Street Corn Pizza #AbramsDinnerParty

So, here's the deal. This past cookbook season, Abrams has been sending me free cookbooks that have recently been published. Yup, free. Nada cost. It's good to be a blogger.

One of the books in the giant pile of wonder is What's Gaby Cooking by Gaby Dalkin. The theme of the book is Everyday California Food, so you know what to expect, right? Lots of fresh ingredients.

So, as I was browsing through the book, I started inserting bookmarks in all the recipes I wanted to make. Here, there, more and more. But the one recipe I kept going back to was the Street Corn Pizza. Unfortunately, I went a little off the rails when I made it, adding (gasp) zucchini. And cooking it on a tortilla instead of actual pizza dough.

I mean, hey, you can customize your pizza when you order it somewhere. If I went a little mad in my execution, you can forgive me, right? Plus, I made this before fresh corn was looking good, so I think I can cut myself some slack for the changes.

However.

The original recipe needs to be made, because it sure as heck seems to be the best way to make street corn. Have you seen that stuff? It looks amazing in photos, but it's near impossible to eat neatly. This pizza has all the flavors, and no mess!

Street Corn Pizza

From What's Gaby Cooking by Gaby Dalkin

All purpose flour

Nope, this isn't the pizza you will end up with if you
make the recipe. But this was definitely inspired by the
recipe here. Mostly the corn. The corn and the cheese.
Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

1 pound fresh pizza dough

1/2 cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup grated cotija or parmesan cheese

1 cup roasted or sauteed corn

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon chili powder

3 to 4 tablespoons fresh cilantro

Lime wedges

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Likely flour a rimless baking sheet or pizza peel. (I prefer using cornmeal, but flour works, too.)

On a clean, floured surface, shape the dough into 3 medium rounds. Let the dough sit for 5 minutes, then re-form it to make sure it's as big as you'd like it to be. Place the dough on the prepared baking sheet or pizza peel.

Spread the olive over the top of each pizza and sprinkle with the garlic. Top the pizzas with the mozzarella, almost all of the cotija (reserve a little for garnish), and the corn. Season with salt and pepper.

Transfer the pizzas to the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cheese is fully melted and the crust is golden brown.

Remove from the oven, season with salt and pepper, and top with the chili powder and cilantro. Sprinkle the red pepper flakes and the remaining cotija cheese, and serve with lime wedges to squeeze on top.

So anyway ...

I think this is a pretty good representation of the recipes you'll find in the book. Tasty, fresh, not to hard, but not the basics, either. Now I just need to work my way through the other eight recipes I have marked. As soon as peppers are on sale, there are some marinated peppers I want to try, and maybe for lunch soon there will be the green rice burrito bowl. Because anything in a bowl is fun.

In case you missed it up top, I got this book for free as a participant in the Abrams Dinner Party.

Tomato and Onion Flatbread

Hey, look, I'm back to blogging. Well, not really.

This recipe is a guest post from my friend Karen who blogs at Karen's Kitchen Stories. You should go check out her blog - she's got lots of fantastic stuff and her photos are lovely. Or follow her on Facebook. Yes, you should do that, too.

This tomato and onion flatbread is so easy to make, and is amazingly thin and crispy. When you pull it out of the oven, you can hear it crackle.

What I love about this flatbread is that you get the joy of eating pizza without all of the extra calories. The flatbread is light and thin, and the topping is simply tomatoes and onions. Veggies! It’s almost health food, right?

I’ve made this in advance, reheated it on a hot baking stone, and served it as an appetizer. We’ve also had leftovers for breakfast! Last night, we had it as a side to baked salmon, along with a salad. It’s really versatile.

This crust is a great vehicle for lots of toppings. Once you get it stretched out onto the half sheet pan, you can choose any toppings you like.

Honestly, I think pizza and flatbread should be its own food group.

One note: Be sure to keep an eye out for any puffing up of the dough as it bakes. While I’ve made this flatbread many times, this time the flatbread rose up about 6 inches in the middle in the first five minutes of baking (eek!), so I stabbed in in the middle with a fork to flatten it out. It worked out fine!

