Daring Bakers: Pizza Challenge!

So this month’s challenge was perfect: make a pizza (from scratch). The recipes were pretty straightforward, it just took us two days to do it. Neither Brad nor I had made pizza dough before, but he recently had a lesson on tossing dough with a very serious teacher. More on that later.

When we started, it looked fine. (See the first image below.) Then, the dough started acting up, and I wasn’t totally sure if it was doing what it was supposed to do. (See the next sequence of images for my reactions.)

But it seemed to be okay – so Brad and I started rolling it into pizza dough balls:

Then we let it proof:

Now, because we invited a bunch of friends over who totally knew what they’re doing with making pizzas, we also now know that we let it proof too long. But look how pretty it looks!

Nat works at the same school as Brad does, and he has been a professional chef. So he kindly brought over some terracotta for us to line our teeny tiny oven with:

He also, as you can see, demonstrated some serious tossing technique. In the last picture there, that’s Ryan, another friend from Brad’s school, rocking out dressing the pizza.

Brad about to try the tossing:

Moses getting some love from Lauren, Ryan’s wife (also a Daring Baker helper!):

And of course I need to post some pictures of my attempts at making a pizza, including throwing:

And our first finished product: a holy (amen) pizza. It was delicious.

Now that’s not all to this story. A few weeks ago, we traveled to visit my family in New Jersey. One of my family’s traditions is visiting a pizza shop on the Ocean City boardwalk called Mac & Manco. They have, in my personal opinion (which happens to be shared by many others), the best pizza on the planet. And I’ve tried lots of pizza.

Since Brad and I started dating, I’ve been taking him there whenever we’re in Cape May, and he’s fallen in love with their pizza as well. In fact, he couldn’t stop talking about how much he wanted to learn to make pizza like these guys do. So as a surprise for his birthday, I called the manager of the year-round place on 9th street and asked if he could give Brad a lesson. To my surprise, he said yes!

So we sauntered over to the boardwalk one morning – I’d convinced Brad we should just go for a walk – and Tony met us at the door. Brad was totally surprised (something in your eye, Brad?) and Tony was totally awesome. Tony’s worked at Mac & Manco for 23 years. He was so kind, and lent Brad his shirt and apron for the lesson. I took pictures on my phone.

Look at the giddy Brad, still in shock over what was happening:

Tony, showing Brad how to roll out the dough:

This guy is a total pro.

Brad, practicing his pizza dough throwing!

Showing off the end result:

Then we sat on the boardwalk and enjoyed Brad’s hard work:

We couldn’t be thankful for the time and effort (and patience) Tony gave. Here’s to good people on the Jersey shore.