"Big Game" Pizza, Day 5: Domino's Brooklyn-Style is Floppy, But Not a Flop

ABLC: Anything But Little Caesar's
It was late Friday morning and the weight of an impending decision hung upon J.N. and me.  Today would close out pizza week, and we had time for one last review before "Big Game" Sunday rolled around and consumers made their choices.  Thus far, every pizza we had tried had been pan-style.  Was it time to turn to a hand-tossed or thin-crust option?  Or should we be fair to all the major chains and give each of their pan or deep dish offerings a try?  Just about every option we considered presented major drawbacks.   Pizzeria Uno seemed like an obvious choice but they don't offer delivery and don't have anywhere near as many locations as the big four: Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Little Caesar's.  Vocelli Pizza had always been a decent place in our minds, but online research revealed that they only operate in 8 of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, leaving huge slices of the country in the dark.

Residents of 9 states know that Vocelli is one of our country's better regional chains, but their limited availability eliminated them from consideration.  My fave spot, Bertucci's, was also considered, but their locations are too spread out to be a realistic Sunday choice for most people.

 Cici's is one of the 10 largest national chains, but...well, they're an all-you-can eat joint.  Does anyone actually carry pizzas out of Cici's?  That seems like a joke.  And so attention inevitably shifted to Little Caesar's.  They are, after all, the 4th largest chain in the USA and they have a new DEEP!DEEP!^™ Dish Pepperoni Pizza with a Pepperoni-and-Cheese-Stuffed Crust announcing itself on their website.  But J.N. begged to be spared the eating ordeal that would be any Little Caesar's product.  It was not always thus.  Explains J.N. "Despite growing up on the classic rectangular LC and loving it, my most recent experience with LC and their “hot and ready” deal was almost inedible."  Besides, J.N. is vegetarian and getting a pie with toppings on only one side would probably have taken 20 extra minutes or an $8 surcharge.  Customization isn't LC's deal.  So, Little Caesar fans, you know who you are, but today is not your week.

Part of me is morbidly curious about this new Little Caesar's offering with cheese and pepperoni inside the crust.  But when something looks kinda gross, even in the advertisement?  Somebody fire that food stylist.

Domino's: Through Thick and Thin

So instead of closing out the pan pizza category we decided it was time to sample an entirely different style of pizza where the crust was minimized.  Fresh off yesterday's joyous experience with their rich yet lightly fluffy pan pizza, we decided to once again let Domino's do the honors.  Though they don't heavily advertise it, Domino's has a "Brooklyn-Style" crust that's a little thinner than their standard hand-tossed crust and designed to be floppy and foldable. That's never struck me as all that desirable a quality: I always figured that floppiness was a function of wet greasiness, but the Food Kingdom shall try anything once and so this time J.N. hopped into his car as the Pizza Tracker lit up and began its countdown to our final pizza of the week.

A little disclosure: the Pizza Tracker shown yesterday was a generic example taken from the web because I forgot, in all my excitement to head out the door, to take a screen capture of the actual tracker. You can see that this tracker is keeping tabs on the pizza in the take-out context.  The final stage is "ready for pickup" not "delivery."  If you look closely, you can see the name of the person who actually prepares the pizza.

Disclosure #2: You absolutely need to remember to enter your coupon to take advantage of Domino's advertised prices.  That "$7.99 large all day, every day" deal is indeed honored, but you don't get that price automatically.  You have to begin the ordering process in the special-offers section of the site.  I forgot to do this, but I noticed my mistake while J.N. was en route and the manager was kind enough to void the first sale and reprocess my order at the discounted price.

Will We Ever Find Out How the Pizza Tastes!?!?!?

Yes, gentle reader, presently.  This pizza is further proof that Domino's top-to-bottom redesign of its product lineup has been a success.  Floppy but not soggy, moist on top but dry on the bottom, sturdy enough to stay together but thin enough to let the toppings come to the fore, this pizza is actually a more interesting creation than its corny name would suggest.

