Pizza #3: Thick Half-and-Half (Grandma Style)

Recipe Updated July 2020

Let’s go pro! Time to step it up and do what the professional (Americans) do. For this pizza dough we adopted the Bon Appetit Grandma-Style Pie dough recipe to create a fluffy golden crust. Yesterday (the day before you want to devour) we took some dying yeast and tried to make the dough with what I considered too much water. The yeast did not bloom well. It spurted up in sad clumps that reminded me of a dying car. So we tossed it, got some healthy yeast (still just sticking with the dry packet sort) and started over. For good measure we added a “tad” of granulated/caster sugar to 1 ¾ cup of 110F water (make sure it doesn’t exceed 110F) and the yeast and left it in the KitchenAid mixing bowl for a little less than 10 minutes.

Once the blooming sprouted smiles on our faces, we added 2 tbsp of Bertolli 100% pure olive oil, a decent amount of salt (shake across once…twice…and a third for good measure) and 2 cups of flour. The mixer turned on to “stir” until mostly incorporated, we stopped the machine and scraped down the sides before adding another cup and turning it back on. The final cup was added soon after and we turned it to 4 (medium) for 4-5 minutes. It was pretty sticky, but apparently we wanted that, so, awesome.

The dough went straight into a well-oiled large bowl, covered in plastic wrap (sorry environment), and into the fridge for 24 hours. Honestly, it was probably only 23 hours, but who’s counting? When we finished prepping the dough we made homemade sauce. Bon Appetit used San Marzano peeled tomatoes (1 can) and we added Hunt’s tomato paste (6oz+), 2 cloves of garlic and a couple shakes of garlic salt and basil. It tastes a bit more garlicky when cooked than it did raw. Only about ¾ of the sauce we made went on the pizza.

Fast forward to the next day (today), the dough rose nicely, with the condensation bubbled on the underside of the plastic wrap. Still fairly sticky, but much less so. We poured (too much) oil onto a baking sheet with a lip. Then turned the bowl upside-down and encouraged the dough to release from the bowl. We let it sit in the pan for about 10 minutes, stretched it towards the corners with well-oiled fingers, and let it rest again. Eventually it stayed stretched out and we added about 3 cups of home-shredded (KitchenAid attachment) mozzarella. We spooned the homemade sauce on in stripes and made half with ground turkey and turned the other half into a cheeseburger pizza by adding yellow mustard, the ground turkey, and pickles (spicy ones). I am just realizing that onions would have been a good cheeseburger pizza topping too… oh well, next time.

Bon Appetit suggested 525F for 20-30 minutes for this pizza. I would not recommend that unless you want your pizza burnt. We became impatient halfway through the oven pre-heating and ended up putting the pizza in early, then cooked it for 15 minutes. It was about an inch thick, had a well-defined crust, and was 1-2 shades from being burnt on the bottom. Well cooked. I prefer my pizzas really soft and slightly tan on the bottom, but my husband thought this medium brown crust was perfect. The texture was great, there was definitely a stiffness to the layer of the pizza bottom that helped when picking it up and protected the softer layer between the bottom and the cheese. Crispy but had some flex still. It was similar to the inside of a biscuit. Three cups of cheese were the perfect amount. Very yum.

Take-home tips: For this recipe, if you would prefer a lighter crust, set the oven to 450F and cook the pizza for 12-15 minutes. You still want a high temperature to crisp up the crust and keep the inside soft. You can add more garlic, pepper, red peppers, a little sugar, 2 anchovy fillets (for the umami), fresh basil leaves, or any spices you prefer.

Scoring: 8 of 10. The dough had a little crunch but maintained the softness I enjoy, the cheese was the perfect amount, maybe we could had added more sauce, and the ground turkey half was plenty. The cheeseburger half left the pickles with an extra crunch, and helped keep it extra moist. Next time I would add a little seasoning to the crust, more garlic overall, and cook it for less time.