Mamma Mia! It's Pizza!!!

[ChesterV]

Out of all the things baked on this planet, this has got to be one of THE most baked dishes ever!
According to online statistics, about 3 BILLION pizzas are sold in the USA each day.
Yes, thats right, each DAY! That is about 251 MILLION pounds of pizza dough!!

(I can't believe no one has done a pizza thread before this!)

So, what is YOUR favorite pizza(s)?
What kind of crust do you like?
What kind of toppings?
Do you make your own pizza?
Do you have your own pizza recipes? Post one!

Is it a wonder why pizza is so popular? It is pretty much THE most perfect food item!
It contains pretty much ALL of the food groups!
Bread (grains)
Dairy
Vegetable

and if you like chunks of fruit on your pizza also, then you are getting all FOUR food groups!

 

[ChesterV]

My favorite is thin crust, extra sauce, extra cheese, ham, mushrooms, onions, and olives.

My next favorite is thin crust, sauce, BBQ sauce, shredded chicken, onions, garlic, and LOTS of cheese!!

 

[Myrtle]

We buy two cheese pizzas at Costco every week because we have four guys in this house who love to eat pizza, and I also like to bake my own pizzas. I make the pizza dough in my bread machine, and then I roll it out and put a variety of toppings on it. I pretty much put what I have on hand on it; I've tried chicken, beef, turkey Spam (everyone loves that!), olives, cheddar cheese, tomato sauce, basil, and oregano. For me, pizza is the perfect way to use leftover meat.

 

[ChesterV]

I'm lazy, if I make "homemade" pizza, I get the Boboli ready to bake pizza crust. Or I just use rolled out canned crescent roll dough.

I use Prego spaghetti sauce (lots of it), onions, mushrooms, olives, ham, bacon, pepperoni, and lots of cheese. Then I sprinkle it with garlic and onion powder before it goes in the oven.

 

[Becky]

Wow, I'm really surprised by those numbers! Totally understandable though, everyone loves pizza

I always tend to go for spicy toppings, that's probably my favourite. Things like jalapenos, chillis, spicy sausage etc I absolutely love on pizza.

One of the most interesting toppings I had was probably Hoi Sin Duck - it had crispy duck, hoi sin sauce, cucumbers, spring onions and mozzarella. Worked really well!

 

[cupcakechef]

My favorite is anything spicy too - I love hot salami or pepperoni, jalapenos, and peppers on my pizzas!

I also love pineapple on pizzas - I feel like that seems to be either a love or a hate thing, there's no in between!

As for crusts, I don't really like them all that thin - but not so thick that it feels like you're eating your pizza toppings on a loaf of bread! So somewhere in the middle for crusts I would say!

I do make my own pizza pretty regularly, because I can customize exactly what I want on it - and that's one of the most fun things about pizza to me!

 

[ChesterV]

Wow, I'm really surprised by those numbers! Totally understandable though, everyone loves pizza

I always tend to go for spicy toppings, that's probably my favourite. Things like jalapenos, chillis, spicy sausage etc I absolutely love on pizza.

One of the most interesting toppings I had was probably Hoi Sin Duck - it had crispy duck, hoi sin sauce, cucumbers, spring onions and mozzarella. Worked really well!

You and my sister would get along!!!!!

Anytime we used to go out to eat pizza, her pizza HAD to be covered in spicy sausage, jalapenos, and onions. She even had one pizza guy trained, so when he saw her walk in the door, he knew exactly what pizza to start making!!!! She never had to order!!! LOL

I like lots of onions and garlic, but I'm not all that big on jalapenos, although I will eat them on some foods.

I've never had Asian pizza before. I've never had duck before either. Never knew anyone who ate duck.

I suppose the weirdest thing I've ever eaten on pizza is a dessert pizza.............custard cream sauce, covered with thin sliced peaches and a crumble topping, drizzled with a cream cheese sauce. Mmmm, I could definitely go for one of those right now.

 

[ChesterV]

I do like Taco Pizza, covered with hot sauce!!!

 

[ChesterV]

Here's a pizza that one of the chain pizza places here came out with a couple years ago.....

Mac N Cheese Pizza

Alfredo Sauce, cheese, mac, cheese...........sometimes they put bacon crumbles on the top.

Nothing but carbs.
Although I'd love to have some, I am not able to eat anything like this anymore.

 

[Becky]

I've had a dessert pizza before - only dessert that has ever beaten me! I got it to share with a friend, and even then there was too much and we had to leave some It was amazing though!!

 

[Winterybella]

I honestly try stay to away from the pizza, but I love them. I have made from scratch just a few times in my lifetime. These days when I treat myself to a slice or two I want to have pineapple, onion, sweet pepper, pepperoni and ham as my toppings with a crunchy crust. Thick or thin it doesn't matter. When I saw the thread I was reminded of a local restaurant here that's know for it's Pizzas. It's called Mama Mia.

