Pizza

[Gary350]

We made personal size pizzas for the first time for dinner. We usually make a large with personal sections. I found a good looking pizza online that I copied for my pizza.

1. My pizza, sauce, 3 kinds of cheese, Italian sausage, pepperonis, red onion, sweet bell pepper, jalapeno peppers, olives, red pepper flakes, salt, black pepper, dices pak choy.

2. Wifes pizza, sauce, 3 kings of cheese, Italian sausage, pepperonies, red onion.

I forgot to take a picture of our pizza. Here is photo I found online. Pickled jalapeno peppers in a jar are not as good as home grown. Next time I buy a grocery store jalapeno pepper.

[Gary350]

Last night dinner pizza was so good we made more pizza for lunch. Pizza sauce, crushed red pepper, 4 kinds of cheese, pepperonis, red onion, pac choy, olives, Jalapenos, salt, black pepper. The pizza maker makes it easy work close the lid crust is always very crispy in 5 minutes.

[webmaster]

I love making homemade pizza. Most places and people add the sauce on the bottom when making it with red sauce but put it on top when they're using something like pesto.

My preferred way, that I feel is best, is to first put a layer of cheese THEN add spoonfuls of pasta sauce in little islands on top of the cheese.

This way works best because it allows the pizza crust to not get soggy.

Pizza restaurants put it on top of the bread then pile on the cheese because that's how everyone does it. But it results in a soggy crust and in worst case scenarios the cheese slides off the pizza.

Give it a try next time!

[Gary350]

I love making homemade pizza. Most places and people add the sauce on the bottom when making it with red sauce but put it on top when they're using something like pesto.

My preferred way, that I feel is best, is to first put a layer of cheese THEN add spoonfuls of pasta sauce in little islands on top of the cheese.

This way works best because it allows the pizza crust to not get soggy.

Pizza restaurants put it on top of the bread then pile on the cheese because that's how everyone does it. But it results in a soggy crust and in worst case scenarios the cheese slides off the pizza.

Give it a try next time!

We don't like soggy crust either. We cook crust before putting on toppings. Yesterday we bought pre cooked package of 4 pizza crusts. This is the first time we tried pre cooked pizza crust it turned out good. We have tried all 3 types of crust, yeast rise crust, cracker crust, all purpose flour crust. We are both getting lazy I don't make homemade crust very often these days, sometimes in freezing weather. Pizza restaurants have hot bottom ovens that cook crust fast golden brown from the bottom up, our kitchen oven will not do that unless I heat up a cast iron skillet or ceramic floor tile to 450 degrees first them put a pizza in the hot skillet or on hot ceramic tile. I have 2 large 18" square ceramic floor tile I put in the oven for cooking pizza. Heat ceramic tile to 450 degrees first then put pizza crust on top cook 5 minutes, make a pizza then put it back into the oven. The hot ceramic tile will cook crust golden brown & crispy. Go to Home Depot or Lowe's buy 2 smooth surface ceramic tile take them home for cooking pizza. Put both ceramic tile in oven on top of each other 2 tiles stay hotter longer than 1 tile. 18" tiles are sometimes warped try to pick out 2 that will lay flat together.

[TomatoNut95]

Gary that is very beautiful pizza! I to love homemade pizza but I'm also too lazy to mix up the crust. I use the Betty Crocker recipe but it makes me so mad, it'll either come out dry and crumbly and I add a little more water then it comes out goopey and wants to shrink back up when I roll it out.

[imafan26]

Beautiful pizza. I made pizza a couple of times. I found that you have to be careful not to put too much sauce on and bake the pizza directly on the rack for a crispier crust. I actually inherited a pizza pan with all the holes in the bottom. I found it in the cabinet when we moved in to the house.

I do cheat on the crust. I make french bread pizza and I think I used focaccia and pita for crust in the past. It has been a long time since I made pizza crust.

[webmaster]

Here are some more of my secrets for a delicious pizza crust:

1. Put the cheese on the crust, then spoonfuls of sauce, then toppings, in that order. Trust me on this. The sauce tastes better and adds more flavor to the pizza and the crust won't come out soggy.

