Let me suggest to you when you go on a 21-day cleanse/detox, that you stay away from Facebook’s “Tasty” videos. In case you don’t know what that is, they are videos that show different recipes. (I really love watching them!) But to watch one on a “pizza cake” in the middle of a detox, let’s just say that isn’t the smartest thing to do.
I can’t remember if Bobby saw it first or if I did, but we both agreed that when we came off of the 21 days, we would have to make it. He even ordered a special pan for it. (This is the same pan he used to make his pressure cooker cheesecake. You can read about that here.)
Due to the fact we celebrated Noah’s (our great nephew) birthday at Chucke E Cheese’s on our first day off the detox, we decided to wait until the New England Patriot’s game on Sunday, Jan. 22, to have the pizza cake. Bobby decided that I should make it. I think that was so he could watch the game uninterrupted. Thankfully, we decided to go to Shaun and Randi’s house to watch that game. (Randi is my sister.) At least this way, I wouldn’t have to be alone in the kitchen to try and figure this thing out. (Randi also served as my photographer for this post.)
The idea of the pizza cake is to create a layered pizza with a layer of crust, then a layer of sauce, followed by a layer of cheese and toppings. You do this three times. And before you start, you put dough around the edges of the pan to serve as the outside crust.
I don’t know how many times I replayed the video to make sure I was doing it the same. I think I mixed up a little. On our pizzas, we put the cheese down and then the toppings. On the video they do it the opposite. I don’t think it really matters in the long run. It all ends up in the same place!
The recipe calls for one refrigerator pizza dough (you know, the kind that comes in a can). I got two. I just couldn’t figure out how one dough would be enough. I’m glad I did, because I used the entire second dough for the outside edges. In hindsight that was a little bit of overkill, but I was going on the premise of being safe than sorry.
The hardest part of the whole thing was getting the three round doughs cut and cooked for the layers. You are to bake the three layers of dough at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. I got impatient and put them in at 390 degrees (I figured it shouldn’t take that long to raise 10 degrees). I took them out at 8 minutes. I really think that was too early, so if I were to do it again, I would make sure that the dough was more done than what it was on Sunday. After that, the assembly was easy.
You are to bake it at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I think mine was in right around 20 minutes. I let it cool for just a few minutes before I removed it from the pan.
Because it is a 6 inch pan, it was the perfect size to split into four pieces, one for each of us.
It looked really good. The crust was nice and brown and the cheese melty. I was a little disappointed because in my opinion it was too doughy. Again, it could be because I didn’t cook the layers long enough or it could be that I didn’t roll the dough out enough which meant the layers were thicker.
I told everyone that I would have preferred if it didn’t have the dough layers but just layers of toppings on top of each other. My brother-in-law informed me that what I would like is a Chicago style of pizza. He may be right. And I might just have to try that the next time!
Note: This post was published originally on WendiWarren.com.
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