When we went up to Bear Valley a few weeks ago, I decided to do some cooking other than what I usually do. Most of my cooking is limited to stir frying (though I like to think I have a fair range on that) and grilling. I dabble in things like Mac & Cheese - once a year at Christmas - and spaghetti sauce, but mostly if I cook it, it's in the wok or on the grill.
I took one cookbook - The New Best Recipe, which Betsy refers to - not without justification - as The New Most Complicated Recipe. One of the things I was interested in trying was making my own pizza, dough and sauce included. I was a little worried by my lack of a pizza stone (a heavy, generally ceramic "stone" used to hold heat and cook a pizza, quickly), and the fact that pizza dough is a yeast-risen recipe, and I was making it at 7,000 feet for the first time.
Making the dough - the first time I've ever made any yeast-leavened dough - was very simple. The recipe provided didn't have any sugar, just flour, yeast, salt, water and olive oil. Completely winging it, I took a pizza pan and decided to pre-bake the crust a bit before I put the toppings on it, so the oven heat would have time to cook the crust first. I then pulled out the crust after six minutes (the cookbook recommended 6-12 to cook the whole pizza with a stone), topped it, and put it back in the oven. I was a bit nervous when the cheese melted and started to bubble, but the crust was still flour-white after six minutes. However, finally, after another six or so, for a total cooking time of about 18 minutes, the crust browned a little, and I pulled it out. The result was crispy and chewy, and very popular.
When we got back, I started researching how the whole "pizza stone" thing worked. You need a stone (obviously), and a pizza peel. The stones are generally available for tens of dollars at cooking supply stores, and the pizza peels have similar prices. My first thought was that the peel was simply wood - and I had a shop full of that, so I resolved to make my own. I then further read that it is possible to purchase an unglazed paving stone at Home Depot for $.99 (I found one for $.97, on sale).
Saturday, I cleaned out the shop and made the pizza peel. I made it with the last birch scraps from Blake's table - my first woodworking project. As soon as I cut into it, the smell of the sawdust really took me back. I also used as a template for the curve on the leading edge the template I used for Derek's bed. The peel itself was pretty straightforward to make, and I chose a handle length I liked (longish) to make getting it out of the oven easier.
Sunday was pizza night, and all the work finally came to fruition. I heated the stone (getting to 550 took a little more than an hour) and stretched out the dough. Cornmeal scattered on the pizza peel, I topped it with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni:
...and, onto the stone it went:
I was astonished at how quickly it cooked compared to my experience in Bear Valley. Six minutes later, the crust was brown and the toppings done:
Using the pizza peel to take the pizza off the stone took a little learning - you need to get the peel about half under the pizza, pick it up, bring it out, and slide the pizza onto the peel.
I was very happy with the result. If you're not making your own peel every time, the dough and sauce are easy to make. Pizza is a mature technology - I'm sure any recipe you find for sauce and dough are a reasonable jumping-off point.