2. Use a half-sheet (or quarter sheet) baking sheet and grease it up with olive oil. That'll keep the pizza from sticking (it'll slide right off the pan) but it will also flavor the crust and make it turn a beautiful golden color.

3. Halfway through the baking process, pull out the pizza and brush olive oil on the top part of the crust around the edges and to any parts of the crust that are bubbling up. This will keep the crust from drying out and make it crispy and delicious. I got this last tip from watching the pizza cooks at Pepe's Pizza in New Haven, CT.

[Gary350]

Here are some more of my secrets for a delicious pizza crust:

1. Put the cheese on the crust, then spoonfuls of sauce, then toppings, in that order. Trust me on this. The sauce tastes better and adds more flavor to the pizza and the crust won't come out soggy.

2. Use a half-sheet (or quarter sheet) baking sheet and grease it up with olive oil. That'll keep the pizza from sticking (it'll slide right off the pan) but it will also flavor the crust and make it turn a beautiful golden color.

3. Halfway through the baking process, pull out the pizza and brush olive oil on the top part of the crust around the edges and to any parts of the crust that are bubbling up. This will keep the crust from drying out and make it crispy and delicious. I got this last tip from watching the pizza cooks at Pepe's Pizza in New Haven, CT.

I know your right but wife wants to be the cook and she likes to make it her way. She is a picky eater.
If food tastes too good then I eat too much an gain more weight, I would love to be 165 lbs again but not sure that will ever happen. LOL. We have a deep dish pizza casserole recipe that says, put cheese on crust first, then sauce, then meat, then toppings. Now that we are doing personal size pizzas next time I will do mine with cheese first then sauce. I need to be riding my bicycle 30 miles every day again but I have lost my motivation it seems like too much work to load bike into the truck then drive to greenway to ride 30 miles along the river. Bike ride use to be top priority very morning but not anymore. It is a lot of fun to see the animals, birds, stop at the spill way, on a hot get jump into the water. I have a bicycle trailer I can pick up 150 lbs of saw cut wood on the green way to haul home to burn in the fire place. We don't use the fire place or the wood stove anymore that is extra work.

[TomatoNut95]

Here are some more of my secrets for a delicious pizza crust:

1. Put the cheese on the crust, then spoonfuls of sauce, then toppings, in that order. Trust me on this. The sauce tastes better and adds more flavor to the pizza and the crust won't come out soggy.

2. Use a half-sheet (or quarter sheet) baking sheet and grease it up with olive oil. That'll keep the pizza from sticking (it'll slide right off the pan) but it will also flavor the crust and make it turn a beautiful golden color.

3. Halfway through the baking process, pull out the pizza and brush olive oil on the top part of the crust around the edges and to any parts of the crust that are bubbling up. This will keep the crust from drying out and make it crispy and delicious. I got this last tip from watching the pizza cooks at Pepe's Pizza in New Haven, CT.

I know your right but wife wants to be the cook and she likes to make it her way. She is a picky eater.
If food tastes too good then I eat too much an gain more weight, I would love to be 165 lbs again but not sure that will ever happen. LOL. We have a deep dish pizza casserole recipe that says, put cheese on crust first, then sauce, then meat, then toppings. Now that we are doing personal size pizzas next time I will do mine with cheese first then sauce. I need to be riding my bicycle 30 miles every day again but I have lost my motivation it seems like too much work to load bike into the truck then drive to greenway to ride 30 miles along the river. Bike ride use to be top priority very morning but not anymore. It is a lot of fun to see the animals, birds, stop at the spill way, on a hot get jump into the water. I have a bicycle trailer I can pick up 150 lbs of saw cut wood on the green way to haul home to burn in the fire place. We don't use the fire place or the wood stove anymore that is extra work.

I to am a picky eater and when I cook my meals, I'm the boss and I want it done MY way as well. Unless, of course, I am cooking for someone else. This week I will be cooking some broccoli abd rice casserole (I FINALLY got some cheese whiz) and will be sharing it with my aunt. If I weren't sharing any, I'd probably stand there and pick all the mushrooms out of it, lol!

