Pizza Bake-off

Post by **TMC** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 8:07 am

Recently Marionline, BMR and I agreed in IRC to a pizza baking competition. Anyone can join in. Post about your pizza. The prize is freshly baked pizza.

Today I made two pizzas. The smaller one had a thicker base.

* Asterisks indicate home grown/made ingredients

* Pizza dough
Olive oil
Tomato puree
Chilli sauce
Onion
* Tomatoes
* Capsicums
Pineapple
* Capers (not quite the real thing, but tastes the same)
* Olives
* Salami
Edam cheese
Oregano, majoram, basil, mixed herbs, paprika

msw188 · Post by **msw188** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 2:05 pm

Olives - green or black? This is important.

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:36 pm

Uh, let me know if I speak of right, but here is stuff I've done in the past:

Preheat american oven to 400. Do the next steps while waiting for it to heat.

Take a 1 to 1.5 cups flour, 1 or 2 tablespoons oil, 2 teaspoons salt, and stir in warm water slowly until dough is made. Add flour and water to off-set any thickness/thinness that may occur, and do it slowly as a little can go a long way.
Grease a baking pan in your favorite way (mine is coating it in foil, then spraying with no-stick spray or rubbing down with oil, makes clean up easier). Dump dough onto the baking pan and roll out into favorite shape (I can only do rectangles in the pan I have). Take skewer or chopstick or whatever circlish small device you can use for stabbing, and poke holes all throughout the dough.

Once oven is ready, put dough into oven for 10ish minutes, basically until it's set enough to be sturdy, but it's not cooked all the way through so that it won't be burnt when we're done.

Top as desired, but here's what I've done:
I took slices of cheddar cheese and halved them so that they can line the crust edges to hold in the sauce, as well as giving a nice cheese edge.
I took plain all-purpose tomato sauce (basically tomatos, water, and salt well blended and whatnot. it was a store-bought sauce, so I can't give specifics on it.), and I took some thyme, and I poured out the sauce within the shallow well made by the cheddar lining, and sprinkled the thyme all around.

From there, I add whatever I want. Moz. cheese, provolone, gouda, swiss, more cheddar, shrooooooooom!!!s, pepperonises, olives, green pepper, onion, jalapeno, carribean red hot pepper, or eggs.
In any case, cheese will top it. Add more seasonings to taste!!!

Anywho, once your topping have been applied with much malice, hurl that sucker back into the oven for another 25-45 minutes, depending on how much stuff you slapped on that baby.

Afterwards, pull out, and then eat. Only a sissy or people who don't like burning their mouth-flesh off wait for it to cool. The crust should be nice and thin, and it's able to be altered to one's own heart's desire.

I don't have any pictures because I don't often have pictures of things I plan to devour, so just use your imagination.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 4:36 pm

Hot dang! Internet Pizza Party! I love this idea!

That pizza looks delicious! I mean TMC's pizza of course, Meowskivich, you pizza might look and taste delicious, but the lighting and blurryness is so bad on that photo that it looks like a crawling horror out of a Stephen King short story.

I want to participate too, although I doubt it will happen today.

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 8:20 pm

Bob the Hamster wrote: Meowskivich, *your pizza might look and taste delicious, but the lighting and blurryness is so bad on that photo that it looks like a crawling horror out of a Stephen King short story.

No no, it looked pretty scary for real. It at least tasted good, though. Better than I was expecting.

Post by **TMC** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 12:14 pm

Our olives are mostly green -- unfortunately they tend not to ripen well.

What's the purpose of puncturing the dough?

25-45 minutes? Wow, normally I only cook for 15-20, even with an inch of toppings and non-prebaked dough, which I may or may not do.

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:32 pm

it allows air to flow through it and harden it quicker and more evenly. or something like that. If you notice, there are some pre-made crusts with holes through them too. It's just a different style of crust, really.

Most people like that fluffiness of the bread in theirs, I like my thin n' crunchy.

msw188 · Post by **msw188** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 7:52 pm

TMC wrote:Our olives are mostly green

This is unfortunate.

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:26 pm

msw188 wrote:
TMC wrote:Our olives are mostly green
This is unfortunate.

I guess you prefer the rich oily black olives. I like both. A lot. And green pepper, and jalapenos, and mushrooms, sometimes onions, and CHEEZ.

Taco Bot · Post by **Taco Bot** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:43 pm

Meowskivich wrote:
msw188 wrote:
TMC wrote:Our olives are mostly green
This is unfortunate.
I guess you prefer the rich oily black olives. I like both. A lot. And green pepper, and jalapenos, and mushrooms, sometimes onions, and CHEEZ.

CHEEZ is essential.

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:59 pm

I had some potato dough in the freezer I've been wondering what to do with, so I added some baking powder to it, and pushed it out to be a pizza crust. Then I baked it for 15 minutes (10 probably would have been better), and I put on some olive oil, tomato sauce, thyme, garlic, and Parmesan/Romano cheese, then I put on mushrooms and more P/R, pepperonis, and then mozz, and topped it with some more P/R. baked it for a while, and here we go. I shall await for it to cool before I chow down, though.

Post by **TMC** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 5:19 am

I'm... a bit confused by this image. What's that thing in the centre of your pizza? You piled all the toppings in the middle and left half the base untopped?

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 7:45 am

Considering that I worked as a pizza chef in the past, I'll assume my professional status disqualifies me from this cook off.
Though, I will keep this thread in mind next time I cook a pizza. Hopefully it won't cause me to necro the thread months from now.

Post by **TMC** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:51 am

That's just an excuse!

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 1:34 pm

TMC wrote:I'm... a bit confused by this image. What's that thing in the centre of your pizza? You piled all the toppings in the middle and left half the base untopped?

It's all under the cheese, silly.