Mini Pizza Party

We had some friends in town last weekend and I wanted to make something different. I thought it would be cool to make a bunch of pizza dough and make mini pizzas so everyone could sort of design their own.

Getting the perfect pizza dough and perfect crust is something I could write on for days, but let’s be real: If you don’t have a brick oven that can get up to 900 degrees (I don’t) then you aren’t going to get it right. It is impossible. But you can get darn close!

Round 1: BBQ Chicken. BBQ Sauce, shredded chicken, red onion, gouda.

I knew that we were going to be doing this a few days before so I made a slightly more complicated crust that requires a day of rest in the fridge. It’s one of the better pizza dough recipes I’ve seen. Check it out here. If you don’t have an extra day and need pizza NOW, then check out Alton Brown’s recipe which I’ve also tried with great success.

So what can you put on these things? Well, really anything. I wanted to keep my crust pretty thin so I limited each pizza to just a few toppings. If you put on too many toppings then the crust won’t cook evenly.

Also, since I had 6 pizzas to make, I thought I would take a little self-guided photography lesson through depth of focus. Hence, all of these photos have varying levels of focus.

Mush, red onion, mozz. Turns out mushrooms shrink a lot on a pizza.

As far as equipment goes with pizza making, the only thing I would say really helps is a pizza stone. It makes for a much better crust. If you have a pizza peel, it will make it easier to get the pizza on and off the stone. I don’t have one actually. I just use the back of a baking sheet with a bit of cornmeal on it. Put the dough on the baking sheet, shake it back in forth to loosen it up, build your pizza, then deftly slide it off of the baking pan and onto the stone!

Mush, basil, mozz. Can you say depth of focus?

About now we were a few bottles of wine into this party and I realized this was maybe the best party idea I’ve ever had.

Spinach, pepperoni. Serious Pepperoni.

Spinach, mush, garlic, mozz. This was maybe my favorite.

Last but not least: Back to Basics. Just cheese.

As a final note, I’ve desperately been trying to submit a photo to Food Gawker and so far have tasted nothing but the tang of rejection. Leave a comment if you like any of these. Maybe I’ll get up the courage to face the Food Gawker Gods…

If you want to make some pizza on your own, you may want to invest in a Pizza stone and peel.  Worth every penny.

If you actually attended this party, and are reading this, you have an obligation to comment on which one was your favorite.