Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Homemade Pizza - Try #2


I want to thank all my advisors. The first time I made my own pizza dough - and, naturally, homemade pizzas. It was quite ridiculous. But several of you came to my rescue and gave me a few tips to try. And try them I did...

Successes :

  • Using coarse cornmeal allowed the fully "decorated" pizza to slide right on to my pizza stone.

  • Using a rimless cookie sheet as a pizza peel to form the pizza ( sprinkled with cornmeal, of course) made this a one step process without things falling apart.

However....I used waaaaay too much cornmeal and I think next time I'll try fine rather than coarse...probably just that I added too much but it was a little too crunchy for me.

And...my request for help once again....please look at the picture above. I used this one so you could all see how much my pizza shrank before I put it in the oven. Honestly it was as big in circumference as the stone when I started to put all the toppings on it and it really didn't take me very long. So my big question to all my advisors out there....How do I keep the pizza from shrinking?

The pizza did taste delicious. Toppings this time around....a little olive oil, minced garlic, & fresh thyme served as the "sauce", topped with sliced grilled mushrooms (cremini & cepe or porcini - at least that's what I think they were...no markings on the package and no one around to ask in the store), grilled artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers. Sprinkled over it all....finely grated Parmigiano. Very tasty and I'm sure with the help of my trusty advisors, third time will be the charm!

Related links:

3 comments:

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I can't remember when I first came across cornmeal as an item in pizza and at what restautant it was, but, I like the little bit of crunchiness it adds.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Your pizza looks great! Yummy! I really like the toppings...

Cheers,

Rosa

Tanya said...

Adding an extra rise sometimes helps things that are shrinking.