Tomato and Onion Flatbread
Inspired by Jim Lahey’s My Bread

For the crust:
250 grams (about 1 3/4 cups plus) bread flour
5 grams (1 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast
2.5 grams (3/8 teaspoon) salt
1.5 grams (generous 3/8 teaspoon) sugar
150 grams (2/3 cup) room temperature water
Extra virgin olive oil

For the topping:
14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup thinly sliced white or yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon crushed red peppers

Mix the dough ingredients in a large bowl with your hands, spoon, or dough whisk. The dough should be fairly stiff. I added an extra tablespoon of water.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 2 hours, until more than doubled.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. If you have a baking stone, place it on the middle rack.

Drizzle olive oil onto a half sheet pan.

Take the dough and stretch it lengthwise onto the pan. Let it relax.

While it is relaxing, using a strainer, drain the diced tomatoes, reserving the liquid.

Using a blender, hand blender, or food processor, mix the tomatoes, 3/4 cup of the reserved tomato juice, olive oil, and salt. Set aside.

Continue to press and stretch the dough until it nearly fills the sheet pan. Pinch together any breaks in the dough.

Ladle the tomato sauce over the entirety of the dough.

Sprinkle with the onions and crushed red peppers.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges are slightly charred. Using tongs, pull the pizza onto a cutting board.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Grilled Barbecue and Ham Pizza #Evergriller #sponsored

When I was growing up in the Chicago area, winters meant snow, mittens, freezing cold, and hibernation. When I moved to the Denver(ish) area of Colorado, I found out that winter doesn't necessarily mean "white." It snows here, but most often in the spring than in the dead of winter.

And of course it gets cold, but not as bitter as Chicago winters. And when it's sunny - which it often is - it can be pretty pleasant outside. Not shorts and flip-flops pleasant, but pleasant enough to do some grilling without turning into an icicle.

Yup, if you've got a yen for grilling, the smart thing to do is pick a sunny day, and, well, grill in the sunshine. If you wait until after dark, it feels a lot chillier.

When I got an offer through Clever Girls to work with Kraft on an outdoor, out-of-season grilling recipe, I figured it would be a no-brainer. I love barbecue sauce, and the grill was waiting. They sent along some of their revamped barbecue sauce (which they said features high-quality ingredients like tomatoes, sweet molasses, cider vinegar and cane sugar. And  NO high fructose corn syrup).

I received the Original, Hickory Smoke, and Sweet Honey; the other flavors are Mesquite Smoke (oooh, I need to try that!), Sweet Brown Sugar, Sweet & Spicy, Spicy Honey, and Thick & Spicy.

Besides the sauce, they sent some grilling gear, including an ingenious mitt called the Evergriller Grill 'N' Flip Mitt that has a pocket-like mouth on the front end, so you can insert the handle of your chosen barbecue tool and grab onto it while keeping your hand safe from both the heat of the grill and the chill of winter air. And from the chill of the barbecue tool, if you left it outside in a snowbank, I guess.

Armed with sauce and swag, I tried to decide what to make.

For inspiration, I opened the Hickory Smoke sauce first, because I was curious if I'd like it or not. A lot of hickory-flavored sauces taste fake to me, but this one was pretty darned good. As in, I'll probably buy a whole lot more of it.

I slathered the sauce on chicken wings and baked it onto chicken thighs - got to do some quality control tests, right? I was thinking about buying some ribs for the official test and post, but I thought ribs might be way too simple.

I wanted to do something different. Creative.

Then the idea hit me. Pizza. But not just any pizza. Pizza with HAM.

The idea of combining ham with barbecue sauce came from a sandwich served one of my favorite places in Chicago that served a barbecue ham sandwich. I know it's not traditional, but it's really good.

And I figured that pizza would be a perfect vehicle for my barbecue sauce and ham, because it gave me an excuse to add some melty cheese.

For my crust, I used a flour tortilla, to make a super-thin-super-crunchy crust. I used the smallest ones - labeled "fajita" size - about 5 1/2 inches in diameter. While you could use a larger tortilla for larger pizzas - the burrito size are pretty big - the smaller ones are easier to handle, and you can customize the toppings, if you like. And since these are small, two of them make a nice serving size.

