I have a confession... I don't always make my own pizza dough.
If I'm craving homemade pizza, sometimes I skip a few steps and look elsewhere for inspiration. Yesterday, I stopped by Whole Foods Market to grab some lunch, and I was drawn to their whole foods pizza aisle. (Surprise, right?) I convinced myself to do a test. I grabbed their pre-made pizza dough, some whole milk low-moisture mozzarella cheese, ready-made tomato sauce and pre-cut pepperoni. I got enough pizza toppings and dough to make two pizzas. Let me tell you, Whole Foods Delivers especially considering I had my secret weapon, The Baking Steel.
* As a side note, Whole Foods also offers convenient pre-made pizza kits, that include fresh dough, sauce, shredded cheese and pepperoni. Being a "shredder", I decided to forgo the ready-made kit and purchase a small block of low-moisture mozzarella. I prefer shredding my own cheese, since in order to keep the pre-shredded cheese from sticking, they have to add starch to it, which promotes premature browning.
So, getting back to it, all these ingredients (purchased separately) cost $14.37. Not bad for two pizzas. And, then, it was time to make some lunch.
Fresh, Whole Foods pizza dough is sold in 1 lb. batches, which is perfect, since my ideal-sized dough ball is 225 grams. I cut the dough in half and had two 8 oz. (236 grams) balls. I ran into some frustration while stretching out the dough (rolling pins are no longer allowed in my kitchen, more on this later.) My best guess is that the dough was overworked. The dough acted like an elastic band, and the second I let go of it, it shrunk back to it's original form. I was pretty hungry, so I decided to just go with it and make miniature pizzas and I'm glad I did. This dough almost jumped off the steel creating crazy good oven spring.
Despite its size, Whole Foods really delivers -it was awesome! Not much to explain, since you can see it all in the photos. I had no doubt from the beginning. Quality ingredients will produce quality results! Plus, of course, I had my favorite tool, the Baking Steel!
Think about it-I made two pizzas for $14. That's less than it would cost for a single pie at any decent pizzeria. Whole Foods ingredients are far superior than what can be found at your local pizza joint. Not to mention, there was leftover sauce and cheese.
Next time you are craving pizza but are short on time, take a short cut and hit the Whole Foods pizza aisle. I promise they will deliver. Have any of you tried it?
-Andris
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