Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘pizza crust’

My Failed Stovetop Pizza

Posted by terrepruitt on June 16, 2015

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose,  Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYoIf you haven’t seen this and you are interested in making pizza on your stovetop in 20 minutes, I suggest you go check out the video.  It looks pretty cool.  It looks fast.  It looks easy.  It looks yummy.  It looks like you must have a pan you can vent.  It also REALLY looks like the pan should be non-stick.  I really wanted to try this because I would much rather eat pizza with dough that I make than other pizza.  But I am not really good with pizza dough.  Yes, I know it is easy, you know why?  Because people TELL me it is, not because it ACTUALLY IS.  I cannot make a pizza that is round for nothing.  I cannot make the pizza come out even/level.  One side tends to rise more than the other.  My pizza tastes good, but it pretty much always LOOKS like a reject pizza.  And then there is the dough and it so sticky and messy, so you might realize the HUGE appeal this pizza had (notice tense) to me.  I thought I had a vented lid.  I do!  I thought it would fit one of my non-stick pans.  It does not.  It thought I could make it in a pan that does not have that non-stick coating.  I am not convinced I can.  But I made a HUGE error – aside from the pan.  So I can’t say for certain (can you?) that the regular pan won’t work.  I tried this stovetop pizza and here is the result.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose,  Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYoFirst of all notice the difference between my pizza dough/crust and the one in the video.  This SHOULD have been a HUGE sign to me, but it was not.  I also should NOT have been attempting this really late at night.  Since it is a 20 minute pizza I thought I could do it in 30 minutes or so.  My plan was to do it earlier, but sometimes the day just escapes me.  So I was starting this new thing for dinner at 8:30 pm.  NOT A GOOD IDEA!  So in my rush I forgot — prepare to giggle — the yeast.  Yup.  I measured it out and everything, but then I forgot to put it in the darn pan.  And of course I realized that the SECOND I put ALL of the other ingredients on the pizza.  I looked at the little bowl full of measured out yeast and —- GRRR!

I used red sauce, mushrooms, turkey sausage, and cheese for toppings.

The recipe doesn’t say medium heat but somewhere in the comments that is revealed, but I didn’t read the whole sentence!  (Eyes rolling).  It is medium heat while the vent is closed, then when you open the vents, turn it to low heat.  So I cooked it at medium the entire time and the dough would not come out of the pan.  I bet it might have, if I would have lowered the temperature.  So you obviously understand I am not saying this recipe does not work.  I am saying, “Hello, here is my complete and utter failure at attempting this recipe.”  And I should say “recipe” because I left out a key ingredient and cooked it at the wrong temperature!

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose,  Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYoI am just sharing because I told a friend I would write a blog post, plus I am hoping that someone who has tried it will let me know and give me some tips.  Do you think if I use the correct temperature (medium THEN LOW) It will work in a regular pan?  One that is not non-stick?  My lid doesn’t fit any of my non-stick pans.

So, SNAP!  What does one feed herself and her hungry hubby at 9:00 pm when the planned dinner totally fails?  I made pizza rice.  Yup, sounds ridiculous and I never would have done it if I hadn’t been at a loss.

I just scraped the ingredients off of the stuck-to-the-pan-dough (a bit of dough came up with it) and put it over some leftover rice that we had.  Yup, I put a bit of dough on the rice with the sauce, mushrooms, meat, and cheese.  And that was our entrée.  It didn’t taste bad at all.  It was rice instead of dough, but it was kinda odd.  My hubby liked it.  But he loves rice.  He likes rice better than pasta.  He likes rice better than bread.  So he enjoyed the “pizza” on the rice.  I might have liked it better if it wasn’t a huge blaring symbol of my failed meal.  🙂  Also, I was afraid that I had totally ruined my pan.  But I let it soak overnight and the stuck on crust came off.

So . . . have you tried this pizza?  Can it be made in a regular (not non-stick) pan?  Are you going to try it?  Let us know how it comes out!  I will attempt this again – correctly.