The key to these little pizzas is to prep the tortillas ahead of time, cooking and flipping them on the grill until they've become somewhat crisp. That can be done ahead of time, and then the pizzas can be topped and finished as needed.

Grilled Barbecue and Ham Pizza

For each pizza:
1 flour tortilla, about 5 1/2 inches in diameter
1 tablespoon Kraft Hickory Smoke barbecue sauce
1/4 cup (about 1 ounce) shredded cheese (I used the Kraft Mexican four-cheese blend)
1/2 of a slice of deli ham, torn or sliced

Figure out how many pizzas you're going to need and multiply the ingredients accordingly. You can adjust quantities to taste, but I thought this ratio worked well. Extra tortillas won't go to waste, if you grill them until they're crisp. You can break them up to make crackers, or save them for another day of pizza-making.

Make sure you've got the grill set up with direct heat to pre-cook the tortillas, and indirect heat for finishing the pizzas.

Over direct heat on your grill, cook the tortillas, flipping them regularly so they cook and get grill marks, but they don't burn.

The tortillas are done when you can pick one up and it's rigid rather than floppy. They don't need to be completely solid - just rigid enough to hold their shape.

Remove the tortillas from the grill (if it's freakishly cold out, bring the finished tortillas indoors to prep them.Spread the barbecue sauce on top of each one, almost to the edge. Top with ham and cheese.

Place the pizzas back on the grill over indirect heat and close the lid. Let them cook until the cheese has melted and the ham has warmed - this takes just a minute or two, depending on your grill.

These are nice served with a green salad, but if you want to offer additional toppings on the pizzas themselves, then diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and pickled jalapeno peppers would work well.

About that MITT:

If you're interested in winning your very own Evergriller Grill ‘N’ Flip Mitt, along with a year’s supply of Kraft Barbecue Sauce, go to GrillinFools.com between now and January 30. The winner will be randomly selected at the close of the giveaway.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and provided product samples by Kraft Foods, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Easy Peasy Pizza

I wrote a bread baking book, so obviously I'm familiar with dough. I haven't bought bread for so long, I couldn't even tell you what a loaf costs.

But that doesn't mean I'm totally opposed to shortcuts. My good friends at Krusteaz sent me some of their flatbread mixes to try, and I was really curious. I like the other mixes I've tried, so I had reasonably high hopes for the flatbreads.

What I like about Krusteaz products is that they're reasonably priced, but they still taste good. When I'm testing bakeware, I like to use Krusteaz products because I know that if something goes wrong, it's a bakeware issue and not a recipe problem.

I decided to use my stand mixer to knead the dough, although the recipe instructions didn't require it. I mean, I have the thing, so why do it the hard way?

According to the instructions, I should have added an extra 1/3 cup of water since I'm at high altitude. But I decided to use the standard instructions and add water if I needed it. Rather than needing more water, I had a dough that was pretty loose and sloppy. To get it to turn into a ball of dough, I needed to add just a tiny bit more flour.

But that's no big deal. Any time you make bread, you should feel free to add more or less water, or add a little flour if you think the recipe needs it. With bread dough, the feel is more important than the formula.

Once the dough was made and rested, I decided to make a pizza from half of it

.

And I divided the other half into two pieces and baked them as flatbreads.

I decided to use the garlic and onion flatbread, which was pretty tasty on its own, but I loved the idea of using those flavors as a pizza crust base. I decided to use non-traditional toppings - a can of mild diced Hatch chiles, and cheddar cheese.

The flavors were good, but I have to say that I was really happy with the texture of the crust.

The instructions point out that if you want a fluffier dough, you can let the dough rise longer, but I liked the thin crust a lot. Since I baked the pizza first, the flatbreads did have just a little extra rising time, but they also puffed more because they didn't have toppings.

If you're looking for a quick, easy way to make flatbreads - for pizza or for other purposes - these mixes are pretty good.

Besides the garlic and onion version, there is an Italian herb mix and a whole wheat mix. So far, I've only tried one, but I expect that they'll all be just as good.

Disclaimer: Krusteaz sends me products from time to time for my use. I only write about the ones that I feel my audience would be interested in.

