pizza Archives - Splash of Sherri

perfect pizza dough

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Sherri

This perfect pizza dough has been my go-to for years. I love everything about it: minimal ingredients, easy to make, tastes great, and yields a tender but crispy crust. It holds up to the toppings and start to finish you can have delicious homemade pizza in less than two hours. If you’ve never made pizza dough before, you won’t believe how easy it is and you’ll be hooked.

When we first moved to Columbus we missed our NY pizza so much, we started having make your own pizza parties almost every Sunday night. This was always followed by an ice cream sundae bar! It was my way of ending the weekend on a high note before the hectic school week began.

Now my boys are grown and we are empty nesters. Our pizza parties went by the wayside. A couple of months ago, I decided to bring the party back! So now when my husband and I want to do something really fun on a Saturday night, we make pizza!

I have adapted this recipe from Kathleen Daelemans’ easy pizza dough recipe. She was on the Food Network and made it look so easy I had to try it. 16 years later I’m still using her recipe. I’m glad it’s very forgiving because sometimes I use a mixer and sometimes I mix it by hand. I have used both all-purpose flour, and bread flour. The bread flour yields a bit more tender crust, but not significantly. I use a pizza stone but if you don’t have one, you can use a rimless sheet pan.

While the dough is rising I set up all of the toppings and then the extravaganza begins. I steam spinach, roast mushrooms and peppers, shred mozzarella cheese, cut up olives, and halve teardrop tomatoes. Any topping you like will work. Just make sure you don’t load up the pizza too much. I use 1/3 cup sauce for each pie, and about 1/2 cup vegetables, and 1/2 cup cheese.

The next time you’re looking for something really fun to do with your spouse, your kids, or your friends, this recipe is the one you should try. It makes four 10” to 12” inch pizzas or 2 – 14” pies. You can also use a sheet pan and stretch the dough to make one rectangular pizza. Whatever shape you go with Enjoy!

ingredients
3 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons fine kosher salt
2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil plus a little for the bowl
½ teaspoon sugar
2 packages dry active yeast (4 teaspoons)
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
Extra flour, for the work surface

toppings
Use whatever sauce is your favorite. I like to use a good jarred sauce like Rao’s Pizza Sauce’s. You can top it with shredded or fresh mozzarella cheese or both, and vegetable toppings of your choice.

directions
Dissolve the yeast in 1 ½ cups warm water with ½ teaspoon sugar; after about 5 minutes it should look cloudy and have bubbles on the surface.

There are two ways to make this dough. Option 1: In a mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook, place in flour, and salt. While mixer is running, gradually add the yeast-water mixture and knead on low speed until dough is firm and smooth, about 5 minutes. Option 2: you can do this all by hand which is my preferred way to make this dough. It comes together so easily. Place the flour and salt in a bowl, make a well in the center, pour in the yeast water mixture in the middle, and the olive oil. Mix with a fork to combine, then use a spoon to mix it together. when it forms a ball, it’s ready to knead. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.

When dough is ready, shape into a ball, pour a little oil down inside of bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

After it has doubled, punch it down to get the air bubbles out and divide into 2 or 4 equal pieces depending on the size pizzas you want. Form the dough into balls and place on a lightly floured board covered with foil or parchment. At this point, if you don’t want to use them all right away, you can place the balls into individual bags and refrigerate for up to three days. Cover the dough balls with a damp paper towel. Let the dough rise again for an additional 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. set oven rack to the lowest position in the oven and place your pizza stone in if using. You want to put your pizza stone in the cold oven – never in a hot oven, it will crack. If you don’t have a stone, you can put the pizza onto a cookie sheet.

Working with one dough ball at a time, on a lightly floured work surface, (I like to do this directly on aluminum foil or parchment paper) gently form a disk, press down and keep stretching the dough first with your hands and then using a floured rolling pin, gently roll dough into a 10 to 12 inch circle until very thin. Don’t worry if your circle isn’t perfect or if you get a hole just pinch the edges back together.

