©2004 pizzamaniac.com

  

©2004 pizzamaniac.com

  

©2004 pizzamaniac.com

 

The last few times I made Chicago Style pizza, I had attempted to use straight tomatoes on the top and simply sprinkle the seasonings over the sauce. The result has been good, but the flavor of the seasonings just wasn’t coming through the way I wanted it to. This time, I decided to use my Neapolitan sauce on the Chicago pizza so that the seasonings would be mixed through the sauce.

The pie was topped with sliced mozzarella, provolone, pepperoni, sweet Italian sausage, Neapolitan sauce, then parmesan cheese. I baked the pie for 20 minutes or so at 450 degrees. The result was fantastic! This was by far the best pie to date. I’ll be doing this with my sauce from now on.

Here is the recipe for this Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza:
3 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups Water
1/2 cup Yellow Cornmeal
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast (ADY)

It is based on a recipe by DKM at pizzamaking.com

Tonight was a team effort because my daughters (age 3 and 5) made their very own pizza while I made mine. I allowed them to use the smaller ball of boli dough from the double batch to stretch and top their pizza to their liking. They had a blast and I enjoyed watching them.

They made a pepperoni and black olive pizza and I made a pepperoni and mushroom pie for my wife and I. Both pizzas came out very well and the 24 hour boli dough had great texture. The girls got great enjoyment from this project and loved eating their pie without dad’s help! We will definitely be doing this again soon.

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

A funny thing happens when you mix finely shredded mozzarella cheese and watery pizza sauce on top of a pie - they tend to blend together into a mixture. This cheesy-sauce or saucy-cheese is not very appealing to the eye and in my opinion destroys the flavor as well (keeping the taste of the sauce separate from the toppings is very important with a good pizza).

A bad set of circumstances came together tonight that gave me some seriously saucy cheese. I was down to the last crumbs of a bag of shredded mozzarella which poured out as small shavings. In addition, I forgot to add paste to my blender full of peeled tomatoes which resulted in extra runny sauce. Upon topping, the sauce absorbed the cheese and the crust absorbed the sauce.

As you can see, the result was not the most aesthetic pizza I’ve made. It was also mediocre to the taste buds. I was still happy to be eating pizza.

I can’t say enough about the downright sweetness of these Extreme Pizza Cutters designed by Frankie Flood from the University of Illinois. I can only imagine tearing through one of my pies with an all-aluminum, powder-coated carbon fiber custom cutter! Hats off to this extraordinarily talented artist.

Say, this could go along well with the tricked out dough mixer we saw a few months ago…

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

We had a few friends over for a stromboli tonight. This stromboli was extra delicious because it had smoked salami from the local meat market baked inside. Along side of the salami were the usual suspects: ham, pepperoni, mozzarella, provolone, parmesean and the special ingredient, mustard.

The boli went well but for a minor blow out on the top of one half. This seems to be a result of stretching the dough too thin and cutting the vents in the top. I will have to try to pay more attention to the thickness of the outer layer next time since it really screws up the presentation.

All worries about appearance dissolved with the first bite of this special treat. The flavor of the salami really complimented the boli and gave the whole meal a hearty taste. I will be using this salami again.