Pepperoni Pizza and Deconstructed Jalapeno Popper Pizza

     Here I am again, back to the basics.  A pepperoni pizza.  Yes, we have done this before, but not with this crust, and not with this sauce.  Sometimes, little changes, little nuances can make all the difference in the world.  This crust that I have been making out of The Pizza Bible has been outstanding.  I thought my crust was good before, but this just takes to a whole new level.  This little gem of a pizza recipe was hiding in the introduction to the book.  I had already skipped over it, thinking it was instructions on the basics.  I didn't need to read about the basics - I have been making pizzas for years!

     In my opinion, there are several reasons why restaurants (or any other business, for that matter) fail, but one of them is the resistance to change.  If you have done something successfully, why change?  However, I believe that by changing, learning new things about old things, and combining them with your knowledge of how things always used to be, you can really create a masterpiece.  I decided to read the introduction and see if I could learn anything new.  And, here was this tutorial on how to create a great pizza.  I wanted to try it and see how it compared to the "old way" of doing things.  That, and I do really love pepperoni.

     The instructions started on day one of a three day process.  So, I started on Monday.  Monday's events started with weighing and measuring ingredients for the dough.  Okay, I didn't do that (the weighing part) before with the first couple of recipes I tried in this book, but I was willing to try to get down to the letter and try the author's methods.

     The weighing of ingredients was a little tough, considering all I have for a scale is a $19 jobbie that I bought at Costco on a whim one day.  It does measure grams, as the author instructs to measure everything by, but it only reports in two gram increments, and it starts at four grams.  So, measuring 4½ grams of active dry yeast was not going to be exact, nor 9 grams of sea salt, 9 grams of diastatic malt, etc.  Apparently, everything in this book should amount to an odd number of grams.  I did the best I could, though, and it seemed to be matching up to the described results in the book.

     The author chronicled each and every step and explained why each step was done.  I rather enjoyed that.  I had an education.  He instructed to knead the dough on a non-floured surface and suggested a granite surface.  I was in luck!  I have granite counter tops, and they were clean (a rarity, yes, but at that moment, they were clean).  I kneaded the dough as described in the book.  I have never been a kneader.  It seems like a superfluous step.  I was never really sure why it was done and figured whatever it was achieving (I assumed a better mix of dough), it could be done by my KitchenAide.  There was something therapeutic about it though.  Stretching and folding and smashing the dough with my palm.  I felt it was a surrogate for all of those people who had ever done me wrong.  Take THAT, Jack Goldenberg!  Take THAT, Super Ford Smasher lady at Bobby & Steve's.  Take THAT, rude lady in the Cub line!  I smash your face in with the palm of my hand, and your rubbery smushy white face gets pummeled into the granite.

     Okay, I may have gotten a little carried away with it, but I was sold.  Now, I will be kneading my dough for three minutes every week.  The dough was smooth and round and elastic and ready for forming into a ball.  Once formed, I covered it with a kitchen towel and let it "rest" for an hour (at this point I needed a rest, too, even though it had only been three minutes of pummeling).  Following the rest (for both of us), I dribbled a little water over the top of it, put it back in my mixing bowl, and blanketed it with a piece of plastic wrap.  Into the refrigerator it went for it's 24 hour "fermentation" process.

     Day two (Tuesday) involved degassing the dough, making the sauce, and making a garlic oil.  I won't bore you with all of the details.  If you want them - buy the book (ha!).  This is just the Cliff Notes version (do they have those any more?).            

     After degassing, balling, and returning the dough to the fridge for another "rest", I started on the sauce.  Here is where I fudged a little.  I deviated from the instructions just a bit.  I cannot seem to find anything labeled "ground tomatoes" at any of the stores I have been to.  What is that?  The recipe called for 4½ ounces (why did he switch from grams?) of ground tomatoes.  Is that like pureed tomatoes?  I was betting on it.  Why buy pureed, when whole tomatoes and a VitaMix will do.  So, I measured out 4½ ounces (my scale will measure ounces in odd numbers and fractions) of whole plump tomatoes from a can and placed them in my VitaMix with the tomato paste, oregano, salt, and olive oil.  In less than two seconds, the tomatoes were "ground" with the rest of the ingredients I had put in there.  I dumped the slurry into a bowl and added the "hand-crushed" tomatoes to finish off the sauce.

