- 1 can Pillsbury Crusty French Bread
- 6 oz pizza sauce
- Pepperoni, sausage, other pizza toppings
I’ve been trying for a while now to perfect pizza dough. Or more like perfecting the baking process of the pizza. I just can’t seem to get the thin, crispy crust like you find in New York City. Perhaps it’s because my kitchen lacks the wood-burning stove (amongst many other things). So I’m giving up, for now, and tried crafting pizza on something other than your typical crust. I crafted a French Bread Pizza using a freshly baked Crusty French Bread loaf from Pillsbury. This was a great alternative to traditional dough and it was extra crispy, even when cold! I suggest serving a platter of these at your Super Bowl party.
Bake the French Bread according to the package directions. Allow it to cool before slicing the loaf into two halves.
For the sauce I combined the remaining Carmella’s Arrabbiata Sauce that I had on hand along with a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste to thicken it up. You can also use a store bought pizza sauce. Before spreading the sauce on the bread, I baked the sliced bread for 5 minutes so that the top would get crispy.
Spread the sauce evenly on both halves of the french bread and layer with your favorite pizza toppings. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and browned. Allow the pizza to cool before slicing and serving.
Looks yummy. Have you considered going to your local pizza shop or even grocery store deli and buying fresh pizza dough from them? We gave up with the homemade some time ago and have been using Weis (our grocery store) pizza dough. We leave it out for about an hour before working with it and it’s amazing!
You can make dough using a bread maker (if you have one) I have found it to be easier and healthier this way!!!
Pizza dough is easy, it’s the hot oven that’s the hard part. Although my family is Italian and from NJ, they never made the really thin NY style pizzeria pizza. It was always a little thicker.
I can duplicate the old family recipe with 3 cups bread flour, 1 tsp active dry yeast, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp sugar, about 1 cup warm water, and 1/2 tsp salt. I use a Kitchenaid with a dough hook. Just add a little of the water, the sugar, and the yeast and premix, let it sit about 10 min. Add the oil, flour, and the salt (never add salt directly to the yeast or you will kill it), then begin mixing. Add the rest of the water a little at a time until you have a nice rubbery–not sticky–dough ball. 1 cup water is approximate–use more or less to get the consistency you want. You might need to scrape the sides of the mixer bowl a few times until everything blends.
Then I let it rise twice. It will be very slow to rise because of the small amount of yeast, but put it in a warm place for a couple of hours in the mixer bowl, floured and covered with plastic wrap, and forget about it. i detest yeasty-tasting pizza, so I put up with the slow rise time compared to yeasty-tasting recipes that rise quicker. When it is about 2x original volume, punch it down with the mixer for a minute or two and let it rise again before you roll it out.
Grease and sprinkle a little dry cream of wheat (or corn meal) on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Cook it on the bottom shelf of a very hot. Lift a corner now and then to see if it’s getting brown on the bottom, take it out when it does. I have a great heavy-duty dedicated pizza pan, but would also like to try a pizza stone some day.