Hawaiian Pizza

Remember how I said that I scored three free cookbooks last weekend? One of them was Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, which I got at the Foodbuzz Taste Pavilion. You guys know that pizza is basically my favorite food of all time, as well as all the angst I’ve been through with pizza, so I was stoked. To celebrate their Twitter-based World Wide Pizza Party (#pizzapartyin5), I made Hawaiian pizza from the book (p. 152).

When I was a kid my sister liked Hawaiian pizza, while I was disgusted by it. The pineapple was the deal breaker for me. I would refuse to touch a pizza that had been touched by pineapple, lest some juice left behind taint the savory cheesiness and ruin my pizza experience. Steakboy loves Hawaiian pizza, too. I finally broke down and tried it just about a year ago, and like most foods out there, I actually liked it. Sweetness, acidity, meatyliciousness– what’s not to like? So I chose to make the Hawaiian pizza this time. I thought about trying some of the deep dish recipes, but nay. Too soon.

Also, I love Hawaii. I know everyone loves Hawaii, but I really really really love Hawaii. I spent three months there for my job in 2007 and let’s just say I came to be one with the island people. Come to think of it, I don’t think I actually saw any Hawaiian pizza there . . . but that’s beside the point.

Back to the cookbook. I cracked this baby open and read all about flours, yeast, cheeses, oven temperatures, and so on. Initially I was completely freaked out to see that the basic pizza recipe called for all purpose flour, since I pretty much decided it was my nemesis long ago in my pizza-making quest. But I decided to give it a fair try. Noticing that the dough was supposed to rise for a couple hours and then rest, ideally for up to 24 hours, I started it last night.

Now, here’s where I must admit I deviated from the recipe. I realized that I only had half the amount of all-purpose flour that I needed, so I used bread flour for the other half. Then I was supposed to let the dough rise for two hours and then put it in the refrigerator, but about half an hour later I got really freaking tired. My choices were a) put the dough in the fridge all night, risking it not rising/fermenting enough; b) leave the dough out all night, risking scary bacteria situations; c) go to bed and wake up ninety minutes later to move the pizza. I’ve seen Julie & Julia, so I know how C would work out. After some internet searching to see if it was safe to leave pizza dough out all night and coming across this NY Times article about the practice, I went with option B. You know I like to live on the edge. That’s why I ate medium rare quail at Foreign Cinema last night, which the internets also tell me is okay, so it must be true.

The dough had definitely risen overnight when I checked in on it this morning.

It went into the fridge while I was at work, then came out about an hour before I was ready to cook. It was finally pizza time! (One of my favorite times, along with Cocktail Time, Daylight Saving Time, and Yoga Pants Time.) I did all the mise en place.

The ingredients:

• dough (“Crisp-Yet-Tender Pizza Dough Even Closer To The Style Of Naples,” p. 71-72)
• pineapple
• canadian bacon
• fresh sage
• mozzarella cheese
• sharp cheddar cheese
• chopped up macadamia nuts (!!!)
• sauce

The pizza sauce actually wasn’t part of this recipe, but I wanted to add it. I took inspiration from the book’s section on sauces and kept it simple by taking a can of diced tomatoes with seasonings and whatnot, simmering it to reduce a bit, adding a splash of wine (for funsies), and then finishing with an immersion blender.

Next it was time to set up the crust station. This represents the only useable counter space in our kitchen.

I had to use a LOT of flour on the dough, as it was really sticky. I basically used all that bench flour (file “bench flour” under Things I Learned In Fake Culinary School).

I rolled out the dough, applied flour liberally to the pizza slip and the pizza stone in the oven (preheated to 550, the hottest my oven gets and plenty hot for pizza in my opinion) and got the pizza all ready.

The only problem was that even though the dough was able to slide around when I first placed it onto the slip, suddenly with all the toppings added it wouldn’t slide off onto the pizza stone! Aaaaaahhhh!!! I really should have learned by now since I’ve been through this before. (Once after a few glasses of wine . . . there were some pizza toppings that resembled the ruins of Pompeii at the bottom of the oven that night.) The sheer weight of all that deliciousness is no match for that layer of flour. But in the end I was able to get it off the slip and into the oven without screaming too many obscenities.

Now, here is where my mind was blown. As you may remember, my pizza cooks up at 525 in about five minutes. This pizza cooked at 550 for about TEN minutes. Not to mention this dough felt fluffy and delicate, and mine feels tougher and stretchier. Weird. Old Man Science strikes again.

In the end I had a glorious pizza.

And then a second one, cooked just a tad bit longer.

The pizza was fantastic. Really, really damn tasty. My mind is blown. I’ve been humbled by this book and need to learn more of their yeasty pizza ways.

We ate it while watching the best Episode of Parks and Recreation ever: season 3, episode 10- “Soulmates.” Funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Watch it. Also, make the pizza. Get the book and learn all the pizza secrets. Then we will move to Italy and become pizza chefs for the rest of our days. I already know some Italian words: la colazione, il tacchino, i popcorn. I’m set. Or better yet, let’s start a pizza food truck here in SF that will become a serious fire hazard. I can see it now, parked right next to my pupusa truck.