use King Arthur bread flour), 2 tsp salt, .75 oz olive oil. Add the water/yeast. Mix it all around with your hands. Lay it out on a floured counter, knead the dough for about 5 minutes (I don't use a mixer). Put in a bowl, pour on a small amount of olive oil, turn the dough to coat it. Put bowl in fridge minimum of 16 hours.

Next day, take dough out of the fridge 2.25 hours before cooking time, let sit for 90 minutes on counter. Get your cooking pan (steel pan, 11x14 or so), brush it real good with olive oil, put in the dough, stretch it out to where it mostly covers the bottom of the pan. Let it sit out for 45 minutes or so.

You probably have it from there. I put the cheese directly onto the dough surface, then toppings, then dollops of sauce for each slice. Cook and eat.

I am finding that getting the Sicilian right is rather elusive, but truth be told I haven't done that many of them yet.

Let us know if you try this!

 

[selfservebrewer]

I have a "Kettle Pizza" attachment for my Weber and LOVE it! Here's a couple pics.
Anyone else cook on one of these?

 

[Dmakkk]

Those look delicious...

 

[robert-r]

Mighty fine pies you made. I'm sure each one was delicious.

 

[Big George's BBQ]

Very Nice looking pies