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How to Cook Pizza on a Gas Grill: Full Starter Guide

Max FV — Mon, 24 May 2021 19:26:19 +0000

One fine morning, you wake up wanting to eat a homemade pizza. Still, instead of using a standard oven, you would rather do it outside, in the fresh air, in the backyard with family or friends. What do you do? You can do it on your gas grill outside.

To cook pizza on a gas grill, you will need to make or purchase a pizza dough, prepare and put toppings on it. Preheat the pizza stone in the gas grill to 425-475F, depending on the durability of the pizza stone. Place pizza on the hot pizza stone sitting in a gas grill, and cook for 8-15 minutes, depending on the cooking temperature.

This is the right time to consider what is also called ‘The Emergency Oven’- your BBQ gas grill. Cooking outdoors not only serves as a new experience in good times but can also come in handy in the worst of times.

It is quite reassuring to know that you can pretty much cook anything on a gas grill, from boiling water to making a pizza. Even if you have an electric power outage, you can still cook pizza. And do not forget about the camping opportunities this represents!

Using a grill is a good choice. Pizzas are the best thing to make on a grill. It is easy, faster than many other grilled foods, and enjoyable. The grill may reach temperatures higher than a regular kitchen oven, which is better for making an excellent crusty pizza.

In this article, we cover all basics necessary for you to cook pizza on a gas grill, even if you are not an experienced chef.

How to Cook Pizza on a Gas Grill?

There are essentially three different methods to make a pizza using a Gas grill:

On the pizza stone
On bare grill grates.
On a baking sheet or such other type of item.

Use a wide spatula or mobile surface that aids you in transferring the entire pizza in and out the pizza stone. This is to assist in the transfer of the pizza in and out of the grill.

Preliminary preparations:

Buy the pizza dough

We covered this topic extensively in our other pizza articles on this blog. You can buy them already made pizza dough, frozen in a grocery store, or fresh from mom-and-pop pizza-making places. Even large chains may sell you pizza dough.

If not, then you can use bread dough. But if you want to make the dough yourself, then see below.

Make or buy the crust.

You can also buy the crust online or in some grocery stores. Check around – some might have it. Or, make the crust yourself by creating and dough, flattening it, and pre-grilling crust lightly till very light golden brown before placing any toppings. But let us take it to step by step.

NECESSARY INGREDIENTS FOR PIZZA

Lukewarm water -1/3 cup (Ensure it is not too hot, for it could kill the yeast. You should bathe them at a comfortable temperature!)
Honey – 1 tsp (If you have some agave, then use that instead)
Active yeast -1 tsp (Make sure it is far from moisture and is completely dry)
Salt (Kosher Salt preferably) -1 tsp
Flour -1 cup
Olive oil -1 tbsp (It is preferable to use virgin oil, but if you do not have it, use the ordinary one)
Pizza Sauce- 5 tbsp (NEVER use a watery sauce. You do not want a soggy pizza, do you?)
Custom toppings (choose whatever you like, from cheeses, meats, olives to vegetables like tomatoes or pickles)

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the dough:

The first and foremost thing to make is a pizza base, which is essentially flattened dough. Be mindful of the expiry date of the yeast, for the results will not be as expected if they expired. To prepare the yeast mix, mix water and yeast in a clean bowl.

Add a pinch of sugar. Leave it alone for about 15-20 minutes. You should see a frothy texture if you did your duty correctly and checked the expiry date of the yeast box.

To make the actual dough, take a large bowl, add flour in it, and add some salt and the yeast mixture we prepared 20 minutes prior.

Add some olive oil and combine everything by mixing until you get a doughy texture – the dough ball should hold enough together when you take it out of the bowl. Then pizza dough is ready to be worked on.

Put a thin layer of flour on some clean, dry large surface and put the dough on. Knead it thoroughly for about 3 minutes and roll it into a ball.

Grease another bowl with cooking spray or just olive oil and cover the dough ball with the grease by tossing it around the bowl.

Take a clean towel and dip it in lukewarm water. Then press the towel as much as you can to remove extra water. Make sure the towel is not dripping.

Place a towel over the bowl with dough and let it sit for about 2 hours (depending on the weather, literally).

After two long hours, you should get two times the size of the dough you originally made.

Flatten the dough, leaving the edges rolled inwards if you do not want a thin-crust pizza.

Sprinkle with some flour periodically to avoid any annoyance from the stickiness.

Once ready, you can spray the pizza sauce all over the flattened dough – future pizza crust.

Add your toppings on top of that, and transfer everything onto the pizza stone after coating it with some oil.

Instructions for cooking your pizza on the grill

You must begin your preheating process when your dough has already is still doubling up in size.
Place the pizza stone inside your gas grill.
Close it and heat it on medium-low flames.
When your pizza is assembled, you put it on the stone directly
Grill pizza for about 15-20 minutes until you see that crust has become golden brown, and toppings are cooked.

What temperature do you cook pizza on a gas grill?

You want your pizza to look beautiful on the outside and thoroughly cooked on the inside. Even cooking must always be the goal, mainly when you use raw vegetables for toppings. The

Temperature control can become quite tricky when you are cooking pizza on a gas grill. Because the required temperature depends on the grill you are using – maker, model, age, and so on.

But here are general recommended temperature settings for cooking pizza on a gas grill.

The temperature range used by different chefs is from 375 to 550 F degrees. Some chefs insist that the higher temperature is, the better. But we found that the consensus for the best temperature is around 425-475 F degrees.

When using indirect grilling, the temperature could be lower at about 375-425 degrees to avoid burning the crust. It might take longer, but it is worth it.

When using a pizza stone to make your pizza on a gas grill, the temperature should be higher at 450-500 F as the pizza stone must be heated well. Read below for details.

You should preheat the pizza stone for about 30 minutes and place the pizza in the grill after it reaches room temperature. Do not place cold refrigerated raw pizza straight onto the hot pizza stone directly on the hot grill as it may ruin the pizza. You may use a pizza peel to move pizza on and out of the grill.

Preheating is necessary in all cases, for about half an hour, or the pizza is ruined.

Once you put pizza on stone or directly on/in the grill, close the lid right away and wait until the temperature gauge reaches the desired temperature. Essentially, this creates an oven effect.

Still, you may cook frozen pizza on a gas grill. Read the instructions. You may thaw the pizza first at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.

If you use non-authentic but steel pizza stone, you can up the temperature to 500-600 F. Steel will distribute heat to pizza more evenly, and steel does not crack from sudden temperature changes. Read below for details.

Grilling methods and temperature summary:

Everything has style, even grilling. There are three options when choosing the grilling a pizza:

As the name suggests, the direct method needs the pizza to be placed directly above the burners of the grill. Counter-intuitively, you may want to up the heat so that your pizza cooks faster and spends less time over the direct source of heat, reducing the chances of burning it.
The indirect method has an indirect heat source that has a resemblance to your standard home oven. The indirect way suggests a lower temperature setting – 350-400F – and slow heating for pizza.
The pizza stone method requires a half-hour stone preheat and then popping the pizza on the stone.

How to cook pizza on a gas grill with stone?

Can you use a pizza stone on a gas grill?

There is no simple answer to this question. Generally, you can use a pizza stone on a gas grill, but how well it will fare depends on the quality and durability of a pizza stone.

We have some information about types of pizza stones in another pizza-making article on this website.

A pizza stone will enhance the ease by preventing any stickiness and adds to the taste, as using a pizza stone is a proper way to cook pizza. Also, the stone helps to heat pizza more evenly, thus counterbalancing uneven grill heat distribution.

But some chefs or cooks do not use stone when grilling pizza because stones may crack. Please read below about it.

Will pizza stone crack on the grill?

Some reasons why pizza stone can crack on the grill are:

Placing a cold pizza stone in a hot oven.
Too much moisture within the pizza stone.
Placing cold pizza on the pizza stone.
Overuse of pizza stone.
Removing it quickly from a hot oven.
Too much heat.

You can prevent pizza stone cracking on the grill as follows:

The sudden temperature change will cause thermal shock to the stone, therefore increasing the chances of cracking. You should counter that by preheating the stone on low-to-medium heat for at least 30 minutes, slowly, carefully, gently, and lovingly.
Please wait until the stone cools down before removing it. Use a spatula to remove pizza from the grill while leaving the stone to cool down for 40-60 minutes.
Minimal handling of the pizza stone. I know, this goes against the advice of moving pizza around for even cooking. You will need to find the balance depending on your specific grill.
Do not oil or wash the pizza stone. This is a general rule for tone.
Use warmer or room temperature pizza base (pizza dough base). Do not place frozen or fridge temperature raw pizza on the hot pizza stone.
Use good quality stones. When buying, read the manufacturer’s instructions. Some stones are designed to withstand thermal shocks or high temperatures.
You can use pizza stone made of modern, stronger materials (although not truly authentic pizza stones). You may use pizza steel stone for good brown crusting. Steel does not crack.
But the truth is said, this is not a rule of thumb that pizza stones crack when used on a grill. May the pizza stone serve you for a long time!

Steps for making pizza on a grill with a pizza stone

Get your pizza stone according to your preferences.

Step 1: Choose the kind of dough you want to make your base. Most convenience stores provide you with different picks, usually located in the ‘Frozen’ section. If you are going healthy, then whole wheat is the better option. Make or buy your dough.

Step 2: Choose the sauce and toppings you want on your pizza. This depends on your taste, and honestly, you can customize it to your liking.

Make sure the sauce you pick is not watery, or else you will get a soggy boring pizza, and no one wants that. Expand your options. Make more than one if you can’t choose.

Step 4: Set raw dough aside to reach at room temp, if necessary. Or thaw it if frozen.

Step 5: If the dough is room temperature already, then stretch your dough and make a dough disc for the crust.

Step 6: Start the grill, set the temperature to 375-550, depending on your grill and type of pizza stone. Start preheating the pizza stone for at least 30 minutes while you work on pizza dough and cut and prepare toppings.

Step 7: While you are heating a stone, cover the dough pizza disc with a thin layer of sauce and place prepared toppings on it.

Step 8: Once the pizza stone is hot up to the level of grill temperature settings, you can get to cooking pizza by placing raw pizza with toppings on a hot pizza stone in a grill!

Indirect heating described earlier is the best method for pizza stone grilling. Remember, do not place cold pizza dough on a hot pizza stone!

Step 9: Be mindful that pizzas are quick to make on the grill. You may need to move the stone if the pizza gets browner, but toppings are not melted yet. Your pizza is ready when the crust gets brown, and cheese is melted.

Step 10: Enjoy the pizza!

What temperature do you cook pizza on a stone?

The temperature depends on the thickness of the dough and the durability of the pizza stone. The less thick the dough is, the higher the heat must be.

With the stone, it is recommended that your grill be preheated until it reaches 400 degrees.

After that, you should keep a constant heat of 400-450 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. This will make sure your pizza is cooked evenly and has a nice golden-brown color with cooked toppings and melted cheese.

But if your pizza stone is of excellent quality or made of steel, you may try to use higher heat – 500-600 F.

How long do you cook a pizza on a pizza stone?

You must cook it for about 8-15 minutes on a pizza stone, depending on the temperature you use. You may need to turn the pizza stone with the pizza around and watch out for that golden-brown crust.

Be mindful that pizzas are pretty quick to make on a grill, especially when you use a pizza stone. Do not lose track of time unless you want a burnt pizza.

How do you keep pizza from sticking to pizza stone?

When the pizza is sticking, it could be because the pizza stone was not preheated sufficiently, or it could be that the pizza stone is not hot enough.

The pizza stone should be made hot as much as that when you place your pizza over it, it should instantly start crisping on the outside without having a chance to do any sticking.

The primary reason for sticking is improper heat. Heat the grill oven properly before placing the pizza stone in it.

Suppose it sticks to the pizza peel, then you should dust the peel with little cornmeal or non-stick spray or flour. You can brush the pizza stone with a little bit of cornmeal or flour. Recall that too much cornmeal or flour may cause burnt crust. Just make a bit thin layer.

Shake the pizza a little before load in it into the oven. The ingredients over the pizza sometimes get loaded with several particularly wet ones causing a big mess. When you make use of tomato sauce, bring the sauce and toppings within just half a minute of placing the pizza on a hot stone to prevent sogging the toppings and pizza in it.

You can also use special baking parchment paper. The coating or the surface is treated to provide a non-stick surface and higher temperature resistance than a standard parchment paper. Slide it out before the bake is over.