     

PEPPERONI PIZZA

Adapted from The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemingnani with Susie Heller and Steve Siegelman

Dough:

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 ounces warm water

3 1/4 cups bread flour

8 ounces ice-cold water

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

Sauce:

3 1/2 ounces canned (drained) whole plum tomatoes, divided

1 ounce tomato paste

Pinch of dried oregano

Pinch of fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon olive oil

The rest of the story:

Cornmeal

6 ounces shredded mozzarella

4 ounces sliced pepperoni

1 ounce grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon garlic-infused olive oil

Dough:  Combine the yeast and warm water in a small bowl.  Whisk to combine.  Set aside.  Place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.  With the mixer running on low speed, add the ice water, followed by the yeast mixture.  Increase the speed of the mixer a little bit and continue mixing until the dough starts to come together.  Add the salt and mix on low for about a minute.  Add the oil, and mix again until the oil is incorporated, and the dough starts to cling to the hook.  Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for about three minutes on a clean, unfloured, smooth surface, such as granite or marble. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover with a clean, damp, lint-free towel.  Let it rest at room temperature for about an hour.  Spread a few drops of water over the dough.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 24 hours.  Remove the dough from the refrigerator and mix the dough in the stand mixer at low for about thirty seconds to "degass".  Cut the dough in half and shape each half into a ball. Wrap one ball in plastic wrap or seal in a zip-top bag and freeze or reserve it for another use.  Place the remaining ball on a baking sheet and wrap plastic wrap around the pan and dough together.  Put the pan in the refrigerator for another 24 hours.

Sauce:  Place 2½ ounces of the plum tomatoes, the tomato past, oregano, sea salt, and olive oil in the bowl of  a food processor or blender.  Puree until smooth.  Transfer the mixture to a small bowl.  Tear the remaining tomatoes into pieces with your hands and add to the mixture.  Stir the mixture to distribute the tomato pieces throughout the sauce.

Assemble:  Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough into a 15 inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Spread the sauce over the prepared dough.  Evenly distribute the mozzarella over the dough.  Arrange the pepperoni over the cheese.  Transfer the pizza to the preheated stone, if using, or transfer to a pizza pan and place in the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the pepperoni has started to crisp.  Remove the pizza from the oven and dust with the Pecorino and oregano.  Drizzle lightly with the garlic oil.

     Wednesday, I took a rest from working on the pepperoni pizza and started some preparations for my second pizza.  This pizza had all the elements of a jalapeno popper - those delicious little nuggets of jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese and deep fat fried.  Since my pepperoni pizza dough recipe made two pizzas' worth, I decided to use the second dough for my popper pizza.  

     I started with the batter recipe.  It called for a lager, but I didn't think I could add that the day before.  A little Internet browsing taught me that the bubbles in the beer is what makes the finished breading light and fluffy.  When the beer hits the hot oil, it causes it to foam, creating a light and airy texture in the batter.  Because of this, I decided to just combine the other ingredients and add the beer on Thursday, just before I was ready to batter and fry my jalapenos. Next, I fried up the bacon, sliced the jalapenos, and chopped the onions.

DECONSTRUCTED JALAPENO POPPER PIZZA

Adapted from The Revolutionary Pizza by Dimitri Syrkin-Niolau

Dough:

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 ounces warm water

3 1/4 cups bread flour

8 ounces ice-cold water

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

Beer Batter:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

4 ounces Modelo Negro

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon lemon juice

The rest of the story:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

6-8 medium sized (or 3 large) fresh jalapenos,sliced into rings

Salt and pepper

Cornmeal - for dusting the pizza peel

3-5 cups vegetable oil - enough to submerge the jalapenos while frying

2 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

4 ounces Neufchatel cheese

2 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 ounces crisp thick-cut bacon, broken into small pieces

1/2 cup chopped green onions

Dough:  Combine the yeast and warm water in a small bowl.  Whisk to combine.  Set aside.  Place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.  With the mixer running on low speed, add the ice water, followed by the yeast mixture.  Increase the speed of the mixer a little bit and continue mixing until the dough starts to come together.  Add the salt and mix on low for about a minute.  Add the oil, and mix again until the oil is incorporated, and the dough starts to cling to the hook.  Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for about three minutes on a clean, unfloured, smooth surface, such as granite or marble. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover with a clean, damp, lint-free towel.  Let it rest at room temperature for about an hour.  Spread a few drops of water over the dough.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 24 hours.  Remove the dough from the refrigerator and mix the dough in the stand mixer at low for about thirty seconds to "degass".  Cut the dough in half and shape each half into a ball. Wrap one ball in plastic wrap or seal in a zip-top bag and freeze or reserve it for another use.  Place the remaining ball on a baking sheet and wrap plastic wrap around the pan and dough together.  Put the pan in the refrigerator for another 24 hours.

