For Those Who are a Bit Epicurious
Here's another of those "50 People Try to..." videos from Epicurious. Today's is about tossing pizza dough. I figured that this would be a good time to post it, since it's Pizza Night.
One of my treats during the pandemic is that I make pizza every week from scratch, happily using my pizza stone and pizza paddle. The one caveat is that the reason I used to rarely have pizza is I try to keep my fat intake down -- and pizza simply has only a rare place in that world. But I make it close to non-fat. No oil in the dough (though more spices) and Trader Joe's has a variety of very low-fat shredded cheeses. They don't have much flavor or melt well, but they add a proper texture that you want. Then I add a lot of toppings like onion, olives, chopped tomatoes, jalepenos, and bell pepper and whatever else hits my fancy. Often anchovy paste, which I love but wouldn't put on for guests... And all that is where the flavor comes from, not the cheese.
Is it good like a real pizza? No, not even close. But is it tasty? Yes, very much so. The dough has fresh, yeast flavor, there's a nice tomato sauce, and all the toppings are delicious. It's just not a "real pizza." But for someone who loves pizza but rarely eats it, this has been a treat -- and especially so during the pandemic, when one tends to need a treat.
Unlike the video here on tossing the dough, I mainly stretch it flat, and occasionally use the “droop” method. Not only am I not good as spinning, but it sends flour all over the place. I was intrigued by the expert at the end, but I won’t say more about that, other than I was glad to know that I come pretty close. Also, I use a pizza peel (paddle) and put corn flour on it that acts as sort of like ball bearings, so the pizza dough slides off easily onto the pizza stone I use.
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