On the other hand, I would avoid using parchment paper as it may not withstand the grill’s heat and will burn the pizza.

You may buy non-stick pizza stones made from modern materials.

The wet dough can also stick to a hot pizza stone. Hence, that is why you stretch the pizza dough into a disk on a surface with a thin layer of flour. See why now?

Do not use oil for greasing pizza disks, as it may make things even worse.

Let pizza crust a little before you start turning it on the stone.

Remember that we must place the pizza on the stone while the hit stone is in the grill. We do not remove a stone from the grill to put pizza on it.

How do you grill pizza without burning the bottom?

Make sure your grill is clean.
Some chefs recommend leaving some grill burners off to raise grill temperature slower to avoid burning pizza.
Others also recommend oiling the bottom of the crust with olive oil.
Do not put too much sugar as too much of it can cause a crust to burn.
Do not put too much flour around the dough ball – just enough for a very thin transparent layer.
Use indirect heat for less burning. For example, place pizza above the middle burner, turn off the middle burner and leave side burners. If using a large grill, turn on the middle burner, then move pizza to the side above the side burner, which you should keep turned off.
Check the bottom of the pizza while grilling.
If necessary, move pizza around with a spatula to prevent it from over-burning one side while undercooking another. But not in the first 4-5 minutes.
Leaving the lid closed for the first 5-8 minutes will help distribute more evenly around the pizza. Even heat is less likely to result in the burned crust.
Do not use too much heat as, unlike the oven, the grill does distribute heat evenly. Heat comes from the bottom. Use temp settings lower than 500 F.
Do not place cold or frozen pizza dough on the grill. Thaw it or warm it up slightly in the microwave or under room temperature.
You may place pizza on additional stone or stone on top of grates higher closer to the dome if pizza crust keeps burning. Or reduce the heat next time.
Once you see pizza starts burning, shut off the grill, close the lid, and leave it for 5-10 minutes to finish off without a source of heat.

You can read more about how to avoid burning your pizza in another article on our blog.

How to cook frozen pizza on a gas grill?

Cooking pre-made frozen pizza on a grill saves plenty of time and because you do not need to mess with making dough and preparing toppings for pizza.

As a rule, you should use lower temperature settings if you cook the frozen pizza to avoid ruining it. Frozen and not thawed pizza should be grilled at about 375-400 F for about 15-20 minutes, away from direct flames below it, as it will drip water. This should be enough to allow you to cook pizza from frozen one.

Frozen pizza is excellent for large parties as you can quickly cook many pizzas like that. Grilling frozen pizza on a gas grill has nuances which you should keep in mind.

I prefer to buy premade frozen pizza crust. Then I would put my sauce, my fresh toppings on the frozen pizza crust and cook it. Sausages, kielbasa, tomatoes, pineapples – you name it. You are the boss!

Here are instructions for cooking frozen pizza on a gas grill:

First, preheat the empty grill with the closed lid for 10-15 minutes at about 400 F degrees.
Take frozen pizza, unwrap it, and add any extra toppings if you want.
Use a spatula to put a pizza in the grill to the side of the working burner. Some chefs prefer to cook frozen right above the burner by turning down the heat a little after placing the pizza in the grill.
Close the lid, and let it cook for about 7-12 minutes.
Now use a spatula to rotate pizza half-time in the process of cooking it on a grill. Turning pizza in the grill will make sure pizza is cooked evenly.
Close the lid and wait about another 7-12 minutes while the pizza is cooking.
Once the crust becomes brown and cheese has melted, your pizza is ready.
Take the pizza out of the grill with a spatula, and let it cool down 5-10 minutes on the table.
You will cook it on indirect heat, although some cooks place pizza right above the working center burner, cooking directly above the burner.
Be cautious of the heat when rotating or removing pizza from the grill. Use a metal spatula.

Useful Tips for cooking frozen pizza on a gas grill

The exact time for cooking pizza depends on your specific grill, the thickness of the pizza, and toppings. Cooking on indirect heat will take a little longer than direct. Thicker pizza will cook for about 1.5 times longer than a thin one.

For example, thin pizza with few toppings may be ready in a total of 6-8 minutes on a grill. Thick pizza with plenty of toppings may take 15 minutes or longer to cook on a grill.

Generally, chefs recommend using a thermometer to check the temperature when cooking frozen pizza on a grill. Pizza’s internal temperature should reach 160 F degrees to be ready. This temperature is also necessary for food poisoning safety reasons.

If crust became brown but cheese has not melted yet, turn on low or turn off the heat entirely and let grill with pizza stand for 5-10 minutes. You will avoid burning crust while still letting cheese melt and ingredients to cook through.

Suppose you have a large party and cook several pizzas simultaneously on a single grill. In that case, you may need a little bit more time until your pizzas are ready.

We already explained that you should not put a frozen pizza on an authentic pizza stone in a grill as a hot stone may break from thermal shock.

That is because you must preheat the pizza stone in the grill to make it hot. And its fragile stricture may break when it suddenly comes in contact with very cold frozen pizza.

You have several ways of grilling frozen pizza with or without a pizza stone.

You can thaw the frozen pizza for 2-3 hours and bring it up to least to room temperature before putting on a pizza stone in a grill. Although, this method adds extra hassle. Alternatively, you can microwave pizza to thaw it.
You may put pizza on a cold stone in a grill and then heat them together. This is also popular, but pizza may come out quite differently for different people using this method.
Use steel pizza stone, artificial material stone, or other similar items instead of an authentic fragile pizza stone. Nowadays, manufacturers make pizza stone from materials that can withstand thermal shock.
Grill frozen pizza without pizza stone. You may grill frozen pizza directly on grill grates on indirect heat by moving pizza to the side from the flaming burner. Note that frozen pizza will release some water dripping down.
If you place pizza directly on grill grates, then use aluminum foil to prevent grates from the burning crust.

Source 1

Source 2

Conclusion

This is how to cook pizza on a gas grill on a pizza stone or spatula. While by no means comprehensive, you now have covered all the basics of making your pizza on a gas grill.

Now, you can experiment with toppings and the size of your pizza as much as you please. Try to make a couple of good pizzas on a grill before you invite your friends or family. Everything requires some training, including cooking pizza on a gas grill.

The post How to Cook Pizza on a Gas Grill: Full Starter Guide appeared first on Make Your Dinner Easy.

Can Pizza Cardboard Go in the Oven? Do’s and Don’ts

Max FV — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 18:38:11 +0000

Can you put a cardboard pizza box in the oven?

Well, can you put a cardboard pizza box in the oven? You generally can but should not. Because putting a cardboard pizza box in the oven at any time is an unsafe practice. Read on to find out why.

At 350 F cardboard may start to smolder and smoke all over the kitchen and house. At temperatures, 400 F degrees and above you can have that cardboard pizza box spark and catch that nice little fire. That corresponds roughly to 200-204 C degrees.

That fire can, as a minimum, can burn your pizza to the point when it will be only good for a trash can. The cardboard pizza box in the oven can burn the stove or oven. And in the worst-case scenario, it may ignite the whole kitchen, and then burn down the whole house, apartment, or apartment building.

You should agree with me here – this is not what we are trying to accomplish when making pizza. We are not trying to burn down the whole block, do we? I thought so.

Yet, apparently, many people still do put cardboard in the oven quite often. One thing to note is that at temperatures less than 200 – 250 F it may be safe to put pizza cardboard in the oven. But that temperature usually is just too low for making a pizza.

So, where you are cooking pizza or preheating it, I totally suggest ditching pizza cardboard and not putting it in the oven with pizza. Instead, opt for more suitable items like using a pizza stone, baking sheet, metal pan, or putting pizza straight on a rack in the oven.

So, what to do if you left the cardboard on the pizza?

Forgot to take the cardboard off pizza? If you just put it in the oven and started heating pizza there – simply very carefully turn down the heat, take it out and take the pizza off the cardboard. Throw out the cardboard to ensure that you do not have insurmountable temptation to do it again. Or keep it to reuse for some safer purpose.

Now, put the baking sheet or metal pan in the oven and heat it up for about 5-10 minutes.
Then take it out, but that pizza on it, and put it back in the oven.
And keep baking that very pizza as usual.

Granted, pizza may not come out as the best exemplary specimen of your unparalleled cooking abilities, but it may still come out as eatable. Why waste a precious pizza dough just because you have made this mistake, right?

In the more likely scenario, you completely forgot to take the cardboard off the pizza and left the cardboard on the pizza through the whole cooking process. Well, let us hope that it does not catch fire.

Therefore, as soon as you recall that you left the pizza on cardboard and put it in the heating oven – drop everything you are currently doing, run to the kitchen and immediately turn down the oven heat. Without panic but do it fast.

Alternatively, turn down the heat to 250 F or less to prevent the cardboard from catching fire. Then, extend pizza coking time by 10-15 minutes.

Be happy – you just saved the house or whole neighborhood from trouble. Pat yourself on the back and do not do it again. I also would not boast about it in your local neighborhood bar.

Jokes aside, some people accidentally or deliberately cook pizza in cardboard in the oven and still eat it. But it is bad practice on many levels.

Accidentally cooked pizza on cardboard – spoiled taste

Pizza cardboard cooked in the oven may spoil your pizza taste. Well, in this best-case scenario you cooked pizza on cardboard, and it did not ignite with the flames. You still may have a problem because paper cooked faster than pizza and may have burned pizza crust or added to it unpleasant favor.

Remove the cardboard. You now may have to painstakingly detach cardboard from the pizza by hand or cut it with a knife or other tool. I would not eat the crust with well-cooked cardboard sticking to it. Just not my type of food.

When Can Pizza Cardboard Go in the Oven Safely?

According to popular opinion, pizza cardboard can “safely” go in the oven if you intend to cook pizza on low 250 F or less. However, I advise against putting cardboard in the oven at any time – see the last section of this article.

Therefore, let us summarize our popular opinion data in this table for what happens when you put pizza cardboard in the oven:

Temperature	Safety	Reason
150-250 F	Safe*	Cardboard is safe*, but may release harmful chemicals
350 – 400 F	Unsafe	Cardboard may start smoldering and release smoke
400 F +	Very unsafe	Cardboard may burst in fire
Conclusion:		Cardboard in oven at 350 F or higher is unsafe practice

* “Safe” in this context means that carboard is not likely to burst in flames due to temperature. Still, it may catch fire from fire in the gas oven.

Hopefully, this helps to understand the breakdown.

What if I want to reheat pizza in the oven?

You are quite stubborn. You still want to make sure it is your way, not mine. Well, fine.

Some say on forums that you can reheat your pizza in a cardboard box in the oven at a temperature probably no more than 300 F. In fact, 250F-270F is a safer temperature for reheating pizza on cardboard in an oven.

Preheat the oven before you put a pizza in cardboard in it and do not go higher than that temperature!

Again, I strongly advise you to never put cardboard or paper in the oven under any circumstances. There is always a risk of fire, even at low heating temperatures.

Cardboard in the oven is never a safe practice

Even leaving cardboard in the oven without heating is unsafe. First, you can forget about it and turn on the heat.

But most importantly, even at low temperatures cardboard is unsafe because it is essentially poisonous to our health. It may expose us to dangerous chemicals.

Modern cardboard is not even the same cardboard our grandparents used. Modern cardboard is made of many various recycled products and we do not know what those were.

Modern manufacturing uses numerous chemicals or minerals when making cardboard or paints for printing on it.

When cardboard heats up even a little bit, it may start releasing invisible fumes of cancerous and dangerous chemicals, some of which melt when heated up even a little bit.

And food that touches heated cardboard may absorb some of those chemicals and then release them into our bodies during the chewing and digestion process. We do not want that stuff in our bodies, trust me. Even occasionally, even one time. It is always better to avoid it.

Even worse, some of those modern chemicals may catch fire at extremely low heating temperatures like 150 F.

That is why I truly recommend never put cardboard in the oven, much less in the heated oven, even turned-on low heat. In my humble cautious opinion putting pizza cardboard in the oven is never safe.

The above is really the most conservative and safe way to look at things. But the occasion of somehow cooking pizza in cardboard in an oven most often is not the end of the world and such pizza is still consumable.

Final thoughts

Pizza is meant to be enjoyed in modern times. It is not meant to be the sole source of food and nutrients nowadays. Therefore, just enjoy its taste as a nice occasion.

Cardboard is not meant for cooking in it, much less in the oven.

Cardboard can catch fire, spoil pizza, or expose you to harmful chemicals when heated.