Make the fried jalapenos:  Mix the batter ingredients together, and whisk to remove any lumps.  Add the jalapeno slices and set aside for ten minutes.  Mix the flour and salt and pepper together.  Preheat the vegetable oil to 375º F.  If you don't have a thermometer, put the pan of oil over a high flame for several minutes.  Drop a dollop of batter in the oil.  If it sizzles and starts to brown immediately, it is ready.  Turn the heat down to medium-high to maintain the temperature.  Roll the batter-soaked jalapenos in the seasoned flour and drop them into the hot oil.  Cook until browned.  Remove the jalapenos from the oil and place on a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.

The Rest of the Story:  Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough into a 15-inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Top the stretched dough with mozzarella and transfer dough to the preheated stone, or transfer to a greased pizza pan and place in the oven.  Bake for 5-7 minutes or until crust is starting to set up, and cheese has melted.  Transfer the pizza back to the pizza peel (or place the pizza pan on a hot pad), leaving the oven on.  Spread the Neufchatel cheese over the mozzarella.  Distribute the fried jalapenos over the cheese.  Top with the cheddar.  Bake for 3-5 more minutes.  Top with the chopped bacon and green onions.

     On Thursday, as soon as I got home, I took the dough out of the refrigerator.



Again, I started with the pepperoni pizza, spreading the sauce over my newly rolled out dough.

As per the instructions, the cheese went on next.  Normally, I object to the cheese on the bottom, because you cannot get the warm, brown, bubbliness that is so wonderful.  However, since I was trying new methods, I thought I would give it a shot.  (There's nothing wrong with crispy browned pepperonis, either).

     We started putting on the pepperoni.  And, putting it on, and putting it on.  I never realized how much pepperoni was in four ounces!

  When it came out of the oven, the pepperoni looked like it was self-deep-fat-fried.  It was shiny and crisp, and it had shrunk up a little to reveal the gooey cheese underneath.

When I added the Pecorino, it melted into the pepperoni.

I have to say, I think it was probably the best pepperoni pizza I have ever had.  The crust had a nice crispness to the outside, the inside of the crust was fluffy and flavorful.  The pepperoni was both crispy on top and meaty underneath.  The sauce was great, too.  The tomato flavor was hearty, yet not overpowering.

We, of course had to make the obligatory frozen pizza for the picky people.

Again, the jalapeno pizza started with the cheese on the bottom, and this time it was truly on the bottom.  And, it was baked some before the toppings went on.

It seemed a shame to cover up the gorgeous, bubbly cheese, but I was covering it with cream cheese, so how could that be bad?

The lovely, deep fried jalapenos went over the cream cheese (at least the ones that didn't go in my mouth).

A little more cheese went over the fried jalapenos.

After another short stint in the oven, the bacon and green onions went on.

This was truly a delicious pizza.  Again, the crust was perfect.  The creaminess of the Neufchatel tempered the heat of the jalapenos and evened out the saltiness and zip of the onions. Surprisingly, the jalapenos stayed somewhat crisp, and the entire piece of pizza was a treasure chest of textures and flavors.

Shrimp, Braised Leek, and Garlic Pizza; Pizza Colada; Pineapple Martinis

 I love shrimp.  If they're done right - not cooked to a rubbery shrivel - but just barely pink all the way through and seasoned properly, they are a fantastic little food.  For a while, many people avoided shrimp because of their high cholesterol level, but more recently, it has been discovered that because of the low amount of saturated fat in them, they actually improve the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol (which is a good thing), and lowers triglycerides.  High levels of triglycerides have been linked to heart disease and stroke.  Some studies have shown that garlic and leeks also reduce cholesterol, so this pizza is more of a health food, really (and it cancels out the cream cheese in the dessert, right?).

SHRIMP, BRAISED LEEK, AND GARLIC PIZZA

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

Dough:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

3¼ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

Toppings;

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 or 2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped (about 2 cups)

12 large garlic cloves, peeled and left whole

12 ounces medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cooked until just barely pink

4 ounces seeded and diced ripe tomato

½ teaspoon dried basil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

Make the dough:  In a small bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the flour and salt.  Add the yeast mixture and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together and clings to the dough hook.  Remove the dough and form it into a ball.  Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp, lint-free towel.  Set in a warm place for about an hour or until dough doubles in size.  Cut dough in half, reshape each half into a ball.  Reserve one half for another use (at this point, I place it in a freezer bag, label it, and put it in the freezer for a later date).

Prepare the toppings and assemble the pizza:  Preheat the oven to 450º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough out to a fifteen inch circle on a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel or board.  Brush the edges of the dough with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the leeks and whole garlic and reduce the heat to low.  Cook for about twenty minutes or until the garlic is soft, but not brown.  Distribute the leeks and garlic evenly over the prepared dough.  Arrange the shrimp and tomatoes over the leek mixture.  Sprinkle with basil, salt, and pepper.  Slide pizza onto the preheated stone, if using, or onto a greased pizza pan and into the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is golden.  Remove the pizza and sprinkle with the Parmesan.

