As I was at the checkout line at Trader Joe’s, the cashier exclaimed I must’ve really wanted lots of pizza, looking at the 5 packages of pizza dough, 3 jars of sauce, 3 pounds of mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, spicy italian sausage, eggplant, olives, tomatoes, zucchini and mushrooms. Then he eyes the box of Honey Nut O’s….and with a raised eyebrow, asks “You’re not putting that on the pizza, are you?”
“No, that’s stuff I eat in between…heh.”
Living in California for the past few months, we have yet to find a pizzeria that offers anything close to what we nostalgically crave from New York. Don’t get me wrong; pizza here is good, but…..different. If the big seller at a Cali pizzeria is barbecue chicken and pineapple pizza, well, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. You can’t compare pizza from NY to pizza from Cali. Every bite I take, no matter how tasty it can be, is still unsatisfying. My brain tells me something is always missing, in the sauce, the cheese, especially the crust. Where’s the orange-y color that’s suppose to result from the sauce melding with the cheese? The little bubbles that pop up on the cheese and crust from the extreme temperatures of the brick oven? The crispy crust with black spots here and there, to add that extra baked in, charred flavor?
So I decided to make my own pizza for a week. Why a week? 1) My husband would have the happiest week in his marriage ever, 2) I wanted to see if I could replicate anything remotely resembling NY pizza and 3) Honestly, I Just Wanted Pizza!! So here goes Day One of my pizza experiment, pepperoni pizza.
I wanted to start of with something simple. Cheese, pepperoni and sauce, with plain white pizza dough. If you would like directions on how I made my pizza, click on my previous post here. But after you make pizza once, you don’t really need instructions on the process ever again. I mean…it’s just stretching dough out onto a baking sheet, slathering sauce, adding toppings, then baking at 500 degrees for 12-17 minutes depending on your oven. The real dilemmas are what kind of ingredients to use, what kind of baking sheet, what temperature, whether to add cheese at the start of the baking process vs. a few minutes before the baking process ends, etc. That determines whether your pizza will taste it’s optimal level.
I’ve really thought this over, if you couldn’t tell.
See the little bubbles on the edge of the crust? I love those bubbles. They are bubbles of extra flavor that make eating the crust (something I absolutely hated on homemade pizza before) a joy. It didn’t hurt to drizzle some olive oil on the edges before putting into the oven, either. And greasing the pan with olive oil.
The grease from the pepperoni helped bubble and brown the cheese as well. Contrary to what I did in the past, I added all the mozzarella at the beginning of the baking process. I only did this because the pepperoni would keep the cheese nice and hydrated (with grease, that is) and I wouldn’t have to worry about it drying up into a rubbery slab that slides completely off the crust.
See that crust? That’s the result from the kind of dough I bought + baking sheet + oven temperature + olive oil. A lot of factors contribute to this kind of outcome. I used Trader Joe’s pizza dough, with comes pre-packaged in a 16 oz. bag for $1.29, in the cheese and deli meats section of the store. I think it has to do with the amount of water they use to make the dough. I’ve used Wegmans, Walmart and Tops pizza dough in the past, and none have given me the results I see now. The ones in the past always gave me thick, bready, dry crusts with pockets of unevenly baked (and sometimes raw) spots, especially in the middle of the pizza. I’ve read reviews on how people thought this dough was too wet to handle and how they had to add more flour before using it. But why would you need to? I like it the way it is. It had just the right amount of flavor, and eating it was as satisfying as eating the toppings.
Now, you might not get the exact same results as I have. In fact, I might not get the same results in the future as I have now unless I did everything the exact same way. So think about the little things that go into making a ‘perfect’ pizza. Not all of it is from following directions on general baking times and temps. Play around and have fun with it.
Great minds must think alike because we had this exact meal for dinner a few nights ago all from Trader Joe’s. The dough here is only 99 cents though! LOL I’m still trying to find my perfect at home pizza dough, but I certainly don’t mind eating a LOT of pizza for research.
this was me last week! I too made pizza because we haven’t really found any good pizza around here either. Z Pizza was just OK, but nothing to really rave about. So I decided I had enough, bought a pizza stone and hoped for the best – even made the dough from scratch! Turned out alright, better than any pizza we’ve had here :P
yum, yum, yum! I’m so happy you’re experimenting this week! This way I can see what I can do to make my pizzas better ;) Pizza making really is a science if you think about it! lol :D
Hope you are doing well!! Thanks for the yummy post!
trader joe’s pizza dough = best thing ever. i started making pizzas with it using their jarred bolognese sauce and the log of fresh mozzerella. the bolognese sauce makes it salty, but that is what husband likes. then i started making desserts with it (apples, almonds, browned butter and that big fat raw cane sugar- ohhh my godddd). the dough usually bakes pretty consistantly, i think the trick is to use a lot of olive oil or butter and a high oven temperature.
ps.- check out this guy’s website about pizza, it is AMAZING.
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm
Oh my goodness! This pizza looks amazing.
I swear by Trader Joe’s pizza crust. It is the only one that comes out crispy like in your photo. I live in Florida and have my parents bring me 10 bags when they drive down for their snowbird winters here!
Chicken and pineapple on pizza? That scares me. A lot. I can see why you want to make your own =)
I wish we had a Trader Joe’s around here so I could try the crust, it looks really amazing.
April – I didn’t know it was so popular (Trader Joe’s I mean). I’ve only seen them in Cali. Hopefully we can all find our perfect pizza somewhere.
Neighbor – I’ve heard of Z’s pizza but haven’t tried them yet. Have you been to BJ’s Pizza and Grill? I heard they were good but I saw they only serve deep dish. I wanted to invest in a pizza stone but the pan I’ve been using has been great so far. So maybe I’ll wait on it…Hope you are doing well too :)
Bonnie – Great website, thank you for it. The trader joe’s pizza sauce has been fantastic to use as well. At first I was deterred from the ‘fat free’ label but when you think about it…its just tomatoes, right? It should naturally be fat free. I also bought marinara sauce but have yet to try it. Haven’t tried bolognese sauce either, will have to buy it.
Memoria – Thanks! :)
Lex – Once again, still surprised everyone knows who Trader Joe’s are. I must’ve been living under a rock.
Chiara – Surprisingly, it’s quite tasty. The one really weird thing is they use bbq sauce instead of tomato sauce…sometimes it gets to be too overpowering. I can eat a slice or two, and after that I’m tasting it in my mouth all night.
I’ve heard of BJ’s Pizza and Grill, but haven’t tried it yet. Yeah, I’d save up for a good pizza stone – I don’t think ours is the best, I just wanted to get it just to try…..plus, I had a coupon, haha :D
Good luck with tonight’s pizza!!
[...] I love pizza. So much that after seeing this photo on tastespotting, [...]
[...] I love pizza. So much that after seeing this photo on tastespotting, [...]
It’s really not difficult to make your own dough or sauce. In my experience trader joe’s dough is horrible compared to fresh pizza dough.. even dough you’d get form a bakery or pizzeria. and serious.. jar sauce? yuck.