A tribute to David M. Cavanagh (AKA DMC or DMCavanagh)

I "met" David online at Serious Eats, which happens to be where I met a lot of great people. He was passionate ... and opinionated ... about pizza. And dough. And yeast. And mostly pizza.

Recently, David passed on ... to wherever you believe one goes after death. Wherever he is, I hope there are pizza ovens and plenty of flour, water, and yeast.

Adam Kuban posted this announcement:

I'm so sorry to have to post this news, but it looks like David M. Cavanagh ("dmcavanagh" on Serious Eats) passed away on Saturday after a battle with cancer, as per a post on his Facebook timeline.

I don't know how many people knew of his illness and progress. I don't know much beyond that post and the little I had heard from a mutual friend. He was generous with his knowledge and time, and I know he touched many people's lives here both online and IRL.

Charles Turnipseed posted this:
Very sad to see this in my news feed this morning:

"On behalf of my Dad, we regret to inform you that David M. Cavanagh passed away on Saturday after a battle with cancer. We invite you all to join us in saying goodbye on Saturday, November 8 at Myers' Funeral Home in Delmar, NY; visiting hour from 10-11 AM with a memorial service at 11:00 AM. We are grateful for the happiness that you all brought him and hope that you will join us on Saturday."

Anthony and Michelle Cavanagh

Here's David featured in the "Pizza Obsessives" column on Serious Eats.

Maybe Glenn explained our mutual friendships best:

Way back when..... there was no Water Cooler, there was a site called Serious Eats (It's still there). That site had some pretty cool features. One was called TALK. You could engage in discussions about food, cooking, etc., ask questions, answer questions, debate, and alas, go off topic.

A huge part of Serious Eats was Slice, founded by Adam Kuban. Here the talk was pizza, all things pizza.

Anyway, we'd talk pizza, dream about pizza, and debate the finer qualities of said food.

It was here I met Dave. DMCavanagh was his name on the posts. I was Tupper Cooks! DM was an opinionated SOB-he knew his way was right and he never hesitated to let me know! We'd go at it on a Friday afternoon arguing over temps, flour, yeast, water and who knows what!

One thing led to another and we found out we only lived a couple hours away from each other. He had a camp on the river in Ogdensburg, ours was in Cape Vincent. We talked fishing, pizza and god knows what else.

We finally met at Kate's for a pizza party here in Tupper. Kate had a WFO and damn we were gonna make some pies. We did. What a night. Adam and Claire came, with an unseen baby Margot. Diana was there and Anne Marie and Jack. Aya stopped by and made some. I think we made 20 pies that night. No leftovers.

Needless to say our friendship was forged in pizza. We got together 3 more times. Once at Diana's, once to tour the Utica Club Brewery and once at Picken's General Store. We always parted with a plan on what to do the next time we got together. We'd meet on the River and go fishing, then make some pizza maybe.....

The last time I talked to him via FB was about 6 weeks ago. Told me he had a little bad luck, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he was on meds and say a prayer. That I did. Tried contacting him a few more times to no avail.

Needless to say DM passed away this past Saturday.

I cried today.

Fucking cancer.

Didn't know you very long my friend, but we had some good times.

Going to miss your wiseass comments!

Peace brother.

• • Glenn Poirier: This was the first time we got together. DM and I prankedDiana when she came to the door, since she'd never seen us in person. Asked if this was where the pizza party was, I said, "No". SHould have seen the look on her face-priceless!

    
    Diana Horst: Ya got me. And then you guys giggled like school girls with delight. Good times and good memories.

Glenn: DM's Cheez It pie. Was pretty damn good.

• 
  
• Adam Kuban: I wish I knew exactly what he did with that pizza. I'd like to replicate a version of it in his memory!
  
  Erin Cox: Cheez-it pizza? Do you mean cheesey cracker thin crust?

  
  
• Adam Kuban: No, he made a pizza topped with Cheez-It breadcrumbs! It was his version of a traditional Sicilian sfincione, which is often topped with not much more than sauce, caciocavallo cheese, and breadcrumbs. He put a twist on it by using either straight-up crumbled Cheez-Its or maybe a mixture of Cheez-Its and breadcrumbs.

