T1B

Well, got home from work yesterday and felt like pizza for dinner. Fuck delivery. I'll make my own. When I smoke a pork shoulder, I always smoke 3 at a time. Might as well not waste the time and smoke just doing 1. So once I pull all th pork, I add the BBQ sauce and fill sandwich bags of pork, put those in a vacuum seal bag, seal it and then pop those in the freezer. So I grabbed a bag of frozen pulled pork, put it in a bowl of hot water and got busy.

First thing's first, grab a cocktail. Little bit of Meyer's Dark Rum and Coke. Was between this or a glass of Shiraz and went with the rum and coke.



I made the dough using the recipe I have posted here before many a time.

(This is a double batch as I made a pizza for me and one for my wife. She's just a cheese pizza eater)

2.5 cups warm water
2 T active dry yeast
2 T sugar
2 cups semolina flour
4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 T vital wheat gluten
4 T olive oil

Activate the yeast by putting it, the sugar and water in a bowl and whisk until it is dissolved. Do this first and let it set for 7-10 minutes until it is foamy. Mix the flours, gluten, and salt in a bowl. I use a kitchen aid 6 quart mixer with the dough hook. You can do this by hand, but why? If you only have a 5 quart mixer, then you will want to split the recipe in half and do it twice. I have a 5 quart mixer as well and was not able to do a double batch there. Make a cavity in the flour mixture like a volcano. Once the yeast is good and foamy, put the olive oil in the cavity as well as the yeast mixture, turn on the mixer and let it go. I let it mix for about 7 minutes. Occasionally I have to add a few drops of water or a dash of flour to it to either clean flour from the sides or if it was a bit too wet the extra flour will help.

Anyhow, once it is done, I put it on the bread board, cut in half, transfer to an olive oil lined bowl (cover the dough lightly in oil too) and cover with press n seal. I had the dough made and in the bowl covered by 5 PM. Usually, I like to let it rise for 4 hours or overnight in the fridge, but 2 hours is plenty. It's a weeknight and I don't want to eat at 10 PM.

While it is rising, I caramelized a yellow onion. Just sliced thin, cooked in pan with butter, salt, pepper, cumin and cayenne until caramelized. Took about 1 hour.



Pulled pork is thawed and looking damn good.



Got the pork, onions, cheese, dough and BBQ sauce ready to go. Oven is heated to 500 degrees with the stone on the bottom rack heating up. Let's do this.



Dough in the bowl ready to be pounded.



Turned out. Be sure to use a paper towel to get excess olive oil.



Dough pressed out by hand, by tossing and also by using my little pastry roller.



Dough after it was spiked. Keeps bubbles from forming as you know.



Brent's BBQ Sauce - Hot vartiety added.



Next go the caramelized onions.



Pulled pork. Lay it on thick.



Cheese. Just cheddar out of the bag. Last time I did this I used my cold smoked sharp cheddar which was amazing, but cheddar works fine. Here it is on the peel ready to go in the oven.



And we're off!



Couple minutes later.



4 minutes in.



I turn the broiler on High at about 5 minutes. that stone is 500 degrees and cooking from the bottom. Going broiler at this point is similar to what a pizza oven does. I don't want the bottom overcooked while the top is ignored. I like my cheese on the top to be a bit browned. I don't like a gooey cheese. It stays under the broiler for about 4 minutes and it's done.

Final product.



Sliced and ready to eat.



Bon apetit.



The wife's cheese pizza. Boring I know.



Sliced

Nice. We went out for sushi.

Don't tell Dins.

Can that dough be rolled out to a thin crust? Not down with the cheese bread.

Goobs,

Absolutely. And I do that from time to time. I will roll it to about 1/4" thick. I have to use my heavy rolling pin though. Too much of a pain in the ass with the pastry roller. Then, I just build the toppings to the edge. Only difference in cooking the thin crust is that I preheat the stone to 500 degrees and throw it on broil as soon as I put the pizza on the stone. By the time the cheese and toppings are cooked with the broiler, the thin crust is already crispy. My crust gets crunchy on the bottom while the rest of the bread is very chewy.

As for the "cheese bread", I agree. Seems like a waste of effort but the little lady likes it which makes it worth my time. I like to put sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, onions and bacon on my regular pizza. Though, I usually do some kind of BBQ pizza for myself.

Mikey wrote:Nice. We went out for sushi.

Don't tell Dins.

I won't if you won't. I just had sushi for lunch.

I'm not a real big fan of non traditional pies (mostly a mozz and tomato sauce kinda guy), but I think I could get into that. I too would prefer it less doughy.

IndyFrisco wrote:

Mikey wrote:Nice. We went out for sushi.

Don't tell Dins.

I won't if you won't. I just had sushi for lunch.

I don't think Dins has a problem with sushi, per se. I'm thinking he'd use it to catch salon.

I'll hook up a PET with a more traditional pie sometime. I have the pan pizza stoneware to do a nice deep dish. May do one of those and a thin crust. I make pizzas once or twice a week. I make my batch of red sauce in two week supplies so it is always on hand. Busy this weekend and going to the Super Bowl next week so it will be awhile.

Looks excellent!