22 replies to this topic

[G-Man]

Sounds healthy too

[Mike K.]

I suppose with Hothouse keeping the original recipe and Villages the original name, the Hothouse brother came out on top. Their pizza still beats every other deep pan pizza in town.

FYI, Villages was once operated by two brothers who split up their operations. One kept the recipe and the other the original name.

[Ms. B. Havin]

To this day I still claim I make the best pizza, of course who doesn't, and only by using fresh ingredients and a pizza stone in my oven at 425.

I make a really great pizza, too, and vandervalk is right that a pizza stone is essential. I set the oven to 500 degrees, by the way.

For those who don't use a stone: put it into the cold oven, never the hot oven. Use a separate pizza peel (a wooden paddle) sprinkled generously with cornmeal on which you place your pizza dough (rolled or thrown out into a pie shape). Put the sauce, toppings, etc., on top. Work quickly because you don't want the dough to start sticking to the peel. When you're done, gently crimp up an edge around the dough so you can jiggle the peel without having the toppings slide off on to the peel. You jiggle the peel to make sure nothing is stuck.

Open the oven and start to slide the pizza off the peel and on to the hot hot stone. Work fast. Bake for 15 minutes or so. Done. Use a flat cookie sheet or the pizza peel to slide the pizza off the stone. Serve.