We’ve always liked making pizza. Ever since my sister made it in 7th grade home ec, she and my brother and I would bake pizza religiously on Friday nights. We always made it the same way – thin crust, tomato, cheese. I’d be hard pressed to think of a better way to start the weekend.
Some time after college, I tasted a super thin crust pizza that had been baked in a wood oven. Cooked so hot and slim that the dough bubbled and the bottom was slightly crunchy…. it was perfection. Over the years, Tom and I have tried to make it that way at home. The fact that we didn’t have a wood burning oven didn’t deter us in the least. We had a pizza stone, dang it, and we were going to make that pizza one way or another. Well we tried the one way, and then another, and another, and another, but it never quite worked out the way we hoped. (Poor us – we had to eat all those failed pizzas. It was a tough job, people, but we struggled through somehow.)
Recently I came across this recipe over at Apartment Therapy and it looked promising. So we gave it a go – and it’s delicious! Here’s one of ours from last week before baking…
We put tomato, olives, sundried tomato and basil on for the first bake, and added some fresh mozzarella and a sprinkling of aged gouda for the final few minutes. Since they’re cooked at 500 degrees, they’re done before you know it! And here’s one after baking…
This one has sauce and fresh mozzarella. It can’t quite replicate the hot wood-fired taste but it’s pretty close! They’re fun to make, and our kids are crazy about the taste – double score. Ok, now I’m hungry.