My little pizzaiola
Pepperoni, olives and lots of gooey soy cheese!
Pizza is the perfect food in our multi-allergic home because it can be easily individualized to suit everyone. The Daring Bakers, hosted by Rosa of Rosa’s Yummy Yums, took on the task of the perfect pizza this month, and happily enough, our host chose the recipe from a frequented book on my shelf, Peter Reinhart’s The Breadbaker’s Apprentice. This crust is for Pizza Napoletana , the only crust recipe in the whole book, and is pretty much perfect.
But the author then went on to write American Pie, where he documents his pizza-seeking trek around the world expanding this basic recipe into 13 types of crust with the all proper toppings and options. I think I’ve worked my way through 1/3 of the recipes and love them all! It’s a great feeling to know that the best pizza in the city is coming from my humble little oven!! I’ve easily recouped the book cost by the savings on sub-par take-out pizza!
The recipe, although easy, is quite long, so I’ll let you visit Rosa’s site for the full recipe. I’ve been wanting to do a pizza post with my favorite crust recipes simplified, but I’ll save that for later on a non-DB post day!
Some basic hints to make this work: 1.) Get a big square pizza stone and keep it in your oven, always. I have a $200 electric oven, a true piece of junk, and with the stone I can crank out some great crust. Having the stone in my crummy oven all the time helps regulate the heat for cookies and muffins too. 2.) You can make this work with a wooden cutting board to slide pizza into the stove and a couple metal spatulas to remove the hot pizza from the stove, but getting a proper wood peel for depositing and metal peel for removing makes this much more enjoyable and you will say fewer bad words. 3.) Let your dough rest overnight, period.
For dairy-free cheese, my current favorite is Vegan Gourmet mozzarella. The stuff actually melts and doesn’t taste too bad. However, the stuff goes punky really quick after opening (we’re talking orange scary mold within 48 of opening!), so I always shred the whole block and freeze what I don’t use.
The grown-ups enjoyed Tomato Pizza with Lemon Zest from the Cheeseboard Collective Cookbook. A bit of Berkley-love right here in the Midwest!
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Your pizzas look great! And now you're making me really want to buy this book, too 🙂
Nice job!
Your pizza looks so professional! Mine never come out that good. Oh and I'm so glad for the tip you wrote about the FYH… I don't know how many half blocks of moldy vegan cheese I've thrown away. Never again! Thanks 🙂
Vegan Gourmet is a pain with that pink/orange mold it gets. I'll have to try grating and freezing some! I have a food saver (one of those vacuum sealer things). I suck the air and reseal the package but that means work getting the machine out and I have to do it every time I open the package.
Your little pizzaiola is so cute, and the pizza look so delicious.
Cheers,
Elra
Your daughter is so cute! And thanks for the cookbook tip! And where did you find the baking stone for your oven? I have a piece of junk oven too and I want to make good crust.
My husband doesn't need to know that he could have saved thousands of dollars by buying a true piece of junk and just bought the stone. Good job working around those allergies.
As always you did a great job, I certainly hope the "Bump" concurs!!!
Yum, those pizzas look way better than any take-out I've seen!
Each pizza looks fabulous!! and your "Little Pizzaiola" is a cutie!! Totally agree w/u regarding the baking stone, I would never be w/o mine! They produce the best pizza crusts and breads ever!
We make our own pizza, too, and someday I want those peelers! Until then we make do with the jelly roll pan. 🙂
BTW — I've seen a frugal tip for a pizza stone (from Mary Hunt's Everyday Cheapskate): get a 12 inch unglazed terra cotta stone tile at the hardware store. She says it should cost around $2-$3. Another thing I plan to try someday!
Your little pizzaiola is adorable! I am jealous. You are right about having a pizza stone in your oven at all times. My oven temperature is crazy and I do believe the stone helps regulate it.
Your pizzas are beautiful. They look delicious. Well done.
http://www.lynnsahotdish.com
Good tip about freezing the cheese. I may have to try that. But hubby and I decided that the pizza doesn't need any cheese. The crust is great and a few good toppings more than make up for the lack of real cheese (which, I have to say, was shocking!).
And now I need a stone.
Jane of VeganBits.com
Thanks for the Vegan Gourmet cheese tip. I've yet to find one that wasn't disgusting, so I'm very happy to see how good the pizza with it looked. (Your daughter is too cute, too!)