I've posted quickie versions of my semi-homemade pizza here before—mostly as a vehicle for showing off scrumptious macro shots of pizza.
But this time, a more in-depth recipe and pizza GIF awesomeness is in order!
🍕 Bottom line up front
The end result:
That's bacon, pineapple, banana pepper and basic sauce. YUM.
👨🍳 How we got here
Step 1: ingredient prep
This is a pretty simple pie. The list is short:
- ⚪ Store bought, premade pizza crust, thin style
- 🍅 Above comes with a packet of premade sauce
- 🥓 Maple bacon 🍁
- 🍍 Pineapple chunks
- 🌶️ Banana peppers
- 🧀 Packaged pizza mozzarella, pre-shredded
On the left, we have two strips of bacon fried, then chopped. Could do more, of course, but this was all that was left!
On the right, I drain the pineapple and peppers for a few minutes. Less water content means crispier things, usually. Though these veggies and fruit will never truly get crisp, I like to try to avoid unnecessary sogginess. This step is probably not strictly necessary.
Step 2: preheat oven to 425 F / 220 C
🌡️ The temperature and timing are pretty critical for ideal pizza crust and topping states. It gets even more tricky if you make your own crust.
I have 5 rack positions in my oven, and I put this pizza directly on the second lowest.
Step 3: Assembly
If a picture's worth a thousand words what can I get for this GIF?
I like to put most ingredients under the cheese so the cheese gets maximum exposure to browning. I'll usually put meat atop though, so that any prior undercooking is taken care of—plus, meat will crisp up much easier than a pineapple!
Step 4: Put za in oven, 8 minutes, direct on 2nd-lowest rack
Ain't she purdy?
Step 5: Broil on high, ~4 minutes (keep an eye on it)
For that golden brown top, you need some heat from on high. The lower rack positioning is great because it helps keep the bottom crisp, but also makes it easier to not burn the top when broiling.
Here's what she looks like after the 8 minutes at 425F, before broiling:
And after about 4 minutes...
Step 6: Let cool for ~5 minutes, slice, eat!
If you slice too early, you risk slopping liquid cheese all over the place. It needs a few moments to solidify! But as this is a thin crust, the mouth-burny hotness should dissipate within a few minutes.
Nom nom nom nom nom
Thanks for reading / drooling 🤤 All images were taken / made by me.