The moment of glory: fresh out of the oven roasted red pepper, spinach and mozzarella pizza.
It all started with Trader Joe’s wheat pizza dough, pizza sauce and a dream of a 30 minute meal.
A gooey pile of chopped roasted red peppers and garlic [from a jar].
Piling on the cheese, spinach, roasted red peppers, and some chili infused olive oil.
Grilled up some sweet basil chicken and turkey sausage for a topping, but it ended up as an app while waiting for this little pizza pie lovely to cook.
Gorge, isn’t it? For a first time pizza making adventure, I’m totally impressed. We tried to follow package directions [outlined here] but forgot to be generous with the cornmeal on the pizza peel, so had to spatula the dough from pizza peel to baking stone in the oven. It was a bit of a mess, but we got the dough sorted out eventually. We cooked the two pizzas for about 15 minutes total – twice the suggested time – and it still wasn’t quite crispy. If anyone out there has secrets for pizza-making magic, please share. All said and done though, it was still delish and I’m truly always impressed when something this tasty and pretty emerges from my oven. Have a scrumptious day. ♥c
chan du jour 
Homemade pizza is the best! We’ve been making our own dough (from Cook’s Illustrated Baking). We’ve found that one of the crispy crust secrets is to be sure the oven REALLY has time to get hot. We let it keep heating for at least 15 minutes after it tells us it’s reached temperature.
great, thank you for the tip!!! :)
Nice! Here’s a neat trick I’ve been using recently— Instead of using cornmeal or flour, you can place a sheet of parchment paper on the peel and build the pie on top of it. Then you can slide the whole shebang, parchment and all, right onto the stone. The pizza cooks the same as otherwise, and you avoid any potential disasters when sliding the pie onto the stone.
Regarding crispiness, I crank up the oven as high as it’ll go, (500° or 550°) and leave the stone in for a good half hour before cooking. That way it’s ripping hot and your crust gets nice and crispy.
-T
genius!! the parchment paper idea is golden! will definitely try that along with the smoking hot oven! thank you ty!! xo
We put ours directly on the oven rack. Pizza comes out perfectly crispy that way but you have to watch your cooking time. Still own the pizza stone but use it as a cutting board after we slide the cooked pizza onto it! :-D
interesting! though, the dough is so gooey, doesn’t it drip through and cook onto the slats of the rack? how does that work!?
I love my pizza stone and find it makes the crust the perfect crispiness.
Katie P. has a good point – some people have better luck with different methods. I think the type of oven you have makes a difference (gas vs. electric; age; model, etc.) Use what works best for YOU.
I swear to the heavens that I’LL PAY YOU FOR THAT PIZZA…PAY , YES, PAY…I must have it someday straight from the oven or I’LL CRY. I can bring ummm….something …I’ll think of something!!!!!!!!!!