Hello my Foodie Friends!
One of our family’s favorite foods is pizza. Pizza is customizable. We can add what ever we want to it. Pizza is just a bunch of delicious ingredients put together on a perfectly cooked crust. The possibilities of what we do with pizza are endless.
Having pizza night and putting on a favorite movie is one of our special things to do to wind down after a busy week from work and life. I have to admit that I love watching gangster movies with Hollywood stars such as Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. Among my favorites is the Godfather with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall. Within the movie, food was a powerful way for you to get to know the Corleone family. The family tradition of sitting at the family table and eating the foods of their ancestors was a gigantic part of the movie.
Recently, Paula and I went on a “Godfather” movie film watch while making some home-made pizza. A key tool that we use is a pizza stone. When using a pizza stone, the unglazed clay surface absorbs and distributes heat evenly, producing a crispy crust, but this is how to do it correctly: Place a pizza stone in the oven on the lowest rack. Placing the stone in a cold oven is very important because if you put the cold stone into a hot oven, the stone will crack and break–it’s called thermal shock. Allow at least 30 minutes for the stone to heat before you cook the pizza. Let the dough come to room temperature before baking. If cold dough is placed directly on a hot stone, the abrupt change in temperature may also cause the stone to crack. Because pizza stones are porous, they absorb odors. Avoid using soap to clean them. Wash with hot water and use baking soda to remove stubborn stains.
The use of a pizza peel helps you to place pizzas in the oven without spilling any ingredients or toppings. It also lets you remove pizzas from the oven once they are cooked. A pizza peel can be made either of wood (the traditional style) or metal which is thinner and flatter than the wood one. Both help to make it easier to place and remove the pizza onto the stone. Some tips on how to keep the pizza from sticking to the peel:
Many people dust their pizza peel to prevent dough from sticking to it. It’s most common to use flour cornmeal or semolina flow to dust.
Prepping dough separately: Prep your pizza dough on a separate surface from the pizza peel. Kneading, stretch and preparing the dough on the peel may seem convenient at the moment, but can cause it to stick to the peel later.
Switch peels: If you’re consistently having problems with dough sticking to your pizza peel, you may want to investigate getting a new one. Switching from a peel to peel or having a wooden peel and switching to a metal peel can help to reduce the frequency of the issue. We tend to alternate peels when making multiple pizzas.
Stop by downtown Saratoga Springs’ Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store located at 33 Railroad Place for the supplies you need to make your favorite Pizza. Cuddle up to your favorite movie and make a movie night with your pizza creation. Remember my Foodie Friends! Life Happens in the Kitchen.”
Take Care, John & Paula
