NY style pizza in Kansas City, Kansas

[bicster]

Hey blogger,

im in lawrence ks, I say we have an iron chef pizza challenge.

[foodblogger]

bicster:
Uh oh!   
Lawrence is a nice town.  College towns are always so charming.  Is there any good pizza in Lawrence?

[bicster]

No good pizza in town, which is the reason I got into pizza making in the first place.  I am from South Florida, which has a surprising number of great shops, so it was quite a disapointment moving to Kansas for grad school with no great pizza for my all nighters.

My wife and I have tried many places in KCK and KCMO and have not been impressed at all.  From the pictures Id say your pies beat out the competition.

On a side note, as I currently live across the street from one of Lawrences many bars, I am toying with the idea of selling my personal pies to drunk undergrads on the weekends.  Should be interesting.

[foodblogger]

As far as good pizza in the metro area, there is one place that is pretty good.  Have you tried The Bronx at like 39th and State?  Its not what I would call artisan pizza but it can be darn good.  There is also a place that supposedly opened down in Overland Park call Spin! that is making decent pizza but I can't vouch for it myself yet.  I don't make it down that way much, as I live by the race track.  Here is a link to an article covering it:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/food/13406792.htm

As far as atmosphere for pizza I like Waldo pizza at like 75th and warnell.  The pizza is sub-par but it is one of the only places I have ever seen that has Schlitz on tap! 

I would be loathe to sell one of my pies to a drunk college kid.  They wouldn't know what they were getting and they would want it for like $5.

[Pete-zza]

To sell the pizzas to the public, even to drunken college kids, you would need all the licenses and meet all the health and inspection requirements imposed by local and stage regulators. I don't know the penalties for noncompliance, but I would venture to say that they will cost you more than the sales/profits from the sales of the pizzas, not to mention legal expenses if you end up needing a lawyer.

Peter

[foodblogger]

To sell the pizzas to the public, even to drunken college kids, you would need all the licenses and meet all the health and inspection requirements imposed by local and stage regulators. I don't know the penalties for noncompliance, but I would venture to say that they will cost you more than the sales/profits from the sales of the pizzas, not to mention legal expenses if you end up needing a lawyer.

Yeah I would definately be very careful about selling your pies.  It seems like a real good way to get in a lot of trouble really fast without doing anything devious or bad.  I heard a story on NPR last night about the trend of chef's cooking in people's houses etc.  Again, sounds like an easy way to end up in a lot of hot water over nothing.

[bicster]

The owner of the bar seems cool with it, Im going to give it a shot.

[foodblogger]

I continue to work with the pre-ferment version of this pizza.  I am staying true to the baker's formula until I have made 20 or 30 pizzas using the same formula.  I want to be sure that it is reproduceable with a variety of different toppings.  I will probably have a few screw ups along the way, and I want to see how many of my mistakes the dough can overcome.  Last night we had a pizza night.  I made two 14 inch pizzas.

The first pizza I made was a sausage, mushroom and soprasetta pizza.  I got the idea for soprasetta from one of pete-zza's pies.  If I were going to do something different I would have the soprasetta sliced at the deli instead of hand slicing it. I don't have a meat slicer so I have to do it with a knife.  I thought it ended up a little thick.

[foodblogger]

Here is a closeup of the slice.

[foodblogger]

The other pizza I made was one of my favorites - taco pizza. When I was a kid we always used to eat at Godfather's Pizza on our birthdays. My favorite pizza they made was taco pizza. It was basically just a sausage pizza that they dressed with crushed tortilla chips, lettuce and diced tomatoes when it came out of the oven. They served it with Heinz taco sauce. The other place that made taco pizza in town was a small local bar. The only thing they did different was to add refried beans, but it made all the difference in the world.

To make a taco pizza I use taco sauce as the pizza sauce. I put down just a thin smear of refried beans. Then I just add little balls of cooked Italian sausage and mozzarella and bake. When it comes out of the oven I crumble some yellow tortilla chips over the top and finish it with lettuce and diced tomato.

[foodblogger]

Both crusts were exactly like the other pre-ferment crusts I have made.  The rims had nice oven rise with lots of little different sized bubbles.  The crusts were nice and chewy and foldable, with a slightly crisp, leathery bottom.  Here is a cutaway photo of the rim of the crust.  Check out the bubbles.   

[foodblogger]

I did one thing different when I was shaping the pizzas this time.  Instead of flouring both sides of the dough I just spread a little flour on the counter and put the dough balls down.  I didn't flour the top.  When I was stretching the skins there was no problem with them sticking to my hands.  I was careful not to get any flour on the top of the skin.  I don't like they way pizza tastes when too much flour gets on the rim.  I will definately keep that particular change.

[foodblogger]

I made another 14 inch pre-ferment pie this weekend.  I topped it like a pizza margherita but I added sausage, red onion and capers.

[foodblogger]

This was a delicious pie.  It was the second pie to come off my peel this weekend, so my expectation was that the crust wouldn't be as good, but I have to say, it was perfect.  There was a little sour taste to crust from the pre-ferment but not too much.  The bottom was crisp but foldable.  The rim had a nice open crumb and a chewy character.

[foodblogger]

Another reason this pie was so good was the topping combination.  I think we liked it so much because it is familiar.  My wife makes rigatoni with sausage, red onion and capers.  I'm definitely going to make this topping combination often.

Even though this pie was amazing, the formula remains unproven to me.  I am not changing anything until I have made at least 20-30 pies.  I want to see how the formula performs when I screw up or when there is normal variability. 

The formula isn't proven yet, but is shows a hell of a promise.  I am now completely convinced that you can make amazing pizza using Gold Medal bread flour, water, salt and yeast.  If I can make more pizzas like that one I'll be very happy.