Posted in Entertainment, Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Afraid To Fail – Silly, But True

Posted by terrepruitt on December 15, 2011

I have a Nia student who bakes bread all the time.  Challah to be exact.  YUM!  Several times when I’ve gone to her house she answers the door with flour on her.  I have another friend who bakes bread and pizza dough and yummy things all the time.  She even makes her own little slider buns.  So cute.  So yummy.  I am a bread lover.  Bread it awesome.  Bread is so versatile.  I love bread.  It is absolutely silly that I don’t make my own bread.  But I was afraid of yeast.  I know that sounds ridiculous, especially to you bread makers, but it is the truth.  The whole “active” and rising and “proofing” just scared me.  What if it wasn’t active?  What if it didn’t rise?  What is proofing anyway?

I was talking with someone who was telling me someone else wasn’t doing something.  We were trying to figure out why.  Why wouldn’t this person want to do that?  The person talking suggested it was because she was afraid and didn’t want to fail and her comment was, “So what?  Fail, but at least you tried and you can do it again.  Do it until you don’t fail.”  Ah-ha!  It was one of those moments.  What I was not doing because I was afraid of failure was much less serious than what we were talking about.  I am being vague to protect the innocent.  🙂  But believe me, yeast is a lot less serious and traumatic than the other situation.  So I realized how silly I was being.  It’s bread.  It’s yeast.  Whoppedee-do, if it doesn’t work.  Granted I wouldn’t want to waste all the ingredients that go into it, but it is not THAT big of a thing.

Dance Exercise, Nia teacher, Nia class, Nia student, Nia San Jose, San Jose NiaI had even bought the yeast a long time ago (well, not THAT long ago because then again, don’t want it not to be able to be activated).  So I decided to start with something I think of as even easier than bread—pizza dough.  Now you might know that I think of both sandwiches and pizza as the perfect foods.  They are bread/grains, veggies, dairy, and meat —- perfect.  Even more perfect because you can eat it with your hands.  Anyway . . . . I found an easy pizza dough recipe.  After going back and forth, “Do I follow the directions on the yeast package or the directions on the recipe?” I decided to just go with the recipe.  Actually, now that I am typing this up, I bought the yeast to make pita bread, but I let it sit until I had the above mentioned conversation at which time I decided to try pizza dough because I felt it was easier.

Anyway . . . my first shot was ok.  The flavor was good but it was very “bready”.  It was REALLY THICK, so I decided on my next try I would split the dough up and make two crust.  But the second one didn’t rise nearly has much.  Ya see, the recipe says to let the dough rise for 30 minutes.  But a few of the comments said they let it sit longer.  So I did that.  I let it sit for hours, then I rolled it out to as large as my pan, which seemed pretty thin to me, but during the baking it puffed up.  It was like thick crust pizza.  So that is why I decided to split it the second time.  But the second time the ball of dough seemed smaller, so I used it all and rolled it thin and it still puffed up.  Not as puffy as the first time, but thicker than I wanted.  I like thick crust, but I was trying to make thin(ner) crust pizza.  After I cooked it —- and we ate it, I thought, “Oh the temperature.”  Was that it?  Did it not rise as much because it was colder the second time?  I didn’t think about that until AFTER all was said and done.  But it was much colder in the house the second time than the first time.  So bready-people/pizza dough makers the temperature that the dough is left to rise in affects it, huh?

Here is a picture of my second pizza.  This is two meals.  Mine is the bottom portion, a half with spinach and mushrooms, and one with just spinach.  The top portion has mushrooms and raw onions for my hubby.  He is not a bready person, but he says he like the pizza even though the crust is REALLY thick.  I will keep at it.  I will experiment and play.  Now that I am not so afraid to fail I can play.  I am sure that one of these days I will get some bad yeast or I will do something wrong, but that is ok, at least I tried . . . . . and I look forward to all the pizza it will give us!

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments »