Another Saturday, Another Pizza - PICS

It's Saturday night!!! What can you do after Thanksgiving? I made two pizzas tonight . The first was a more traditional pizza that I placed on an aluminum pizza pan because I wanted to try out the bottom convection oven in our new setup. The pizza consist of sauce, provolone cheese, oregano, fresh basil leaves, chopped onion, chopped garlic, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses and pepperoni. The bottom convection oven worked to perfection baking this pizza at 500 degrees in 10 minutes.



Now the experiment. In the upper oven with the pizza stone I put together a turkey gravy sauce in place of the standard tomato sauce, topped it with Brie cheese, chopped up leftover turkey pieces and a cranberry salad made with cranberry and oranges. This one baked directly on the stone at 500 degrees for 10 minutes. Everyone was very skeptical of the combo but it turned out to be a winner. So that is what you do with Thanksgiving leftovers.

I wish I was a member of your immediate family.

quote:

Originally posted by twinwillow

I wish I was a member of your immediate family.

LOL! Ditto!

I logged in tonight knowing you would be here, Dayvdd...I bet that "Thanksgiving" pizza was awesome...and of course the pepperoni one looks hands down irresistable.Another success!

Davydd
I like your new stove...... which level do you think is best for your pizza making...?? top or bottom?
is the smaller top oven Self-Clean?
I wonder if that stove comes in a traditional Calrod Coil element top.

Also glad to see you using a pizza stone.......great for crunching up the bottom of your pizza.

I found that the store-bought pizza stone like you have here is a little bit to thick and takes to long to heat up.
What I use is a any regular ceramic tile bought at Home Depot, $1.00 to $1.50 max for the 18x18 size, flip it over and cook on the unglazed side, remembering always to put the tile in before you turn on the stove......................... and if it cracks then no big deal.......... also leave it in the oven when you Self-Clean your oven the stone will come out as clean as the day you took it out of the box...

sizz,

I am happy with the results from both the top and bottom oven. We have an all electric house with no gas so gas was out.

I don't think you can get this oven with traditional coil elements. When you go through the selection process to narrow down choices and select coil the double oven decision drops out. This one has a smooth glass top with two left side burners and a bridge element burner working together for a griddle, a right front burner that can be adjusted 6", 9" or 12", another right side in back small burner and a warming element in the back middle area. This is the oven.

http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SPECPAGE&SKU=PB975SMSS&SITEID=GEA



I keep the stone in the top oven. The top oven has a pizza setting feature where you can select either a fresh or frozen setting. I am not sure what the difference is because you can set the temperature you want. I assume it determines which heating elements come on since there are top and bottom elements. Both ovens are self cleaning. The top oven is not convection. The bottom oven works both standard and convection. The bottom oven did a great job on our 22 lb. turkey.

I thought about just using a cheap stone from Home Depot. Maybe next time. I preheated my stone starting about an hour ahead of time. Not a big deal to me considering I am now prepping my dough a day ahead of time. I can't believe how much better the results are doing that.

It's Saturday morning and in celebration of the first real snow of the season here in the Twin Cities I plan to make an all white homemade pizza with a sauce made from extra virgin olive oil, parmesan cheese, cream cheese and garlic along with fresh basil, Italian chicken sausage and onion. The dough has been cold fermenting in the fridge for two days in anticipation. Too late for any other suggestions. I've cocooned for the weekend. Winter is here! As I look out my window above the computer the snow started just an hour ago and 6 to 10 inches is forecast.

My brother lives in Edina, MN and is looking forward to the snow as he is a snow shoe enthusiast and in fact races/runs in many snowshoe events every years.

Snow is a great opportunity to cook, imbibe and enjoy the beautiful sight.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Hey Davydd,

Looking forward to the pizza, I'm a big white pizza fan (as is my wife) You're pizza posts always give me inspiration! And thanks for the weather report, my brother lives in Red Wing, as you know.

We've had unbelieveable rain since yesterday lunchtime, supposed to get 2 inches by the time it is all said and done with. (hopefully this afternoon.) This was the kind of morning I sip my coffee, look out the window and enjoy the change.

DD

As promised here is the white pizza. The dough proofed in the fridge for two days this time. I slapped and spun it and stretched it to fill the wood peel at about 14 inches. I made the sauce with fresh parmesan cheese, cream cheese, half and half, chopped onion, chopped garlic and oregano. I spread it on pretty thick then I topped it with fresh North Shore Living Herbs attached to the roots basil leaves, banana peppers, and tomato basil Italian chicken sausage. Then I put fresh sliced slabs of 100% fresh mozzarella cheese (not the skim or 2%) on top. I baked it on the stone at 550 degrees for 8 minutes. This was one rich pizza. I am kind of getting addicted to fresh basil leaves. Oh yeah!

