Gary's Third Pottery Blog

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Gary's third pottery blog

WRITE TO ME! garyrith@yahoo.com Come see me! Open studio HERE! November 25-26 (11-4 each day); Aurora Art and Design, daily until 12/24; Cooperstown Art Assoc. daily until 12/24; Ellis Hollow Community Fair, 12/10; December 10, Little Red Wagon at the Space at Greenstar. All material on this blog unless stated otherwise is copyright Gary Edward Rith 2016

Monday, April 23, 2012

fried pizza!!!!!!!

I was reading the NY Times the other day, and among other delights was an article on fried pizza...not deep fried, but a European approach to making cute little pizzas. The idea, of course, is to give the thick little pie a richer and crisper crust. I have always preheated my pizza dough in a hot oven for a few minutes before topping so I was like, to the wife "I wanna figure this out!". It was not a recipe article, but it is not hard to figure out how to fry pizza dough, and my recipe and instructions from Sunday follow the pics.....totally worthwhile, amazingly good pizza :)
The wife was my sous chef...and photographer....




Fried pizza, Gary style

-into one cup warm water, add one teaspoon yeast, one tablespoon sugar, let sit 5 mins, until foamy
-add 2 tbs oil, like olive, some shakes of oregano, basil, dried hot pepper flakes
-stir in 2.5 cups white flour, adding more flour if needed, so it is not sticky, then turn out onto floured board
-knead a few minutes until lovely and elastic, place into oiled bowl to rise covered with a tea towel, about one hour
-preheat oven to 400 and if you have a pizza stone, get it in there (if you don't have a stone, rather than doing 2 small pizzas in a row seperately, you can prepare them both at once and bake together on a cookie sheet)
-punch dough down, divide in half, and knead one of the halves leaving the second aside for now--put some oil, like olive oil, into fry pan (ours is iron and what, about ten inches wide?) and turn the pan to high at first...when the oil is shimmery and hot, turn back to medium, pat and push and pull the dough into a thick round that fits your fry pan, so like, 8-10 inches wide, and place into hot pan, frying each side about 2-3 minutes until there is a nice crisp bit of crust developing on each side, then remove from pan (turn stove top off) with spatula and place onto paddle (or if frying 2 at once and using a cookie sheet, add a little more oil again and fry the second dough and set them side by side)
-coat the dough with a little tomato sauce and some things like some chopped bell pepper, olives, cheese, onion, (soy for us) sausage, (vegan) cheese over the top of it all, then slide it into the oven, bake until the crust is browning nicely and top looks good, 15-19 minutes
-pull that one out, set it on a rack to cool, start the next half of dough, etc

Goodness its tasty!

In other news, I am firing many things today, including this Godzilla eating a car sculpture, which I LOVE...happy Monday!

12 comments:

Claudia from Idiot's Kitchen said...

That pizza looks awesome! I'm going to try this method soon. Although I love yeast crusts, I'm a thin crust pizza kinda girl and can't always get the crusts as thin as I would like. Frying like this seems like a great idea to get that extra crunch. Yum!!!

smartcat said...

Great idea for a crispy crust. I reheat pizza in my cast iron pan....never thought of doing a precook!

Michèle Hastings said...

you definitely got my attention with that title! i LOVE pizza and make it every week. i am going to have to give this a try.

i don't pre-bake my crust... i preheat the stone for about a half hour at 425 degrees and haven't had the soggy crust problem. I am using real cheese - maybe the vegan cheese substitute adds more moisture to the dough requiring the pre-bake?

Gary's third pottery blog said...

No, its never a soggy crust, simply that a crust cooked a little first is firm and easy to slide on and off the pizza paddle before the toppings are added---a new, uncooked crust covered with toppings is a little unwieldy, sliding into a hot oven off a paddle, you know? EVERYTHING wants to wiggle and slide off :)

cookingwithgas said...

I use firebrick in my oven covered with foil- heat to 550 and pre bake then toss on foil- good stuff!

Barbara Rogers said...

Whowser...I'm going to try this fried crust. People are frying everything else, twinkies, ice cream etc.

Joe Troncale said...

Looks awfully good...
I wish I could make one right now.
Does snow on the ground increase one's pizza cravings?

Lori Buff said...

That sounds really good. Yay for another way to make pizza.

Joyful Things said...

YUM! I could go for a slice of that right about now.

Busy Bee Suz said...

Oh, that pizza is totally up my eating alley!!! YUM!
Funny, your pets are always in your photos....even if by accident.

Joe Troncale said...

By the way, I think you should think about starting a cooking show! I can see it now "Gary's Vegan Goodies"

ang design said...

k never heard of fried pizza...go G

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I am a full-time studio potter, sculptor, and dog walker, married to superhawt Missus Tastycake.