Technique Review: Walt Nissen's take on TJs pizza dough

I had to work today, so my normal Saturday cooking plans were derailed. So when I left the lab today, I headed to the new Davis Trader Joe's to pick up some "instant" pizza supplies and check out the cooking technique Walt described in a recent post.

Since I was looking for something extremely quick, I not only used the TJ's dough, but their sauce and their four-cheese mix. (I hang my head in shame here - I didn't have time to make a sauce but I could have grated my own cheese!). I followed Walt's method to the letter, and I have to say it worked very well. The crust was not quite as crisp as I'd have liked, but I think this was due to our oven. In Walt's method, you turn the oven from "almost-max" to max temperature when the pizza goes in. This is done to turn on the heating element and get direct heat to the bottom of the crust. Our oven is a true convection oven, so the element is hidden. Still, the result was very good. The crust was thin, with a nice chewiness and very good flavor. The sauce had the proper thickness to it and even the cheese mix was sharp and tasty.

Very good stuff, and thanks to Walt for doing the development work on the cooking technique.

Dear Mike,
You were even closer to the spirit of (dare I say it) "semi-homemade," than I was, and I'm glad to hear that worked out. I'd be curious to also here from someone who has perfected a pizza dough recipe to compare the TJ's dough, but I'm quite happy with the result.

Walt

I know everyone has his/her own schedule, but pizza dough has never struck me as difficult or time consuming to make. You don't even have butter to incorporate as you would for pie dough. Just mix yeast, water, flour, salt and wait. You can even leave it in the refrigerator for a few days to avoid kneading while also getting better flavor.

Pretty much what Rahsaan said - but I just dump the ingredients in the bread machine and set it for "Dough". Using Tipo 00 flour makes a difference too. Kneads it for 5 minutes and let it rise for 30.

I agree that pizza dough is not difficult to make. What it does require (at least for me) is the ability to think ahead. It's not something I can decide I want when I'm on my way home from work on a Wednesday night. I think that's where the TJ's product comes in. The ability to put out a good, creative pizza (my next one will likely be shaved fennel with goat cheese or something like that) on short notice with no significant sacrifice in quality is a good option to have.

Okay, very basic question here. Do you have to flour the workspace twice to use homemade dough? It's a quirk of mine that I hate to clean up the flour from the counter and floor.

Okay, very basic question here. Do you have to flour the workspace twice to use homemade dough? It's a quirk of mine that I hate to clean up the flour from the counter and floor.

I shut off the bread machine, then start it again so it will knead the dough for about a minute. Then, I dump the dough onto a lightly oiled pizza pan, cut it half (I always make two), and put the other half on the other pan. Then I pick up one of the chunks of dough, form it into a ball, stretch it out and toss it lightly above the pan, then stretch it out and put on the toppings. I don't end up with a mess on the counter.

Okay, very basic question here. Do you have to flour the workspace twice to use homemade dough? It's a quirk of mine that I hate to clean up the flour from the counter and floor.

Ah, another person who understands my dislike of all things using flour!!