     When I was chopping up the leeks, I thought that two cups was quite a bit, but after they were cooked for a while with the garlic, they shrunk down a little, and then I wondered if there were enough.  Even though I doubled the garlic from the original recipe, it didn't seem like enough either, and there could hardly be even distribution with just twelve cloves, so I broke some of the larger ones in half.  I wanted to make sure that each piece had a little bit of garlic in it.
     It may seem weird to put whole cloves of garlic on a pizza, but when it has been cooked for a long time, it becomes soft, the flavor is a milder, and there is a creamy nuttiness to it.  In fact, I think that roasted or simmered cloves have quite a different flavor than straight up garlic added to a sauce or a dish.

     I used precooked shrimp that we had gotten on sale at Cub (shocking, I know).  I usually don't buy precooked shrimp, because it is frequently overcooked, and I feel like you miss an opportunity to ramp up the flavors by cooking it with your own seasonings.  However, the raw, peeled, deveined shrimp is rarely on sale, and I do not enjoy the deveining process, so sometimes we end up with pre-cooked shrimp.  We have been pretty lucky lately with the ones we have gotten.  They have been just the regular generic at Cub, and they were cooked perfectly.  I was a little worried about cooking them again on the pizza, but given the fact that they were barely thawed when I put them on there, and their stint in the oven was only a few minutes, it turned out just fine.

     The shrimp were fabulous!  They weren't the slightest bit chewy - they were soft and tender and salty.  The leeks added a slight tang of oniony flavor, and when you bit into a piece with a chunk of garlic on it, the flavor just burst into your mouth - nutty, warm, and slightly zingy.  The tomatoes brightened up all of the flavors and added a little moistness to the slice.

     

     Jeff had brought home a new Ciroc flavor - pineapple!  How appropriate, since we were going to have pineapple pizza for dessert.  I like it when a theme emerges.

                        PINEAPPLE MARTINI

1½ ounces pineapple Ciroc (or other pineapple flavored vodka)
1½ ounces regular vodka 
Juice from ¼ of a medium lime (about 1 tablespoon of juice)  


Combine ingredients in an ice-filled shaker.  Shake and pour into a chilled cocktail glass.  Sip slowly.

I do not enjoy an extremely sweet drink (or even an ordinary sweet drink), and the Ciroc was sweet on its own.  I added equal parts of regular vodka, so we could still taste the pineapple flavor, but weren't overwhelmed by sweetness.

PIZZA COLADA

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

Dough:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

¼ cup granulated sugar

3¼ cups bread flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

Toppings:

1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup sweetened dried coconut shreds

2 teaspoons rum extract

4 tablespoons melted butter, divided

8 canned pineapple rings, very well drained

Make the dough:  Combine the water and yeast in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes.  In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the sugar, flour, and salt.  Add the yeast mixture and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together and starts to cling to the hook.  Remove the dough and shape into a ball.  Place the ball in a greased bowl, cover with a damp, lint-free towel, and set aside in a warm place for an hour or until dough has almost doubled in size.  Cut the dough in half and reshape each half into a ball.  Reserve one ball for another use.

Assemble the pizza:  Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough to a fifteen inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  In a food processor or blender, combine the cream cheese, coconut, and rum extract and puree until smooth.   Prick the dough all over with a fork.  Brush the dough with 2 tablespoons of melted butter.  Slide the dough onto the preheated stone or place on a greased pizza pan and put into the preheated oven.  Bake until the crust starts to brown- about 5-7 minutes.  Remove from oven with a pizza peel or transfer the pizza pan onto a hot pad.  Spread the cream cheese mixture over the baked crust.  Arrange the pineapple rings over the cream cheese.  Brush the pineapple with the remaining butter.  Transfer back to the oven and bake about four five more minutes.  Serve immediately.

     The dessert pizza was delicious!  The creamy, coconutty cheese underneath the sweet, tangy pineapple was really like a hot pina colada that had chew.  The crust was soft and slightly sweet, while the pineapple cut through the richness with its hot juicy goodness.  I only wished that there were more pineapple.  I think I would give up the presentation to add more pineapple in the spaces the rings didn't cover.  Or, it could be made into 8 individual pieces and maybe then there would be more coverage.  Or, maybe if I could have found the edible flours and put those in the holes and spaces in-between, it maybe have looked better - but I think more pineapple would have been better.

Back to the top.

Back to the Shrimp, Braised Leek, and Garlic Pizza recipe.

Back to the Pineapple Martini recipe.

Back to the Pizza Colada Pizza recipe.