Kimbesa's Homemade Pizza - Enjoy making pizza at home

Tested Store Bought Pizza Dough

Posted on August 2, 2015 by kimbesa

Looks tasty, this homemade pizza, and it was, too!

I admit it. I’ve tried the store-bought pizza dough in the grocery store. This one comes in a bag, cold or frozen. You take it home, thaw and warm it, and it’s considered convenient for making pizza at home.

Yes and no.

The pre-made dough ball I got came from the cold case in the local grocery store. They make it in their off-site bakery and keep it refrigerated.

I also know of at least one pizza joint in town that sells its pizza dough like this.

The upside of this kind of product: It is convenient in that you don’t have to mix and knead your own dough.

You don’t have to get any flour or yeast to make up your own dough for pizza crust. And it bulks up nicely when baking the pizza.

The down side, you still have to warm it to room temperature to get it to stretch. It didn’t save me any time.

By the time the dough was warm enough to use, I could have made my own, let it rise, and it would also be ready to make into pizza.

I’m sure my own dough is more economical to make, too. I buy the flour I like, which is bread flour from a local mill, along with a bit of whole wheat. The store dough is probably made from “00” flour, which is very finely ground and considered authentic by many cooks for Italian style pizza.

The dough I bought did make a tasty crust. And if you’re looking for something that’s a lot like pizzeria pizza, then this could be your choice. (If you want to make your own using 00 flour, check local specialty groceries or online sources like King Arthur.)

Make It or Buy It?

Store bought dough is nice to know about, and have some experience with, in case I choose to use it.

Using this dough for the pizza crust still gives me all the flexibility I want when making pizza at home, as respects the sauce and toppings.

The crust from pre-made dough was far superior to any of the premade crusts I’ve tried. (If that was my choice, I’d just order out, or buy a slice at the gas station.)

But I expect to keep right on making my own pizza dough, for the toothy, chewy crust we like, and a homemade pizza that’s exactly to our taste.

Bottom line at our house: homemade dough for pizza crust is the best balance of flavor, convenience, time and money!

Now I’m hungry for another homemade pizza tonight!

Mozzarella – The Best Cheese for a Pizza Fix

Posted on March 24, 2015March 26, 2015 by kimbesa

Which Mozzarella To Choose – Low Moisture, or Fresh?

Mozzarella cheese is a staple on my shopping list.

I’ve got pizza on my mind every week. I have not been told I’m obsessed with pizza, but perhaps I’m getting there.

When I check the cupboard, I’ve usually got everything else: pizza sauce, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese and all the ingredients for the dough.

As for the mozzarella, I go back and forth when it comes to which type of cheese I use for my homemade pizza.

I am very picky about the sauce I use on my pizza, but not so much about the cheese. Perhaps that is because I have not found one that is, for me, a stand out product.

I like both the low-moisture and fresh mozzarella cheese on pizza. Which one I use generally becomes a matter of convenience.

Choose Your Favorite Mozzarella Cheese

Sometimes I get the drier mozzarella cheese, in chunk or shredded form, labeled low moisture, part skim. It doesn’t add wetness to the sauce, and since I like a lot of sauce on my pizza, this makes a difference for the finished product. The toppings on the crust stay in place better and don’t slide off as easily when you pick up a slice of pizza.

Fresh mozzarella is wet, no doubt about it. I have not experimented yet with techniques that would take more time, like cutting, squeezing and draining the balls of cheese, before adding them to my pizza.

When I use fresh mozzarella on my pizza, I just slice it and put it on.

The drier cheeses last longer in the fridge, and often this is the deciding factor.

Mozzarella is going to be used for pizza around here. It’s convenient to have it last for a week or two, instead of days.

That said, fresh mozzarella is tasty on pizza!

