Pizza on Sunday!

[Steve]

Making THREE pizzas tomorrow (Sunday)!

Making one of DKM's "Chicago Style" pizzas using his favorite recipe posted in late December (the one with 1/2 cup of Canola oil).

Also making two thin cracker-style pizzas. One using my "Best ever" recipe which is DKM's scaled-down Pizza Inn recipe. Gonna try the roll/fold/roll technique to see if I can get it crisp and flaky. The second thin-crust will be made using the soda cracker recipe, only this time I'll be using the correct amount of shortening (2 Tbsp.).

I'll post pictures and results tomorrow or Monday.  

[Wayne]

I made 2 cracker crusts today.  One using the fold n roll recipe and one plain.  They were both great.  Really crisp.  You hold it up and it sticks out like a diving board.  While I could tell the difference between the 2, it wasn't very large.  None the less, they were both delicious.

[Steve]

Wayne, what recipe did you use?

[Wayne]

I used the recipe here.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=105;start=0

[DKM]

I'm a big fan of that one!  

[Steve]

Ok, the results are in! (the pizza was eaten before I could take pictures!)  

DKM's Chicago Pizza (using canola oil) -- This pizza was the clear winner with our guests (and with me and my wife!) Unbelievable taste and texture. The dough got a full 24 hour rise in the refrigerator and was excellent. I used Polly-O whole milk mozzarella sliced into 3/16" slices as the first layer, the next layer consisted of raw 6-in-1 tomatoes with added fresh basil, fresh garlic, and dried oregano. On top of that I added precooked chunks of sweet Italian sausage, and finally I dusted the top with freshly grated Parmesean cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Baked the pizza for 30 minutes at 450 degrees. Truly awesome pizza!

The second pizza was my "ultimate thin-crust" pizza. The dough got a full 24 hour rise at room temperature. This pizza turned out good as well, but I ended up overcooking the toppings because I had to use my other oven (my main oven was occupied by the Chicago pizza). The toppings started burning with the bottom still not crisp. Oh well. This pizza was ranked #3 by everyone.  

And lastly, I made a "soda cracker" thin crust (using the correct amount of shortening this time  ) This pizza was rated #2 by everyone, including myself. The crust was light, flaky, and crisp! Each and every bite produced a slight "crunch" sound and sensation, the crust had a decidedly "crackery" taste... very good in my opinion. While the crust was almost paper thin, it was able to hold its shape, someone used "diving board" as a good analogy. I thought it was a bit too thin, but everyone else said they liked it.

My final thoughts:

DKM's "canola oil" Chicago pizza recipe is excellent.

My "best ever" thin crust would have been better had I cooked it properly. I did pre-bake the crust this time which created the air pockets that everyone seems to like. Need to try, try agian!

And the "soda cracker" crust is a real winner. I'm going to try this again, only double the recipe and make a slightly thicker thin crust.

All in all, an excellent pizza weekend!!  

[Randy]

In DKM's recipe I could not bring myself to put that much oil in the recipe so I never made it.  But then my wife reminded me of the biscuits we had for breakfast Sunday morning after I mentioned Steve’s post. 1/4 cup Crisco to only two cups flour.

Biscuits
Ingredients:
2 cups White Lily Self-Rising Soft Wheat Flour
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2/3 to 3/4 cup milk

I stand corrected.  It is obviously the high fat content that makes a thicker, crisper crust around the crumb just like a biscuit.  And yes I know I questioned that biscuit description in an earlier post.

If time permits I will make a DKM special this week but using Crisco as a test.

Which flour did you use Steve?

A really interesting post.
 
Randy

[Steve]

I used Hecker's all-purpose flour.