My hubby loves pizza and a few months ago, we "made our own" pizza so to speak, at a restaurant we went to in Mo Gan Shan, near Hangzhou. But really, it wasn't making your own pizza because the dough was made and ready, as was the tomato sauce, and all the ingredients were chopped and ready. It was really just a matter of playing with the dough, combining things to taste and sticking it in the nice wood-fired oven they had.
Making my own pizza at home was a slightly different story...
So first I went on an internet quest for yeast-free pizza dough recipes, because I don't have yeast and am not sure where to get it in Shanghai (tips, anyone??)
The recipes that showed up were all pretty similar, so I kind of averaged them out and chose one I thought I could work with:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
I sifted and mixed the dry ingredients and then slowly added the water and oil. It was pretty straightforward, and the dough looked normal enough to my untrained eyes...
I rolled the dough out onto a baking tray, since I don't have a pizza stone. Before adding the toppings, I used my fingers to spread about 1 teaspoon of olive oil onto the surface of the dough, since some websites suggested this would stop it from becoming soggy from the tomato sauce.
For topping I used some of my own homemade tomato sauce, grated mozzarella cheese, Italian pepperoni and olives. Seemed like a classic enough pizza, and one that my meat-eating husband would appreciate...
It baked in a hot hot oven (about 220 degrees Celsius, or 425 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 20 min.
The Verdict:
This pizza, pretty as it looks, was barely edible! The crust was way too salty and, combined with the salty toppings, made this pizza really intense on the palate. The real killer though was the crust. It was SO HARD! It was impossible to cut a slice of this pizza and get it off the pan without a struggle that lost you most of your topping, but this would be tolerable it is was at least crispy and light (it wasn't). Eating it was kind of like chewing baked cardboard.
Honestly, as someone who has been living in China for almost 5 years, I have had some pretty mediocre pizza. And my hubby and I can can usually polish off just about anything. But not this pizza! We ended up leaving the better half of it, and it wasn't even that big! Ended up scraping up a salad from some leftover veggies because we were both still hungry!
BOO!
Any tips on homemade pizza dough? Any recipes anyone would like to share? Help/comments would be much appreciated!
.JPG) |
| Homemade Pizza! Looks good but... |
Making my own pizza at home was a slightly different story...
So first I went on an internet quest for yeast-free pizza dough recipes, because I don't have yeast and am not sure where to get it in Shanghai (tips, anyone??)
The recipes that showed up were all pretty similar, so I kind of averaged them out and chose one I thought I could work with:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
I sifted and mixed the dry ingredients and then slowly added the water and oil. It was pretty straightforward, and the dough looked normal enough to my untrained eyes...
I rolled the dough out onto a baking tray, since I don't have a pizza stone. Before adding the toppings, I used my fingers to spread about 1 teaspoon of olive oil onto the surface of the dough, since some websites suggested this would stop it from becoming soggy from the tomato sauce.
.JPG) |
| Looked like it was going to work! |
For topping I used some of my own homemade tomato sauce, grated mozzarella cheese, Italian pepperoni and olives. Seemed like a classic enough pizza, and one that my meat-eating husband would appreciate...
It baked in a hot hot oven (about 220 degrees Celsius, or 425 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 20 min.
.JPG) |
| Ready for the oven... |
The Verdict:
This pizza, pretty as it looks, was barely edible! The crust was way too salty and, combined with the salty toppings, made this pizza really intense on the palate. The real killer though was the crust. It was SO HARD! It was impossible to cut a slice of this pizza and get it off the pan without a struggle that lost you most of your topping, but this would be tolerable it is was at least crispy and light (it wasn't). Eating it was kind of like chewing baked cardboard.
Honestly, as someone who has been living in China for almost 5 years, I have had some pretty mediocre pizza. And my hubby and I can can usually polish off just about anything. But not this pizza! We ended up leaving the better half of it, and it wasn't even that big! Ended up scraping up a salad from some leftover veggies because we were both still hungry!
BOO!
Any tips on homemade pizza dough? Any recipes anyone would like to share? Help/comments would be much appreciated!
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