Fresh Mozzarella

Check the deli case, or the specialty cheese case in your local grocery
Sold in a plastic pouch, pack or container with some water in it
Shorter expiration time
Use within days after opening
Creamy texture melts easily

Low Moisture Mozzarella

Found in the general cheese section, in shredded or chunk form in the cheese refrigerator case at the store
Ready to scatter on pizza if it’s shredded, or slice and spread if in a chunk
Squeeze air out of pouch of shredded cheese (if you have any left to store).
Wrap chunk cheese tightly to help keep longer
Melts and browns in a hot [popup_product]pizza oven[/popup_product]
Use standard shred (vs. fine) to prevent burning

No matter what cheese you choose, enjoy your homemade pizza!

Give Pizza This Holiday Season

Posted on November 11, 2014March 26, 2015 by kimbesa

Are there any pizza makers on your list (experienced or novice) this holiday season? Why not feed their love of pizza for those special cooks on your list?

The pizza makers on your list love having complete control of the available combinations, including the crust.

(I’m thinking of home cooks. Those who dial and order take-out are another category of pizza lover.)

When you add to their repertoire of ingredients or tools, happy recipients might even invite you over for a pizza feast!

Thin or thick crust, sauce variations, and the panorama of toppings will be available to explore when they make their own pizza at home!

Top Gifts for Pizza Makers

The possibilities fall into two major groups:

Ingredients – A special sauce that they might have never tried, special pizza sausage that’s not easy to find, some Double 0 flour, or special artisan cheese for pizza. Is there another ingredient that they talk about, but have never tried?

Tools – A [popup_product]pizza stone[/popup_product] will help them raise their pizza-making game. (Make sure it will fit into their oven.) Or a pizza peel to move their pie in and out of the oven. Or one of those pizzeria-style cutters will make slicing that pie a lot easier.

Cookbooks – There are as many ways to make a pizza as there are cooks.

A “pizza gift basket” can include several items, depending or the kind of gift you need, and the combination that your pizza maker will enjoy.

Pizza gift recipients will have opportunity to use their gifts right away, if they wish, to put their new pizza making tools to work. The holiday season is a great time to make a simple and quick pizza to feed the family and guests.

New pizza makers will love developing a practical skill, and experienced makers will enjoy expanding their pizza repertoire. Almost everyone loves pizza, and those who don’t…should!

Tips to Cook Mushrooms for Pizza

Posted on September 8, 2013September 26, 2013 by kimbesa

I love mushrooms on my pizza. I’m one of those double mushrooms lovers. I’ll go with canned or fresh. And I’ve also made pizza with both canned and fresh mushrooms, to enjoy the goodness of both.

When it comes to mushroom pizza, bring it!

Now I’m testing sautéed fresh mushrooms, vs. plain raw ones. While it is an extra step in pizza making, I want to know whether it’s worth the effort.

The reason for sautéing the mushrooms ahead of time is to concentrate the mushroom flavor and get rid of the excess water that they bring to the pizza

I found that the details are important, when pre-cooking my mushrooms. Here’s what I know for now:

Choose clean and firm mushrooms from the market, with no dark spots, and plan to cook them within a few days. When you’re ready to use them, brush them well and slice evenly.

Use olive oil to sauté mushrooms that will be a pizza topping. Have it hot enough for the mushrooms to sizzle, but in the middle range, so they can cook for about 10 minutes, and get golden brown on both sides.

Add some salt at the start of cooking. I didn’t add enough, so don’t be shy, but season according to your taste, too.

Sauté one layer of mushrooms at a time, and turn as needed for even cooking. You want them to brown and caramelize, and if you pile them up, they’ll just steam. Do them in batches if needed.

Let them drain and cool on paper towels, while you get the rest of the pizza ready for topping.

I found that you can do the mushrooms ahead – a day or two – and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to add them to your next homemade pizza masterpiece.

When your pizza comes out of the oven, hot and ready to eat, you’ll enjoy the rich, earthy mushroom flavor even more.

I’m sure I’ll still make pizza with my “other” mushroom ways from time to time, but I’m a fan of sauteed mushrooms now, and we’ll be enjoying our pizzas this way, too.

Pizza As A Negotiating Tool

Posted on March 8, 2013March 16, 2013 by kimbesa

Just in case you need another reason to make a pizza. Negotiations go better over food!

Pizza can make everything go better! (Fans know this already.)