This photos is a testament to the Brooklyn-style's durability and versatility.  At the far end, the spartan cheese half seems thin and almost fragile.  The addition of hearty toppings bulks the pie up but the crust easily handles the extra burden.

What Does It Mean to Be Floppy?

When we think of floppy pizza, we often imagine a weak crust that can't support the weight of its cheese and partially disintegrates as sauce and cheese oil render it like sodden cardboard.  That's not what's happening here.  As an engineer might put it, this crust has no strength in bending but a high degree of tensile strength.  Just look at the picture below: this slice isn't sagging; it's doing calisthenics.

The weighty mass of cheese tries to break away but the bonds between cheese and crust are strong and the slice maintains its integrity.

Here also the toppings cling to the crust, every scrap of goodness holding its position so to make a good impression on its way into the mouth.

Revenge of the Toppings

One reason to want a thin crust is simply to reduce the carb count and make each slice less filling. Pillowy, poofy pan crust is a singular experience but it can be a little bloat-inducing, and if you're primarily after the taste of cheese, pepperoni, and veggies, all that bread can get in the way, blocking the flavors that are meant to enhance it.  The Brooklyn-style crust, while almost leathery in its firm chewiness, steps aside where flavor is concerned and lets the toppings take a lead role.  The tomato taste was especially strong in this pie, so much so that I almost felt like I was tasting ratatouille, as chunks of tomato and suggestions of onion blended with green peppers.  Of course, most ratatouille doesn't have mushrooms and Italian sausage, but I do often top mine with a sprinkle of Swiss cheese, and serve some French bread on the side, so the resemblance of the two experiences is remarkably close.

The Brooklyn crust stays bone-dry on the bottom....

..while a wet, wild, and woolly flavor party rocks the night away up top!  And look! Is that a chunk of real tomato?  A first for a mass-market chain, in my experience.

Conclusions

Consensus was again the order of the day with J.N. echoing my own remarks, writing "I welcome the return to a thin crust and the fact that it makes the sauce more prominent, as all the pan pizzas were short on sauce in my opinion, though that may just be a factor of a thicker crust and thus a reduced ratio...If I were having a big game party with pizza, I’d go with a mix of the Domino’s pan and NY styles for delicious variety."

Numerical score

27: a solid running game, possession passing, and a reliable place kicker combine for three trips into the endzone and three medium distance field goals.  We don't have a dynasty here, but we have a solid contender for the championship.

And so closes pizza week with both Papa John's and especially Domino's boasting some surprisingly good casual cuisine for a couple of chains.  May the best team win, may the footballs be properly inflated, and may your bellies be not unduly distended by your pigskin revelries.

"Big Game" Pizza, Day 4: Domino's Magic Pan

Domino's Leaps Into the Lead
I have some experience with what was once the Domino's pan pizza.  26 years ago, I was delivering pizzas for them in Durham, NC, primarily to bratty college students who took perverse pleasure in taunting lowly delivery boys as they sprinted, pizzas-in-hand, across the rolling campus. I would never have believed that Domino's would ever produce a viable pan pizza.  I remember how their pan pizzas were made back then; they were preformed Frisbee-like slabs of frozen dough, defrosted overnight, slicked with yellow liquid margarine and left to fester unloved and barely regarded in the corner of the store, dense leaden pucklike masses of fattening dough, rarely ordered (and if I may anthropomorphize) they seemed acutely aware of their inadequacy.  If I had reviewed them then, I would have surely panned it.

Today, six years after Domino's first admitted to the nation in a controversial ad campaign that their products have, historically, left much to be desired, all that has changed and their redesigned and rebooted pan pizza is better than ever, better than J.N. and I ever expected.  As we near the end of "Big Game" pizza week and prepare to finally move on from the deep-dish category, Domino's has emerged as the clear category winner.  Let's see why.

Engineering a Fresh Experience
Any pizza chain, whether you place the order online or over the phone, can give you an approximate time when your pizza will be ready but Domino's Pizza Tracker™ has elevated the practice to a high-precision art.  The visual tracker display is primarily meant to help delivery customers track progress and properly anticipate the arrival of the driver, but it can be used for takeout customers to let them know when they should leave the house as well as to determine a target arrival date.  When I placed the order, the tracker told me the pizza would be ready in between 9 and 14 minutes.