Always remove food from the cardboard box before cooking. Better use items designed for cooking – baking sheet, pan, rack, bowl, or whatever else you can use.

Having said that, do not sweat or panic if you accidentally cooked your pizza on cardboard in the oven. This is not the reason to throw it away yet. Enjoy this pizza this time and simply avoid doing this again.

Surely, do not make a regular practice out of putting cardboard in the oven when cooking.

We all do silly things sometimes and make mistakes. Nothing to worry about. If you do it, remember that about 1 000 000 – 2 000 000 people did it before you. And more will do after you. Therefore, this is not the worst mistake that one can make in cooking.

Enjoy your pizza as much as you can, just make sure to stay safe and exercise a certain amount of caution when cooking. Use your judgment, enjoy your cooking and be well.

Here are links to government sites with materials and recommendations about cooking fire safety:

The post Can Pizza Cardboard Go in the Oven? Do’s and Don’ts appeared first on Make Your Dinner Easy.

This is Why Pizza is Typically Round

Max FV — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 12:33:43 +0000

There is no doubt that pizza is one of the most popular food items across the world. Though it might have had its origins in Italy, today pizza is a world-famous food.

It is present almost in every nook and corner of the world. However, there are a few questions that keep intriguing the minds of many people. One such question is why pizza is round?

Though this might look like a rudimentary question, there is no doubt that round, circular pizza is something that has caught the imagination of many people across the world. Some people ask why there cannot be a rectangular pizza in place of a circle pizza.

First – there could be square or rectangular pizza, and you can make it at home in pretty much any shape you want. But. it would be interesting to find answers to the question as to why pizza is round usually. There certainly must be some reasons as to why pizza is round.

The short answer is that the round shape of pizza allows for more even cooking of all sides. Also, it is due to tradition which originates in ancient civilizations of Egypt or Babylon. For a longer and more detailed answer of why round pizza is usually better please read on below.

Google is filled with the question of why pizza is typically made round

For example, there are millions of people who are mystified by the question of why is pizza around but comes in a square box.

In fact, why is it so? There are a few facts that must be put in place before we get into the details such as why is round pizza in a square box.

To begin with, let us understand that not all pizzas are round in shape. If you look around, you certainly will be able to come across pizzas that are rectangular-shaped or square-shaped.

This is found all over the country and many pizza outlets offer pizzas only in a square, rectangle, and other shapes instead of the common round pizza. But a vast majority of pizzas that are still made and sold across the world are round in shape.

Why pizza is round and the box is square

Let us start by answering the above question because this will help us to have a better understanding of why pizza is round. Most pizzas come in round shapes because of a simple reason. The round shapes make it easy as far as it comes to cooking.

Pizzas need to be cooked evenly. Therefore, just based on physics, the probability of pizza even cooking is higher if the pizza is round instead of it being shaped somehow differently.

If you even look at other common food items like omelets or pancakes that are homemade, you will find that they are also round in shape. Making it round in shape also perhaps is more convenient because the hand flows naturally and heat distributes evenly. Have you noticed that frying pans are also round? Pretty much for the same reasons.

Nowadays, we may have automated machines that handle pizza making. And it looks like in the future most commercial pizza cooking will be automated and made by robotic machines. However, this was not the case when pizzas were first made manually for centuries or thousands of years.

It was much easier to make the pizzas in round shape. The batters could be evenly shaped and made to perfection if the makers had the choice of making them round. Essentially, it is simply easier, faster, and more efficient to take a pizza dough ball and make around, rather than square, pizza out of it. Try to make pizza yourself and you will understand that.

And pizza stones could more easily be made round that shaped. This perhaps answers the question as to why pizza is round. Pizza is historically round for easier cooking and convenience.

Even today, if you watch pizza making, there is still quite a bit of manual labor involved. It also makes it easier to divide the pizzas. If you have watched pizza making from a seasoned professional, you will find that they cut the pizza at lightning speed.

Each piece is cut perfectly in size and this is possible only when the pizza is round. It is just easier to handle round rather than rectangular pizza.

Why is a circle pizza in a square box and cut into triangles?

Many people also ask the question as to why is a circle pizza in a square box and cut into triangles. This has to be answered in two parts.

Pizzas are made from dough and this requires quite a bit of kneading stretching. Once this has been done to perfection, the dough that is usually in the form of lumps is often thrown or tossed into the air. Circular motions are used with the help of hands and fists are also used quite regularly. This is done to elongate the size and shape of the lumps of dough.

To put into perspective from a scientific angle, when the dough is thrown up in the air with a spinning motion, the centrifugal motion causes the dough to slowly take a perfect circular shape. A circular shape thus formed makes it also easy to stretch the dough.

This also takes much lesser time when it comes to reshaping it. This, in turn, leads to faster production and speed is of paramount importance when it comes to meeting the high demand for pizzas especially during peak hours and peak seasons and during festival seasons.

This also could be a good reason that may again help the readers to find answers to the question as to why pizza is round.

Why is circle pizza put into square box?

Now let us try and find an answer to the question as to why is a circle pizza in a square box and cut into triangles. The answer is simple.

Compared to round boxes, square boxes are easier to make and they are also cost-effective because they produce less waste than round boxes in production. When produced in large scale quantities, the economies of scale come into play. Hence, most pizza manufacturers are happy with square boxes.

Therefore, a pizza box is square also because it is easier to make square boxes, and handle them when shipping, traveling, etc. Let us face it, it will be a little bit harder to produce and put together perfectly round cardboard box and storing thousands of them would be a problem, as they would not fit square storage room. In short – it is easier to fold square boxes.

Therefore, pizza boxes are most likely square for purposes of handling convenience and production efficiency. Just try to put a bunch of round boxes on top of each other and see them collapse – even reasons like this are to blame for the square shape of pizza boxes.

Let us now try and answer the question as to why pizzas are cut into small angular pieces. The answer to this also should not be too difficult to fathom and understand. Cutting it into smaller and angular pieces makes it easy to handle. The customers will find it easier to hold it and eat it.

Further, when you have many friends sharing one or two pieces, dividing them equally among the various people also is easy. This is all the truer in a home where you have children. The little ones are extremely particular about getting equal. If one piece is bigger or smaller than the other it could lead to quite a bit of problem for the parents, don’t you think so?

Same pizza sizes mean nobody gets upset. These are small things that marketing pros usually consider. Hence, all the above would have given the readers the right answers to the question as to why pizza is round.

The ancient and Italian origins of round pizza tradition

As you know, pizzas were traditionally made by hand. As I mentioned above, it is easier to make a round pizza disk from the dough by hand. Because they did not have perfect robotic machines in old times. Hence, the rounded shape of pizza comes from tradition.

By the way, even bread is traditionally not made in a square or rectangular shape, but that is a topic for some other time. Still, pizzas have origin in ancient bread-making from ancient civilizations like Egypt or Babylon.

Later, that bread-making tradition was adopted by ancient Greeks and Romans. And Romans kept this round tradition all the way when morphing into Italians. According to history buffs, those were Greeks then Romans who introduced different Mediterranean toppings on the round bread-based pizza disks.

Later, Italians perfected toppings into all kinds of vegetable or meat or cheese toppings. So, the pizza is typically round for traditional purposes. And traditional purposes stem from the mere convenience and efficiency of shaping dough and making bread (and, later, pizza) in the brick oven.

The final word about round pizza

Whether the above answers make meaning or sense to use is not of much importance. What is important is the fact that pizza continues to be one of the most sought-after and popular food items across the world. But eating that lovely pizza after getting the answer to the question why is pizza round may perhaps make it even tastier.

The post This is Why Pizza is Typically Round appeared first on Make Your Dinner Easy.

3 Best Ways to Make Homemade Pizza

Max FV — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 12:09:58 +0000

Thinking about what to make when the guests or friends are coming over? Well, the answer is pizza. Who does not like it? Pizza is one of the best and most delicious common foods that almost everyone loves.

Served with a glass of wine or a chilled beer, pizza can be the best solution for a great treat. How about making pizzas at home? Yes, you can make homemade pizza and it can taste as good as the pizza shops.

All you will need is the right way to make pizza and a great recipe for it. Some people have the traditional homemade pizza recipes that are passed on to them through generations. And some can learn now and impress friends later!

Of course, you can order pizza. But, homemade pizza tastes different than commercial.

If you are looking for some of the best ways that can help you to make tasty and scrumptious homemade pizzas, then you are at the right place.

In this blog post, we will walk through the ideas that you can implement for making pizza at home easily and efficiently.

From the different ways to make pizza to all the step-by-step explanations, we will provide everything. Read on to learn all the details.

Best ways to make homemade pizza

You must have already tried the pizzas that are available in the pizza shops and restaurants. Aren’t they taste delicious? Of course, you will like to try them at home too.

But pizzas need baking and you have to make sure that you know the best ways that can help to make the homemade pizzas. Generally, there are 3 different ways to make pizzas at home for starters.

Let us reveal all the three ways here along with their benefits and drawbacks. You can try the one that seems to be more convenient and better for you. The three ways of making pizza at home are:

1. Making Homemade Pizza in Kitchen Oven

This is one of the best ways to make pizzas right at your home. It is also the most common and convenient option as it is easily accessible to most people.

Almost everyone has a kitchen oven at their home and this method simply cannot be more convenient.

Kitchen ovens are generally made for baking and cooking almost any type of dish. They can be used for different purposes and pizza is one of them.

They are mainly available in the form of electrical ovens that can be preheated for baking the pizza dough along with the cheese and then baking with the toppings.

If you have a kitchen stove with an oven at your house, then this can be the best option to consider for making delicious pizzas at home.

2. Making Homemade Pizza in Cooking Pan

You do not have an oven at your home? Do not worry! It is still possible to make a no-oven pizza at home. All you need is at least a 22 cm (8.66 inches) frying pan for that. You can easily purchase it if you do not have it yet.

Opt for better quality vs. price because you can use it for making many various meals in the future.

If you already have that or any pan of at least medium size, you can make the pizza right away.

You must roll out the dough on the pan and then press it properly.

The pizza can be cooked in a pan over medium heat with added toppings on it.

The time can differ from 8 to 12 minutes depending on how thick the dough of your pizza is.

This can be a different way to make pizza at home but a legit and easy one for sure. So, if you do not have an oven, you can try it out this way. Hey, you can even use it in the dormitory. I am sure your roommates will be impressed.

3. Making Homemade Pizza in Pizza Oven

Well, this is different from that of the kitchen ovens that are mentioned above. Pizza ovens are specialized ovens that are designed especially for making pizzas. This is surely one of the most effective and best ways to make homemade pizza.

Many people believe that these pizza ovens are only for commercial purposes. No! They are also available for domestic uses and you can purchase one for yourself if you plan to make homemade pizza more often. The pizza ovens can be of three different types based on the way they are used. These are:

Electric pizza oven: This is the most common type of pizza oven that you can use for making pizzas. They are specially designed for making pizzas because these ovens use two different temperatures at the top and the bottom. Even the operation is quite easy as everything can be controlled with the buttons and knobs. Hence, it can help you to make restaurant-style pizzas at home easily and conveniently.
Gas pizza oven: You can also make your pizzas at home with the help of gas pizza ovens. They are fully automatic. Similar to the electric oven, you will get to control the temperature of the top and bottom with the help of a digital thermostat. But instead of electricity, this oven uses natural gas to run.
Brick or concrete pizza oven: Although increasingly rare, this is probably the best way to make pizza at home when you have your own house. The brick or the concrete ovens are traditionally used and they can be dated decades back. The woods are used here to fire up the oven and to bake the pizzas. Though nowadays you will see brick ovens and concrete ovens are mostly used for commercial purposes, they can be used in houses too. The wood fire can provide a very authentic flavor to the pizzas which taste quite scrumptious.

So, from these above 3 best ways, you can choose one way to make some great pizzas at home. It depends completely on your choices and preferences.

How to make homemade pizza step by step?

After you have decided on the ideal way to make pizza, we will discuss all the step by step instructions about how you can make pizza at home.

Though you can keep the style of making pizza similar, you can always experiment with new ingredients as your toppings. Depending on whether you like veg pizza or a non-veg one, you can choose varieties of toppings. That we will discuss later.

But now, here are the steps that you must follow to make the pizza.

Step 1: Preparation of the dough

The base of the pizza is the most important thing. If the base is not perfect, then everything can fail. So, you must be very conscious about how you make the dough of the pizza. Note you can buy ready-made pizza dough, but many cooks opt for making it themselves.

There are two ways of getting dough for pizza: the easy shortcut, and the chef’s way.

Purchasing Pizza Dough

The easy way is to purchase dough instead of making it yourself. Many places sell dough – from grocery stores to bakeries or pizza joints.

Grocery stores often have frozen or refrigerated dough for sale. This is not quite the same as preparing fresh dough yourself, but it is a shortcut for complete newbies who do not want to mess with making the dough.

On the other hand, some local bakeries or pizza shops may sell their fresh dough. Seriously, check and ask around for good bread dough, or Italian pizza dough – someone will know.

Even pizza places may sell specifically pizza dough. Small shop places are more likely to sell you their dough fresh because they are making just enough. And it may be fresher than one from the grocery store.

I checked forums and people say that Pizza Hut does not have it, but Papa Johns may sell fresh dough.

If you purchase a frozen or fridge one, then put it on the table and let it warm for at least 30-60 minutes. Once it is unfrozen and ready – read on in the next section what to do with the dough.

An approximate measure is to have 1 ounce of dough per inch of diameter of pizza 10-16 inches.

But the freshest way is to prepare it yourself. My grandma was good at it – she was baking all the time.

Making Pizza Dough Yourself Quick Description

More complicated way, but worth learning. Let’s try to make it as simple as possible.

Get ready:

2-4 cups of good quality bread flour

1 teaspoon sugar

Instant dry yeast

2 teaspoons of the sea or kosher salt

1 – 1.5 cups of water, noticeably warm

Olive oil – plenty

Mix with mixer and hands, cover well, and let it stand and raise for 1/5-2 hours.

Once you have prepared the dough for your pizza, you will need to cover it with the plastic cover and put it in the refrigerator, and let it sit for about 24 hours. You could use the fresh dough right away, but putting it in the fridge for a day can help to enhance the flavor of the crust.

Now, take the dough out of the refrigerator and remove the plastic cover from the dough.

Put some flour on your hand and push the dough down. Divide it into two halves.

Detailed way of making your own dough for homemade pizza

Before you start mixing ingredients for pizza dough you should decide what type of pizza you are going to make. Thus, Neapolitan pizza is made with a hardcore crisp crust. Don’t worry if you haven’t decided yet. Here, you’ll find universal rules that anyone who makes dough for homemade pizza should follow.

Before mixing dough

Scale ingredients

How are you going to measure ingredients for your dough? The majority of problems you may have with making your own dough comes down to incorrectly measuring ingredients, especially flour. Why is this? Flour is compressible. You can measure it by cups or ounces. It is better to use a scale and you’ll see that one cup may contain four or even six ounces of different types of flour. That’s a difference!

Choose the right flour

As you know, flour is the main ingredient for your pizza dough. Of course, any flour works well but you’d better choose the right one for your sort of pizza. Different types of flour give different structures to your pizza crust.

All-purpose flour is often used by beginners and experienced chefs and works well. If you need very structured dough allowing for stretching and rising, you’d better find some high protein bread flour. There is also special pizza flour if you want to go all the way in.

Another way to make your own dough for pizza

The classic recipe is simple. You need no more than 10 minutes to prepare. Luckily, you may use a food processor for a perfect result. It’s ok if you don’t have one.

Ingredients

1 cup (8.5 ounces) warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon instant yeast

2 cups (10.5 ounces / 300 g) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

Step by step recipe

Start by combining warm water with your yeast and teaspoon of sugar. Wait for a few minutes until it starts to froth up and form a sort of foam or bubbles up, as some say. If it does not, toss it and start again. If it does – it is active, and you can add flour now. You can use hand or stand mixer to speed things up. I would set it on low setting at this stage. Some recommend to use wooden spoon for more authentic way of making pizza dough.
Add flour and salt to the mixture in the bowl. You can pour both cups, or our one cup and little latter add another cup. Even better, just make a kind of syphon hole in the flour, add some salt, and pour the yeast liquid to the center. You should work with your fingers, mixing liquids and dry components. Whichever way works for you.
You can add a teaspoon of olive oil if you want.
Stir gently but well. If you use hand or stand mixer, set the speed to medium.
Stir until a soft dough ball mass appears. Dough ball must be soft but hold together strongly enough for you to be able to grab with your hands to put on the kitchen surface without dripping all over.
Put flour on the kitchen surface you use to make dough. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for a few minutes to prevent sticking to avoid it becoming stiff.
Oil a bowl with your olive oil and place your soft dough ball in it. Some recommend rolling it in the bowl to get covered with olive oil.
Cover it well with a clean cloth, kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for about 1/2 to 2 hours in a warm and dry place. It must rise to about double of what it was originally.
You can also put it to rise overnight in the refrigerator to rise. If did not rise enough, then take it out and keep it for 30-60 minutes at room temperature to speed up rising.
Once it rises, remove it and knead a little – a few times – to push out any air from it.
You may use the dough immediately or cut and refrigerate it. It’s a little easier to roll out when it’s not super cold, but straight from the fridge still works. Otherwise, place the pizza dough in an airtight bag and freeze.
Now you can knead the pizza dough – this is important step and we have devoted whole article just for that.

This recipe should make two thin-crust pizzas.

Note

What’s the secret? The secret is in how much flour you add to the dough. People fail and end up with dry, dense dough because they are adding too much flour. Always do the ingredients by weight!

Step 2: Flattening of the dough

Short description:

Choose one of the halves and make it round with your hands.

Now, keep it on the countertop and press it with your hand to flatten it.

Make sure to lightly flour the countertop before you start this.

While flattening the dough, start from the center and gradually work outwards using your fingers.

Press the dough like this until it is about half an inch thick. It is better to achieve a diameter of about at least 10 to 16 inches for your pizza with a thickness of 1/2 inch.

Brush the crust top lightly with some olive oil. This can help to prevent your crust from becoming soggy due to the toppings. Keep it like that for about 15 minutes.

Long description:

Use olive oil to prepare your working places to prevent the dough from sticking to surfaces (bowl in which you will mix the dough AND surface on which you will knead the dough, like cutting board).

We have a separate article on this blog about how to knead pizza dough. It will help your pizza-making process. But here is a short overview.

You now have room-temperature pizza dough covered with few tablespoons of oil.

Wash your hands and dry them well.

Press with the palm of your hand gradually on the dough to flatten it into a circle or disc (unless it is sold already flattened).

The rough disc must be round, 6 to 16 inches across, and ½-1 inches thick for this article. I suggest starting with smaller sizes for your first homemade pizza.

If the disc shrinks back, let it rest for 15 minutes and repeat this process. You can repeat this 2-3 times until the disc keeps its shape (that is why it should be room temperature – frozen or cold one will not hold the shape).

Then you should stretch the dough a little more to a round shape. You can just hold it in your hands, carefully moving slowly from spot to spot around while down is hanging straight down over the surface. It will pull down by itself a little bit.

Just make it as round as you can.

Now your pizza dough disc should be anywhere from 10 to 25 inches across, 1/3-1/2 inches thick.

Note, if you will use a frying pan or baking tool to cook a pizza – also one way to make homemade pizza – then you may want to prepare the dough in the corresponding shape – it could be square, for example.

Step 3: Transfer to the pizza peel

A pizza peel is a tool that looks like a shovel to slide the pizza into the oven on a pizza stone, baking sheet, or pan if you use a pan. A pizza peel is an essential and mandatory tool for making pizza. Well, you can use the regular peel. Whatever.

Before you place the pizza dough over peel it is better to sprinkle some cornmeal lightly on the peel. This will help to easily transfer the pizza from the peel to the oven or on anything for baking the pizza.

This step is essential or else the dough can get stuck to the peel making it difficult to transfer.

Step 4: Prepare the sauce and toppings

Now, it is just about the time to start preparing whatever goes to the top of the crust. You should have the pizza sauce ready with you along with the cheese and all the ingredients that you want to use as the topping.

With the help of the spoon spread the pasta sauce evenly and properly over the crust. Make every inch of the crust top is covered with the sauce.

Now, sprinkle cheese all over the pizza. Here you can choose how much you want. Once the cheese is sprinkled, now spread the toppings such as onions, meat, mushroom, corn, bell peppers, etc.

Do not overload the pizza with a lot of toppings on it as it can make the pizza quite soggy.

Step 5: Prepare the pizza stone or baking sheet

For baking the pizza in the oven, you will either need a baking stone or a baking sheet. A baking stone is a way better and authentic thing to use for making homemade or commercial pizza. Read on below more about what is baking stone. But beginners can use a regular baking sheet.

Whatever you choose, lightly sprinkle some of the cornmeal on it. Now, transfer the pizza from the peel to the stone or sheet whatever you have.

Be gentle while transferring. Give a gentle shake to transfer the pizza and do not do it in a hurry. Now, slide the pizza into the oven and let it bake. Read on below for temperature settings and time for baking a pizza.

Important tips for making pizza at home

These are the steps that you must follow to make homemade pizza. Here are some more details that you should know about making pizzas at home:

· What do you bake pizza on?

As mentioned above, you can bake the pizza either on a baking stone or on a baking sheet.

Baking stones are the solid and heavy portable baking surfaces that can be used in the oven from baking pizzas. They can absorb the additional moisture into it to ensure that the crust of the pizza is crispy and crunchy.

The baking sheets are the baking tray that can be used for baking different foods including pizza.

If you compare these two, the baking stones are better than the baking sheets as they can hold heat much more evenly.

The stones are also porous that can draw out the moisture preventing the dough from getting soggy.

Remember, that pizza stones are designed scientifically specifically to make pizzas. Makes sense?

· How long do the pizzas take to cook in the oven?

Though the preparation time of the pizza can vary depending on the type of dough you are making and the toppings you are choosing, it does not take too much time to cook it in the oven.

As mentioned above, if you preheat the oven at 245 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes, then it will take about 10 to 15 minutes for the pizza to cook in the oven.

Below I posted a detailed table for temperature settings and corresponding baking time. Note, if your pizza or kitchen oven is an older one, baking time may take longer and small deforming of the old oven may lead to a small loss of heat while baking.

Times are always approximate – it depends on your oven and the size of the pizza and how many toppings you put on top of it. Surely, larger pizza will take a longer time to bake.

Make sure to check if pizza is ready before removing it from the oven (see next section about how to know if pizza is ready).

· Which oven setting is best for making pizza?

It is always the best idea to preheat the oven before you put the pizza into it.

Keep the baking stone in the oven and preheat it for about 220 to 245 degrees Celsius (C), which is 430 to 475 Fahrenheit (F).

The hotter the oven, the better it is for baking the pizza. Hence, the best setting is 245 degrees Celsius i.e. 475 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.

Preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes and then put the pizza into it and let it bake at the same temperature.

The setting can also vary from one oven to another. So, it is better to check the instructions provided with the oven (if it is possible).

The most common timeframe for home ovens to make pizza is about 5-20 minutes, depending on the heat setting.

NOTE: You can bake pizza on as high as you can. In fact, the higher the better – the sooner pizza will be ready. Overall, the general opinion is that you should cook on high to bake pizza in a short time as possible for the best result.

The average home oven heats up to 350 C or 600 F degrees. Remember those special pizza ovens, or stone or concrete ovens, that we mentioned earlier? They can go as high as 500-550 C or 900-1000 F degrees.

The most common temperature setting for baking homemade pizza is that 250 C or 482 F (250-275 C or 450-550 F range is fine). That is about 9-10 on the gas oven setting. Some people report fine results with 200 degrees C or 390-400 F (about 6 gas oven mark setting).

So, I reviewed forums and noted that many people have good results anywhere within the range of 450-550 F degrees.

This is a table for how long to cook homemade pizza at a certain temperature (all times are approximate, for the size of 1/2 inch thick, nor more than 16-18 inches in diameter):

Temperature & Time (in minutes):

190 C (375 F) – 15-25 minutes

220°C (430°F) – 10-20 minutes

250-260°C (482-500°F) – 10-15 minutes

280°C (550°F) – 7-12 minutes

300°C (570°F) – 7-10 minutes

350°C (600°F) – 5-10 minutes

600 and 620°F – 3-5 minutes

Large thick pizzas may need a lower temperature setting to cook thoroughly without burning crust – 200 C or 400 F. The larger the pizza – the longer time it needs to cook (45 minutes of baking is not unheard of).

Note, that these timeframes do not include time for pre-heating pizza stone or baking sheet, where pizza stone may take up to an hour to heat well, and baking sheet usually takes less time to heat up.