Jean Chatzky was on the Today show, talking about a Babson College business study. The researchers found that both sides come out with a more profitable deal if they work over lunch, or dinner.

Pizza was her first thought, too. Her example: Have pizza when you need to negotiate with your spouse.

My pizza dough was ready to go, by the time I heard this.

Then I tracked down a report on the Babson study. that said, “…eating while deciding important matters offers profitable, measurable benefits through mutually productive discussions.”

The report didn’t say what they ate. But, I have to wonder, will Macy’s and JCP have pizza with Martha?

Meanwhile, my pizza crust is rising in a bowl on the kitchen counter. It’s warm indoors, and cold outside. When I turn on the oven, it will do double duty. Give us extra heat and bake us a pizza for lunch.

More Pizza On My Mind

I’ve been thinking about grilling pizza, when more of the snow melts. My pizza stone is ready for that, too. I’ve been looking at how other grillers assemble their pie, and what ingredients they use.

There are lots of examples where pizza makers use no sauce, just fresh tomatoes, cheese, and a few other toppings.

I love my favorite sauce so much, I’ll be experimenting with using it, just less of it, to balance the factors. I want the pizza to slide easily off the peel. Cornmeal helps, but if it’s too heavy with toppings, that could defeat the purpose.

Even so, I don’t want to leave off the sauce. It tastes so good, it won’t be pizza without my sauce.

That means experiments are to come! We’ll enjoy eating and rating the results.

Eating pizza needs no reason. What’s for lunch, or dinner, at your house?

Did You Search For Pizza This Weekend?

Posted on March 4, 2013March 26, 2015 by kimbesa

I just heard that lots of people searched online for pizza this past weekend? Were you one of them?

No need to wait for your pizza order to be delivered, or to go out into the dark or bad weather to get your favorite hot and tasty pizza, when you make your own at home!

Just a few simple steps in preparation, and you can be pizza-ready at your place:

Flour and yeast for the crust. A good bread flour keeps well in an air-tight plastic container. I keep it in my cupboard. I keep my extra whole wheat flour in the fridge, and it’s in an extra large zip bag.

Same with the yeast. I keep my big supply in a plastic container in the freezer, and a smaller snap container in the fridge where I can get to it easily.

Olive oil. We always have a bottle in the cupboard, because we use it for cooking many different dishes.

Pizza sauce. I love my favorite brand, [popup_product]Pastorelli[/popup_product], and I keep several cans around at all times.

Cheese and mushrooms. If I have fresh mushrooms, I’ll put them on pizza, but it’s so much easier to keep canned ones around. The big can, please. The convenience makes that an easy choice most times.

Mozzarella and Parmesan are in the fridge. The fresh mozzarella cheese does have a shorter life span, but you can freeze it if necessary. We have pizza often enough that cheese does not go to waste around here.

Those are the main components. It’s that easy! Basic pizza from your own kitchen.

For a pizza with more toppings, get your other favorites when you shop for groceries, and you’ll be ready to add them to your pizza, too.

Just make your dough an hour ahead, or longer if you need to. Slow down the rising by putting your bowl of pizza crust to be in the fridge. (Lightly oil the dough ball, and cover the bowl with plastic.)

A good, hot pizza is as close as your own kitchen, and ready to eat, straight from the oven, make your own at home!

Sunday Night Pizza Time

Posted on February 17, 2013September 26, 2013 by kimbesa

Any night is a good night for homemade pizza. Sunday is often an easy time, because you can be relaxed about making the dough, prepping the toppings, and putting it all together to bake.

My homemade pizza crust can easily be made in the morning and put in the fridge to rise. Or if you’re starting after lunch, leave it on the counter.

Always oil the ball of dough lightly, and cover the bowl with a clean towel to prevent it drying out.

If that happens, just punch it down, knead a few times, add a few drops of oil to the surface, and let it rise a bit longer.

You may have to let the dough rest part way through stretching it out on your sheet or baking stone. It will relax in 10 to 15 minutes and let you finish.

And that’s about all the time it takes to preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

You can bake your pizza as soon as the oven is up to temperature. Pizza stones do not have to be preheated along with the oven, but if you do, it makes for a crispier crust.

