So in yesterday's episode I mentioned there were things I did and did not like about the recent last-minute miracle pizza. First and foremost, I liked how the crust turned out. Check out this gorgeous golden browning action:
How did that happen? Well, it wasn't easy. I don't have a pizza stone, and I don't have a commercial brick oven. The trick to getting pizzeria crust is a super blast of mega heat. You're not going to get that at home.
The slightly messy and Sisyphian workaround is to heat the metal pan in a 450 or 475 degree oven before you put the dough on it. Considering that the dough needs to be stretched and pressed to fit into the pan, that means, yes, you are trying to anchor dough to a hot pan. Complicated by the fact that you should also oil the pan so the dough almost fries a tiny bit while it bakes. So. Anchoring stretchy, ever-shrinking dough to a pan too hot to touch and slippery with oil. And it shrinks, and you stretch it back out, and it shrinks, and you stretch it in a different direction. It's like trying to make a queen-sized bed with full-size sheets.
(like I said, Sisyphian; no, I'm not going to define that for you; this isn't Wikipedia )
But the results are so good, I'll definitely do it again. Seriously.
What I'll leave off next time: the parsley.
It's pretty, sure, but it forces you to make a choice. I like to broil the top of the pizza after it has baked for 10 minutes or so, giving it extra spotty charry yummy cheese bubbles. You know what happens if you put parsley under the broiler? It burns. Not fun. You can broil it a little, but not enough to really brown the cheese to its highest potential.
Okay, to end the post on a happy note, let's go for one more shot of crispy pizza crust porn.
Aw yeah, that's the stuff.
Broil, then put the parsley on immediately after you take the pie out. The residual heat will help wilt the leaves (less an issue if they're finely chopped) and it'll still look pretty.
Posted by: Russ Carr | May 05, 2009 at 10:14 AM
I prefer to put the pizza on a sprinkle of cornmeal with elevates the pizza and lets out the steam so it goes nice and crisp without being greasy. Not quite sure how that would work with a 450o pan!
Posted by: Mareese | May 05, 2009 at 02:23 PM
Yeah, what Russ said: the brightness of fresh herbs will be a nice finishing touch to the hot gooeyness of the 'za.
Posted by: Tracey | May 07, 2009 at 05:59 PM