I've been making pizza about once a week for about six months now, basically refining my sourdough pizza crust, and I think that I've finally gotten my recipe where I want it.  However, this post isn't actually directly about my recipe.  It's more about a very practical method that can work for pretty much any dough.  A few months ago I bought a 12 3/4" terra cotta planter dish at Lowes that I have been using as a pizza stone and it has been great!  I'm sure that I'm not the first person to do this but if you haven't tried it and you like homemade pizza, here are some pictures to get you started:

"clean" dish, already well used from previous bakes.

Preheat in oven at 500 for 30 min. on the bottom rack

Meanwhile....

Stretch out dough on semolina floured baking cloth so it can rest during preheating.  I stretch it a little every ten minutes or so until it is the size of the dish.

Remove hot dish from oven.

Warning!  This is the hardest part.  Slide dough into the hot dish and return it to the oven for 12 minutes.

During this time get out the sauce and toppings.

Remove the partially cooked crust from the oven.

Top it quickly.

Bake for another 12 min. or until it looks done according to your taste.

Enjoy!

Personally I like a hearty, chewy flavorful sourdough crust (put together the night before) that is a little more substantial than one that is commercially yeasted, but yet not so doughy that it seems undercooked.  Like I said though, you could probably use any recipe.

Thanks for reading,

Summer

An article about the 25 best pizzas around the country came out today. Read it here.

--Pamela

Tonight I tried two new pizza doughs out of Reinhart's American Pie.  Let me say YUMMY!!!  The crust on both were thin and very tasty.  I have not made dough that had that much flavor ever.  I made the Neo-Neapolitan dough as well as the Roman dough.  The Roman was thin and had a nice cruch to it.  My husband really likes thin crust and both of these delivered.  For all of the doughs in American Pie you make the dough the night before and retard over night in the fridge.  I made on mistake and used AP flour in the Neo dough instead of bread flour.  I am wondering is that is why I didn't really get a bigger crust.  But I am really anxious to try this dough out in my wood fire oven this weekend.  We are still curing it.  I cooked the pizzas in a 550 deg oven on tiles.  I am very happy about pizza night tonight.

Sorry the picture is not better.  I need to read the info on taking food pictures on this site.  Will work on it!

G'day!  I'm currently searching for a sourdough pizza base recipe.  I'd love to hear from those who have a tried and true recipe. I was just going to try one of my white sourdoughs and make a few adjustments. I'm also a newbie to the art and would love to hear of fellow afficionado's experiences.

Cheers! Marie.

Hi --

I just posted a wonderful Chicago-style stuffed-crust pizza over on Flour Girl.

I know we talk a lot here about light, crispy thin-crust pizzas here, but there's something to be said for a chewy, buttery, dense Chicago-style pie now and then.

I stuffed last night's pizza with spinach and cheese.

What do you all like best in your deep-dish pie?

Happy baking!

Flour Girl

OK, so I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but it works! Baguette dough is one of my favorite pizza doughs because it is easy to handle, has just a hint of sweetness, and bakes up as a sturdy, crisp, and thin platform (no sagging) that works no matter whether the topping be light or heavy. I baked this in the oven on my new stone (I didn't want to risk repeating last Friday's BBQed-beyond-all-recognition pizza). I had planned to top it with some pesto and fresh basil, but the pesto had molded and the basil, shriveled, so I just went with sauce and fresh mozzarella.

--Pamela

Hi, everybody!

Maybe this is a bit silly, since I've already exchanged messages with a few of your wonderful selves and posted my own question about how best to bake bread on a Coleman camp stove - and I received so many fantastic ideas and suggestions - but I hadn't really given an Official Introduction; essentially, I'm a writer and stumbling but devoted baker living in Hungary, and I've been so enthralled by the whole Fresh Loaf community.  

My husband suggested I post a link to my blog here on the website.  Since I'm a writer, I end up posting largely a bunch of diminutive short stories, but some of these stories are actually inspired by bread, of all things (!), and I've posted recipes, including my rendition and a fiction for Moroccan khoubz flatbread, the Fresh Loaf pita recipe and the camp stove method I used for it (but with full credit and a link to this website, don't worry!), and most recently a fiction and my recipe for basic pizza dough with my own ridiculous pizza design and toppings.  

Here's a link:

http://erzsebetgilbert.blogspot.com

It's not really epical, I think, but it's got baking and some writerly absurdities, so if it lends anybody a few ideas or a bit of entertainment, I'll be glad enough... but in the meantime, I just have to give everybody at the Fresh Loaf a most enormous thank-you for all your generosity, help, ideas, and general virtuoso kitchen skills!  Until later, blessings,

Erzsebet

It has rained for 4 days now. We are all stir crazy, so we made pizza. The kids did their own toppings. This one was just pepperoni. As they say in the papers, " A good time was had by all" .

on my blog today. I'd love to hear your favorite dough recipes and most-favorite topping suggestions.

Happy baking!

Flour Girl

flourgrrrl.blogspot.com