Country Bob's All-purpose sauce

Hey everyone!! Glad to see you back at Tasty treats....

Today I would like to introduce you all to an awesome product : Country Bob's All purpose Sauce. Quoting from the Country Bob's website, to give you an introduction, "It was 1968 when Country Bob Edson perfected his steak sauce recipe and he called it an All Purpose Sauce because it was more than just a steak sauce. Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce has remained the flagship item since 1982 when Country Bob, Inc. was established".

I was sent two bottle of their delicious all purpose sauce to try and review. It arrived promptly, well packaged and tempting.

According to the Country Bob's website, "Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce is in a class by itself. It is more than a steak sauce, because of its unique flavor and the variety of uses. You can grill, cook, and marinate with it, or put it in your soups, stews, baked beans, and your other favorite dishes. Use our All Purpose Sauce on: Steak, Chicken, Barbeque, Fries, Hamburger, Fish and so much more!"

I had tried the sauce in a couple of recipes. The first choice ofcourse was Chicken wings tossed in the sauce. The sauce is thick and sweet and complimented the chicken wings very well. It is best enjoyed with a side of ice cold beer. The recipe for the Chicken wings can be found here. Toss the baked chicken wings in the Country Bob's All purpose sauce for an exciting taste treat!

The second recipe that I tried was the barbeque chicken pizza with mushrooms, green peppers and onions. I thoroughly enjoyed this recipe, especially the use of all-purpose sauce as the base. It particularly well complimented the pizza toppings and was really delicious!! I would say I liked this better than the chicken wings (which I never would've expected!!). The recipe for the pizza can be found here.

I would like to try a couple of more recipes with the sauce when I get some time, including Sloppy joes and a pulled pork sandwich. The only thing I would've preferred is the sauce to have a bit more kick on the spicy side which would've made it absolutely perrrrfect for me!!

Check out the Country Bob's All purpose sauce and more at Country Bob's place. I apologize for the big delay in posting this review, Mr. Malekovic. Thanks so much for your patience and support!!

Dessert Pizza with Caramelized Apples and Almonds

Last month the Daring Baker's challenge left me with 4 balls of pizza dough in the freezer. Soon after the challenge date, I made two more pizzas which were polished off in mere minutes! I decided to attempt a dessert pizza, which many of the DB-ers had chosen to do for the challenge itself. I knew what I wanted in mine - apples and almonds!! Eventhough I've never made caramelised apples before, I took inspiration from a few of the recipes on the net and set out to make my first dessert pizza!

The dough I had left over was somewhat small (not an exact 1/6 division of the actual recipe), so I kept it pretty simple. I didnt use any sauce base (but next time I defintely would brush a bit of the glaze on the crust). The flavors of caramelized apples and almonds blended together to form something amazing! The crust was perfect with a crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside edges, and was a treat by itself because of the glaze brushed on it while baking!! The pizza was not overly sweet and with the apples and glaze was not overwhelming at all, since the dough was not sweetened. My lil one who is rarely willing to try new stuff, was hooked! JM and I enjoyed our share, very much. Our only regret was that the pizza was a small one and it quickly disappeared before our eyes (for bigger crust use more toppings)! For fun, I shaped the crust in the shape of an apple!! Do give this a try and you will be impressed.

Recipe (Makes 1 small pizza) :

Caramelized apple:

Fuji apple - 1 or 1 1/2
Butter - 2 tsp
Granulated sugar - 1 tbsp
Ground cinnamon - 1/8 tsp (optional)

Method:

Peel and core the apple.

Slice the apple into thin slices.

Heat the slices in a saucepan with sugar.

Stir the apples around.

When slightly cooked, add the butter and keep on high heat.

Keep a watch on the apples and stir occasionally.

When the sugar starts to caramelize, stir frequently until the apples are browned.

Toss-in a pinch of ground cinnamon (if using).

Sugar Glaze:

Confectionares sugar - 1 1/2 tbsp
Orange juice/ Water - 1/2 tbsp

Mix well and keep aside.

