Be honest. Are you eating your pizza crusts? Not just most of the time, but always? The truth is, I don't always eat mine either. It doesn't matter how delicious the dough is (or how many hours I put into making it special) – sometimes a crust just can't compete with the sauce, cheese, and toppings. But we can fix it. With a few tricks and techniques, let's make a crust that's more than just a glove. Here's how.
Photography and food styling by Martin Philip
Fill your crust like it's 1995
'90s kids out there will remember when Pizza Hut blew up the culinary world with a cheese-filled crust. They claimed it's so good “you'll eat it the wrong way”. And they were right.
For a cheesy, “wrong way” crust, grab your dough of choice—in my case, my favorite of the week is ours Grilled pizza doughwhich despite the name works great in the oven – and roll out on a well floured surface to about 15″ in diameter (Use a rolling pin here for an equally thin crust.)
After rolling, we move the dough to a sheet of parchment paper for easier loading, then place pieces of string cheese (or small sticks of your favorite low-moisture mozzarella), cut to 2″ lengths in a ring 1″ from the edge of the dough. (If you're using cheese sticks, you'll need about eight.) Next, moisten the edge with a little water, fold the dough over the cheese pieces and press to seal. Sprinkle with sauce, cheese and toppings as usual and bake until nicely browned.
Photography and food styling by Martin Philip
Let the pie cool for a second, then get ready for the magic show—the part where you open the crust to reveal a melty, cheese-filled interior. During baking, the chunks of cheese melt but stay in place, forming a belt tunnel oozing with melty flavor to open, stretch and swallow.
Photography and food styling by Martin Philip
Seed it, say-a-me
Everything is better with a sesame crust. Bagels, Goths, baguettes, and yes, PIZZA. So try this on your next pizza: When shaping the dough, brush the edge of the crust with water at any point before loading. Next, sprinkle a generous layer of sesame seeds around. As they ripen, the seeds toast and their delicious flavor amplifies by approximately 10,000%.
And if you really want to curl up in a sesame crust, try this Spicy pizza with sesame crusta thick, focaccia-like pizza that's crispy, crunchy and tangy.
Photography and food styling by Martin Philip
Garlic butter makes everything better
The last tip to get everyone to step up their crust involves my favorite cologne, garlic butter and a few other things.
While assembling the pizza toppings, add half the butter (salted or unsalted, it doesn't matter) to a saucepan and place over low heat. Add coarsely minced garlic to taste (don't skimp – I like three to four cloves) and let the mixture simmer slowly for about 10 to 15 minutes, being careful not to go past the golden color. The mixture is ready when the garlic has softened. Add salt to taste and reserve until ready to use.
While your pizza is cooking, chop up some of your favorite herbs – basil, flat-leaf parsley, chives (even good quality dried herbs will work) – and grate some hard cheese (Parmesan, Grana Padano or Pecorino Romano). Once the pizza is baked, brush spread the rim generously with garlic butter, add a sprinkling of herbs and cheese, and watch as the crust suddenly becomes everyone's favorite part of the pie.
More pizza instructions:
Cover photo and food styling by Martin Philip.
