If you’ve read our blog post with the recipe for Margherita Pizza, you know that we’re big fans of the Chebe pizza crust mix. We recently made another version of the margherita pizza. Our basil plant is at the end of its useful lifespan, so this time around, we’ve used dried basil and oregano, instead of the fresh stuff. The pizza also has a generous portion of freshly minced garlic in olive oil, drizzled over the top of the mozzarella cheese and tomato slices.
A word on our pizza cooking technique: we use a preheated 375-degree oven with a pizza stone inside. I sprinkle the pizza stone with corn meal, and do the same on the wooden paddle, in order to prevent the dough from sticking. Usually, I work the dough on the counter using both my hands and a rolling pin, until the uncooked crust is about one eighth of an inch thick. Then I carefully transfer the crust onto my paddle. I par-bake the crust (bake it without any toppings) for about eight to ten minutes. Then pull it out of the oven, do all the toppings, and pop it back into the oven until it’s done cooking. And voila! Delicious pizza.
– Pete
How is the bottom of your pie? I can’t get the bottoms of my pies to have a decent crust.
Hi Kerrie. The bottom of the pie turns out quite well. It’s a thin-crust style pie, and the pizza stone transfers heat to it very rapidly, so it cooks into an almost-crispy consistency on the bottom. The slices come out sturdy enough to hold in your hand and eat – no fork and knife necessary. If you don’t par-bake the crust first, the toppings prevent the upper half of the crust from cooking through properly…so you end up with a pizza that’s overdone on the bottom, but the dough is underdone beneath the toppings. Hope this helps!
Cheers, Pete
I’m so jealous of your Chebe expertise!! I remain traumatized by my previous Chebe Calzone debacle 🙂
Actually, I bought a pizza baking pan with holes & my crusts are turning out much crispier. Thanks for all of your advice!
I’m glad to hear the pizza baking pan is helping out! I attribute our success with Chebe crusts to working the dough by hand, using the pizza stone, and maybe our high altitude (we’re at 5,500′). =)
That chebe dough looks delicious. I think it will be the next one I try if I continue on my pizza kick. YUM, thanks for sharing!
Hi Dana,
The Chebe is indeed delicious! We’ve recently started experimenting with making a pizza crust from scratch, and we think we’re close to perfecting it. Chebe still ranks up there, though, as a top-notch GF pizza crust!
Cheers, Pete