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

My favorite kind of pizza is the one with thin crust. I like pizza with toppings of pineapple, ham and lots of melting cheese. This simple flavor and taste is already okay for me and its delicious.

 

[rz3300]

Well I am pretty sure that I could eat pizza regardless of the style or toppings, but if I had my pick I prefer a thin crust to think one, and I like simpler toppings. That said, though, I am crazy about black olives so they have to be on it no matter what. Now that I think about the deep dish pizzas from Chicago are pretty good, but they are expensive so I do not get those too often.

 

[Lisa Davis]

Pizza is easily one of my favorite things to make. Plus, everyone loves it when I make the stuff, too. I don't have toppings that I always put on pizza. I just pile on whatever we have on hand. Usually there's always green pepper or onion, but everything else may or may not be at the house to get used. I used to make my own pizza crust from scratch. However, Jiffy makes a pizza crust mix in a box that is super cheap and saves me a lot of time and measuring. It works perfect and can usually be found for less than a buck. I always pre-bake my pizza crust before I top it. It just seems like it comes out better for me when the crust is pre-baked part of the way before toppings are added and it goes in for the final oven time. I will say that I have become more fond of thinner pizza crust lately. It has less calories and doesn't make you feel as stuffed at the end of eating a few slices. However, it has to be good crust, no matter the thickness. Crust honestly makes or breaks good pizza.

 

[ChesterV]

Cherry Cobbler Dessert Pizza

Ingredients:
pizza dough
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 1/2 active dry yeast

Topping Ingredients:
1 cup quick oats
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. butter
fine sea salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup sliced almonds (I used pecans didn’t have almonds)
1 can cherry pie filling 21 oz.
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (I used cream cheese)


Directions:
Step 1: Put all the dough ingredients into a bread maker and turn to dough setting and let it do it’s job. You may buy pizza dough in the refrigerator section or freezer section at the grocery store if you like.
Step 2: When the dough is ready to use roll it out into a 11 inch circle on a floured surface. I then put my dough on parchment paper while I heated my pizza baking stone in the oven. It isn’t necessary to use parchment paper if you don’t want to.
Step 3: Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees and put pizza stone inside. If you don’t have a pizza stone just pre-heat oven.
Step 4: Prepare oatmeal topping by mixing together the oats, butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and nuts. (I really think it was too much oatmeal and you could half the ingredients here)
Step 5: When pizza dough is rolled out and on your parchment paper take a fork and prick the dough all over so it won’t bubble up when baking. Now put the canned cherry pie filling on top of the dough, then the oatmeal topping.
Step 6: Bake for 7-8 minutes on at 500 degrees F on the middle rack of your oven. I found that 500 degrees to be a little hot for the topping and mine burnt a little so I think you could put it in the oven and then turn the heat down to 450 F but you may have to cook it a little longer.
Step 7: When the pizza is done take it out of the oven and drop dollop of mascarpone cheese on top or use cream cheese, I really enjoyed this creamy cheese on top of the sweet pizza.

 

[-Daniel-]

Does anyone have a preferred recipe for a crispy, thin crust pizza? (I'm talking those delicious almost paper thin ones!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Does anyone have a preferred recipe for a crispy, thin crust pizza? (I'm talking those delicious almost paper thin ones!

Daniel
I know this is going to sound crazy, but try a flour tortilla if you want a paper thin crust. My step-daughter was the queen of the faux pizza. Everything from English muffins to tortillas were turned into pizza. At first I thought she was nuts. But her concocted pizzas were really tasty. And convenient; she’d come home form school and have herself a filling snack in 10 mins. Getting the bottom of the tortilla nice and crispy is key.

Here’s a video on make tortilla pizza. Kenji uses good stuff. My step-daughter used jar pizza sauce and packaged grated cheese.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.seri...a-crispy-bar-style-tortilla-pizza-recipe.html

 

[-Daniel-]

That is such an interesting idea :O I think I'll give it a go

Thin pizza crust and corn tortillas are on my baking bucket list, so adding a flour tortilla won't be too much of a step

 

[Becky]

I think the secret to a really good pizza base is building up the gluten enough (you need to be able to do the window test) and using a hot pizza stone. I've had different results from the same recipe just by working on these two factors. If you want a really tasty base then allow the dough to rise really slowly (eg in the fridge overnight), as this allows the flavour to develop.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I think the secret to a really good pizza base is building up the gluten enough (you need to be able to do the window test) and using a hot pizza stone. I've had different results from the same recipe just by working on these two factors. If you want a really tasty base then allow the dough to rise really slowly (eg in the fridge overnight), as this allows the flavour to develop.

These are excellent suggestions for a standard pizza crust. However a thin crust pizza is no rise. And just enough develop to work the dough to pliability. For thin crust you don’t want to activate much gluten and instead of letting the dough rise, you roll it out immediately and bake. That way the crust will not puff up in the oven.