· How do you know the pizza is done?

Ovens come with a transparent door and you can see the pizza cooking in your oven. So, when you notice that the crust has turned well-brownish in color and crisp texture along with the cheese turning golden and sizzling, then you will know that the pizza is done.

The crust becomes crispy in the last 1 or 2 minutes of the entire 10 to 15 minutes of baking. Also, the cheese gets completely melted.

When you notice all these indicators, it will be an indication that the pizza is done, and you can take it out of the oven. At least, open and look.

Beware of the hot air coming out of the oven!

Eventually, you may learn to check pizza readiness by looks and by smell.

Best homemade pizza recipe

Hopefully, it is quite clear to you how you can make pizzas at home. The process of preparation may seem to be a lot in the beginning.

But once you start and do a few of them, the process gets simpler and easier for you. As you now have a complete idea about the basics of how to make the pizza right in your kitchen or backyard, it is time for you to get to know about a sample recipe.

If you are here, we can assume that you want to make pizza at home for the first time or have little experience in it. Here is a quite simple yet scrumptious pizza recipe that you can try today at home.

The recipe is for making chicken mushroom pizza. If you do not like chicken or mushrooms, you can replace that with any other ingredients.

For this, you will need some of the basic ingredients like:

Cornmeal for dusting and sprinkling
Pizza dough (homemade or store-bought)
Pizza sauce or mushroom sauce
Onions
Mushroom (sliced)
Salt and black pepper
Basil leaves and parsley (chopped)
Fully cooked chicken breast (shredded)
Mozzarella cheese (grated)

Directions:

As directed above, you purchase or prepare the dough and transfer than to the pizza peel. Spread the pizza sauce all over the dough right away.

You can also use the mushroom sauce instead of the red pizza sauce. It is completely your choice.

Now, take the grated mozzarella and spread it all over the dough. Make sure to keep it as a thin layer.

Now, put the sliced mushroom and shredded chicken breast over the cheese. Do not put too many toppings and keep it light.

Sprinkle again some grated cheese over the chicken and mushroom.

Transfer the pizza to the preheated baking stone or baking sheet in the oven. Let it cook for about 10 to 15 minutes until you know the pizza is done.

Take the pizza out and enjoy the delicious cheese mushroom chicken pizza with your family. It surely will taste heavenly.

Best tips for making delicious homemade pizza

With all these step by step explanations, it is quite evident that you now know everything about how you can make the best homemade pizzas.

But with some beneficial tips below can level up your game. So, here are some of the important tips that you must always keep in your mind while making pizza at home:

Don’t ever forget to preheat the oven as well as the baking stone before you put the pizza on the stone
Do not roll the dough ever. Instead of that, it is recommended to stretch it with your fingertips and palms
Add a very thin layer of pizza sauce and don’t overdo it as too much sauce can make the pizza soggy
Make sure to cover the pizza tightly if you are making it on the pan and not in the oven
Whoever says more the merrier for toppings is wrong. Keep it less but enough of the pizza
Don’t overcook the pizza as that can make the crust too dry and hard

Conclusion

Pizza being an exceedingly popular dish all over the world, many people love to have it for sure. But the homemade pizzas are safer to have and cheaper too than buying them from outside.

Also, you can customize the pizzas according to your needs, as mentioned above.

As you now know about the best ways to make homemade pizza, you can try it at home with the right toppings that you will love to add. You can even choose the size of the pizzas according to your preferences.

Now, if your guests are coming over or you want to enjoy pizza with your family, forget the online delivery services. You can make the pizzas at home the way you want. Try it out today!

The post 3 Best Ways to Make Homemade Pizza appeared first on Make Your Dinner Easy.

How to Knead Pizza Dough: Most Effective Methods

Max FV — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 12:59:30 +0000

The dough is the core of a pizza. How well you knead pizza dough makes all the difference in the pizza. It should not be too thick or thin but ideally chewy. It should result in a crispy crust and delicious as it can sag somewhat due to toppings or slide off.

Kneading the pizza dough to the right time and combining the dough ingredients to appropriate quantities results in the perfect dough. Here are most effective methods to knead pizza dough.

What is kneading the dough?

Kneading is mixing the dough but it is a more effortful way of doing it. Kneading pizza dough should be done on a work surface. Kneading is primarily done to improve the dough texture, stretchiness, and strength.

Kneading the dough is done to:

Evenly mix the ingredients
To strengthen the gluten strands.

To hydrate the flour.

The science behind kneading the pizza dough.

If you can understand the science behind kneading, you will know why kneading is essential and to the right amount to get the right pizza dough. The kneading process involves altering the molecular structure of the dough’s gluten strengthening structure and the strength of the dough.

Gluten of the wheat flour comprises of proteins called glutenin and gliadin. When the dough ingredients are initially combined, the proteins are knotted and arranged chaotically following no order.

When you knead, the proteins gradually line up and create an amino acid chain. They form a matrix in the pizza dough permitting the pizza dough to rise.

This makes the dough chewy, perfect texture, and soft which otherwise can be like a hardboard. The softness is due to gas within the dough due to yeast.

How to Knead Pizza Dough?

To make a soft stretch pizza, you will need the following ingredients:

All-purpose flour/Wheat flour-4 cups/500g (17.6 ounces)
Water-1-1/3 cups/300ml (10.1 ounces)
Salt-1tbsp/10g (0.35 ounces)
Olive oil-1tbsp/20g (0.7 ounces) – 2 tablespoons
Dry yeast-7g (less than 1 tablespoon) or Fresh yeast-20g – – 2 tablespoons

(Sorry if measures seem complicated – we have North American and European readers on this blog)

How to know my kneading is enough?

To know if your kneading is sufficient, press your finger into the dough, it should spring back. The other test is when you pull the dough; if it tears up then a little more kneading is needed. If you stretch the dough, you should be able to see through it, if kneaded right. This is also called the windowpane test. When sufficient kneading is done, the pizza dough is ready and rises right.

How much time is needed to knead a pizza dough right?

Pizza dough generally requires about 10 minutes to 12 minutes of kneading with hand. It involves rolling and pressing back and forth using your palm area of your hands. It is also called the rock n roll method.

If you are making use of a stand mixer and making pizza dough with a hook, then it will need about 8 minutes to 10 minutes of kneading. This time is approximate and results in a stretchy and velvety smooth dough.

Kneading times can be known precisely based on the ingredients used, flour type, and the technique that you are using for kneading. High protein flour may not need as much kneading as low protein flour.

A right kneading can be assessed with the following features in the dough:

The dough has no lumps and is very smooth in texture.
The dough is less sticky.
The dough stretches without tearing/ripping.
The dough holds its shape well.
The dough passes the windowpane test.

Different methods on how to knead pizza dough.

You can knead pizza dough using different methods. Follow the steps below for different methods to get well-kneaded pizza dough.

Mixing Method

Take water and warm it to around 38 deg C. It should be warm when you touch it.
Take yeast and mix it in water and then add in oil.
Blend it using a whisk for even smooth mixing.
Take flour and sift it to let out lumps into a mixing bowl.
Add in salt and mix it.
Make a well in the center of the flour hill.
Now pour the yeast water mix in.
Take a wooden spoon and churn it to make the dough.

The process

Pizza dough can be prepared using a dough hook in a mixer or by using a hand. Once you have dry and wet ingredients in hand, mix them as in the mixing method. Transfer this pizza dough onto the work surface. The dough should not be sticky, but a little moist.

Pizza dough is kneaded with 3 primary steps:

Fold
Push
Turn

Step 1-Fold-Lift the pizza dough and fold the dough over and onto itself.

Step 2- Push-Push down and then using the heels of the hand and palms of your hand move forward to the middle of the dough mass.

Step 3- Turn-Give the dough a quarter turn and turn it always to the same side.

The kneading and turning should be repeated. Whenever the dough sticks, use a scraper and scrape it up. Lightly flour the counter or the work surface and repeat the process. The entire process should be elastic and smooth.

Once the mixing step is done, one can knead pizza dough using different methods.

Hand kneading pizza dough

Hand kneading is a traditional way of making pizza and it can be daunting for many. However, with worked up dough, the flour protein lined up with each other creating gluten strings. The protein level within the flour determines the pizza dough fineness. The higher it is, the stronger and better the gluten strings are. This becomes strong flour.

Steps to be followed:

Take the pizza dough obtained from the mixing method to a work surface after flouring it lightly.
If you find the dough sticking then dust it above as well.
Now, it’s time to knead. There is no right method to knead as each of them prefers their own. However, the most preferred type is to use the heel or palm of your hand to press first and then roll the pizza dough across the work surface.
Now make use of your other palm and repeat the process along with folding it over simultaneously.
Repeat the process for about 3 minutes to 5 minutes.
Knead the pizza dough on the lightly floured surface around 20 times to 30 times to get that velvety texture.
Your pizza dough is ready now.
Check the pizza dough by pressing it with your finger to rise back or the windowpane test.

The resultant pizza dough should not be sticky, be stretchy and be velvety smooth in texture. Remember not to overwork the dough beyond this point. It can make the dough over velvety and the gluten over-strengthened. It becomes difficult to work with such dough.

Key features of hand kneading

Making use of your hands will permit you to feel the dough and analyze the right kneading with the feel.
Hand kneading needs more physical effort and stretch, rock, press, and roll technique.
An effort filled work but gives a traditional dough making.
Kneading by hand needs no equipment and a cheaper way to do it with a traditional touch.

Kneading pizza dough using a stand mixer

Stand mixers come in different mileages and types. With different flours, you may need a little experimenting. A standard stand mixer comes with a metal bowl and a dough hook. You can skip the mixing method mentioned above if you are planning to knead pizza dough with a mixer.

Steps to be followed

Take all the ingredients mentioned above and put them in the mixer bowl and mix it.
Operate the mixer on mid-speed for the ingredients to mix up evenly. Mix them for about 30 to 60 seconds.
Turn down the mixer to a lesser speed and let it run for around 3 mins.
Post this time, turn off and check for the dough consistency. Ensure the dough not sticking to the mixer walls. When you touch the dough, it should give you a putty-like velvety feel it.
Let the dough stand in the bowl and rest for around 20 mins. Place the cover to prevent the dough from drying out.
Once the dough is rested enough, remove it over a lightly floured surface.
Using your hand, knead it for around 20 minutes to 30 minutes.

Pizza dough can be easily overworked in a mixer, so be careful of the consistency. Ensure the dough to be checked with a finger or windowpane test for the right amount of kneading.

Key aspects of using a mixer

Making use of a mixer will minimize the time spent in handling the pizza dough.
Mixers will need lesser physical strength or kneading technique. Kneading is done after the mixing is done and the time required is lesser as compared to hand kneading.
It is easier to knead the dough mixed in the mixer.

Mixers are expensive, heavy, and bulky but make the effort easier.

Kneading technique summarized

You pull the dough and fold the back of the pizza dough up and over the front side. After this, you push it across you with the heel of your hand. Post this, you give the dough a quarter turn. Repeat this process of the fold, push and turn. Knead rhythmically until the dough turns smooth and stretchy.

Signs of under-kneaded dough

Flopping dough
Easily tears off
Looked ragged

Signs of well-kneaded dough

Well holding shape
Bounces back fast upon poking
See-through stretch

Proofing

After the above steps, you might think kneading is done. However, you need to proof the dough. The dough is filled with airiness by turning the yeast into sugars, alcohol, and carbon dioxide. These bubbles stretch the flour gluten without which the pizza can get harder.

To prove, you cover the dough with a kitchen towel or a cling film. Let it triple or double the size. Place this container into a warm place for about one or one and a half hour generally. You can divide them into smaller balls and cover them up.

Post proof knead

Once the proofing is done, the dough doubles or triples the size. Post proof knead is folding the sized ball into itself. This can be done by holding the dough ball and bringing the dough sides towards the middle downsides and pushing them in. Turn them 90 degrees and repeat this folding technique on all the sides. The process can be repeated some times. The dough can be covered back with the cling film and keep in a warm place for another 60 minutes to 90 minutes. You can store this dough ball in the freezer for two days.

Which kneading method is preferable?

Kneading by hand is recommended to begin with as it gives you a feel for your pizza dough. You will get a hang of handling it to the right kneading and time. You will be able to learn quickly the aspects of what makes the right pizza dough.

Once you get the hang of it, a mixer can come in handy as now you know how much time to mix and with the feel of the dough, assess the kneading.

Do we knead the pizza dough after resting?