Assembling the pizza:

Pizza dough - 1 ball (1/6th of the recipe)

Caramelized apple - 1 recipe

Sugar glaze - recipe above

Sliced almonds - 2 tbsp

Method:

Preheat the oven to 475F.

If the dough has been frozen, thaw it compeletly in the refrigerator. Proof the dough at room temperature for an hour.

Roll the dough out into a thick crust.

Poke the surface of the crust with a fork.

Spread out the caramelized apples on the pizza crust.

Toss the sliced almonds on top.

Bake in the pre-heated oven.

After about 2 minutes, rotate the pan.

At the 6 minutes mark, generously moisten the edge of the pizza crust with the glaze using a pastry brush.

Bake the pizza for a total of 10-12 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Drizzle with sugar glaze if needed.

Serve warm.

Tip:

Next time, I would drizzle the sugar glaze on the crust before spreading the toppings. Because the crust was brushed with the glaze, the crust took on a beautiful golden brown sheen and was crisp and had crystals of baked-on sugar, it was amazing!!!

I am sending my Caramelized Apples and Almonds Pizza to "Eating with the Seasons" event at Maninas: Food Matters.

I received the Good job award from Su of iDayz and Ramya of Ramya's Kitchen Corner, Perfect Blend award from Ramya of Ramya's Kitchen Corner and the Inspiration award from Aartee of Nalabagham. I appreciate your gestures, you girls! Thank you so much.

I would love to pass these on to,

Laavanya of Cookery Corner

Sujatha of Spicy Khazaana

Sukanya of Hot n' sweet Bowl

Cham of Spice-club

Enjoy!

PS: If you like my blog, dont forget to update your name on the follower list on the upper right hand of the side bar. My posts are not getting updated on Taste Of India, so make sure that you dont miss any of the posts by subscribing to Tasty treats.

Peter Reinhart's Pizza Dough for DB challenge

Its that exciting time of the month again - the time to reveal the DB challenge for the month of October. The challenge was to make an awesome pizza crust from scratch using the recipe by Peter Reinhart from his book “The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread”. It was chosen by Rosa's Yummy Yums who was to host the challenge with Sherry and Glenna. But unfortunately Sherry passed away, but as an ode to her dear friend, Rosa decided to stick with the pizza challenge idea that Sherry had shared with her. The real "challenge" was not making the dough, but taking a picture of the dough being tossed in the air to shape the crust. We were allowed great flexibility in the choice of the sauces and/or toppings, but we were to use both. I was really excited about this month's challenge because it was again a savoury challenge and the recipe was also really simple. But I sure was tense about the part about tossing the dough and actually take a picture/video of the process!!

What I did:

I planned the "execution of the challenge" so that JM would be home on the day I made the pizzas. The first day I made the dough, exactly as in the recipe, enough for 6 crusts, using unbleached bread flour. It was kept in the refrigerator overnight as per the recipe. On the second day, I took three balls of dough and kept them at room temperature for 2 hours as mentioned in the recipe, for the dough to rise. I kept the rest of the balls in freezer bags and kept them in the freezer for later use.

I started with a ball of dough which seemed to be well-risen and started to stretch it with my knuckles, but within seconds it stretched so much that it was almost transparent in the centre, and still a bit thick at the edges. The dough was well-risen and soft, so it stretched perfectly without much coercion. But it was too thin for my likes, and almost torn! (Check out the pictures). I kept the dough aside without using it and froze it.

The second dough was handled carefully, and I tossed it carefully into the air, caught it nicely without much mishaps, but again the dough stretched too much. I placed it on a baking sheet and was streched further along the edges. The third dough disc was more carefully tossed up and helped into a 12" pizza pan. So eventhough I started with three balls of dough, I decided to continue with only two balls. Since the dough was really stretchy, it didnt leave many chances for JM to click a few shots, but he did manage to get a few shots of the dough in the air.

