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“Pizza and Calzones – Make 'em Fresh at Home”

Thick or thin, New York or Chicago, pizza rules! Everybody loves pizza. As everyday food or a special occasion feast, it always satisfies everyone at the table. We all have a favorite pizza joint on speed dial, but you may discover the best pizzeria of all is right in your own kitchen.

IN THIS ISSUE, we serve up pizza made at home with thick and thin varieties. We demystify how to make great tasting pizza crust - it’s so much easier than you think! Add sauce, toppings, a hot oven and pizza has never been fresher or tasted better!

Pizza, Pizza!

Pizza has its origins as peasant food – simple dough mixed and rolled into a canvas for leftovers or seasonal foods. Some variation of bread with toppings and spices has existed in all cultures as a food staple. The modern, Italian-inspired pizza in the States claims two seminal moments. The tomato and cheese combo is said to have been an outcome of Queen Margherita’s visit to Naples in 1889 where she was served a special pizza made of tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella. The dish was a hit. The second pivotal pizza popularity point occurred in 1905 when Gennaro Lombardi opened the first commercial pizzeria in New York, Lombardi’s Pizzeria Napoletana. The rest is history – when something works, it works!

Pizza Trivia:
• There are over 61,000 pizza places in the U.S.; about half are franchise chains, the other half independent pizzerias.
• The average American consumes 46 slices of pizza year. (Is that all?)
• About 3 billion pizzas are sold each year.
• Pepperoni is the most favored topping – it adorns 36% of all pizzas. (Anchoviesare the least favorite).
• Two-thirds of pizzas sold have meat toppings while one-third are vegetarian.
• Thin crust is preferred by 61% of us, while 14% prefer thick crust. Another 14% like deep-dish, and 11% choose extra-thin crust.

Pizza facts
http://www.thepizzajoint.com/pizzafacts.html

RECIPE: Thick Crust: Classic Pan Pizza with the Works

If a thicker, substantial crust is your preference, this recipe is the perfect starting place for your own explorations. The dough mixes up quickly and handles easily. Because this pizza is so loaded with toppings, the crust and sauce are first partially baked. Just as the crust has set its form, the pizza is removed from the oven for the addition of cheese and toppings, then the baking is finished. Personalize the toppings to your own liking.

Recipes from 500 Pizzas and Flatbreads by Rebecca Baugniet. Copyright © 2008. Reprinted with permission of Sellers Publishing, Portland, ME. All rights reserved.

The Low Down On Dough

Homemade bread dough intimidates many cooks. What was once a daily endeavor is now a nearly forgotten skill. Pizza crust is one of the easiest bread doughs to master, and a delicious place to start renewing the culinary craft of bread making. For pizza dough, the ingredients are simple, the hands-on time is about 10 minutes, and the results are extra fresh and delicious.

Why Make your Own Dough?
It’s the freshest
No preservatives
It’s cheaper
Tastes great!

Basic Steps
Mixing pizza dough by hand is easy enough, but using a stand mixer outfitted with its dough hook, or a food processor with its dough blade is even easier!

Measure Ingredients
Make a Batter
Turn Into Dough
Set Aside to Rest
Let Rise
Shape into Pizza Crust

Dough Dynamics – Understanding what’s going on in the dough-making process promotes success.

Ingredients:
The Flour: For pizza crust, a high-protein flour, bread flour, is key. Most bread flour will have about a 12-13% protein component. Commercial bakers have access to even higher protein percentages (14-15%). All-purpose flour is between 9-12%. It’s the greater protein ratio of bread flour that will make the bread dough stretchable, and the crust strong and pleasantly chewy.

The Yeast: Yeast scares some cooks needlessly. It’s easy to work with and is the magic to making bread. Easily available in dry, granulated form, it activates in the presence of water giving off air bubbles in the process. The air bubbles knead the dough from the inside out and form the bread’s texture.

The Water: Some swear by the water’s origin as the key to their great pizza. The real key with the water is its temperature. For the yeast to be activated and thrive, it should be about body temperature – not too hot, and not too cold.

The Rest: Sugar, Salt & Oil: A little sugar or honey is added to help feed the yeast – just like us, yeast digests sugar faster than breaking down the flour’s starches. Salt is added for punching up flavor, and sometimes a little fat in the form of olive oil is added for tenderness.

De-confusing Yeast:

Yeast is a single-celled organism that thrives in a moist, warm environment. In bread making, it converts the starches in flour to sugars in a fermentation process. The yeast’s progression forms complex flavors and air bubbles of carbon dioxide for texture.

Two types of yeast are common:
Active dry yeast and instant/fast-rising active dry yeast. The instant form has smaller granules and speedier rising times. It is most often added to the dry ingredients, while the former performs better when first dissolved in warm water.

These two yeast types are interchangeable when making pizza crusts. Some recommend a 1:1 substitution, other say use 25% less instant yeast than active yeast.

Pushing the Dough

The dough is risen and ready, it’s time stretch it out to pizza shape – pushing the pizza. Flatten the dough ball into a disk on a lightly floured surface. Stretch and turn the dough. It will take some coaxing and time for the dough to relax and adapt. Here’s a great video by Tony Gemignani, an award-winning pizza maker demonstrating this technique. Note how he works the edges.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjYqw1CLZsA

Tossing the Dough

You don’t have to toss the pizza crust in the air to be a great pizzaioli, but in case you’d like to learn, this eight-time world pizza-tossing champion demonstrates how-to in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjYqw1CLZsA

And, if you’d like something more to aspire to, check this “Tricks” video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vov2WYaqkvA

Getting Ahead - Dough Tips:

Measure Once, Make Twice
Since pizza dough is mostly dry ingredients, measure out two recipes and bag one. Insert the remaining instructions into the bag, or write the remaining ingredients right on the bag.

Refrigerate the Dough
Mix the dough in the morning and let it rise in the refrigerator during the day. The coolness will slow down the process, but the extra time will compensate. The dough will be ready to roll and toss at suppertime.

Freezing the Dough
Make a couple batches of dough through the rising stage. Use one and freeze the other. Or, as with the Thin Crust recipe. Make one piece and save the other. Remove from freezer, let thaw and rise slightly, stretch out and bake.

Tips for Sauce, Toppings and Cheese

The Sauce
Pizza sauce needs to be thick so that it doesn’t make the crust soggy. Because only a thin smear is used to coat the pizza crust, a concentrated flavor assists greatly in the final result. Check out the Basic Pizza Sauce used in the Classic with the Works recipe and the Calzone recipe. We found it delicious.

The Toppings
The regulars need no discussion – sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, etc. One difference for the home pizzeria is the temperature of the oven. Most home units max out their capability at 500-550°F. Commercial ovens operate at 900°F +/-. Compensate by browning uncooked meats and slicing fresh vegetables as thinly as possible.

The Cheese
From generous layers of gooey, stretchy mozzarella, to golden brown dustings of Romano, it’s the cheese that gives a pizza its personality. Classic pizza cheeses include mozzarella, Parmesan or Romano accents. Go for the cutting edge by experimenting with different cheeses such as herbed goat cheese with broccoli, Gruyere with caramelized onions, or Brie with fresh fruit.

RECIPE: Thin Crust: Four Cheese Pizza Bianca

Thin is in with this pizza – thin crust that is. We must say that this thin crust recipe is one of the easiest we’ve come across. It mixed up in a jiffy, and was super easy to handle. It baked up into a crispy, cracker-like base. Most importantly, it tasted delcious with the collage of spinach and cheese just browned and bubbly. A mix of ricotta and fresh basil formed the atypical sauce layer, wilted baby spinach the next, and four different cheese intertwined in melted fashion for the top layer. Delicioso!

Recipes from 500 Pizzas and Flatbreads by Rebecca Baugniet. Copyright © 2008. Reprinted with permission of Sellers Publishing, Portland, ME. All rights reserved.

Baking Differences between Home vs. a Pizzeria

Pizzerias have the advantage of pizza ovens or wood-fired ovens with temperatures in the 900°F +/- range. Pizzas bake in 1-2 minutes in that environment. Most home ovens max out at 500-550°F. To compensate for the lower temperatures keep in mind these two tricks:

Use a Baking Stone – Baking stones are invaluable for the home pizzeria. Place the baking stone on the lowest rack of a cold oven. Allow the stone to heat during the preheating cycle. Place the pizza directly on the baking stone for maximum heat transfer. The hot stone quickly bakes the crust. Use a pizza peel to transfer the pizza to and from the stone.