If the dough feels a little sticky, sprinkle with flour. Add toppings keeping them 1/2 inch in from the edge. Using a pizza peel, or flat sheet pan, transfer the pizza onto the stone while still on the foil or parchment. Alternatively you can place the pizza on a cookie sheet and slide that onto the bottom rack of the oven.

After it’s been in the oven for about 2 minutes, slide the foil or parchment out from under the pizza. You have to do this quickly and carefully especially if using parchment. Alternatively you can use a little cornmeal under the dough and slide it onto the stone or sheet pan directly. I’m not successful at that and find this to be the easiest way for me. In the past flour and cornmeal got all over my oven.

Keep an eye on it when it bakes; it cooks really quickly.. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden and the cheese is bubbling. Checking after 5 minutes.

Did my Husband and I Invent the Food Crawl in the 80’s? I Think we did!

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Sherri

If you search for the term “food crawl” on the internet you won’t find too much information. However, on the Food Network, Cooking Channel and in many culinary magazines you hear and read about it quite frequently.

I would define a food crawl as follows: where one goes on a culinary tour to different restaurants to sample food. For example, you can do one in search of the best restaurant, or specific food such as coffee crawl, or taco crawl. There is also a progressive food crawl where you might have drinks and appetizers at one restaurant, dinner at another, then dessert and coffee at different location. Living in NYC, food crawls are a part of daily life. Any big city will afford you this opportunity. My husband and I were doing food crawls since we met without even knowing it – we’re such trend setters! More often than not, we had dinner one place and dessert at another. Recently we were in NYC and while waiting to be seated at Lombardi’s Pizza (just had to get in another pizza plug!), my husband showed up with a tray of Melissa’s Cupcakes for us to nosh on while we waited 45 minutes for our table! After dinner, we went to Rice to Riches for rice pudding for dessert. That was a food crawl too.

When my husband and I first met, I remember one time we decided to walk to dinner from his apartment on West 53rd and 8th down to the East Village (around 10^th street) where we would end up at a place called PizzaPizza. It was about an hour walk to get there. We were starving so we decided to stop in at Luigi’s Pizza across the street and share a slice before we headed downtown – just the fuel we needed! On our way, we passed so many pizza places it seemed there was one on at least every other block! Somewhere along the way we stopped in at one of the Ray’s* Pizza places just for fun. We each took a bite but didn’t really like it. It was very cheese heavy so we tossed it and kept walking. Then we came across Lazarra’s Pizza on 38th street By the time we got to PizzaPizza, we were very happy to sit down, and very ready to order a pizza! In the end, Luigi’s was the best of the night and we had invented the food crawl!

So why am I telling you all of this? Saturday my family did a local pizza crawl in honor of National Pizza Week and so that I could share it with you. We chose 3 places that are in the top 25 here in Columbus. It was my son’s last day of winter break so we chose pizza places near the bus station that would get him back to college. Ironically, they are in the top 4 of that list! First stop, Harvest Pizzeria in German Village. We have been there before and absolutely love their pizza. We thought just like with Luigi’s we should start out with something tried and true – just in case! We ordered two pies – one with mushrooms and the other vegetable. The pizzas are baked in a wood burning oven and the crust was light and delicious with just the right chew and char on the crust. It’s not NY pizza, but that’s more than okay, it doesn’t have to be. It’s unique and stands on its own. I always get the almond pesto on the side, just to drizzle on top – so good, I started making it at home! We’re Harvest Pizza lovers in my house as you can tell!

20140717_135710v2 — Harvest Pizzeria in German Village

An hour later we headed over to Yellow Brick Pizza in Old Town East. We have heard so much about it, we wanted to give it a try. We ordered a regular cheese pie so that toppings didn’t get in the way of taste. This was my husband’s favorite place of the day. It was a good solid pie. The pizza had a nice crispy crust, just the right amount of cheese, and a great tasting sauce. What more can you ask for? Tater tots apparently because they’re on the menu with a variety of toppings! Of course we got those too! They were good, probably better with toppings and a drink but we were there for the pizza.

20150110_164411ps — Yellow Brick Pizza in Olde Town East

Last but not least was Bono Pizza. Bono Pizza was my white whale (you know as in Moby Dick – the one that got away)! About 6 years ago we passed a small little place in the Short North that had a sign in the window – Bono Pizza to go. They were closed but I wrote down their number so I could get their hours and pick up a pie to try another time. I went there again a couple months later and the sign on the window said sorry, ovens are out. 3^rd time will be a charm – right? A few weeks later I went back and they were closed; they had moved to a new location. I forgot about them for a while, then one day I was driving my son to baseball and saw a sign for Bono Pizza. I quickly pulled into the parking lot. They were located in a convenience store and had pies to go after 5pm. We missed them again!

20150110_184558psv2 — Bono Pizza in Grandview

This past summer, while in the area, I saw a sign that said we’ve moved. For some reason I felt compelled to follow the signs to their new location – I didn’t want pizza but wasn’t giving up. I found them located in an apartment complex and yes they were closed for lunch but now I knew where they were. It’s an odd location, very small, and less than fancy but there’s something warm about the place. Saturday, I finally caught the white whale! We dropped Jarred off at the bus, did a few errands and headed over for dinner (of course I called them on the way to make sure they were open!). I couldn’t believe after 6 years we finally did it. Was it worth it? Read on to find out!

The restaurant is located in an apartment complex which is a little unusual but seems to work. One thing we loved was the red and white checkered tablecloths. It reminded us of NYC pizza places. We ordered three 10 inch pies and loved the Margherita pizza with extra garlic they call The Caroline. It really was delicious. The dough was crisp and tender and had a nice wood charred flavor, add in the fresh mozzarella – it was a winner! As for the other two, we just ordered the wrong pies. So we are going to judge solely based on the Margherita pie which was amazing.

End of day results… You can see why all three are among the top 25 best pies in Columbus. All different, all very good in their own right. Ethan and I selected Harvest Pizza as our favorite. My husband’s favorite was Yellow Brick Pizza. Bono was a top contender but I think at a disadvantage, it was the last pie of the day, we were a little full, and I guess after 6 years, my expectations were just too high. Jarred’s favorite was Zen Cha Tea (no pizza), but that’s another story! All in all it was a really fun day. I finally caught the white whale, we had some great food, and so many laughs along the way and I would go back to any of them in a heartbeat! Can’t wait until next year’s National Pizza Week! I have so much more to share, more recipes, more stories, I may not be able to wait! In the meantime, check out the places I’ve mentioned plus these I have been to (also in the top 25) … Mikey’s Late Night Slice, Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza, and Borgata Pizza Cafe. Only 19 more to try!

*There are dozens of pizza places with the name Ray in it all claiming to be the first and one and only original. There are often debates as to whether they are related in some way. Off the top of my head, there is Ray Bari, Original Ray’s, Famous Original Ray’s, Ray’s, I think there is even a World Famous Ray’s Pizza. Check out this blog to find out more about Ray’s pizza and for a funny clip on Seinfeld about Ray’s thepizzasnob.net/2012/07/08/a-slice-of-new-york-city-the-real-rays-pizza-5/

Grandma Pizza, We don’t have that in Columbus!

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Sherri

When my husband was scouting out the Columbus area for our move 12 years ago, he would call me and tell me what he found that was familiar to us. While he was busy researching the best school districts, I asked things like, do they have a Lord & Taylor there. Is there a Bloomingdales? And, oh, make sure you try the pizza I can’t move anywhere that doesn’t have good pizza! I have to be honest, the reports weren’t so promising.* That was coming from my husband who can eat almost anything. The best he came up with was California Pizza Kitchen. While I do enjoy their pizza, and sometimes crave their tricolore** salad pizza, it’s not New York Pizza!

How could this happen? A Brooklyn girl living someplace without good pizza, unheard of, unthinkable! Then I thought, if I learned to make it myself, I wouldn’t have to go without. So this began my journey on learning how to make the best tasting pizza I could! Pizza that would rival some of the best I’ve had in NY.