Both the crusts were topped with store-bought four cheese sphagetti sauce. The first pizza was made with chicken, black olives, green bell peppers, red onions, baby bella mushrooms and shredded curried beef chunks with Mozzarella cheese and a bit of oregano sprinkled on the crust. The mushrooms were sauteed in a bit of olive oil with a sprinkle of thyme and oregano. The beef chunks were cooked kerala-style, curried beef. The second pizza was a barbeque pizza with chicken cubes tossed in Country Bob's All-purpose/BBQ sauce. It also had some raw, thinly sliced mushrooms, green bell peppers and red onions. The cheese added was Mozzarella cheese. The pizzas were baked one at a time, at 500F for about 8 minutes. After baking the BBQ pizza was drizzled with a bit more of the BBQ sauce. The pizzas were baked prefectly within these 8 minutes. We absoultely had no patience, (I certainly didnt have any), so there are no pictures of single slices of pizza.


Recipe (Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter)) :

4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled - (FOR GF: 4 ½ cups GF Flour Blend with xanthan gum or 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup corn flour, 1 cup oat flour, 1 ½ cup arrowroot, potato or tapioca starch + 2 tsp xanthan or guar gum)

1 3/4 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Instant yeast - (FOR GF use 2 tsp)

1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)

1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)

1 Tb sugar - (FOR GF use agave syrup)
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

Method:

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).
2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water. NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.
Or
2. FOR GF: Add the oil, sugar or agave syrup and cold water, then mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough.
3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.
4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas). NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.
5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball. NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.
6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.
7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to three days. NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.
Or
8. FOR GF: On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the number of desired dough balls from the refrigerator. Place on a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with a gluten free flour. Delicately press the dough into disks about ½ inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour, mist it again with spray oil. Lightly cover the dough round with a sheet of parchment paper and allow to rest for 2 hours.
9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C). NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.
10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.
Or
10. FOR GF: Press the dough into the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough).NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping. In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.
11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.
Or
11. FOR GF: Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.
12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.
Or
12. FOR GF: Place the garnished pizza on the parchment paper onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes. NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.
13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.
Or
13. FOR GF: Follow the notes for this step. NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°. If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.
14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Verdict:

I loved the pizza dough. I dont feel that the dough is exceptional, but it isnt too ordinary either! The recipe sure was a fuss-free one. The dough rose perfectly well and was really easy to shape. It just was too soft and didnt hold up extremely well to my tossing skills!! I think this dough would definitely be perfect if the crust is simply shaped on a surface either by hand or with the aid of a rolling pin.

The cheesy beefy chicken pizza was our favourite because it was shaped well and the flavors were just exceptional! Everything worked together perfectly to make one of the tastiest pizzas I've ever made. The sprinkle of oregano, with the thyme-oregano sauteed mushrooms were special. The flavor that the shredded curried beef lent to the pizza was out of the world, even if I say so myself.

Eventhough I am not a big BBQ fan, I thought JM would love the BBQ pizza. Dont get me wrong, even I enjoyed it a lot. The BBQ sauce was perfectly sweetened and had a beautiful flavor. It complimented the other toppings really well and worked well on the pizza! The only shortcoming was that the pizza dough had stretched a lot and was unevenly shaped. So it was a bit more crisp on the edges than we would have liked. The center was too thin and didnt hold up well and was a bit soggy. If only I had shaped the dough on the pizza pan, it would have been evenly shaped with a thicker crust to chew on!! I would definitely try the BBQ pizza again because, I loooooooved how the BBQ flavor proved itself to be a must-have on pizzas!!



I am really happy that I got to try tossing the dough, which I never would have tried, if not for the challenge. And I am glad that I have a few snaps as evidence of my attempt. Thank you JM for your patience. I doubt I would ever try the pizz-acrobatics again, but probably with a stiffer dough, I could attempt more tosses!! Here's a picture of my lil one enjoying her share of mommy's "Cheesy Beefy Chicken Pizza".

And this is the "Tale of two pizzas" from my kitchen!! Hope you enjoyed reading about my DB adventure. Check out the great combinations that my fellow DB-ers thought up. Cant wait for whatever the hosts are going to challenge us with, the next month. Have a great day!!

Bell-peppers pizza

I saw the themes for VoW and JFI merged into one this time, on Pooja's My Creative Ideas. As a relatively new blogger, I am new to these roundups and theme cookings. I wanted to submit something from my blog this time aorund, but I was in a dilemma. Why?, you ask. I am going to reveal a secret. We are a family of a not-so-good veggie-eaters! There, I said it! Please dont gasp, thats the sad truth. Apart from a very few traditional vegetarian recipes that we occasionally (weekly) make, we are not very passionate about veggies. So I decided to go with a sure bet. A bell-peppers pizza! With the name pizza, not many would care whats on it :-). Hence this creation. I have posted the recipe for the basic pizza dough before. Not many modifications from the basic method, but this was, for the first time in our house, a vegetarian pizza. To tell you the truth, I didnt miss the non-veg in it at all. It was made with red, green and yellow bell peppers along with some sliced black olives and mozzarella cheese to pave the way for my first entry into JFI and VoW. I did not add any other veg toppings to highlight the colors and arragement of bell peppers on the crust. I have decided that this week onwards we are going to incorporate more veggies into our routine menu. Happy baking !

Recipe ( Makes a 12" pizza) :

Basic pizza dough - 1 recipe
Bell peppers - 1/2 each of red, yellow and green
Black olives - about 10-12 sliced into rings
Mozzarella cheese - 4 oz
Pizza/pasta sauce - as needed (I used store bought)

Method:

Prepare the basic pizza dough substituting 1 tsp of Italian seasoning for rosemary.

Keep covered in a warm place to double in size. usually it takes about 45 minutes - 1 hour. (I usually switch on the oven to 250F for a minute or two, then switch it off, and keep the dough in the oven. I also cover the bowl with a wet paper towel and a kitchen towel).

When the dough doubles in size, punch the dough down to release the bubbles.

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Roll it out into a 12" circle with a rolling pin, dusting with flour if necessary.

Another tip is to roll it out a bit larger than 12" and then roll the extra dough inwards to form the outer ridge of the pizza.

Transfer onto the pizza pan dusted with flour, or sprayed with cooking spray.

Poke holes in the pizza dough using a fork.

Bake the plain crust for 3 minutes in the oven.

Spread the pizza/pasta sauce over the crust.

Line with sliced/grated mozzarella cheese.

Bake the crust again for 2-3 minutes.

Now line the crust with bell peppers and olives.

Top with a bit of grated/sliced cheese.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust is light brown.

Let stand for 5 minutes.

Slice and serve.

Garnish with oregano and/or red chilli flakes, if desired.


Tips:

1. How I arranged the peppers:
   Cut 2 rings from each of the bell peppers. Chop the remaining of the half of each pepper into small cubes. Line the crust with the bell pepper rings. Fill the rings with the chopped cubes from the other two colors. Top with olives and a few strands of cheese.
2. You can also add onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, banana peppers, jalapenos etc inaddition to the above mentioned toppings.
   

Pizza rolls

Pizza rolls is a convenient change from the sliced pizza with all the actual taste and is loved by adults and kids alike. They are espcially great on the go and is relatively mess free. These yummy bits are excellent for kids and kiddie parties because it will be an instant hit. Here, I have taken basic pizza dough and instead of rolling it out as a regular pizza, cut them into quarters and filled them with the usual pizza toppings. Its easy to experiment with this recipe by changing the combination of fillings to your liking and thus personalising it. When given to toddlers like mine, you will end up with a well-fed kid rather than a big blob of pizza sauce on the high chair (well, er......before the rolls, mine usually did) !! Enjoy !

Recipe:

Basic pizza dough - 1 recipe
Pepperoni - 1.25 oz
American cheese slices - 3
Capsicum - 1/2 sliced thin and cut across in three
Black pitted olives - about 10, cut into rings
Pizza sauce - as needed

Egg - 1 (optional)

Method:

Prepare the pizza dough as in the recipe.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.

Divide the dough into two.

