Welcome faithful readers! Small Steps, Big Changes is keeping things fresh with a guest contributor, the beloved boyfriend and Rachel's chef-in-residence, Mr. Sam Steffen.
Today's post will cover making that perfect homemade pizza. This is one of my favorite go-to meals. Pizza is a wonderful outlet to express your cooking creativity. There are endless varieties to push the boundaries well past the Pepperoni Pizza (though this still has its place). I have used ingredients that I never would think of putting on a pizza (pear, syrup, apple, lamb, etc.). Overall, it is simple to make the perfect pizza no matter if you are just starting or if you consider yourself an expert. Want to know the secret? Throw away the convention that pizza needs a tomato sauce or mozzarella cheese, and simply top the pizza with your favorite ingredients. Think about it, how can combining your favorite ingredients on top of a pizza crust go wrong? You are making it in the comfort of your own home, so no one is judging you if you decide that the crawfish would be the coup de grace ingredient for your pizza (Crawfish & Andouille Pizza for example?). Most of all have fun making your pie.
The Planning Process
There are very few rules when it comes to homemade pizza making. The first step I do whenever I start conceiving a pizza is to go online and search the internet for ideas. Typically, I start with a concept. For example, the other day I was in an Asian cuisine mood and wanted to try pizza with an Asian twist. Though, I defaulted to a BBQ chicken pizza to use some leftover chicken, I do have ideas for next time. I crossed paths with this interesting recipe for Asian BBQ Pizza. Though, I always try to put a twist on any recipe and would probably use some hoison sauce as an additional ingredient for the marinade. So now that we completed our Google Search we can start the most important step of pizza.
The Crust
Really the only qualification to make something a pizza is crust. A pizza doesn't need to have tomato-based sauce, mozzarella cheese, or anything that we consider basic pizza ingredients. Therefore, I consider the crust to be the most important part of the pizza. And for me to consider a pizza to be truly homemade, the crust needs to be hand-crafted from a dough made from scratch (exception- dough can be purchased, but a mass-produced Boboli pre-cooked crust simply can not taste as good as fresh, homemade crust).
I have a default crust recipe that I make in my bread-maker. It is an herbed wheat dough that I spruce up with fresh herbs and garlic. I do admit that I should begin to start branching out, but it just tastes so delicious!
The Preparation - Use a Cooking Stone
After the dough has been made, take out a cooking stone and cover lightly with cornmeal. A cooking stone makes a huge difference. Ever seen the wood-fired ovens that some restaurants use? All of them use cooking stones, there is a reason for that... It allows you to crank the oven up and put a light char on the toppings and puts some crisp to your pizza. Who wants a soggy pizza? In the past, when I used a metal cooking sheet, the middle of my pizzas were soggy. The stone has been the main contributor to getting towards that perfect pizza.
The Toppings
I don't really need to elaborate. As I said before, put whatever you want on your pizza.
Tips:
A good sauce goes a long way.
Put vegetables over sauce but under cheese
Put meat over the cheese
Make your pizza look pretty, it'll taste better
Cooking
Always preheat oven and since you are using a stone... crank that heat up to around 450 F or higher.
Serving
Cut the pizza in squares, it tastes better this way and the crust lovers can get more crust than the conventional triangle cut.
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| Wish we had a better picture of yesterday's pizzas, but rest assured they were delicious! |
Cleaning Up
Have someone clean up, you just made a wonderful meal for them, the least they can do is the dishes.
Leftovers
Cook your leftovers (if any) on the cooking stone. Microwaving is an insult to the pizza's integrity.
That's it. Really the only tip is to do whatever you want when it comes to pizza-making!
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