Fun Friday

Every Friday, my family starts the weekend off with what we like to call "Fun Friday". Fun Friday usually consists of a bike ride on the trail before dark, then we pick up take-out (no one has to cook = fun) and we usually end the night with a movie. But this last Fun Friday was special. My dad was out hunting, Ken was in Maui (lucky) and Natalie and Shawn were working. So that just left me and my Mom. Even though it was just the two of us, we had so much fun!

My Mom and Sister watch this show called America's Test Kitchen. My Mom saw them make a home-made deep dish pizza, she was determined to make it. So we spent our Fun Friday baking our own deep dish pizzas! After eating them, I like to refer to them now as "Deep Dish Delish Pizzas!"


These really were home-made!


We started off with the dough with a little flour.



While the dough was resting we started our pizza sauce. We used one tablespoon of olive oil with two cloves of garlic. We let the garlic cook a little in the olive oil...


Then we added our crushed tomatoes to the garlic and olive oil...(1 can). We let this simmer for a while to thicken up...


While the sauce was thickening up, we tried this great tip we learned from America's Test Kitchen. A lot of the time when you get a pepperoni pizza, the pepperonis are very greasy on top of the pizza. We learned that if you put the pepperonis in between some paper towels and cook them in the microwave for 20 seconds, it remove most of the grease. So after the pizzas were baked there was far less grease on top of our pizza. Thank you America's Test Kitchen for that tip!

Pepperonis pre 20 second cook

Pepperonis post 20 sec cook...look at all the grease we got off!

Next, we got the dough in our pans. You add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the bottom of the pan. I know that seems like a lot of olive oil, but that is what make the bottom so crispy and "deep dish delish!". The trick was to make the center of the dough much thinner than the outer portion.



Then we added 2/3 cup of our pizza sauce. Don't do what I did and add the sauce all the way around. As you can see there is a red tint all over the dough. I didn't know you were supposed to leave some crust, and ended up using a paper towel to dab around the edges...whoops...

Sorry I know the picture is sideways, just tilt your head!

Then we added my favorite food....CHEESE! They said mozzarella was the best to use, so we went with America's Test Kitchen's advice. We sprinkled 1 1/2 cups on top of each of our pizzas.

Next came our non-greasy pepperonis. You just add however many you want. I tried to do a pretty circle design.


Put the pizza's in the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove the pizzas and let rest for only one minute....


After they have rested for one minute, remove from pan and cut a slice and enjoy!



This was such a Fun Friday, and it was even more fun because I got to spend time with my Mom. We always have so much fun together. She is the best!

After our pizzas were done, we lounged on the couch and watch some TiVo.

Here is a link to the actual recipe...probably makes more sense than mine!

The pizzas turned out great, I would recommend this recipe to everyone. YUMMY! Hope everyone else had a Fun Friday like we did!