Pizza: Pizza Buns

Want pizza, but don't want pizza? Me too, though I'll always eat pizza in any of its forms. But if you want something a little easier to eat than a traditional pizza, and something kids will love, these easy Pizza Buns are for you.


Ingredients


1 recipe for Basic Pizza Crust
½ cup pizza sauce
1 cup mozzarella cheese
¼ cup parmesan cheese
other pizza toppings as desired


Preparation


If you've ever made cinnamon buns, this will be easy. If you haven't, it will still be simple enough. Roll out your pizza dough until it's a rectangle about 12 x 15 inches. Spread the sauce on the dough, leaving a strip of about an inch uncovered on the long side (the 15-inch side). Top the sauce with the cheeses and any other toppings you like. Reserve just a little mozzarella cheese and other toppings to put on top of the buns, if desired. Don't overload the dough. You generally want a little less toppings than you'd use if you were making a traditional pizza.


Roll up the dough, starting on the 15-inch side, but not the side that has no sauce or toppings. You'll need that side free to seal the roll. Roll the dough tightly, but no so tight that you push the toppings out. Ideally, the toppings need to stay in place, so go slowly and gently.


Pinch the roll closed along the seam, then gently use your hands to move the roll back and forth a bit. This will help even it out a little. Use a sharp knife to slice the roll into 12 equal portions. Do not use a serrated knife, and cut in one smooth motion. A little sauce will squeeze out, but just ignore that.


Heat the oven to 400°F. Place the buns on a prepared baking sheet. The two end pieces should be place with cut side up so they look like the other buns. Using a piece of wax paper or a plastic baggie to protect your hand and keep the sauce in place, press down on each bun slightly, flattening them out so they bake evenly. Sprinkle with any remaining toppings, if desired.


Bake for 20 minutes, until buns are browned and the cheese is bubbling a little. Allow to cool 5 minutes, then serve.


This recipe makes 12 Pizza Buns.

Pizza: Mini Calzones

We all love pizza, but sometimes it's messy and hard to eat, especially if you're on the go. And if you have kids, pizza is a great lunch, but sometimes hard to pack. So instead of pizza, try whipping up some Mini Calzones. Think of them like pizza pops, only made in your own kitchen with stuff you probably have lying around anyway.


These little gems make great lunches for adults and children alike. Throw 2 or 3 in your own lunch and eat them at the office. These are guaranteed to please.


Ingredients


1 recipe for Basic Pizza Crust
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup mozzarella cheese
pizza toppings of your choice
small bowl of water, room temperature
1 egg + 1 tbsp water, slightly beaten
garlic salt (optional)


Preparation


Mix the tomato sauce and the cheese with a spoon. Add other toppings of your choice. Pepperoni is common, but you might  like mushrooms, green peppers, or even ground beef. It's up to you. You can also add herbs such as basil and oregano to the cheese mixture.


Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Take one of these pieces and flatten it into a circle. You don't want the dough so thin that you can see through it, and you don't want it as thick as a pan crust pizza, but other than that the exact thickness is up to you. I like to flatten them into 6-inche circles.


Place some of the cheese mixture in the middle of the dough circle. Keep the mixture a ¼-inch away from the edge of the dough circle. Do not put more than about ⅛ cup of the cheese mixture into the center of a single circle. Even a little less than that. You don't want them bursting all over the oven, which is what will happen if you stuff them with too much cheese.


Using your finger, brush the edge of the dough circle with a little water. Water is basically like glue, but for dough. Fold the dough circle in half, encasing the cheese mixture, and press closed, trying to get out as much air as you can. You can use your fingers, but the calzones will look nicer if you use the tines of a fork to seal them. Press firmly, but not hard enough to go through the dough. You don't want to crush the edges, after all. Place the finished calzone on a prepared baking sheet, curving it slightly. Repeat this process for each piece of dough until you have 12 mini calzones.