As mentioned above, kneading is done after proofing the dough as well. Knead the pizza dough for 10 minutes after mixing and placing it on a lightly floured surface. After this let it rest for short rising. Punch the dough down and knead it post proofing and let it rest.

You can throw the dough in a pan and knead it lightly when rolling out for pizza. However, it is important to note that treat it light to retain the airiness of the dough.

This will give you a better and lighter crusted pizza. Over kneading can result in hardwood like pizza. Airiness is the pizza should be retained for puffiness in the pizza.

Kitchen tools to knead the pizza dough.

You may want to have few tools which will help you to knead pizza dough.

If you do it often you can get Kneading Mat Material which contains template measurements of your pizza size so that you knead size of pizza to fit your pizza stone. It is also called kneading pad and can be used for any pastry.

You want to get a decent kitchen scale to measure weight of dough. I think if you cook things then a good mixer also will be of help in the kitchen.

Dough scrapers to scrape of dough after you are finished and put your pizza to bake in the oven. It can be a pain to remove remains of the dough.

Pizza stone or baking sheet is absolute must, of course. I recommend baking stones. Read our article about how to select good baking stone for best pizza quality.

Optional is pizza peel to cut of excess pizza so that it does not fall over the size of your pizza stone or baking sheet.

Pizza wheel can really help with portioning your pizza or even dough, if you want.

And if you are really all the way into pizza, a good pizza oven is a nice thing to have. But this is for true pizza fans or for those who make a lot of pizza (small restaurant, for example).

And if you are totally lazy and do not want to mess with dough, you can purchase pizza pan and use it to make pizza without even kneading it. But kneading pizza is a beautiful process.

Tip: Many newbies prefer cheaper metal peels or other such tools, including cutting board. Wood is much more preferrable because dough does not stick to wood as strongly as it sticks to metal. For regular pizza-making I would get wooden peel to insert pizza dough for baking, and metal peel to extract already made pizza from the oven.

Conclusion

Pizza dough can be kneaded either by hand or using a mixer. Kneading is done to line up the gluten and strengthen the gluten strands. A well-kneaded pizza dough is not sticky, is velvety smooth and stretchy. This type of kneaded pizza dough rises well and results in crispy and fluffy pizza.

The post How to Knead Pizza Dough: Most Effective Methods appeared first on Make Your Dinner Easy.

How to Make Pizza Sauce from Tomato Paste: A Comprehensive Guide

Max FV — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 12:34:28 +0000

How to Make Pizza Sauce from Tomato Paste

Everyone goes crazy about pizza. That is right! That’s so exciting to put together the crust, the sauce, and different variations of topping, experimenting, creating new tastes and aromas. You can find a gazillion of ideas and recipes!

The crust has not changed a lot through the years. You still use wheat crust or, rarely, almond or corn flour crust. Vegan pizza works well with a cauliflower or broccoli crust. The pizza toppings are really hard to duplicate. You mix and combine everything you can find in the depth of your kitchen. But the sauce has no intentions of changing!

But pizza is not pizza without a pizza sauce. Let us explore how to make pizza sauce from tomato paste the easy way. In fact, several; ways.

Tomato pasta by itself is not best way to flavor your pizza. Making pizza sauce from tomato paste is not too complicated. You will need to add olive oil, white vinegar. Also add spices such as salt, garlic, oregano, pepper, or other Italian spices. The pizza sauce is cooked with pizza. Below you will find a few specific instructions and recipes to make real pizza sauce out of tomato paste.

Cooking Pizza

Cooking pizza with your own hands is worth a lot. It is much better than microwaving it. Why?

First of all, it’s cheaper than taking pizza from the store every evening. If you are a pizza lover, you can save up to 20-30% of your monthly budget in case you will cook pizza on your own instead of running to the grocery once and again.

Secondly, cooking pizza is a magic process you can share with your kids or loved ones. There is nothing better than snuggling down in your favorite armchair proudly enjoying pizza made by own hands, watching a TV-show, and spending pleasant evening with your family.

How to cook an ideal pizza sauce with tomato paste

The sauce is a core ingredient of any pizza. Traditionally, people give priority to tomato-based sauces of a mouth-watering red color. Believe it or not, but pizza doesn’t feel like a real culinary masterpiece if it is not smothered with an aromatic red sauce.

Is pizza sauce the same thing as tomato sauce?

Ask everyone, the secret to making a quality pizza is how you sauce it. The tomato base is the main component of any kind of pizza but it would be a mistake to use anything even resembling a sauce consistency you’ll suddenly find on the shelf.

Must transform it into a real pizza sauce first. And never confuse the ideas of pizza and pasta flavoring. You cannot talk about them in the same meaning! Before you start enchanting your pizza taste, you should see the difference between PIZZA and PASTA dressing.

An easy way to distinguish PIZZA SAUCE and PASTA SAUCE

Let’s determine the position first: pizza sauce should be spread on a pizza crust!

The key difference between these two sauces is that one of them is usually taken raw and cooked all together with pizza (although, not always). The pasta sauce should be cooked well beforehand.

Pizza dressing

A classic recipe of a pizza dressing suggests making it of plain tomato paste or somehow crushed tomatoes, being careful that it must be a thicker consistency than a usual pasta dressing. Stick to the recipe and control thickness by adding fresh watery tomatoes. Why is the sauce consistency so important? The thick sauce fits the pizza dough the most as it prevents your dish from getting wet and sticky.

Do not forget about spices! You can add a variety of spices and different ingredients to your pizza dressing. Salt, sugar, oregano, garlic, and fresh-ground pepper are mostly respected. Complete your sauce with cheese, olives and spread it on top of your pizza dough. What about topping? Homemade variations of topping satisfy everyone’s eye. Bring all these flavors together and you’ll get the tastiest home-made pizza.

Pasta dressing

The guide for pasta dressing recommends cooking the sauce with pureed or canned tomatoes, not paste. You’d better water it to get a watery substance. Why must it be so thin in consistency? The flowing texture penetrates your pasta noodles or meatballs and covers them in and out.

Also, pasta dressing does not take any specific seasoning. It works well even with a pinch of salt, pepper, and dried oregano for aroma. You will often find scraps of tomatoes in a pasta sauce, while a classic pizza sauce can boast its smooth consistency.

(From Scratchtobasics)

HOW TO MAKE CLASSIC PIZZA SAUCE, BASED ON TOMATO PASTE

How to cook up pizza sauce with tomato paste? It doesn’t require an extraordinary effort to create your own dish dressing! Just go step by step and you will learn how to cook it within minutes! So, get ready with a bowl and a spoon to mix up the sauce components.

Do not forget to buy a pack of herbs and ground seasons. You may even think of Italian herbs and spices if you want your pizza to taste Italian. Finally, check if you have tomato paste as you cannot go far and cook a quality pizza without this priceless component.

Pizza sauce takes:

1 cup of tomato paste

Olive oil

Garlic or garlic powder

White vinegar

Salt, dried, or even fresh herbs, especially thyme and oregano

How to treat your guests with a perfect sauce for pizza:

Put a cup of just-maid or previously-bought paste into a mixing bowl. Also, feel free to use some pureed or blended tomatoes to replace paste as experiment. Use your blender to smooth the resulting tomato sauce.

Then, crush a garlic clove, throw in some onion powder, salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar, and any desired seasonings you wish to add. Mix them up until even-textured. Remember, you don’t need to stir it or cook anyhow! It will be perfectly baked all together with your pizza in the oven!

So, spread your just-maid sauce right away on a pizza dough crust.

Pre-heat your pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven (pizza stone is always the best for making pizza).

Put dough with sauce on pizza stone and start baking at about 450 and until ready. Alternatively, you can bake pizza first and then put sauce on top of hot pizza, let it stand for several hours to blend in the flavor. The downside is that you will need to reheat the pizza using second method. Try both ways.

If you are not going to use your pizza sauce right now, refrigerate in a plastic box and keep it cooled for up to a week. You may also freeze pizza sauce, keeping it for 2 months.

Before you use frozen sauce, give it some time to unfreeze and come to room temperature. How? The best way is to leave your sauce in the refrigerator for the whole night or thaw it in the microwave before using it on pizza dough.

Pizza sauce with NO SUGAR:

If you don’t like sugar in your pizza sauce, just don’t drop it in. Actually, tomato paste is already sweet and salted so that there is no additional sugar needed. You may try and see what you’ll get in the end.

Why use tomato paste for pizza sauce?

What is tomato paste? Actually, this is just crushed tomatoes, pureed and cooked down. There are few reasons why it is recommended to use TOMATO PASTE in a pizza sauce recipe, especially when combining it with fresh tomatoes.

The first and the main, tomato paste has one natural component – tomatoes, with no preservatives and unhealthy supplements. It makes your pizza taste incredibly tomato.
Tomato paste is thick in consistency. You can water it as you want, depending on how much pizza sauce you need. It’s very convenient, isn’t it?
Using ONLY pureed tomatoes or ONLY tomato sauce instead of tomato paste doesn’t take the effect you need and expect. Your sauce will be too moist to cook pizza with it.

If you don’t have tomato paste at home, you can easily cook it with fresh tomatoes. Just roast them slowly in a pan by adding some salt. Finally, you’ll get a fresh-made organic product for your future pizza.

Making pizza for a party

Are you going to make pizza for a bunch of friends or co-workers? No problem at all! This pizza sauce recipe can be easily scaled up. Don’t worry if you overdo! Just save freeze your extra sauce for the future.

How to freeze the remaining pizza sauce?

Before you freeze the extra pizza sauce, you should portion it and freeze in smaller containers. Portion one container for one pizza. Some people prefer keeping food in special boxes or containers. It can be helpful to freeze the sauce for pizza using this type of wide jars. You can save some space in your freezer by tightening the lid of a package.

Tomato-based pizza sauces for all occasions

That’s not such a big deal to prepare pizza at home. Fill it with anything you want. Choose from dozens of toppings, different types of crust, and hundreds of sauces to create the perfect combination to satisfy your taste. Do you believe you can have pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Pizza can be a light snack and a substantial meal. Just change ingredients. In this situation, a pizza sauce plays an even bigger role than topping. Remember, adding more ingredients than a classic pizza sauce usually takes, you may need to cook it and cool before spread on your dough.

Garlicky pizza sauce

Check the list of ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves, fine cut

1 cup tomato paste

2 tomatoes, pureed or crushed

1/3 teaspoon chili, fine cut or powdered

Salt by taste

Heat some extra-virgin oil in a stewpot. Then, throw in the garlic and give it 2-3 minutes to spread its aroma. Sprinkle your aromatic oil with chili and salt. Cook for a couple of minutes, then make cool, and mix up with pureed tomatoes and a cup of tomato paste for the right consistency. Blend your pizza sauce if needed. Season with salt or sugar.

Tomato-based vodka sauce

This Italian-American pizza sauce is always desirable. Take the ingredients from the next-corner grocery.

Check the list of ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil

2 ounces pancetta, diced

2-3 garlic cloves, fine cut

1/3 teaspoon chili, fine cut or sliced

1/3 cup vodka

1 cup tomato paste

Sugar and slat by taste

3 basil sprigs

Black pepper, powdered

Heat the oil in a pan. Stir the pancetta, garlic, and chili for 5 minutes for a strong aroma. Deglaze with vodka. Mix the oil with tomato paste, herbs, and other spices. Blend the sauce and use for pizza.

You may try to do white or red wine instead. It is up to you.

Tomato-ginger sauce

This pizza dressing is surprisingly fast and simple in cooking but has a complex flavor. It seems thick and this is what you need for pizza. Anyway, you can control the right sauce consistency with the help of adding some tomato puree.

Check the list of ingredients:

1 spoon olive oil

1 cup tomato paste

1 onion, peeled, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoons ginger, grated

Sal, black pepper by taste

Parsley, fresh, fine cut

Heat some oil in a stewpot, add onions, ginger, stir for 2 minutes. Cool the mass, add spices, herbs, tomato paste. Mix up all the ingredients or just blend until you get a pureed mixture.

Napoletana pizza sauce

Check the list of ingredients:

1 spoon olive oil

1/2 cup anchovies

1/2 cup capers

1/3 teaspoon chili, fine cut

1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 cup tomato paste

1/2 cup olives

Sugar, salt by taste

Basil, fresh, fine cut

Napoletana pizza can boast its interesting and a bit Mediterranean taste. To make the tastiest pizza dressing you need to heat the oil first and fry the garlic, anchovies, and chili. Then, cool the mass, blend with tomato paste, salt, sugar, fine cut basil, capers, and olives. Sprinkle with black pepper and check the consistency. If too thick, add a portion of fresh-pureed tomatoes. With such a rich and aromatic sauce, you don’t even need much to add for pizza topping!