While still living in NY I purchased dough from my local pizza place just to get the hang of it. I bought a pizza stone and pizza wheel to cut the pizza. I was ready! From there, I researched cookbooks, cooking shows and asked an Italian neighbor of mine who made pizza regularly to help me. While this isn’t the first pizza I learned how to make, I wanted to share it first because it’s the easiest, absolutely delicious, and is made in a standard sheet pan. The ingredients are very simple and rustic. Most people are familiar with the round pizza, and square Sicilian, but the grandma pie is a whole different ballgame. Some people think it’s a thin Sicilian pie, but it’s not. The crust is almost like a thin focaccia and crispy on the bottom. It’s not so easy to find outside of Long Island where it originated. That is unless you go to Italy where someone’s grandmother makes it for you, hence the title Grandma Pizza.

So what exactly is a grandma pie? According to a Newsday article (Long Island newspaper) written by Erica Marcus…

“Variations abound, but the basic outlines are as follows: a thin layer of dough is stretched into an oiled, square “Sicilian” pan, topped sparingly with shredded mozzarella, crushed uncooked canned tomatoes, chopped garlic and olive oil, and baked until the top bubbles and the bottom is crisp.

[Michele] Scicolone [Manhattan resident, Italian food expert, and co-author of Pizza: Any Way You Slice It] observed that grandma pie sounded a lot like “pizza alla casalinga” (housewife-style pizza), “the kind of pizzas you’d get in Italy if you were invited to someone’s home.”

New Yorkers take their pizza seriously. If you would like to read the whole story, you can find it at this link:

http://long-island.newsday.com/restaurants/feed-me-1.812004/grandma-pizza-the-full-story-1.825269

So here it is, my version of Grandma Pizza adapted from Cooks Country…

Dough
1 1/2 cups bread flour (plus more for kneading)
3/4 cup warm water (105 to 110 degrees)
2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons of olive oil

Recipe for the topping follows at the end.

For the dough: Coat a rimmed baking sheet (half sheet pan 18 x 13) with 2 tablespoons of good olive oil and set aside.

In a measuring cup add the warm water, sugar and yeast. Allow it to proof for about 5 minutes or until the yeast has activated and is foamy on top.

In a large bowl add the flour and salt. When the yeast is proofed, add the tablespoon of olive and stir into the flour mixture. If the dough feels too sticky, add a little more flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until soft, smooth and elastic about 5 to 7 minutes.

Transfer the dough to greased sheet pan and turn it to coat. Stretch dough to about a 12 by 8 inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 45 minutes to one hour. While the dough is rising, put the topping together.

Topping
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves of garlic minced fine (or more if you like garlic as much as I do!)
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese (use a good quality mozzarella)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons fresh basil

Place tomatoes in a colander and drain well. I leave it draining about 30 minutes. Then combine tomatoes, oil and garlic in a bowl and stir well. That’s it for the sauce!

After it has doubled in size, stretch dough to the corners of the pan and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, adjust your oven rack to the lowest position and the heat oven to 500 degrees. Now it’s time to assemble the pizza. Sprinkle the cheese over the dough leaving 1/2 inch border around the edges. Top with tomato mixture and then place in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and when you lift a corner of the crust you see it’s well browned underneath. Transfer to a wire rack to yield a crispy crust. Enjoy!

* 11 years later we have several really good pizza places here. Tomorrow I’m planning on doing a food crawl at a couple of them. One we love, the other we can’t wait to try. I’ve been told it’s the best pizza in Columbus. I’ll be the judge of that!

**tricolore is the name and spelling of the salad at CPK, this is not a misspelling on my behalf. It’s a caramelized Parmesan pizza crust (I get whole wheat) topped with spring salad mix, diced tomatoes and shaved Parmesan cheese with their homemade Dijon balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I highly recommend it, salad and a pizza all in one! Yum!