  
  

Glenn: This pic just makes me giggle.

• Diana Horst I don't remember what was said, but the expressions made me think:
  Dave: It had to be said. When it's wrong it's wrong.

  
  
• Diana Horst Glenn: Strange way of putting it, but I think I know what you mean.
  Diana: Seriously? You dd not just say that.

  
  
• Diana Horst The above imagined conversation was probably quite accurate--most likely involving the "sin" of adding sugar to pizza dough.

In David's honor, there have been a lot of memories posted, a lot of talk about pizza and recipes and pizza, and a bunch of folks have been making pizzas and raising a few slices in his honor ... and a few other recipes as well.

Diana Horst said:
I believe it was Glenn who started calling Dave, who went by dmcavaagh, DMC. Dave and I liked to bust each others chops constantly. We often said we would have a pizza throwdown, and because DMC was stuck in my head the Run DMC and Aerosmith collaboration of Walk This Way became the theme song for our throwdown. I think he was quite amused by my thinking. So, here ya go, peeps. Make pizza, eat some cheese curds and watch this video and think of Dave. 

Deanna McNamara said:

This was DMC's last post and I will make these in his honor.
I know most of you are making pizza, but this is more up my alley. R.I.P. Dave.

(recipe from King Arthur Flour)

Steven J. Perry said:

Well last night it had to be pizza.

Rose Strong said:

RIP...DM Cavannaugh... This is for you!

Judy Kennedy Dawson said:

Here's to you, Mr. DMC!!!

Christine Adams said:

For the pizza man ...

Glen Poirier said:

After watching all those pics of pizza come up today I succumbed! Here's to you DM!

Matt Baird said:

In memory of my friend, Dave Cavanaugh, the pizza man. RIP brother.

Matt continued: I just made this pan pizza in my cast iron skillet, and when it was done, it just slipped right from the pan. No sticking at all. So I figured all I hadda do to clean it, was wipe it out with a paper towel, and like a freakin idiot, I grabbed the handle with my bare hand. Needless to say, I didn't hold the handle for very long!

And here's my pizza offering.
I have no words, because everyone else said it better.

Did you know David Cavanagh? Feel free to leave your comments!

Pizza Twist Bread

I'm so excited to be writing a sponsored post for Red Star Yeast. There are very few products where I'm even "mostly" brand loyal, but with Red Star, I'm 100 percent a fan. I buy the stuff in 1- or 2-pound bags, and it's the brand I always use. So it's pretty easy to say, yeah, I like you enough to post about you.

I adore the Platinum yeast when I'm making something that has the potential for a slow rise, like rich or sweet doughs. The only thing I don't like about the Platinum is that it's currently only available in packets, and I go through so much yeast that I need to buy in larger quantities.

Active dry and instant are my go-to yeasts for everyday breads. Okay, now that the book is done, I'm not actually baking bread every day. More like 3-4 times a week. But I think that's enough. I'm guessing it's more than the average household.

If you're ever curious about how to use one the type of yeast you have on-hand when a recipe calls for something else, check out this yeast conversion post from Red Star. And then bookmark it!.

As far as this particular recipe, I made a bread similar to this - at least as far as the design - last year to use up some leftover Thanksgiving cranberries. But that was a sweet bread. I decided that it would work just as well for a savory bread, and I decided to use pizza-like flavors.

I thought about adding some Italian sausage to this, but I knew that I'd be eating most of this at room temperature rather than warm. So I left the meat out and just included tomatoes, cheese and oregano - three flavors that are common in pizza.

The really neat thing about this bread is that it's so versatile. You can slice it into wedges, or you can pull it apart. You can eat it warm or at room temperature. If you want it warm, you can reheat it gently to warm and melt the cheese. You can slice it horizontally to make sandwiches. It's good or breakfast, lunch. or dinner.

And it's pretty. The design is very attractive, but it's not immediately obvious how it's made. Which is the best part. People will look at it and ask, "How did you DO that?" And you can just smile mysteriously, because you know how easy it really is.

