Sometimes, great things really are accidents. This pizza proves it! You see, one night, after an intense week of experimenting with different pizzas, I started with a quasi-traditional margherita (mozzarella, basil, tomato sauce) pizza, hoping to just do a small twist on the original. But then, whilst reaching for my fresh mozzarella, I picked up my mozzarella/maple syrup blend that I’d been using the other night. Tired from extensive pizza testing and eating (poor me!), I didn’t event realize that I’d picked up the wrong cheese until after I’d put it on top. But you know what? It worked! The basil’s licorice sweetness brought out the acid in the tomato sauce and the maple gave an almost caramel to the pizza. Best of all, the pizza looked like something you’d see in a magazine, with crust that promised crunch and chew and cheese that could have won a beauty pageant. For cheese. Or something.
All joking aside, beauty is important to food, because it translates as tastiness. But most home cooks (yes, I’m looking at you!) don’t make pizza the right way and it ends up looking like an under-done doughy mess! So today, let’s take a look at how you, with close to no effort, can get the crunchy/chewy crust and the professional cheese coverage and browning all in the convenience of your own home.
Pizza Stones Promise Perfect Pizza
Perfect pizza crust, at least. Ever tried making a pizza at home and wondered why the crust wasn’t what you’ve come to expect from your favorite takeout joint? It’s because you weren’t using a pizza stone! Pizza stones enable residential ovens to put a fantastic crust on pizza because they transfer heat to the pizza much faster than air alone. Let’s explain with another food America loves: the brownie.
When you put a pan of brownies into the oven, it mostly cooks through convection, which is to say that the really hot air in the oven comes in contact with the brownie and makes the brownie really hot as a result. This makes for tasty results, but it is a slow process. But have you ever noticed how the edges of a brownie (clearly the best part of a brownie) get somewhere between crunchy and firm? That’s because the edges of the brownie are in contact not with the air, but the pan, and it’s the pan that cooks those edges (that’s called conduction). Since the pan transfers energy more quickly than the air around it, the edges cook more quickly, producing you a brownie that has a perfect crust and a gooey interior.
Think about it: you can put your hand in a 500 degree oven, but touching 500 degree food will burn you in a heart beat.
Using a pizza stone makes the entire bottom of the pizza cook like the edges of the brownie. That means restaurant quality crust every time you make pizza at home. With a little bit of experience, you can even make it almost as good as stuff cooked in a brick oven (and a little bit better, in some instances). And the browning on top of the pizza? Just add about 1/8th teaspoon of sugar to the dough. Why you ask?
Simple! When food is exposed to temperatures of 320 degrees fahrenheit or higher, a powerful (and, rapid) chemical reaction takes place called the Maillard reaction. That means that the proteins and sugars already present in foods denature (change shape) to create tongue-smacking flavors. What’s also nice about this reaction is that it leaves food perfectly golden-brown. So when you add that sugar to your pizza dough, you give the Maillard reaction a jump start, leaving you with restaurant-quality crust each and every time.
Perfectly Browned Cheese
The other great trait of impeccable pizza is the browning of the cheese. We eat first with our eyes, and you can be sure to impress both your guests and yourself if you manage to brown that cheese juuuuuust right. How you ask?
There are several theories, including one very scientific one that was published last year. I myself have a series of tricks designed to fabricate the perfectly cooked pizza cheese I dream of at night. Here’s the one I used on this pizza.
I pureed the mozzarella with maple syrup. This introduced that wild flavor we talked about at the beginning but it also made for perfectly browned and blistered cheese. Why? For one thing, pureed cheese ensures even distribution of cheese, crucial to getting uniform browning and melting. The other reason is that maple syrup contains quite a lot of sugar, and just like we talked about in the crust section, sugar browns very quickly, and that leads to some pretty, and very tasty cheese.
And that’s that! There’s so much to cover in terms of pizza, so much more science and tricks and recipes, but we’ll end there for today. Enjoy this pizza and come back next time for some more!
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- ⅛ tsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup water
- ½ pound bacon, cooked
- ½ medium tomato, diced
- 12-16 leaves fresh basil
- 3 oz maple syrup
- ½ pound mozzarella
- In food processor, combine dry dough ingredients and then introduce liquid ingredients
- Process until dough is just barely sticky (you may need to add 1 Tbsp flour if it is too sticky or 1 Tbsp water if it is overly dry)
- Cover and let rise for at least 30 minutes
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees
- While dough is rising, cook ½ pound bacon over medium-high heat until bacon is crispy
- Dice tomato
- Puree maple syrup with mozzarella in food processor or blender
- Once dough has rested for at least 30 minutes, shape into 16" circle
- Top pizza first with maple and cheese mixture, then with remaining toppings
- Using a pizza peel, put topped pizza onto pizza stone in oven
- Cook for roughly 12 minutes, or until crust is brown
- Enjoy!
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