5-minute tomato sauce

This speedy sauce can boast its luxurious taste and silky texture. It’s all because of butter. Remember, planning to freeze your sauce for the future, it is better to leave the butter out. Add it just in case your pizza is going to be baked right now.

Check the list of ingredients:

1 cup tomato pasta

1/3 cup olive oil

10 basil leaves

Black pepper, fresh-ground

Red pepper, fine cut

Salt by taste

1 tablespoon butter

Pour some oil into a pan. Stir the leaves of basil, fine cut, and other fresh herbs by your taste for 10 seconds. Mix up with the crushed red pepper, black pepper, tomato paste, salt. Finally, add some melted unsalted butter. Season the sauce with salt and pepper again and carefully spread on your crust.

Classic marinara sauce

Check the list of ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves, fine cut

1 cup tomato paste

1-2 canned tomatoes with sauce

Sugar, salt, fresh-ground pepper by taste

3 basil sprigs

Traditionally, heat the oil in a pot, throw in the garlic, and fry for 5 minutes. Cool and mix up with tomato paste, canned tomatoes, spices from a recipe. Blend carefully. It is important to heat the oil first to help the garlic deliver its taste and aroma.

Caper-tomato sauce

Check the list of ingredients:

1 cup tomato paste

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup capers

Salt, sugar by taste

Oregano, fresh or dried for aroma

This is the easiest recipe you may have. Just blend all the ingredients: tomato paste, olive oil, capers, spices. For a thinner consistency add some tomato puree. Blend all the ingredients and use them for pizza. Don’t you like puree sauces? Feel free to chop all the ingredients, mix them together, and use for cooking.

Finally, should pizza sauce be raw or cooked?

Actually, it’s a matter of personal taste. That would be a proper solution to heat the oil for your pizza sauce first if it contains special seasons that must be heated to deliver their taste. Also, it is better to simmer your pizza sauce until half-done if using tomatoes or tomato puree instead or in addition to the tomato paste.

Why so? Remember, fresh or canned tomatoes have a ton of water so your pizza will float away if you leave things as they are. Therefore, let the excess liquid die by stirring. Using tomato paste as a ground for your sauce, take it raw as the sauce and the pizza will be cooked together.

What ELSE can I do with pizza sauce?

Do some magic! As it was told before, you can freeze your pizza sauce and leave it for future usage. Also, you can turn the leftover pizza sauce into pasta! How? Put your leftovers in a pan, mix with tomato puree or crushed fresh tomatoes, additional spices, and stir until done. Now, your sauce is ideal for pasta, meatballs, whatever. Dilute the flavor with veggies to get a colorful pasta dish at no time.

So, your pizza sauce is ready and you know everything about how to cook it and how to boost up its plane taste. What’s next? Now that you have the sauce covered…you need a pizza crust recipe.

The post How to Make Pizza Sauce from Tomato Paste: A Comprehensive Guide appeared first on Make Your Dinner Easy.

Can I Use Baking Powder Instead of Yeast in Pizza Dough?

Max FV — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 14:05:57 +0000

Using Baking Powder Instead of Yeast in Pizza Dough

In moderation, yeast has many properties that help our bodies maintain a healthy gut and absorb vitamins, yet many are ditching yeast for health reasons. Does this mean you have to quit your favorite comfort foods, like pizza?

You can use baking powder instead of yeast pizza dough. Every yeast-adverse pizza fan should know that baking powder combines with liquid in a chemical reaction that gives off a gas, which causes the dough to rise. So, you can replace yeast with baking powder and still create excellent pizza dough.

In the following article, learn how to prepare a pizza base with baking powder instead of yeast, including a look at types of flour you can use and how to prepare your workstation to guarantee tantalizing consistency to your pizza base. We’ll also walk through how to prepare a mouth-watering pizza base that’s as fine as any pizzaiola.

You Can Substitute Yeast for Baking Powder

During the leavening process, baker’s yeast causes bread to expand and become softer since it converts available sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol. Advantageously, when baking powder combines with a liquid, it has a similar reaction, making it an ideal leavening agent and substitute for yeast. However, when you use baking powder, your dough will not rise as much as it would with yeast.

In the following section, we highlight why you must heed the variations between baking powder and baking soda and other factors to consider when preparing your perfect pizza base.

Baking Powder Plus Liquid and Heat

Baking powder is made up of elements. These two elements, when combined with a liquid, such as room temperature water, react. The reaction between the components within baking powder produces the gas, carbon dioxide. Similarly, yeast feeding on sugars in flour gives off carbon dioxide and ethanol, thereby making a light, fluffy dough as the dough leavens.

Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda

In case you’ve been using the phrases interchangeably, or you’ve stood in the supermarket aisles assessing whether you need baking powder or baking soda (NaHCO3), we wanted to emphasize there is a fundamental difference between the two products.

Though composition varies between powders, baking powder mostly contains three components: baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3), cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate, C4H5KO6), and cornstarch. In comparison, baking soda is bicarbonate of soda, only.

If you select baking powder, you’ll not need to use citric acid in your recipe to create the leavening effect. However, if you’re using baking soda, you’ll need to use baking soda plus citrus juice to ensure your dough rises.

The Flour You Choose

The type of flour you choose will affect the taste and texture of your pizza dough. Ideally, pick a medium-strength stone-ground organic bread flour. Strong flour has more gluten. Gluten gives dough more elasticity. Your bread will rise with a desirable structure, too.

You don’t want your tastebuds to suffer because of that ‘made at home’ doughy taste of flour. A way around this issue is to do as the Italians do. In Italy, the home of the original pizza, semolina flour is commonly used by pizzaiolos, whose job is to make pizza. Semolina flour gives your pizza base a nice nutty flavor and consistency. On the other hand, the Caputo Chef’s Double Zero flour is a superb choice.

No matter the flour you use, be sure to sieve it to remove any lumps also.

Time for Dough to Rise

Your typical pizzaiola makes up the pizza base and ferments it for anything up to three days to get exactly the texture they want for their pizza. We assume you want your fast food sooner than three days, so leaving the flour in a warm, covered dish for three-hours once you’ve kneaded it will be sufficient time for the dough to leaven.

In the following section on making a pizza base with baking powder, we’ll tell you the best approach for fermenting your dough.

How To Make Your Yeast Free Pizza Base With Baking Powder

The following recipe uses baking powder instead of baking soda. Therefore, the formula requires that you add a measure of citrus juice to the baking powder to activate the reaction that produces the gas you need to have bubbles in the dough. You can use either lemon or orange juice.

Ingredients for Your Yeast-Free Pizza Base

Here are the ingredients you will need for your pizza base:

2 Cups Caputo Chef’s Double Zero (or flour of your choice)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. of salt
¼ Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Room temperature water

Please note, if you use baking soda, your recipe will require 2 tsp—lemon juice and ½ tsp. of salt.

Make Your Pizza Base

Follow these steps for an authentic Italian approach to crafting a yeast-free pizza base.

Bring the Parts Together

In your mixing bowl, bring together the baking powder with flour and salt with a smooth, consistent mixing motion, either by hand or with a mechanical mixer with dough hooks.

Slowly add in your lukewarm water measures and add extra virgin olive oil to add texture and elasticity to the dough.

This process requires the chef’s eye and judgment to assess when you achieve the ideal blend of ingredients and consistency.

Let Your Dough Leaven

Once the dough forms a smooth, glutinous ball that does not stick to the bowl or mixer, it’s time to let it sit.

You should knead it first, though.
Sprinkle either flour or a dusting of semolina flour onto the surface, where you will work the dough until it’s smooth. This action stimulates the reaction from the baking powder, getting gas released into the dough.
Place the ball of dough into a bowl that you’ve lightly coated with oil. Cover with a damp kitchen towel or cling film.
Leave it to sit for at least 2-3 hours in a warm environment. The ideal temperature is 24-27ºC (75-81ºF). You may also wish to let it sit for 24 hours. When you return to the dough after this period, its size will have increased.

Step 3: For the Authentic Italian Approach to Pizza

Now it’s time to return to your leavened dough:

Remove it from the bowl and divide it into smaller even-sized pieces
From the mix you’ve made, you can separate 2-3 smaller parts. Form these sections into smooth balls.
Transfer the smaller dough balls to a lightly oiled baking sheet. Cover once more with a damp kitchen cloth.
Let the balls of dough continue the leavening process for anything from 3-4 hours. For an authentic approach, you can let them settle for as much as two days.

Step 4: Bake Your Pizza Base

Preheat your oven and the pizza stone, if you have one, to a temperature of 250-280ºC (482-536ºF).

Select your pizza dough ball from the baking tray. When you ‘open’ the pizza, this stage turns it from a ball of dough into a recognizable pizza base.

Before you open your dough:

Sprinkle your peel (work surface) with a light dusting of semolina powder to ensure the dough won’t stick to the peel.
Work your pizza dough ball into a flat circular base by stretching it with your hands.
For best results, avoid using a rolling pin.

Add your marinara sauce and preferred toppings to your pizza. Place it in the oven and leave to cook for up to ten minutes.

Be sure to keep checking on your pizza to ensure it doesn’t burn. Once you’ve achieved a golden hint to the pizza base, your yeast-free homemade pizza’s ready to serve.

Final Thoughts

Your homemade pizza base can taste as good as a pizza at your favorite takeaway or Italian. And it needn’t contain yeast. Baking powder will cause your dough to rise, and when you pair it with the right dough, leavening period, and choice ingredients, you’ll have a pizza you relish.

Sources

More Final Thoughts

P.S. Try to use quality ingredients to make your pizza crusty and tasty. I also suggest to use good pizza stone quality. You can even find pizza stone which can go into dishwasher. Otherwise, few companies make very good pizza stones for reasonable price.

Same with baking powder. There are good brands – Davis, Anthony’s Hoosier and much more. Try to use brand baking powder and generic one, to see which works better. Although, brand usually has cleaner ingredients and generic is cheaper because they play around with ingredients not in the consumer’s favor.

So, yes, using baking powder is an option and you can make some wonderful homemade pizza with that and enjoy it with you whole family. Invite your friends too. The best!

The post Can I Use Baking Powder Instead of Yeast in Pizza Dough? appeared first on Make Your Dinner Easy.

How to Make Pizza Crust Crispy (Complete Guide)

Max FV — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 11:04:01 +0000

Make Pizza Crust Crispy

There is nothing like a soggy, floppy pizza to ruin pizza night. But trying to make restaurant-ready pizza with an indulgent, crispy crust can seem impossible. If you have tried everything yet still end up in a soggy dilemma, you need to learn how to make pizza crust crispy using tried and true methods.

If you are ready to put the soggy debacle to bed, you’re in luck. This is the complete guide for creating crispy, savory pizza crusts every time.

Use the Right Crust Thickness

There is a method to the madness when it comes to crafting pizza doughs. And, if you are in the market for crispy delights, you need to be extra peculiar when putting together your crust. You may be crafting it too thick, or surprisingly, too thin.

That is right – a crispy pizza crust does not mean flattening the dough to oblivion. While you want it to be thin, it shouldn’t be stretched so thin that it ends up being unable to support the ingredients on top.

Instead, opt for the golden thickness: 1/8th to 1/4th inches. This will allow you to have a crispy, crunchy crust without worrying about it failing with cheese, pepperoni, and other favorites on top. It will also put an end to super doughy Chicago-style slices that are anything but crispy (yet still utterly delicious).

(The Kitchn)

Don’t Use Cold Dough

If you are looking for a soggy crust remedy, you might want to look at the temperature of your dough. If you’re using cold dough, it’s a recipe for a flappy disaster. Cold dough should never be used when making a pizza. Cold dough is naturally going to take a longer time to cook, which results in sogginess.

Instead, opt for room temperature dough. Not only will room temperature dough be more comfortable to manage, but it will also be more prone to crisping up.

(Crust Kingdom)

Cook at Maximum Temperature

Many people fear the maximum temp of their oven, which includes when baking a pizza, too. Why? Well, nobody wants to end up charring their cheesy pizza (or any other dish, for that matter). But this precaution in the kitchen could be leading to soggy slices. What is a home chef to do?

