©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

Today was my birthday and we made pizza! As a last minute decision, I was forced to use dough that had only risen for about two hours. The blank was very elastic and hard to work with. I could not get it to stretch all the way out to 16 inches to touch the edge of the pizza screen, but it was close enough. After topping it with Neapolitan sauce, cheese and pepperoni I baked it for 8 minutes at 480 degrees.

The crust rose quite well during the bake forming a large fluffy crust edge. In fact, the height of the edge caused some of the cheese to pull away from the crust in several places. It tasted very good despite the “age” of the dough. I can’t think of a better birthday meal!

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

I’m a big fan of a pizza slice having a large, fluffy crust edge. You know, the kind you can pull the soft middle out of and eat it like warm bread. My pies normally have a bit of a swell near the edge, but today I wanted to try and exaggerate it a bit to give more fluff inside.

In order to accomplish this, I stretched the 24 hour boli dough ball out to 16 inches like I normally would. Then, I rolled up the entire edge of the blank, forming a distinct crust edge. This made the blank slightly smaller than 16 inches, so I moved it to the screen and stretched it a bit more to fit.

After saucing it and topping it, I placed it in the oven on the bottom rack for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes the crust had puffed up wonderfully, but it didn’t look cooked. To speed things up, I turned on the broiler and moved the pie closer to the top of the oven. This browned the top and firmed up the crust very quickly (be careful with the broiler - it can ruin a pizza in under a minute if not monitored). Then I moved it back to the bottom to finish browning the crust bottom.

The larger crust was a pleasant change. It looked very nice, held the sauce and cheese in place and formed a bit of a thinner inner slice. It also had that delicious fluffy crumb. I’m not sure I will do this every time, but I will certainly by doing it more often. Here are the photos…

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

I love all sorts of pepperoni. Every now and then I get the itch to bake some of that hand sliced, thick pepperoni that curls up when it bakes leaving those delicious little puddles of pepperoni juice on top of every slice! Tonight was one of those nights.

The dough was 24 hour boli dough stretched onto a 16 inch pizza screen. It was topped with neapolitan sauce, cheese and of course, slices from a pepperoni stick!

After it baked for 8 minutes at 480 degrees, we served it up - pepperoni ponds and all. Here are some pictures…

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

Tonight we prepared a thin crust pepperoni pizza. Pizza was a last minute decision, so I decided to make dough in the morning and use it in the afternoon. I knew stretching it would be difficult, but I wasn’t anticipating the problems I had with bubbles!

I’ve read that dough temperature can have something to do with the formation of large bubbles. This could have been the case as I did not allow the dough to rest at room temperature for very long before stretching the pie.

Despite the bubbles, the pizza tasted great. Topped with double cheese and sliced pepperoni, it satisfied the family craving. Here are some pics of the poor thing…

I’ve found what I want to do with my life! I can see it now - cruising from city to city looking for hungry people to make pizza for! What a life!

Now if I can only convince my wife…

Read more about Pizza Trucks

Email my wife to tell her it is a good idea …