Then you’ll need to use a peel or perhaps a sheet of parchment to transfer the unbaked pizza to the hot stone. Some cornmeal helps the pizza to slide. Be careful! That pizza stone will be hot!

Get your plates and drinks ready so that you can enjoy a hot, homemade pizza, fresh from your own oven!

Homemade Pizza Rules

Posted on September 18, 2011September 26, 2013 by kimbesa

Your own homemade pizza can beat the pants off anybody’s. IMO.

Saw Hoda and Kathie Lee tasting Naked Pizza on the Today Show this past week.

It didn’t look naked to me. It looked pretty good, with a crust that looked whole grain and some good toppings. Best I could tell from TV.

But they’d just had some wine, which they were excited about. Apparently it was aged in stainless barrels. So the pizza was not getting their full attention.

I understand convenience. Well-made homemade pizza can be just as convenient. The notion of “naked” pizza, as in “just plain pizza” appeals to me. I just put it through the lens of “homemade.”

Homemade pizza that rules them all

Make your crust with the balance of whole grains and flours that suit your taste
Select your toppings the same way: massive mushrooms or sausage sensation, or…
Bake it round, square or any other shape
Serve it HOT from the oven, no transport delays

Homemade pizza: well topped and always tasty!

Homemade Sausage Pizza | Inspired by Castle

Posted on September 12, 2011March 26, 2015 by kimbesa

Homemade sausage pizza is a favorite at my house. I’ve written about it several times, and how much I love our local pizza sausage.

Add fresh basil? Sounds good. Let me get some green on my pizza.

Here’s how:

Choose fresh basil leaves
Rinse the leaves and pat dry
Stack several leaves together
Roll the stack
Use a sharp knife to thinly slice the leaves (cut across the width)

This will give you long thin strips of fragrant and tasty basil, what chefs call a chiffonade. Then arrange on your pizza, after the Parmesan and sausage, before the mozzarella.

Some people like to put on the whole leaves, but I like to have the dusky flavor spread out, so that every slice has some.

I used 8 medium sized leaves for my 14-inch pizza, and this was the ordinary basil variety that is common in farm markets and specialty groceries. You could experiment with other varieties, as you wish. I used smell as my guide, and I wanted to be sure and get an herb that would complement (and not overpower) the sauce and sausage.

I’ve seen recipes for basil on sausage pizza before. But what pushed me to try it?

I got the idea from an episode of [popup_product]Castle[/popup_product], and it just struck me as something that would be delicious. Castle is one of my top three favorite TV shows. It was a program from Season 3, “A Slide of Death.” This is the episode where the plot plays out against the intense rivalry between four New York pizza restaurants, with names so similar it adds another layer to the mystery.

In the end, Castle goes “across a bridge” to get a special sausage basil pizza for his daughter. He’s such a good dad! (I’ll forgive him not making it himself.)

Any night that Castle is on is a good night for homemade sausage pizza, too!

Make a Spooktacular Pizza Buffet

Posted on October 29, 2010March 26, 2015 by kimbesa

Feed your hungry goblins and ghouls some healthy pizza when they return from their candy collecting and parties on Halloween.

It’s easy to be ready to serve hot, fresh pizza made at home with a few simple steps in preparation.

Shop for pizza-making supplies. You’ll need some good bread flour and yeast for the homemade pizza crust. Or you can purchase frozen dough in balls at the grocery. Stock up on pizza sauce, cheese and other toppings, too.
Prepare the pizza toppings. Cook sausage, slice onions, fresh mushrooms, peppers or olives. Shred or slice the mozzarella as needed.
Make the dough for the pizza crusts. It will rise slower in the refrigerator, so you can make it several hours ahead of when you’ll need it. Or, freeze your own homemade pizza crust ahead of time. Let the dough return to room temperature before you try and stretch it out.

When the tired kids of all ages return, you’ll be ready to assemble and bake them some nourishing homemade pizza.

A spooktacular [popup_product]pizza buffet[/popup_product] will put a satisfied smile on their faces as they relax after their Halloween haunts.