Pizza is like sex

[Avatard]

When it's good, it's amazing...and when bad, it's still pretty fucking good.

OK, it's an old joke, but a damn good one.

But I'm in search of the "truly amazing" here. Pizza, that is (doing OK in the sex dept.). Anyway, I've always wanted to learn how to make a good pizza crust. But let's be honest, pizza is, when you get down to it, just a piece of bread.

Now, I'm a pretty decent cook. In fact, I'm pretty damn sure I could make a positively killer red sauce for a pizza...and from scratch...but bake bread? Make a crust? I'm clueless. Ready made? Meh...why even try?

Making bread. It's one of the things I've always promised myself I'd learn, but still haven't had the courage to really try in earnest, I have no idea how many years later...still, I contemplate the killer pizza...and then I spot an article.

Hmmm...could it be this is the how-to I was looking for?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/dining/19pizza.html

[Cutty72]

It's not delivery... it's digiorno

[Rangerscott]

You know...................there is pizza porn.

[anthonyk]

Wow, I never considered making pizza on the self-clean cycle. I like it!

[Homeslice]

This place in St Louis IS THE SHIT..........awesome cracker-thin crust. Obama went there once, and the chef even went to the White House kitchen on request.

http://www.restaurantpi.com/

[101lifts2]

The best pizza in the U.S. comes from Giordanos in the Chicagoland area. The pizza is a 1.5 inch deep dish that tastes like no other. The best pizza hands down.

http://www.giordanos.com/

This shit is so good they even ship it anywhere in the U.S. lol
http://www.giordanos.com/shop/home.php?sup=

[marko138]

Originally Posted by 101lifts2

The best pizza in the U.S. comes from Giordanos in the Chicagoland area. The pizza is a 1.5 inch deep dish that tastes like no other. The best pizza hands down.

http://www.giordanos.com/

This shit is so good they even ship it anywhere in the U.S. lol
http://www.giordanos.com/shop/home.php?sup=

That sounds like good pie.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Avatard

Making bread. It's one of the things I've always promised myself I'd learn, but still haven't had the courage to really try in earnest, I have no idea how many years later...still, I contemplate the killer pizza...and then I spot an article.

This is one thing I want to do myself, my grandmother makes a killer french bread. Something she learned from her mom and so on. It's my favorite, especially when she covers it in cheese, garlic, and butter.

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

This place in St Louis IS THE SHIT..........awesome cracker-thin crust. Obama went there once, and the chef even went to the White House kitchen on request.

http://www.restaurantpi.com/

The best pizza that I ever had, if you can actually call it that, was the exact opposite. It was made by a couple from Chicago who had moved to Brampton and opened up a pizza place, was vaguely rectangular, and the crust was fully three inches thick.

[OTB]

This is the recipe I developed at the school. It works nicely in a standard oven baked @ 500 F. Works ok with a pizza pan, but works BEST with a pizza stone in an oven that has been preheated for 3/4 hour to insure that the stone is heat-soaked.

Dough MUST BE MADE 1 DAY AHEAD OF TIME.

Thin Pizza Pie Dough

1 1/4 cup warm (100-120 F) water
1 Pack Activated Dry Yeast
2 Cups Washington Unbleached All-Purpose flour
2 Cups Cake Flour
1 TBL Ground Sea Salt
2 TBL EVOO

Method:

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with one TBL of the AP flour, let foam about 10 mins.

Sift together the AP and Cake flour and ground sea salt.

In a large mixing bowl with a spoon, hand mix TWO cups of the flour mix with the yeast water mix, blending till it's a sticky mass called a sponge.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for several hours. When you come back, it will be a bubbly, gooey mass.

Dust a countertop with 1 cup of the remaining flour, turn out the sponge into the center of the flour, and pour the other remaining cup of flour on top of the mass. Knead the flour and sponge together until it forms a uniform but very stiff dough. Fold and flatten by hand for about 5 minutes.

Brush a large piece of plastic wrap with the EVOO (Extra-Virgin Olive Oil) and carefully wrap the dough in it, making certain none of it is exposed to air. Place in a bowl and place in the refrigerator overnight. Do not let the dough become exposed to air; it has a low relative moisture content and will dry out quickly, ruining the dough. It will not rise much; that's ok.

When ready to make the pizza; have all of your ingredients and equipment ready; once the dough has been rolled, you will need to peel, top and put in the oven within a couple of minutes so that the toppings don't have a chance to soggy out the top of the dough and that the moisture doesn't come out through the bottom, causing your pizza to stick to the pan or the stone.

To make the pizza, you will need a rolling pin and a pizza peel like THIS, used to peelthe pizza off the counter or oven. If you don't have a pizza peel, you can use a large rimless cookie sheet like this

Dust the countertop with a little AP flour flatten your doughball out with the palm of your hand , dust your rolling pin with some AP flour and start rollong the dough out into a 14-16in circle. It should be less that 1/8 in thick and even.
Hint: The dough should slide around the countertop; if it starts to stcik or it sticks to the rolling pin, drag it back and forth though the flour on your countertop and dust a little more on top.

When you are done rolling, pick up the dough and shake the excess flour off of your dough on to your pizza peel or cookie sheet

LIGHTLY dust the peel or cookie sheet to make certain it is fully covered and then shake off the excess. arrange your dough on top of the peel, and pinch up the edge all the way around.

Add your sauce, cheese, and other stuff as you like pick up the peel on the peel or cookie sheet and only open the oven when you are ready to bake. Open the door and quickly slide the pizza onto the stone and close the door. Depending on the oven and the amount of toppings, the pizza will take between 4-6 minutes to bake. It is done with the cheese is fully melted and starting to bubble and the edges are uniformly brown.

Open the oven and slide your peel or cookie sheet quickly under the pizza and remove.
Place on countertop and, using a pizza knife, use VERY firm pressure and make your cuts WITH ONE STROKE...don't be a wuss...rolling the pizza knife back and forth compresses the dough and leaves a soggy, messy cut line.

Another hint: I know that most folks think more is always better, but as far as sauce and cheese go: too much is a bad thing. About 4 oz of sauce is all you need...too much and the cheese "floats" on the sauce and won't melt correctly; cheese should be just enough to cover the sauce and still see a tiny bit of the sauce underneath... too much cheese and it will flow off of the pizza and onto the stone and then you will REALLY have a mess......

Have fun and good luck.......