First off, my apologies. I’m still sorting out my posting frequency on here (Just weekdays and take weekends off? Only when I have a recipe worth sharing?) Once I hammer that out I’ll be sure to let you know, in the meantime, I was hoping to kick off the new week strong, but with family visiting for the weekend, I’m just getting back into the swing of things now. On the plus side, that means I’m backed up with quite a few recipes, some of which were definite winners. As an olive branch, let’s kick back into things with a two-fer. My apology to you. Pizza. Times two!
My kids love pizza. I love pizza. Let’s face it, I think everybody loves pizza or suffers from some kind of mental glitch. Now, while my kids are quite content with a fresh n’ hot pie from Little Caesars (they’re alright in a pinch), I like my pizza to be a bit more substantial while not quite costing the same amount of a standard grocery bill. Hey, I just spent a fair amount of time in Regina Saskatchewan, the pizza capital of Canada. They do a great slice. It usually includes about a half inch of toppings, half inch of cheese and a second mortgage on your house. Finding a nice middle ground is my goal here.
Enter our challengers. Pizza #1 – aka “the kid pizza”
For this one, I went with something a little more basic. A quick rise dough kicks things off. I found the dough really wanted to keep springing back into a ball after stretching it out, so it took a while to get it to fit the baking sheet. It turned out alright though. I used some tomato paste as a base coat, followed by a can of Kraft pre-made pizza sauce. A few spices (oregano, garlic) sprinkled on the sauce wrapped up that part. I then added some cooked ham and pineapple on one side (yes, pineapple on pizza is a MUST), some deli sliced pepperoni on the other, leaving a corner free for my picky eater who prefers just a plain cheese pizza (we’ve yet to leave them home alone while we jetted off to Paris – so, parenting points +1). Once the toppings were on, I added a metric tonne of mozzerella cheese over the whole thing, and a bit of cheddar and parmesan over the plain cheese section. Oven. 400 degrees F for 23 minutes (I was going to do 20, but again, our oven cooks a bit slower than most it seems). This one turned out pretty solid. The crust was light, not very greasy at all. I call that one a winner. Satisfied the kids, was a bit more substantial than the pizza chain heat lamp, or even the grocery store deli ‘take and bake’. Thumbs up all around.
But I can’t just leave well enough alone, can I? Enter, Pizza # 2 – aka “the adult pizza”
Ever since I saw an online video espousing the glory of authentic Chicago style deep dish, I’ve been tempted to take a swing at one of those on my own. With an entire day on my hands and a fridge full of my favourite toppings, it was time. A google search found me what claimed to be a real Chicago deep dish dough recipe. Warning and heads up. This dough requires a significant and serious amount of rise time. We’re talking SIX HOURS at a minimum. You need to be serious and committed and have some prep time earlier in the day if you’re going to tackle this for dinner. I followed the recipe with a minor change of using canola oil (I had on hand) in place of corn oil (never knew that was a thing until today!). The rise was pretty uneventful, I thought things might puff a bit more than it did, but it worked out alright. Without a real deep dish pizza pan, I used a large Pyrex dish with some decent depth and the dough filled that up nicely.
If you’re unaware, Chicago style…and I mean REAL Chicago style deep dish pizza prides itself on a few things. A nice thick crust, and the sauce on top. That seems incredibly foreign to me. But…the mission was ‘authentic’, so…tarry on.
After stretching out the dough to fill the pan, I formed a bit of a lip on the edge of the crust. I then added a metric tonne of mozzarella. Some of my favourite toppings followed, including ham, pineapple, pepperonni, black olives, green pepper, even some feta cheese chunks I had left over from what turned out to be Greek Week a couple weeks back. Next up? Some tomato paste for a solid shot of concentrated tomato flavour, some more of that pre-fab Kraft pizza sauce (about a small can and a half) I then added some spices to the sauce, sprinkled a bit of pepper over the works, some parmesan cheese and tossed it in the oven at 450 degrees F for about 30 minutes.
I understand why most Canadian pizza joints put the cheese on top. Presentation wise, it just looks SO much more appealing to have a nice molten cheese on top, rather than what amounts to as best I can describe it, tomato puke on a plate. With that said, dang that was a good tasting slice of pie. If I had to rank things, I’m obviously going to give the edge in toppings and taste to the adult pizza I made. I mean, it was designed specifically for me. For the crust? As much as the deep dish was the more filling option, based on the sheer amount of work and rise time involved? I’m going to go with Crust #1 as the winner here.
There you have it. 2 pizza recipes for the price of…well, none.
Budget wise? This would be pricier than some of my more recent offerings. Face it, cheese ain’t cheap. With that said, my rough guess would put this at around…$15-20? And that still left me with a fair amount of cheese on the block, and leftover olives and pineapple. This won’t be an everyday meal due to cost and time involved, but if you find yourself with an abundance of cheese and some leftovers that would work out alright on a slice…go nuts! It’s also a good one for special occasions by ‘request of kid’.
-g
Dad's Turn To Cook 