Calzones

First off, I apologize for the poor quality of my pictures on this post. I took them with camera phone because my camera has no batteries right now and they did not turn out as well as I would have liked. That being said, the pizza turned out better than I could have hoped.

As previously mentioned, we recently planted our "Pizza and Salad Garden" (more will be said about that in a future blog) and we were able to use both basil and oregano in our pizza sauce yesterday. As you can see, the dogs felt they needed to help Spencer pick the basil....as you can also see, we need to weed our garden :-)



So after gathering our fresh ingredients, we began the prep work for the toppings, or innards if you prefer, of our calzones. We used all our usual favorites like homemade turkey sausage, black olives, pepperoni and mushrooms but we added pineapple to a few of the calzones, which was very good.

A note on the crust, we found a recipe online specifically for calzones. The only major difference we could tell between that and a normal pizza crust is that it calls for slightly more flour. The taste of the crust was excellent. It rose well and was light, not too dense.



We did a build-your-own-calzone type of idea so each one we made was a little different. We made a total of 8 calzones (we had to double the dough recipe to make that many) and we had fun mixing up the ingredients.

Of course we started with our homemade sauce, which included the basil and oregano from our garden, then a thin layer of cheese. We then went crazy adding whatever ingredients struck our fancy, topped that with more cheese and folded the calzones together, sealing the edge with little pinches.



Before placing them in the oven we brushed them with a garlic butter mixture. I am still working on my garlic butter. I've made it too strong and too weak in the past and I confess it's a tricky concoction. This time I tried using real garlic instead of garlic power or garlic salt. I also added a little garlic salt to give it some umph. I think it could have been a little stronger in garlic flavor. Also, although I crushed the garlic with a garlic press, the chunks of garlic did not transfer to the calzones well and so most of it ended up staying in the bowl. The garlic flavor was still too weak....I'll have to try something else but I'm not sure what just yet.

Spencer's parents came over to enjoy the calzones with us. You can see Spencer's and their judgment of this attempt below. Cyndi really liked the crust and Paul kept commenting how good they were. We had some leftovers so hopefully it's going to be good for my lunch today too.

Our ratings are below, Spencer cracked these off pretty quickly so I guess he's back in the swing of things:-) Hopefully I will stay in the swing of blogging too!

Crust: 4.3

Sauce: 3.78

Overall: 4.29

Chicken Alfredo Pizza: My New Favorite

So I was craving my new favorite pizza last night and since we had all the necessary ingredients we made Chicken Alfredo Pizza. It is so good, though I was a little hesitant to try it the very first time because I don't really care for white sauces in general.

Spencer made the crust (he is excellent with the dough) and it is a white crust that you have to pre-bake for 5-7 minutes before putting the toppings on. The toppings include the homemade white sauce, cooked chicken, spinach and tomatoes.

The recipe makes two 12" pizzas or one 16-18" pizza. I actually prefer when we make the one larger pizza because the crust is a little bit thicker. However the oven in our house is not a full size oven and our large pizza pan does not fit into it. We have done the one large pizza at other peoples homes though.

Spencer thought the pizza turned out really well and was our best on this type of pizza. His judgment is illustrated below along with our ratings.

Crust: 3.5

Sauce: 3.8

Overall: 3.86

(When I mentioned to Spencer that he was giving low rankings he said "Well its been a while since I've ranked pizza! I'm out of practice!" So forgive us our low ratings, it was really very delicious!)

PS we will be blogging again soon because we are making calzones tonight! So stay tuned for a totally new pizza experience!

I Apologize for my Negligence....

It's been 7 months since I updated this blog, and lest you think that we have not made pizza in that entire time, I can assure you we have and it has been delicious!

Here are the updates:
1. We have continued trying new types of pizza (including a Chicken Alfredo Pizza which is TO DIE FOR)
2. We are going to try Calzones the next time we do pizza
3. We have planted our "Pizza and Salad" Garden and now that it has stopped raining and snowing (finally, hopefully) and the sun is beating down, I hope to get some fresh produce.

We planted tomatoes (of course), garlic, green and yellow onions, oregano, basil, 3 types of lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, radishes, and beets. The seeds have sprouted and the plants have flowered so in a few short weeks, we will have an all fresh pizza party - and I will make sure to document it thoroughly!

Seventh Attempt: Not Many Changes

Spencer and I decided to make pizza this time at my cousin Kristen's house in Brigham City. While Spencer and I started cooking my cousin (graciously) conceded control of her kitchen and we whipped up our homemade crust, homemade sauce and fresh toppings. As you can see below, Spencer had a great time cooking, and Kristen had a great time NOT cooking.




We (FINALLY) bought a basting brush for our garlic butter application which (not suprisingly) works much better than a fork and is less painful than using our fingers.



Kenny (Kristen's husband) and Kristen both really enjoyed the pizza. Kenny loved it so much he had seconds and thirds! We got two emphatic thumbs up from both of them.




The combination pizza turned out really well but we had to bake it twice because the crust didn't firm up on the stone. It only took a couple of minutes on the pizza pan to get it to perfection.






The only changes we made were the application of the garlic butter with a brush, using more wheat flour in the crust and we altered the sauce slightly because we did not have oregano. We used Italian seasoning instead and the flavor was a lot more subtle. The crust had a great flavor but was a lot more dense.





Our final ratings are as follows:


Sauce: 3.91
Garlic Butter: 4.01
Crust: 4.19
Overall: 4.33

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).