You're killing me with those photo's. That is a great looking pie, and I'll bet it tastes great too.
Thanks for sharing.

Outstanding pie, Davy! I've got to try the cream cheese instead of my usual riccotta on my next "Great White". pb

Your pizza is amazing, Davydd! I love to make homemade pizza - I hand stretch and form my pie, I'm not up to tossing and spinning yet. Two suggestions: see if you can find some Italian 00 flour; I bought some from King Arthur (Italian-style Flour) and it does make a difference to the pizza dough flavor and texture - and try your fresh chopped basil on top of the pizza when you take it out of the oven; the heat will wilt it, but the flavor and aroma is much more than if you baked it inside the pie.

Teresa

Looks much better than the dinner I had tonight...another winner, Davydd!!

GREAT LOOKING PIES!!!!!!!
Ron

Davy, love those browned spots and the dough bubbles! Nice touch with the cream cheese! Are the banana peppers hot?

The yellow banana peppers were actually pretty mild. They were hot but not overly hot. I didn't dock the dough thus the bubbles. In some ways it is kind of neat to get them. They pop right down when you slice the pizza.

It's Saturday night . . . and I'm bummed. It just occurred to me that I will not be making pizzas for possibly the next 6 weeks. We have no kitchen and it could be up to 6 weeks by the time it is functional again because the sink cannot be reconnected until the counter tops are installed. The oven works.

I may become an expert on all the frozen brands out there because they can be baked and eaten without making a mess requiring a kitchen sink for clean up.

The lengths I will go to make a pizza. No pizza last night. Sorry. We ordered out. But I am in northern Virginia and will make two pizzas for Christmas. So today we went out to buy provisions. I found everything I needed with the exception of semolina flour. Whole Foods was totally out. Giant and Safeway, nada. I guess not many Italians in northern Virginia. So we will try a different Whole Foods or Wegmans.

Tomorrow we may go out for lunch and try Two Amy's.

Hey David,
Have you ever put the sausage or ground beef on the pizza raw?
There is a place that we go that does that and it is SO good.
The grease mixed in with the sauce and cheese is a good mix.
Thanks Jean Anne

You've suceeded in giving me the urge to try making my own again. As soon as I'm capable, I picked up a stone and a peel the other day in anticipation.

quote:

Originally posted by janicks

Hey David,
Have you ever put the sausage or ground beef on the pizza raw?
There is a place that we go that does that and it is SO good.
The grease mixed in with the sauce and cheese is a good mix.
Thanks Jean Anne

Jean Anne,

I bake them at 550 degrees in about 8 minutes. I don't think the sausage will cook through in that short time. I've always prepared my sausage by slow frying with garlic, onion, oregano, basil and fennel.

quote:

Originally posted by Big_g

You've suceeded in giving me the urge to try making my own again. As soon as I'm capable, I picked up a stone and a peel the other day in anticipation.

Big g,

Go for it. This week I don't have a stone or peel at my disposal in my daughter's home so will just put them on pans.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd
This week I don't have a stone or peel at my disposal in my daughter's home so will just put them on pans.

I've heard of some pizzas being made on a preheated cast-iron frying pan turned upside down. Feel adventurous?? pb

I haven't checked yet to see if there is a cast iron frying pan. Now that we have a new glass top electric range at our home our cast iron frying pan is now retired. However, I guess it might not be a bad experiment to try it. Our cast iron frying pan was inherited. We have no idea how old it is.

After having pizza at Pizza Paradiso on Christmas Eve ( http://www.roadfood.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24148 ) you would think that would be enough. No way. Our Christmas dinner was pizza! OK, it is not Saturday night but since we will not have a complete kitchen for a few more weeks opportunity presented itself. I made two pizzas.

One was a Margherita pizza consisting of olive oil base, chopped onion, chopped garlic, fresh basil, Buffalo mozzarella cheese, some fresh parmesan and sliced Roma tomatoes again top with a splash of olive oil after it came out of the oven.



The other pizza was an unstrained Italian sausage sauteed with onion, garlic, oregano and hot pepper flakes, a light amount of pizza sauce, baby bella mushrooms, apple hickory smoked mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.



I baked the pizzas on aluminum pans on top of a 13" pre-heated stone on the bottom rack in a gas oven at a maximum of 500 degrees. They took about 12 minutes each. The crust came out great. Not bad for make do in my daughter's kitchen.

Even as full as I am on Christmas food, those look wonderful!!

As usual....picture perfect pies.....sigh!

Davydd, your pictures are inspiring. I have a hankering to make some pizza doughs and bake my own pizzas. I hope to get around to it this week but I find your pics to be inspirational. Thanks.

I hear you make a decent tenderloin as well.

Great pies! my mouth is watering.