©2004 pizzamaniac.com

 

It was a good day for another tray pizza experiment. Today I wanted to see how it would effect the flavor and texture to allow the pizza to rise in the tray for an hour rather than just 30 or 40 minutes as I had done in other trials. My hope was that more voids would form and that the crust would get taller and lighter.

After mixing, rising once and then spreading it into the tray, I sprayed the top of it with olive oil to ensure that it wouldn’t dry out. Then I placed the whole tray in the oven at about 100 degrees for one hour. The dough rose, but I shouldn’t say there was a noticeable difference from other times. After topping and baking the pizza, there seemed to be even less of a difference. I suppose if I am going to get more lift out of this dough I will have to modify the ingredients. Sounds like a project for another pizza day.

We’ll keep this recipe in the experimental list for now.

 

  

©2004 pizzamaniac.com

  

©2004 pizzamaniac.com

 

I had some friends over for pizza tonight and decided that it had been a while since we’d done the ol’ buffalo chicken pizza. After stretching a ball of Bill’s Traditional dough, I broke out the Texas Pete’s hot sauce and grilled some chicken so we could toss one. I was out of red onions, so I substituted bits of cooked bacon, naturally.

The flavor of the bacon went very well with the buffalo chicken. Everyone enjoyed the flavor and said it had just the right amount of kick. I’d forgotten how much I like this recipe. I’ll have to make more of these bison cockerel, er, buffalo chicken pies.

Here are the pics …

View the Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe …

With a batch of Bill’s Traditional on hand, I decided to make a pizza that I’d seen recently in a local pizza shop. The pizza base was ranch dressing and it was topped with tomatoes, bacon, chicken, mozzarella, and a ranch dressing drizzle. I used a small ball of 24 hour dough to test this recipe. I also used some very fancy ranch dressing (Marie’s parmesian ranch) that seemed to be oil based, rather than whatever it is that ranch dressing is normally made from. The result was what looked like a bacon ranch chicken pizza, but tasted like a greasy mess. I’ll have to start all over on this one and use another brand of ranch dressing next time. Yikes.

Good thing I also made a pepperoni pie for the kids - no one went hungry.

 

  

©2004 pizzamaniac.com

  

©2004 pizzamaniac.com

 

Wow, I bought my fourth 50 pound bag of Pilsbury Hi Gluten flour today. Man, that stuff goes fast!

Read about my flour counter …

 

  

©2004 pizzamaniac.com

  

©2004 pizzamaniac.com

 

My parents were visiting this weekend so I decided to give the tray pizza another shot. This time I applied a bit more patience to the process and increased the rise time of both rise periods. I allowed the dough to rise for 25 minutes in the bread machine and 30 minutes in the tray. I also used more oil in the tray (it completely covered the bottom with some thickness) and left it in the oven for a full 20 minutes at 450 degrees. Lastly, I used a mixture of mozzarella cheese and white cheddar cheese based on a recipe I found online. All of these things made a huge improvement in the taste of this pizza!

The crust bottom was much more browned and had great flavor. All of the oil was soaked into the very bottom edge (similar to Pizza Hut pan pizza). The blended cheese went very well with the flavor of the crust as well. There were 6 adults and 2 kids eating this pie and everyone loved it. I will continue to play with this recipe, but I think it’s come a long, long way. Here are the pics…