Today is my Sister’s Birthday!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Sherri

This is MY SISTER and today is her birthday! My family is crazy about birthdays! Well maybe not the whole family – just my sisters and I! The photo was taken April 2014 in front of our old house where it all began… 38 east 89th street, Brooklyn, New York! Even though it was so many years ago, it doesn’t feel like that long ago. We were so happy taking pictures, reminiscing about my mother’s rose garden (which no longer exists), and trying to remember which neighbor lived in which house.

While we were busy showing our children the house and taking pictures, a man called to us from the upstairs window and asked what we were doing. At first we were a little nervous – after all, here we were in front of his house taking pictures. As it turned out, the people that own the house were so nice they invited us inside. We were thrilled! Of course our children being taught by us never to go into a stranger’s house had a different take on this – but that’s another story! The inside looked much smaller then we remember, but I think everyone says that about their childhood home. It was such a fun day that brought back a lot of great memories.

frannie and me in rose garden ps' — Here we are in the rose garden all those years ago. Nothing better than having a sister!

After riding around the old neighborhood for a while, we all got hungry so we stopped for pizza – what else? Click on the link to read about our pizza adventure here http://www.splashofsherri.com/category/recipes/pizza-recipes/

I think my sister and I love pizza more than most people. Let’s be honest, what’s not to love? And, as it turns out, this week is National Pizza Week! So in honor of her birthday, and to kick off National Pizza Week, I picked up a couple of pies for dinner! Here is a photo of the Mediterranean vegetable pie I picked up from Borgata Pizza Cafe – it was so good! They were voted one of the top 25 pies in Columbus and once you try it, you’ll know why!

Follow me this week as I share photos, stories and recipes all about pizza – enjoy!

Delancey, Not the Lower East Side of Manhattan… the Book!

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Sherri

I just finished reading the book Delancey: A Man, A Woman, A Restuarant, A Marriage. It is written by Molly Wizenberg the New York Times bestselling author of A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table and the blogger behind Orangette. Her writing is honest, funny, poignant, and for a foodie – a must! I love a book where you feel like the author is an old friend and the read is like a conversation you are having in your kitchen, over a cup of coffee.

Molly writes about what her life was like while her husband was preparing to open a pizzeria. I should let you know – she had me at pizza! Once I realized that her husband is as crazy about pizza as I am – I was hooked! One of my favorite lines in the book is when her husband says “people will always want to eat pizza! The same way they’ll always want hamburgers and barbeque!”

Synopsis from the book: When Molly Wizenberg married Brandon Pettit, he was a trained composer with a handful of offbeat interests: espresso machines, wooden boats, violin-building, and ice cream–making. So when Brandon decided to open a pizza restaurant, Molly was supportive—not because she wanted him to do it, but because the idea was so far-fetched that she didn’t think he would. Before she knew it, he’d signed a lease on a space. The restaurant, Delancey, was going to be a reality, and all of Molly’s assumptions about her marriage were about to change.

Together they built Delancey: gutting and renovating the space on a cobbled-together budget, developing a menu, hiring staff, and passing inspections. Delancey became a success, and Molly tried to convince herself that she was happy in their new life until—in the heat and pressure of the restaurant kitchen—she realized that she hadn’t been honest with herself or Brandon. With evocative photos by Molly and twenty new recipes for the kind of simple, delicious food that chefs eat at home, Delancey is a moving and honest account of two young people learning to give in and let go in order to grow together.

Her story brought me back to the day my husband and I decided we were going to move to Ohio. I had obvious concerns about moving: good schools, good neighborhood, was there a Lord & Taylor or Bloomingdale’s, and a must… good pizza (please let there be good pizza!).

Her husband Brandon, was inspired to open his restaurant and modeled it after Di Fara’s Pizzeria, his favorite pizza place in Brooklyn, NY. The owner De Marco has been making pizza for 49 years and takes the pies out of his 800 degree oven by hand! Watch this short 15 minute documentary, on Di Fara’s Pizza (http://vimeo.com/16077855) it’s beautifully done.

Delancey, is truly is a story about a man, a woman, a restaurant and a marriage. I loved it, and working backwards excited to read her first book A Homemade Life. I just checked it out of the library and can’t wait to get started on it this weekend! Enjoy!