Partially Bake Thicker Crusts – For thick crusts, the lower heat and weighty toppings may thwart optimal results. Prebake the crust (with the tomato sauce added) for 5-6 minutes. Remove from the oven to add the desired toppings, and return to the baking stone to finish the baking.

Loaded Pizzas – If you like a lot of toppings, consider pre-cooking some of them – We found that some vegetables benefitted from a stint in the microwave on absorbent paper towels to begin the cooking and drain some of the water away. The lower temperatures of the home oven don’t evaporate water from the toppings as quickly as a commercial oven.

Slicing the Pizza

The pizza’s done – time to slice and enjoy! A few minutes of rest after the oven will help the cutting process.

For Slicing the Pizza:
Palm Slicer
Pizza Wheel
Pizza Cutter

Pizz-ahhhh

Fast Starts
When homemade crust is not in the schedule (or freezer), pizza flavor at home is available with other bread substitutes. Try English muffins, pita bread, the new round thin breads, flour tortillas, or flatbreads made for wraps.

Pizza Parties
Pizza is a natural for parties. Prepare toppings and individualized crusts ahead of time and allow guests to craft their own personalized pizzas.

Three-Bite Pizzas
Turn your newly developed pizza skills to the appetizer table with Three-Bite pizzas. Pinch off 1 oz. pieces of dough, roll pizza thin, top with sauce and cheese.

Grilling Pizzas
Grills often get hotter than a home oven, an advantage for pizza making. Place your baking stone directly on the grill and heat to 550-600°F. Slide the pizza onto the stone with a pizza peel. Close the cover and bake. Alternatively, throw a rolled pizza crust onto the indirect portion of the grill grate for 1 minute. Remove and flip over the crust. Add toppings to the grilled side and return to the grill for 2-3 more minutes of baking/grilling.

Healthy Pizzas
Thin crust pizzas minimize calories. Choose vegetable toppings instead of cured meats. Experiment with lower calorie cheeses such as ricotta, goat cheese, or skim mozzarella.

Seasonal Canvas
Make pizza-making a natural canvas for what ever is in season. Fresh fruits and vegetables can inspire a whole new dimension in your pizza enjoyment.

Calzone

What is a Calzone?
Think of a calzone as a folded pizza. The calzone crust is quite similar to a pizza crust, and the same flavorful fillings are tucked inside. Calzone are served individually, though some are so large, they’re easily shared. A nice variation to pizza night.

RECIPE: Sausage and Mushroom Calzones

If you’ve never tried making calzones at home, you need to try this recipe. Once again, the dough recipe was a gem! Quickly mixed and easily rolled, the dough sealed up reliably, and browned evenly to picture perfection. The balance between crust and filling was just right. These folded, individual pizzas were fun to serve and eat. The pocket pie nature of calzones implies a transportability and “out-of-hand” eating that translates well to picnics and “eating-on-the-go” situations.

Recipes from 500 Pizzas and Flatbreads by Rebecca Baugniet. Copyright © 2008. Reprinted with permission of Sellers Publishing, Portland, ME. All rights reserved.

Cookbook Review:

500 Pizzas and Flatbreads
by Rebecca Baugniet. Copyright © 2008. Published by Sellers Publishing, Portland, ME.

This petite book packs in four times the number of recipes than most cookbooks. The format introduces the basics of pizzas and flatbreads, presents core recipes, and a generous number of improvisational variations. We were particularly delighted with the three crust recipes that we tried; each one was easy to work with, and yielded great results. Each major type of pizza genre is covered in depth. Many unusual and innovative pizza ideas are presented also presented. We’ve marked the page for the Chèvre, Arugula, and Pear Pizza for future study, and can’t wait to try Turkish Pizza with its spicy, ground lamb topping. A Chicago Deep-Dish version is next on our to-do list. But pizza comprises only half the book! The other half focuses on all types of flatbreads – focaccia, chapatti, papadum, pita, arepas, pupusa, and many more. The book is a great introduction to the rich global traditions of baking flatbreads and embellishing them with toppings of all kinds.

Claim pizzaioli status and open the best pizzeria in town right in your own kitchen!