Pizza Twist Bread

1 cup water
1 large egg
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) Red Star active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup (3 ounces) semolina flour
3 cups (13 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 ounces sundried tomatoes (the ones in a bag, like dried plums), chopped*
6 ounces shredded cheese**
1 tablespoon dried oregano

Combine the water, egg, sugar, flours, salt, and olive oil the the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.

No stand mixer? Just mix in a bowl until combined, then finish kneading by hand.

Add the sundried tomatoes and knead just until they are evenly distributed in the dough.

Cover the bowl and set aside to rise until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour.

Flour your work surface lightly and turn out the dough. Divide in half. Form the first half into a ball, then flatten to form a disk about 10 inches in diameter. You can use a rolling pin, or just stretch and pat and pull it into shape. Try for an even thickness.

Sprinkle the cheese on top of the dough, leaving about an inch around the edge uncovered. Sprinkle the oregano on top of the cheese.

Form the second piece of dough into a disk just like you did with the first piece, and lay that on top of the cheese-covered dough. Pinch all around the edges to seal. Press down on the dough to encourage the cheese to adhere to the dough.

Transfer this to the center of a piece of parchment paper. Use your hands to shape it into an even circle.

Place a small ramekin or small drinking glass in the center of the dough. This will serve as your stopping point when you begin cutting the dough. Make four cuts in the dough as though you were cutting an X in the dough if the ramekin wasn't there. Cut all the way through the dough.

Now, make four more cuts, centered between the first ones you made. You should now have eight fat strips of dough.

Make eight more cuts centered between the ones you already made.

Now comes the fun part. Take one of the strips and twist it one full turn. Don't pull, just twist. Take the next strip and twist it one full turn in the opposite direction. Continue all around the circle, twisting right and left, alternately, until you have twisted all the dough strips.

Slide the parchment onto a baking sheet and use your hands to even up the circle. Make sure you've got at least an inch of space between the dough and the sides of the baking sheet.

Cover the baking sheet and let the dough rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. If you have a second baking sheet of the same size, you can flip that upside-down and use that as the cover.

While the dough is rising, heat the oven to 350 degrees.

When the dough has risen, bake at 350 degrees until it's nicely browned and the exposed cheese is melted.

Remove from the oven and let it cool on a rack for a short while - that cheese is molten hot.

You can serve this warm or at room temperature.

*Or do what I do, and buy the ones that are julienned. They're the same price as whole ones where I shop.

** I used 4 ounces mozzarella, and one ounce each of asiago (for flavor) and colby (for color). Use your favorites, or use what you have on hand. This is a great recipe for using up bits and pieces of assorted cheese.

This post was sponsored by Red Star yeast. You can find them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter. They also have a pretty spiffy Pinterest page whether they share a lot of fun recipes.

Pizza dough - for 2 personal-sized pizzas

I hadn't planned posting this as a recipe, but I needed to make a little pizza for a photo for a post I was writing about unique ways to use a cast iron frying pan.

One of my interesting options was to use the frying pan upside-down in the oven to bake the pizza. Like using a cast iron pizza stone.

So I threw together this dough, and it turned out pretty darned good, so I wanted to save the recipe - for myself. Of course, the best place to save it is on this blog.

This makes just enough for two small pizzas, each about 8 inches in diameter.

Pizza Dough

1/2 cup water, plus 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1/2 cup (3 ounces) semolina flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Cover the bowl and set aside until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour.

Put a large cast iron frying pan in the oven, upside-down (you'll be cooking on the bottom of the pan). Note: You might want to measure the bottom of that pan to see how large it is, so you know how large you can roll your pizza dough. My pan was 9 inches in diameter, so I figured that an 8-inch pizza would be the maximum.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Knead briefly, the divide into two pieces. Roll the first piece to the size you need it. Sprinkle a pizza peel with cornmeal and place the pizza on the peel Top it as desired - I used some basil pesto and some cheese - nothing fancy.

Use the peel to transfer the pizza to the frying pan bottom. Cook until the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly and browned in a few spots.

Remove the pizza from the pan - the easiest thing to do was grab it with tongs and slide it onto the peel.

Slice and serve.

Make the second pizza the same way.

Gadgets: Sharpen your pizza cutter!

Have you ever sharpened your pizza wheel? Have ever even thought about sharpening it?