The best thing to do is to stop being nervous about high temperatures when cooking pizza. Settling at 350F is never going to get you the perfect pizza crust. Instead, go for extra-high temperatures and a shorter cooking time. Opt for the maximum temperature on your oven, whether it’s 450F, 500F, or 550F. Just keep a close eye on it.

(Eat Well 101)

Use a Preheated Pizza Stone

If you don’t have a pizza stone, but you want top-notch crispy pizza crust, then you need to order one ASAP. While they are not technically essential, they will make a significant difference in your quest for crust perfection. Why? Because pizza stones were designed to handle the load. They’re the key to crispy heaven.

But don’t place your crafted pizza on the pizza stone and hope for a miracle. There is one major step you won’t want to miss: preheating the pizza stone. Let the pizza stone get piping hot on your oven’s highest temperature setting. When you are ready to throw the pizza into the oven, simply slide it on top of the hot pizza stone.

Preheating the cooking stone is an essential step. It will ensure that the bottom gets nice and crispy while also allowing the perfect amount of time for the ingredients on top to cook thoroughly.

(Cast Elegance)

Preheat the Pizza Crust, Too

It might also help to prepare your dough and preheat it for a few minutes too. This is because the pizza dough will be able to have a chance at crisping up without anything, such as wet ingredients hindering the process.

After the pizza stone is nice and hot, add the pizza dough and close the oven. Let it cook for just a few minutes. Then, remove the pizza. Add your ingredients – but be careful. Not all components are great choices for crispy pleasures, which you will learn about in this next section.

Don’t Overdo the Ingredients

Sauce, cheese, pepperoni, anchovies, pineapple – is there anything that can’t go on top of a pizza? While some might be subtle and enjoy a plain cheese pizza, others are adventurous and want to push their pizza to the cheesy limits.

However, toppings may be causing more harm than good, and no, that’s not just geared towards pineapple pizza lovers. Think about it: a plethora of ingredients is going to weigh down your pizza dough.

Even a pizza dough that has the ideal thickness won’t be able to handle too many ingredients. When making your own pizza at home, try not to pile it on. If you do, consider cooking the extras separately (if necessary) and adding them after the pizza is cooked. This will help to reduce the chances of ingredients weighing it down during its vital cooking stage.

Skip Extra Moist Ingredients

Overdoing it isn’t the only problem when it comes to crispiness and pizza problems. Choosing the wrong ingredients can also wreak havoc on your end result. How?

Well, some ingredients are simply too wet to ensure a crispy edge. For example, tomatoes that aren’t strained have extra moisture added to the pizza. Certain cheeses, such as bufala, are entirely too wet to win in the pizza game.

Opt for ingredients that don’t have extra moisture. Consider swapping your regular pizza sauce for something a bit more thick and hardy. Use aged cheeses and less cheese altogether. Avoiding additional moist ingredients can help the crust crisp up as it won’t be combatting with moisture trying to soak into the dough.

Use the Bottom Rack in Your Oven

Another handy tip is to use the bottom rack in your oven rather than the top. When placing your pizza on the bottom rack, the lower heating element will be more dominant. Thus, it will crisp up much nicer without impacting the ingredients on top.

(Cooking Stack Exchange)

Consider Grilling the Pizza

Not everyone’s pizza creations will succeed in the oven, although these tips will certainly help. But if you’re looking for a more reliable way to ensure a crispy, golden pizza, you might want to consider the phenomenon of grilling pizza.

It’s easier than you think. All you need to do is create your pizza as you usually would. However, a pizza stone is still recommended for this method, so it might be time to indulge in that investment.

Pizzas should be cooked on a grill that’s set to 450F or 475F. The grill should be preheated before adding the pizza. Once added, keep an eye on the pizza until it’s your desired temperature.

There is something about cooking a pizza over an open flame that adds so much succulent flavor. Not only that, but you will undoubtedly enjoy a super-crispy crust, unlike anything your oven could prepare for you.

(Cooking Light)

Final Thoughts

Soggy pizza crust is a problem, but you have the tools and tips to solve your flappy pizza crust dilemma. It really comes down to the finer details, such as proper thickness and ditching cold dough. You should consider purchasing a pizza stone and letting it precook for superior results. Try and stay away from wet ingredients, and never overdo it.

If all else fails, skip to the grill for a crispy masterpiece every time. Whatever option you choose, just make sure to keep a close eye on the pizza at all times. There are only a few minutes before a crispy wonder turns into a burnt disaster.

More Final Thoughts

This is short and quick guide to make your pizza crust crispy. For more staff about pizza read this blog. We appreciate you visiting us on the internet.

Nothing better than nice crust on a pizza. Reminds me of childhood pizza which my grandpa would treat me to. And if you want to seriously impress your friends or your date you can put some red caviar on top of it. Not much, but just enough to immediately upgrade your made pizza to an upscale version of a meal.

Simple tricks that work wonders. Enjoy your crispy pizza.

The post How to Make Pizza Crust Crispy (Complete Guide) appeared first on Make Your Dinner Easy.

Can a Pizza Stone Go in The Dishwasher? These Brands Can.

Max FV — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 13:22:49 +0000

Can My Pizza Stone Go in the Dishwasher?

Whether you can put a pizza stone in the dishwasher depends on the brand and model of a pizza stone. Some brands now make pizza stones that are dishwasher safe. You can feel free to wash them in a dishwasher at your convenience. Saying that pizza stone can never go into the dishwasher is wrong. Read on.

Having said that, traditionally, most pizza stones should not be washed in a dishwasher for many reasons. For one reason, a dishwasher may clutter the pizza stone. It is generally recommended to wash pizza stone by hand using baking soda for a longer serving life. See, a pizza stone is usually gentle, and you should treat it with care.

What Can Happen to Pizza Stone in Dishwasher?

Pizza Stone Absorbs Water and Can Break. For one reason, pizza stone easily absorbs moisture and water. Therefore, prolonged washing in a dishwasher can fill it to the core with moisture. That means it will have to be dried at low temperature for many hours. Because moist pizza stone can crack and damage more easily.

We do not want that to happen. Don’t we? We want a pizza stone to serve us for a long time. Therefore, rule number 1 is to keep it dry at most times and let it dry well before using it.

Pizza Stone Absorbs Soap. Second, when you use soap in a dishwasher on most pizza stones, they can absorb soap along with water. And become literally filled with soap. So, when the next time you make your pizza, you will have that interesting soap taste flavor. And we also do not want to eat pizza with soap flavor, don’t we?

If that happens, one of the ways is to soak pizza stone in very warm water, changing the water at least several times. This may help water to wash out most of the soap from the pizza stone. Then let pizza stone dry very well before using again.

Again, some brands make pizza stones which can be washed with soap easily. Read below.

Is a Pizza Stone Dishwasher Safe?

Guess what, many average pizza stones are not dishwasher safe, but some are. In fact, more and more manufacturers produce dishwater safe pizza stone models to meet the demand of the public for easy cleaning.

Can pampered chef pizza stone go in the dishwasher? Yes, they can.

For example, some brands like Pampered Chef pizza stones are dishwasher safe. While it is still recommended to wash them by hand, the manufacturer specifically states that it introduced a formula that makes some Pampered Chef Stoneware models dishwasher safe.

The only thing they recommend is also to dry pizza stone well before using it again. Therefore, Pampered Chef pizza stone dishwasher safe options are available on the internet.

Another good example is Emile Henry pizza stones. The manufacturer specifically states that they are dishwasher safe. Therefore, you can easily wash them in the dishwasher and dry them thereafter, and they should serve you well.

What Other Pizza Stones Can Go in The Dishwasher?

In fact, there are many good or regular brands of pizza stones that can safely go in the dishwasher. From Cuisinart to Ballarini to (again) Pampered Chef – many brands now offer these convenient pizza stone models.

I mentioned the Emile Henry brand. In fact, this brand is one in the top on the pizza stone list. They make particularly good and durable pizza stones. I think the brand originates in France and they make their products there too.

They offer a convenient and user-friendly dishwasher safe design. You can hand wash the pizza stone or put it in the dishwasher for error-free thorough simple cleaning.

In fact, some pizza stone makers specifically manufacture chip-resistant pizza stones. To avoid chipping of the material when mishandling.

Which Pizza Stone Material Can Go in Dishwasher?

The pizza stone needs to keep the ability to cook pizza with a crispy crust, or which can be put in the oven, if necessary. So, what you need is to choose good quality stoneware which is resistant enough to last for many years.

This is especially important if you are a pizza lover and intend to make pizza very often. Such hard-made pizza stones are usually also dishwasher safe.

The materials used to make dishwasher-safe pizza stones differ and they play a key role. Generally, pizza stones are made from such materials as clay, cordierite, are ceramic or other types of different stone materials. Some are also made of cast iron and steel.

For example, any pizza stone made from cast iron or steel likely can easily go in the dishwasher. But some chefs think that such stones may not produce as great pizza as actual stone material. It really depends on the chef’s experience and preference.

Now, clay is usually weak material and cannot go in the dishwasher. But pizza stone made from cordierite sometimes is explicitly dishwasher safe because it is thermal shock resistant and it also can go into a hot oven without any subsequent damage.

So, while most of the stones cannot be put in the water as they absorb moisture, pizza stones made from iron and steel are perfectly dishwasher safe. Again, I think Emile Henry makes both iron and stone pizza stones that can be put in the dishwasher and washed there.

The size and dimension of the pizza stone do not affect whether it can or cannot be put in a dishwasher. It is really all about the material. On the other hand, smaller sized pizza stones, 13-14 inches in circumference, and thin enough (from ¼ inch in width) can be dried more easily after washing.

Still, thicker, and larger stones can make better and larger pizza.

Since Cordierite is also heat resistant, this would be my first choice, if you do not intend to wash it in the dishwasher. It can withstand high heat up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and is quite durable. Although, less durable than steel or iron.

Finishing Affects If Pizza Stone is Dishwasher Safe

The presence of finishing materials also affects whether pizza stone can be put in the dishwasher. Finishing (glaze) acts as a protective barrier, keeping the oils and moisture away. Stones without finishing are usually too porous to be dishwasher safe. In fact, one must use care when cleaning them.

On the other hand, pizza stones with a finish on them (aka glazed or finished stoneware) keep moisture and oil away from the stone, keeping the stone dry. These are more likely to be safe in the dishwasher.

Here is another example. The Emile Henry offers glazed granite pizza stone, which is made of granite stone but can be safely put in the dishwasher for washing.

Apparently, it does not absorb much moisture, soap when washing, or oil when cooking. It is safe up to 750 degrees, making it still good enough pizza stone for any household.

On the other hand, Cook N Home Pizza Grilling Baking Stone is made from pure Cordierite, can withstand heat up to 2,000 degrees, but is not suitable for dishwasher or even regular soap washing. You have got to read the manufacturer’s specifications before you buy a product.

At the same time, you can find the finished/glazed ceramic ones, which are dishwasher and soap safe. In fact, you may see cordierite pizza stones covered with the ceramic glaze – that will do the trick. You still get stoneware, but it is more durable.

On the other hand, many professional pizza chefs would rather stick to basics and do everything by hand. Some of them do not accept the idea of glazed stoneware.

Tricks to Clean Pizza Stone for Better Pizza-Making Experience

You can use baking soda to clean them. Also, some cooking veterans on forums suggest to heat it up to 600 degrees and run through a clean cycle in the oven. That should clean the pizza stone. It is ok if it gets stained with time – that is the nature of the natural stoneware.

Your pizza-making experience is totally up to you. If you are just starting, it is fine to use iron or steel bakeware, to begin with. Once you see that you have got a hand of pizza-making, and you like it and feel like you will keep doing it again and again, then I suggest you upgrade your pizza stone to real stone. Get a good one. Try different tricks – see what you like the most.

As you can see, I like Emile Henry stoneware. But Pampered Chef is also good. And few other good brands too. I mean, in the end, it is the hand of a chef that makes a major difference. Cookware is just tools to help you master your art of making anything, including pizza.

If you are a student living in a dormitory or move often, then steel cookware is suitable. Because some stoneware is not suitable for frequent moving around. It is better to have it when you settle down a little bit.

And yes, make a habit to clean your cookware after each meal preparation. Discipline is the key. Do not pile up that staff in the kitchen because then it becomes harder to clean and clean up after that.

Hopefully, you will make your grand pizzas, crusted and flavored so good, that your guests will envy you and adore your pizza-cooking skills. You are also guaranteed to make some friends too. That is the power of cooking a good dinner.

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