Roll out each half into a rectangle.

Cut each half into quarters.

Make each of the quarters thinner by rolling them out.

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Cut the cheese slices lengthwise to from slender matchsticks.

Place a teaspoon of pizza sauce at about the middle of the small rectangle.

Top with pepperoni (about 4 slices), Sliced and chopped capsicum, olives and cheese.

Roll up the pizza dough in egg-roll fashion. Start from the edge closest to the toppings, gently pull over the toppings.

Fold the edges of the adjacent sides inwards to seal the fillings.

Continue to roll up the dough and fix the edge underneath the roll.

Repeat for each of the dough quarters until 8 rolls are made.

Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Prepare egg wash by whisking an egg with a tbsp of water. (optional)

Moisten the top of each roll with the egg wash mixture.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until browned.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Enjoy warm with marinara sauce.

Tips:

1. I usually substitute 1 tsp of Italian seasoning for the 2 tbsp of rosemary in the basic dough recipe.
2. I used tomato ketchup for the filling since I started the recipe thinking that I had pizza or pasta sauce, but I didnt. (I usually use traditional pasta sauce with meat since I like the flavor).
3. While rolling up the dough, be sure to enclose the fillings well, otherwise cheese and sauce might leak out and burn ( a few of mine did !).
4. The egg-wash step is optional, it does not add any special flavor to the rolls but does give a lovely brown sheen. Otherwise the rolls will not have the sheen and will appear as bread rolls.

Tasty Italian Treat : Pizza

Italy is the birth-place of many of the best things in the world. Italian masterpieces range from art to automotives to beauty to the best of all, Italian food. Needless to say, pizza is one of the most loved and sought-after Italian foods. As everyone must've guessed by now, I looove pizza. It is such that it can be tailored to individual tastes by choosing and/or changing the toppings. Its been my dream to create one which would atleast remotely resemble the actual culinary masterpiece!! The challenge lies in making the crust from scratch. I recently happened across a recipe for pizza dough on food.about.com, tried it out, and loved it. If you would like to watch the original video, click here. I am posting the recipe here along with my own tips. Hope everyone will enjoy making it as much as I did !!

Pizza dough (Makes a 12" pizza)

Yeast - 1tsp
Hot water - 1/2 cup
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
All-purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cup
Rosemary - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp

Toppings -
Pepperoni/sausage/chicken/olives/onions/bell peppers/mushrooms
Pizza/pasta sauce - as needed (store-bought)
Mozzarella cheese - 4 oz cut into very thin slices.

Method:

Dissolve yeast in the hot water, and leave to rise for about 5 min.

Add salt and rosemary to the flour, and mix.

Once the yeast is dissolved, add olive oil to the yeast-water mixture.

Add the liquid ingredients to the seasoned flour. Knead well to form a soft dough.

Now coat the bowl with oil and place the dough and rotate it so that the dough is coated on all sides with oil. Cover the bowl with wet paper towel/ kitchen cloth.

Keep in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough doubles in size.

When its doubled, push down the dough to release the air, and knead well.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Roll out the pizza dough on the work surface using a rolling pin, both well dusted with flour and transfer onto a pizza pan. Add the pizza sauce, toppings and cheese.

Bake for 15-20 min until the cheese melts and the crust becomes brown. Slice and enjoy piping hot !!

Tips:

1. Vegetable oil can be used instead of olive oil.
2. The dough can be made without adding rosemary, or with other Italian seasonings.
3. Spray some oil on the pizza pan. After the pizza has been transferred to the pan, allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes before baking and fork it ( pinch holes on the bottom and sides using a fork).
4. Pre-cook the crust without toppings for about 5 minutes.
5. Spray the surface of the lightly baked crust with just a bit of olive oil.
6. Cook the pizza with toppings for about 10-12 minutes. Add cheese as slices or juliennes rather than grated.
7. The pictured pizza has pasta sauce, pepperoni topped with a few slices of cheese, then green bell peppers, black olives, onions and finally a layer of thinly sliced cheese on top.