Last night I packed up my pizza gear and some dough I’d made and took it all to our friends’ house for dinner! I had two different batches of Bill’s traditional (with 1T sugar for browning) - one was retarded for 24 hours, the other for 48 hours. Both were a bit difficult to stretch - somehow the glutens got activated while the dough was in our cooler. I kept the pies fairly small because of this, but I baked three pizzas with a variety of toppings (pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms).

The pies were very tasty and I could tell the difference between the two batches, which I thought was interesting. I couldn’t tell which one I liked better. The coolest thing about these pizzas was being able to do them in someone else’s oven!

We invited some friends over tonight for some pizza (surprise). I thought it would be a good night to try out the New York Style Crust from PizzaMaking.com. You can check out the recipe here: New York Style Pizza Crust.

I placed the ingredients into the breakmaker and let them mix for nearly 20 minutes. The recipe only called for 9 oz of water for 3 1/2 cups of flour. This is a very dry dough. In fact, it slowed my mixer down toward the end. Later, I read posts that indicated you should use 10.5 oz of water with this recipe - I think this would have helped all around.

The dough was dry after mixing, but I formed it into a ball and placed it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. At that time, the dough had risen to fill the bowl. I stretched the entire thing into one large pizza blank. Stretching was not hard since the dough was so tough and dry. My friends were not due to arrive yet, so I placed it on a pan, covered with plastic wrap, for about 1 hour. It actually rose a bit on the pan, so the crust was an even 1/2 thick all around.

I finally topped it with sauce, cheese and some toppings (pepperoni and italian sausage) and baked it for 9 minutes at 480 degrees. As I suspected, it came out a bit on the harder side, but still tasty. The flavor was there, but I’m just not into firmer crusts. I think using more water would go a long way for this crust recipe. I am not done experimenting with NY Style…

We also made another Taco Pizza on my Traditional Crust which turned out fantastic!! At the suggestions of my new friends at PizzaMaking.com, I increased my level of sugar to 1T in order to brown the crust faster and it seemed to help. I noticed that the crust seemed a bit softer as well. I can’t say for sure that it was related to the sugar. I also didn’t notice a large difference in the rate of rise (allowed it to rise for 24 hours). I think I will have to play some more with this - sure wish I had a scale!

This web site about wood burning pizza ovens has really inspired me! I plan to build one at our new home some time this year. The wood oven is as good as pizza gets!

I came across this Japanese pizza menu for a restaurant in Japan called “Pizza-la”. I thought it was neat to see the things they put on their pizza! What’s a Deramaru?? Their Advertisements are funny, too.

Anyone who’s ever been a pizza delivery driver knows the frustration of not finding a customer’s house at night! The guys at PizzaBeaconS.com think they have the solution! They have developed a door hanger that emits bright flashing lights to help the pizza man find his way. I suppose this is the high-tech version of turning your porch light on.