A tale of two pizzas

You have a plan - you want to make pizza that rivals your favorite pizzeria right at home. Forget the sorry looking and tasting pre-made pizza bases that have no flavor whatsoever. If you want a decent slice of pizza, then this recipe delivers what it promises. The flavor and texture of the pizza will knock your socks off! I halved this recipe and made two very different pizzas with one dough. One, was the classic pizza with tomato sauce and all the works. The other I turned into a three cheese pizza. Both versions taste delicious.



This is the first recipe that I tried from Peter Reinhart's fantastic book titled The Bread Baker's Apprentice . When the book arrived, I simply ogled at the beautiful beautiful bread pictures and since I was taking a flight back home in a couple of hours I couldn't read all that I wanted to.



Now that the book has safely sailed all over the world and is in my hands, I can't wait to bake from it. It's an absolute encyclopedia for newbie bread bakers, filled with interesting bread recipes. Every recipe is thoughtfully written out. It doesn't read like the usual "recipe" book. This one is truly different and has completely won me over. I cannot imagine how wonderful it would be to actually train under Mr.Reinhar when he is able to convey so much precise knowledge to the reader through just words. He never assumes that you would know or it's already been printed in the previous chapter. There are notes everywhere with reminders and references, so you don't go crazy trying to figure where you read how to do the "window pane test".



I just LOVE the book. Not just for the recipes - it's probably the best written food related book that I've read. And Mr.Reinhart is a kind man, he shares his knowledge willingly and freely with an eagerness to ensure that his pupil exceeds in bread making. I can safely say this after buying innumerable number of books with gorgeous pictures but the recipes? aaargh! Bake in the oven till done. I hate that one. For how long lady? And at what temperature? Another one that I love(hate) is when they say use store bought fondant/cake mix/whatever. Why did I buy the book when I'm running to the grocery store more than actually baking from it? I am now an educated and wary book buyer. I always read at least five random recipes to see if they make sense and if they'll actually work. No more eye candy influenced impulse buys.



It's been a very busy last few months for me and I haven't had the chance to blog and bake as much as I would like to. And since this recipe has been out there in the food blog sphere for quite some time now I'm going to leave you with a link to the pizza dough recipe. Heidi, who authors the famed 101 Cookbooks has done a great job of condensing the recipe without losing important details. For the pizza sauce, I used the Basic ,Awesome Tomato sauce recipe .



Toppings can vary based on what you choose to have on your pizza. Don't overcrowd your pizza and go nuts with the toppings though. A little goes a long way. Here I've used grape tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella and black olives on one pizza. The three cheese pizza has 1 part cheddar, 1 part Parmesan and 2 parts mozzarella. For a little kick add some finely chopped green chillies with a dash of oregano. I've used fresh jalapeno before and they seemed to work better than the chillies. If you can find them, use them instead.

P.S - excuse the excessive usage of pictures in this post. I just couldn't make up mind. They all looked good to me!