After a semi-debacle trying to make a pizza at home, my FB friends urged me not to give up. Big mistake, not pre-heating the stone. Second mistake, not having a tool to transfer the pizza from the prep board to the stone. So I gave it a second try. While I like primary ingredients like yeast and flour, I opted for commercial dough, which I thawed. Not wanting to open a new jar of spaghetti sauce, I had half a jar of salsa, already seasoned. At Shop-Rite I bought a half-pound buffalo mozzarella, committing me to a Pizza Margherita. Olive oil is a staple. I had bought mushrooms at Aldi. Basil leaves grow nicely in a chia pot in the living room. Instead of a board, I would use an inverted sheet pan to spread the dough and ingredients, then transfer with a spatula onto the hot stone.
Ready to go. Stone in oven set at 500F. Dust inverted sheet pan with flour. Take dough out of plastic wrapping. It could have spread better. I kneaded it a little, and stretched as best I could. Tossing is a skill I do not have, but transferring between fists spreads it out somewhat. I never created a circle, more a rectangle. Pour olive oil onto the crust surface, and spread with the back of a tablespoon. Contents of salsa jar, mild version, just enough to coat the crust, spread with the same tablespoon, leaving a small edge. Next, the block of mozzarella. I put it onto a plate, creating even slices with a sharp knife. Those got distributed evenly over the pie's upper surface. Wash and slice five baby Bella mushrooms and distribute them. Take four basil leaves, chiffonade, distribute.
I opened the oven, slid the rack with the hot stone out enough for the transfer, then took the inverted sheet pan with the pie to that level. It did not transfer smoothly. The topping, cheese, mushrooms and some sauce went plop onto the hot stone. The dough folded a little. I eventually moved the partially folded dough onto the hot stone, transferred as much cheese a mushrooms as I could back onto the pie, and closed the oven.
Fourteen minutes later, my timer went off. I returned to the oven to find something of a mess. I had a pizza, only slightly adherent to the stone. But I also found baked-on cheese with burnt edges on the stone. The dough did not remain flat. It rose significantly during heating, particularly on the parts that had no topping. Carefully, I removed the stone from the oven onto my stove top, remembering to turn off the oven. I created three pizza pieces, a half for me, two quarters for my wife, one to eat for supper, the other to save.
Despite the mostly misadventure, the meal tasted pretty good. The dough could have used another minute or two in the oven. The cheese atop the pizza melted just right. Salsa, even mild, seemed a little too peppery for optimal pizza topping. The mushrooms cooked well.
That left me with a messy pizza stone to clean up. I could throw it out, as I am not eager to make a subsequent attempt. However, some soaking last time enabled the burned on ingredients to come clean from the stone, so it now sits in a tub, half now, half in a few hours.
Despite a culinary result far inferior to what any professional pizzeria would offer, the economics don't make a lot of sense. The dough just under $2. Half a jar salsa $1.50. Mozzarella ball $5. Half box mushrooms $1. Whether Dominos or local, a pizzeria would charge about $15 for a better product. A frozen pizza from the supermarket would be about a third less than I spent on ingredients and would transfer to a hot stone uneventfully. Doing this myself for the effort and cost does not seem justified. There are other things I could make instead. Leave pizza to the pros.
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