Coronavirus: I made the ultimate apocalypse pizza
We found pizza sauce at our local grocery store during the COVID-19 apocalypse
Ughhhhh. The grocery store was a little wiped out, but luckily we're only a house of two and don't need much. The canned goods aisle was about bare, but we were able to pick up one of the last jars of pizza sauce in stock.
Further down, very oddly, on the completely stripped shelves was a whole untouched section of canned veggies. Mushrooms. We took two cans. On the condiments aisle, we found canned olives (my wife doesn't like them on pizza, but I do). And on the baking aisle we found the shelf bare of yeast. But, at the very back of the top most shelf were a handful of instant yeast packets. I snagged them. Apocalypse pizza was officially on the menu for the week!
Luckily we had some items around the kitchen already; packs of shredded cheese, bread machine flour, and turkey pepperoni. And there was the bread machine I gave my wife a couple of years back that seemed to end up like most people's bread machines – tucked away in some dark recess in the kitchen and forgotten.
Feed us, Cuisinart!
I was excited about making my own pizza dough, and dug out the instruction manual for our bread maker, knowing it had a pizza dough recipe. I added all of the ingredients into the bread pan, set the bread machine to the pizza dough setting, and hit start. An hour and a half later the machine beeped madly, signaling that the pizza dough was done! I excitedly opened the lid and found...
...A disappointing chalky mess! I don't know how it happened, but the dough was a complete failure. I couldn't believe how nasty and dry it was! But I tried again, adding water to the recipe, and I was rewarded with a big, healthy blob of pizza dough.
Yay! It's a blob!
I love making pizza at home! You can add whatever, and how much ever, of any toppings you want to your own pizza. For this pie we elected to have onion, mushrooms, and turkey pepperoni on board. And of course, olives (on my side).
Shaping the dough
Sauce and the first layer of cheese go down
LOADED with toppings
And now the final layer of cheese
So this is going to kind of sound a little weird, but I love watching a pizza cook. I tossed it into our oven, preheated to 400°F and sat down to watch my creation come to life. I got excited as the crust started to puff up and rise. And I got excited again when the pizza started to bubble with heat. And then I got even more excited when the crust and cheese started to brown. The pizza was almost done! I hope I'm not the only person that enjoys watching their pizza baking.
My wife thinks this is weird. Okay, I admit it looks a little weird, peering in at my pizza...
The pizza came out phenomenal looking! I was very excited to dig in and I wasn't disappointed. The pizza crust wasn't the most awesome I've ever had, but it wasn't terrible. It was a little on the generic, bland side and lacked the flavor that a pizzeria's pie would have. I'll have to play with the recipe and see what I can do with it. The store-bought pizza sauce was surprisingly good and the combination of toppings provided great flavors and textures to the pie. I loved it!
All done!
Get in my belly!
Dinner is served!
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Comments (11)
Try substituting white wine for half of the liquid called for in your recipe for a more flavorful crust.
Will do!
I love the invention and using ingredients nice one and well done
I love pizza, I'm open to almost anything on it or willing to try at least. The ultimate pizza for me has pepperoni, ham, sausage, bacon, ground beef, mushrooms, banana peppers and onion with mozzarella and parmesan.
Daaaaaammmmmnnnnnnn! Now that's a loaded pizza!
We don't always go with that many toppings but every now and then we do.
Found pizza sauce because the pasta sauce was gone? There should have been a purchase limit on both pasta and sauce. Although it was fascinating to see what things didn’t sell during a panic. Around here it was barbecue sauce, pickles, salsa, and salad dressing along with the usual staples.
Looks delicious! 🤤🤤