Gary, you talking about bicycling made me remember my good old mountain bike. I used it mainly on the dirt roads around my house. I stopped using it eventually and sold it in a huge family garage sale years ago. Later while passing through a neighboring town I spotted my bike being sold by the very people I sold it to. Apparently they refurbished it a bit to resell it at a profit. I haven't bought or ridden a bike since.

[Gary350]

DEEP DISH PIZZA

I though these photos were lost. Facebook from time to time shows me pictures of the past they were here when I turned computer on this morning, these were several years ago so, I saved them to computer again.

Put dough in dish then several layers of 2 types of cheese, then add cooked meat mix with onions & peppers, etc. Then add pizza sauce on top. Bake in oven 350° until done.

We are having this for dinner tonight. This is so good.

[Gary350]

Practice makes perfect. I made pizza dough at 1 pm its basic ¾ cup water, 1½ cups flour, 1¼ tsp salt, recipe. This time we put, garlic powder, onion powder, cheese, in the flour mix. Kneed & let dough rise 2 times, bake 18" pizza crust in oven, add cheese bake crust again, Mix garden spicy pepper sauce into pizza sauce, put toppings on pizza bake a 3rd time. Wow this is so good. Toppings are, 1 lb Italian sausage, 1 package pepperonis, 1 whole red onion, 1 lb of cheese. 6 pizza slices left over this will be breakfast for 6 days these slices are 1" thick, I'm getting lazy I don't want to cook anything. I wish I could walk through college dorm cafeteria buffet 3 times every day.

[Gary350]

We finally learned how to make very GOOD pizza sauce from a YouTube video of a Sicily family that has been making pizza sauce for 70 years.

1. Video says, use bitter tomatoes like Roma or Plum not sweet tomatoes. I have tomatoes that are not sweet but they are not Roma or Plum so I used them plus enough Big Beef sweet tomatoes to make 1 quart of sliced & diced tomatoes. Drain away juice.

2. Cook diced tomatoes 10 minutes then drain away more juice. Put cooked tomatoes in a screen wire strainer to remove pulp and catch seeds & skins in the strainer. Stir and smash pulp through the screen. Drain away more juice. 1 quart of tomatoes becomes about 1 cup of sauce.

3. Slice & diced 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper, 2 tsp Italian seasoning, 2 garden basil leaves, mix into tomato sauce then bring to boil. Set aside to cool naturally. Puree garlic & herbs into sauce with French mixer.

4. Buy or make a crust. Make a pizza with the toppings you like.

We made a very simple peperoni pizza trying to not over power pizza sauce with over flavors so we can taste the true flavor of the sauce. Sauce has exceptionally GOOD flavor.

[Gary350]

BEST Pizza EVER.......

We have been trying for 2 years to make good pizza and we finally did it. Better than any restaurant pizza or frozen pizza. Long story short, we learned how to make, good pizza sauce, how to make good crust, how to cook pizza.

First, video shows how to make and cook a pizza. Our kitchen oven does not go to 700°F so we baked pizza 425°F for 25 minutes.

Next video, shows how family from Italy makes sauce. Cook tomatoes, after cooking juice separates from pulp, drain away liquid, save the sauce.

Pizza crust recipe is on the bread flour package. I reduced 3 cup recipe to 1 cup recipe.

I made 2 cups if diced tomatoes. After boiling & removing excess liquid we had 1 cup of pulp to puree. Stir in 1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning available in spice area of grocery store. Also add 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Also add small hand full of dry Thai Basil leaves from our garden.

Video from Italy shows making the crust, add sauce next, sprinkle on cheese & toppings, bake at 700°F in oven.

OH NO what happened to several of my pictures??????????

OH well here are pictures that I still have and 2 videos you don't really need. We made a 12" pizza and cooked it 25 minutes at 425°F. Topped with, Parmesan & Mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, Italian sausage, 1/2 cup onions. This is better than the last pizza we thought was so good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_noYdQ6CaI&t=1098s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CsZN_Mtyc8