Crispy Thin Crust Pizza

You can take me out of New Jersey, but you cannot take away my pizza! 

Even if I have to make it myself. For everyone away from the culinary greatness that is the corner pizzeria, here is a recipe for you. Enjoy this crisp, fresh and easy to make pizza from dough to toppings.

Love in the Oven

For the pizza dough I love starting out with a simple night-before recipe by Jesse and Christa found HERE on FeedingMyLove. (check out all their great talent for cooking and sarcasm)

Lovingly highjacked from HERE

Next you're going to need a sauce worthy of eating, and I don't mean the kind that comes in a jar. 

• 3 Roma Tomatoes (diced)
• 4 leaves Fresh Basil (chopped)
• 4 Cloves Garlic (chopped)
• 1 Tbs White Onion (finely chopped)
• Fresh Ground Pepper 
• 2 Tbs Olive Oil 
• 1 Tbs Tomato Paste (optional)

Salute the garlic and onion in the olive oil, if desired add the tomato paste. Add the diced tomatoes and turn down the heat to a simmer, add the basil and ground pepper and cover. Allow the sauce to simmer while you prepare you're toppings and roll out the dough. 

Homemade Sauce, ready to go

So fresh, so delicious 

Toppings, oh the possibilities! Just remember that too much water leads to mushy, soggy crust. For mushroom loves I recommend using baby bella mushrooms, they hold less water than their white cousins and have a more robust flavor. Searing the pepper, onions, garlic and mushrooms prior to topping the pizza can help eliminate some water and save your crust too. 

For this masterpiece I seared baby portobello mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, and garlic. Diced lean ham was a perfect choice to keep the moisture down and the flavor up!

The toppings are prepped, the sauce is smelling great and its time to roll out the dough. On a floured surface use a floured rolling pin to "encourage" the dough into your desired shape, I often find myself using kitchen items to hold the rolled out dough down, and avoid it creeping back into a smaller shape. The olive oil bottle works great for that!

An oiled cookie sheet is your best friend to avoid sticking, combined with the floured bottom of the crust you are looking at a future of easy to transfer tastiness opposed to fighting with a stuck blob of awful. Transfer the dough to the oiled sheet first, then assemble your pizza to perfection: sauce, a mixture of low moisture Italian cheeses, toppings and here a few super thin slices of Roma tomatoes just because. 

Pop this bad boy on a rack in the middle third of a 425 degree oven. Everyone's oven cooks differently, I watch my pizza like a hawk through the oven window, after about seven minutes I'll check the bottom of my crust and if its cooked and holding I like to transfer it directly to the oven rack for a little extra crisp. 

 

You won't find this in Missouri.

You Call This a Bagel?

Yes, I am a Jersey Girl and damn proud of it.

No, I do not say Jouy-zee.

Yes, I grew up down the shore.

Yes, I will drive an hour for good pizza (and pass two thousand places on the way)

No, I never pumped gas until I left the state.

And, oh boy do I miss real bagels!

Living in Missouri I got pretty desperate for a good, crispy outside and chewy inside properly flavored, saliva-inducing to think about, honest-to-god bagel. You just can't get anything out here that even comes close. 

I've tried to quell the craving with Einstein Bros Bagels, they are ok.... and by ok I mean horrible and I would never eat one if I was anywhere near driving distance to Yorktown Bagels in Manalapan, NJ. 

Bagel perfection, still warm sesame with cream cheese

No matter how far I travel this is one food (along with pork roll) that I will always crave and search for. 

Every visit home I freeze and transport a dozen or so precious bagels back to Missouri with me, worrying all the way that they might start to thaw if I don't get back fast enough. Fresh these things are worthy of song and folklore, frozen and toasted they are almost as good. 

But what does a girl do when there just is no going home, and no convincing my parents that overnight mailing food to me is a great idea?

You spend a year trying to recreate perfection. Yes, a whole year of trial and error, of feeding the neighborhood and hearing that your creations are "delicious" and "awesome" but knowing they can't even hold a candle to their inspiration. 

In Columbia, MO there is an attempt at a bagel shop. Yes, they sell baked dough with a hole in the middle.... but its not the same! No relief to be found for a Jersey craving.

From yeast, flour and love I crafted batch after batch of tasty creations, but no one was worthy of the title of Bagel. I tried different flours, yeasts, boiling times, oven temperatures, flavor combinations and still failure. 

Although, now I do make one heck of a cheesecake, apple pie and fruit tart with pastry cream!

Boiling pot with baking soda and molasses

One batch of attempts: cheddar jalepeno, Asiago basil, and apple cinnamon 

Perfect cheesecake with raspberry and chocolate swirl. 

Mom's apple pie, made by me

This happened: pastry cream, almond flour crust fruit tart

 I've come to accept that while I'm away from my home state, there will be no bagels. And thats ok. Really. I'll always have a little sand in my heart and sun in my hair.