Sixth Attempt: We Have a Winner!

Ok so perhaps we have not yet attained "perfection" but we have definitely gotten close with our latest attempt. After our last attempt we listed 5 suggestions to try - we used 3 of those and the results were incredible. Spencer said its the best pizza we've EVER made. We did not invite anyone over this time (since Spencer is working weekends right now and has Tuesday - Thursday off work), so you'll have to take our word for it that this was delicious pizza.

We started with a new crust recipe (which Spencer found online and made entirely on his own) that used whole wheat flour in addition to white flour. It was a lot more dense than plain white flour crust but we rolled it out pretty thinly and Spencer felt that next time we should do a double batch.

Above you can see Spencer applying the garlic butter to the edge of the cooked Combination Pizza. We only used about 1/4 lb of turkey sausage (which Spencer also made) and it was the perfect amount.

For the stuffed crust pizza we just put 3 types of cheese as toppings; feeling, as previously mentioned, that additional toppings were not needed because of the awesomeness of the stuffed crust. We used mozzarella cheese sticks in the crust (we used 9 sticks for a solid ring of cheese) and topped the pizza with mozzarella, parmesan and sharp cheddar. It was definitely our favorite of the two we made.

We used our same old sauce recipe, without variations (except that I burned the garlic because I didn't peel the tomatoes prior to beginning to cook the olive oil, onions and garlic in the pan). I did not puree the tomatoes (because I forgot) and ended up using twice as many as the recipe called for because I am not as skilled with the peeling knife as Spencer and ended up wasting about 1/3 of each tomato. We unfortunately could not use fresh oregano because I couldn't find any at Walmart.

Above you can see Spencer's final judgment and that he was thoroughly enjoying the pizzas. Please review our rating below and, as always, if you have suggestions or a desire to attend a pizza party (and you are in the Tremonton area) please call 555-PZZA....or just let me know and we'll invite you!

On a scale of 1-5, here is our assessment:

Whole Wheat Crust: 3.76

Overall Pizza: 4.49

Ideas and Tips for our Next Attempt

These are our ideas for next time...

1. Obtain a source of fresh oregano - it really matters!!!

2. Fewer toppings on the stuffed crust pizza - the stuffed crust is the highlight and does not need to be jazzed up by mushrooms, peppers, onions and such.

3. Puree tomatoes in the blender prior to adding to sauce for cooking - this would help the consistency problem.

4. Adding garlic butter to the edge of pizza AFTER cooking using a basting brush (which will need to be purchased) - we used our fingers on the prior to cooking attempt (don't worry we washed our hands!)

5. Try a new crust recipe - either whole wheat (my mom would be so proud) or homemade pita bread.

Fifth Attempt: Back to the Drawing Board

So this evening we invited Spencer's sister, Liesl, and his dad over for dinner. Liesl assisted us by bringing fresh tomatoes from her garden which were delicious and so much juicier than our store bought tomatoes. There just is no substitute for garden fresh ingredients.

We tried to alter the sauce recipe we have been using. We looked up another recipe and selected some new elements for our sauce. We added a teaspoon of thyme, two teaspoons of lemon juice and two teaspoons of parsley. The thyme was WAY too strong and I think if we include that again we will cut the amount in half. The consistency was different, it was more watery and chunky. Also, although the flavor was different we feel that it was not as good as our previous sauce.

We also made 4 different pizzas tonight (which was a bit too much but we were unsure how many guests we'd be having so we over prepared). We did two combination pizzas, one with stuffed crust and the other without. We used slices of colby/jack cheese for the stuffed crust instead of mozzarella sticks. We prefer the mozzarella sticks because the cheese flavor is more pronounced and they are much thicker (and quicker). Also, Spencer noted that the mozzarella sticks melt better.

We made some garlic butter to put on the edges of the pizza. We added it before it was cooked and there was no noticeable taste difference. However, Spencer felt that the consistency may have been too weak (in terms of the garlic to butter ratio).

We also made a Four Cheese pizza (seen above) which was pretty delicious. We used mozzarella, parmesan and colby/jack cheese. Paul said it was his favorite and that we had done much better than the last time he was invited for pizza (hooray!!! we are improving!!!). Liesl brought her son Zak and he seemed to be enjoying the cheese pizza until it ended up on the carpet, fortunately we had just vacuumed :-)

We also tried a cheese pizza with a garlic butter sauce instead of marinara but it was a total bust. It tastes like cheese bread only less delicious. We are going to try to turn it into normal pizza tomorrow.

Liesl said the pizza was good but felt that the turkey sausage was overpowering. As you can see from Spencer's judgment above, it was just ok. We feel like our last attempt was much better.

Sauce: 4.29

Cheese Pizza Overall: 4.22

Combination Pizza Overall: 4.31

Garlic Cheese Bread: 1.21

(I can't believe I only took 3 pictures! Sorry fans, I will do better next time).