Heat the oven to 375°F. Poke each calzone in the center with the same fork you used to seal the edges. Press hard enough that you go through the dough. Brush each calzone with the egg wash, covering all exposed dough. Sprinkle with garlic salt, if desired.


Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until calzones are golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes to avoid pizza burn, then serve.

Pizza: Basic Pizza Crust

Pizza is the best of everything. It's yeast bread, which is my favorite thing in the world, and it's cheese, which is my second thing in the world. It's saucy, which is awesome, and it can be spicy, which is double awesome. Pizza can be anything you like. And making it at home is satisfying and delicious.


The secret to a great pizza is in the crust. It should be light and airy and have a gentle crisp to it. You can make it thin or thick, crimp the edges so it has a defined crust around the edge or keep it flat so you can take toppings all the way to the edge. It's really up to you.


While you can use a regular bread dough to make pizza, it's not recommended. There is a difference in the dough, so use a pizza recipe like the one below. Also, a note on yeast. I don't use traditional yeast. I hate dissolving it. You can use a bread machine yeast (even if you don't use a bread machine), a quick-rise yeast, or even a pizza yeast. They make pizza yeast now. I like it.


I also like precooking my crusts. I call it flashing, and it sets the crust just enough to make it really easy to make pizzas quickly if you're serving a large crowd. It's also handy for freezing crusts to use at a later date. Because I love flashing my crusts so much, it will be included in the recipe below.


Ingredients


1¼ tsp pizza yeast
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup warm water

Preparation


If you're using a bread maker, just toss everything in, select the dough cycle, and walk away until the bread maker is done. If you're doing it by hand, you'll have to mix and knead with your own two hands. The results will be the same, so use a bread machine if you have it, or do it by hand if you don't. Mix until you have a smooth ball of soft dough. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 60 minutes. It may take as long as 90 minutes depending on temperature and humidity.


Pizza dough typically only rises once, so when it's ready, you'll be making pizza. Punch down the dough until most of the air bubbles have been eliminated. Preheat the oven to 350°F so you'll be able to flash your crust. Use a pizza stone for this step; you'll want the pizza stone to heat in the oven so it's piping hot when the crust hits the stone. Alternatively, you may use a pizza cooker. These are small appliances with cast iron that preheat, so they're very like pizza stones. Either way, you'll want a hot surface to flash your crusts.


Now you'll shape your crusts. Do this with your hands and not a roller. Using a roller will drive out all the air bubbles, and you don't want that. Pizza crust doesn't rise a second time, so you want some of those air bubbles to remain, so use your hands and be gentle. Stretch and press your dough until it is the size and thickness you want. You can divide the dough to make 2 or even 4 smaller pizzas if you like. You can make a thicker, pan crust. You can roll it out until it is paper thin. With a basic crust, this is up to you. When you first start making your own pizza crust, roll them out semi-thin. You can adjust this to your own preferences in later batches.


Once shaped, you have to flash your crusts for 5 minutes. You can do this by using a pizza peel to slid them into the pizza stone. Coat the pizza peel in flour or cornmeal to prevent sticking if needed. If you want a crisp and professional crust, try brushing the pizza stone with a little garlic butter, maybe even garlic butter with parmesan, right before you add the crust. You won't be disappointed, I promise.


Allow the crust to bake for 5 minutes. It's not cooked, obviously, but it is flashed. Remove and repeat with any remaining crusts.


Once you have flashed all your crusts, you can start to make your pizzas. Increase the oven temperature to 425°F. Add your sauce and toppings. Topping are up to you. We usually have cheese and pepperoni, because I have kids. But we also do margarita and red pepper-pepperoni when my mother or sister are around. Don't be afraid to throw a few dried herb on top of your cheeses. It will be delicious.


Bake your pizzas for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how dark you like them. They are cooked after about 8 minutes because you previously flashed the crusts, so anything beyond that is personal preference.


Allow to cool for 3 minutes before cutting so the cheese has time to set, then enjoy.