Yeah, me either. I mean, it's not like you need a sushi knife for whacking your pizza into pieces, right?

So, when I saw that a pizza wheel sharpener ($14.99) existed, I was surprised.

But ... the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I have one pizza wheel that I like, and I use it for all sorts of things besides pizza. I use it for bread dough, noodle dough, pastry dough, focaccia, tortillas ... all sort of things.

But I don't treat it like a knife. When I cut something with a knife, I use a cutting board that protects the blade and keeps it sharper longer. When I use that pizza wheel, I'm probably cutting on the counter. Or on a metal baking sheet. Or on a pizza stone. Or just about anywhere except a cutting board.

So, I'm guessing that it's not quite as sharp as it used to be. In fact, I know it isn't.

So I gave the pizza wheel sharpener a whirl. It's basically two ceramic rods that the pizza wheel fits between as you roll it back and forth. For a smaller pizza wheel or a non-fluted pastry cutter, the back-and-forth is enough to get the whole circumference of the wheel. For my larger wheel, I had to make sure I was getting all the way around. Simple though - just roll back and forth.

The result? Well, I have to say that my pizza wheel was pretty dull to begin with, so it took some sharpening to get a decent edge. But now I have a pizza wheel that might actually be sharper than it was when it was new.

One-trick pony? Yes. But I can't think of another way to sharpen a pizza wheel or pastry cutter.

The product was supplied for the purpose of a review on Serious Eats; this was previously published on Serious Eats.

Cheese pizza on the grill

Grilling season has begun. Or, more accurately, it's coming and going. Some days, it's nice enough for me to want to be outside, and others, I want my fluffy socks and a mug of hot chocolate.

The great thing about pizza is that it can be made on the grill or in the oven. In this case, I made the pizza on the grill.

As far as the dough, I prefer to make pizza dough ahead of time and let it rest in the refrigerator at least overnight, if not longer. This time, I wanted pizza for that night. To make up for the fact that the dough wouldn't get the flavor from the long rise, I added semolina flour. It adds a nice depth of flavor.

For the toppings, I sent with something very very simple. Because sometimes simple is all you need.

Cheese Pizza (On the grill. Or not.)

2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup semolina flour
2 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Combine the yeast, water, sugar, and semolina flour in the bowl of your stand mixer. Stir to combine and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Add the bread flour and salt and knead with the dough hook until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Form the dough into a ball, drizzle with the olive oil, and return it to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled, about an hour.

I use a gas grill, so I started that preheating about 20 minutes before the dough had risen, with my cast iron pizza pan in the grill, with the heat on either side of the pan on medium and the burner directly below off. The pan got plenty hot.

My grill also has a rack that hangs above the grates that can be used for keeping things warm. I placed some quarry tiles up there. Those tiles absorb heat and help the pizza cook from above as well as below - because of course as soon as you lift that lid, you lose a lot of heat.

Of course, there are a lot of styles of grills, so set yours up as best you can so you have heat around the pizza pan or stone (and make sure your stone can be used on  a grill - some can't) and less heat directly below.

When the dough has risen, divide it in half. You have your choice of making 2 pizzas, one after the other, or stashing that second half of the dough for another day.

Roll the first half into a disk about 12 inches in diameter. Sprinkle your pizza peel (or whatever you'll use to transport pizza to grill) with cornmeal or semolina. Transfer the pizza to the peel and add your preferred toppings.

I used:

A drizzle of olive oil on the dough
Canned crushed tomatoes
A sprinkle of salt
A scattering of oregano
Slices of mozzarella

Move quickly when you're adding toppings, then give the peel a few gentle shakes back and forth to make sure the dough isn't sticking.

Transfer the pizza to the hot stone, close the lid, and let the pizza cook for 8 minutes. Open the lid just enough to peek inside to check the cooking.

Cook a few minutes more, if needed.

If the bottom of the pizza is getting overdone and the top is still underdone, you can turn on your oven broiler and give the pizza 30 seconds under the broiler to finish it. No need to preheat - just turn it on and let it go.

Slice the pizza as desired. Serve with some crushed red peppers, if you like, for sprinkling on at the table.

Make the second pizza the same way as the first.