With Dominos Pizza Tracker™technology there's no reason to pan-ic. You'll be kept apprised of the order if you're expecting delivery, and be tipped off on when to arrive if you're going the take-out route.

In order to optimize my chances for getting a right-from-the-oven pie, I aimed to arrive in exactly 9 minutes and prepaid by credit card so there would be no delays caused by the financial end of the transaction.  To my delight, I saw the pizza box placed on the pick-up shelf the moment I walked through the door.  Twenty seconds later I turned the key in my car's ignition and peeled out towards Food Kingdom headquarters.  The gorgeous results can be seen below.

It's a beauty.  Dripping and glistening with clear, limpid grease and vegetable juices, quivering with puffy tenderness, its cheese outstretched and its toppings reaching to the perimeter, this pie announced its place in the pizza Pan-theon.

Domino's Pan Crust: Deep Crunchiness, Surprising Lightness
The ever-present challenge for any pan pizza is to be thick without heaviness.  We want to be able to sink our teeth deep into a crust that is substantial enough to hold up a heavy coat of cheese and toppings but we don't want to struggle to finish a dense, glutenous mass that will sit like lead in the belly.  This pie's crust threaded this needle perfectly, providing the structure that a pie this substantial needs but sporting a delicate airiness rarely seen even in thin, bubbly-style crusts.  The lightness actually reminded me of some of the best gnocchi, in which the mashed potatoes in the dough are vigorously whipped until airy, then just barely blended with enough flour to hold the delicate pillows together.

The first view to demonstrate the lightness of the crust.  Notice the small air pockets, a lattice-like network of which holds up the toppings, which you can see on the right are weighty and rich.

Here we see an even larger bubble: bubbles within bubbles you might say, giving this pizza a bouncy agility that defies the deep-dish crust's usually excessive density.

The picture above also shows a hint of what makes this pan crust so special.  While it's taut on top and fluffy in the middle, it's positively crunchy down below.  It's common for the outer edges of a pan pizza to have crunchy bits, but savvy greasing on the bottom of the pan, combined with what must be a real blast of high-intensity heat, creates a crispy crunchy brown crust, encasing tenderness inside of crispness, topped by gooeyness and chewiness.  Are you hungry yet?

One of those rare instances where one look tells you how a thing tastes.  It's like chicken-fried pizza!

The Integrity to Taste of Itself
Even when Domino's was a bland-also run pizza with a cardboard crust, I was still impressed with the overall freshness of its toppings.  They always cut the mushrooms extra thick so they had a concentrated roasted exterior but a juicy, fresh, and fungal interior.  The green peppers tasted peppery and every flavor remained separate and distinct, forming crisp, tight harmonies.  That legacy lives on today in both the toppings and the cheese which has the piquant yet sweet dairy note that sings a melody persuasive of the very concept of pizza.  Sing, muse, sing of the chewy and tangy, the crisp and the crunchy, the salty and the sweet, the fresh and the savory, the steamy and the baked.  This pizza was positively symphonic.  Let's let J.N., a man given to neither pomp, pretense, nor gratuitous mellifluity have the last word: "This was by far the most consistently enjoyable pizza of the bunch. It was reminiscent of the good parts of Pizza Hut, the oily (in a good way) crust, but without the saltiness throughout. It also had a nicely toasted outer crust, although I wonder if the crust could have been even tastier with some of the seasonings Domino’s uses for their regular crust these days. That said, the cheese and sauce ran up so close to the edge of the crust that it wasn’t even really necessary. I’d actually get this one again."  Guest taster I.P.T. adds "The crust was fluffy yet had a distinct and mild crunch... Not too soggy, not too firm... The sauce is not overpowering or too bland... I personally liked this pizza a lot and would certainly consider it for game night!"

We three do not agree about healthcare, education reform, or much of anything on the national scene. But we agree about this pizza!

Conclusions
You won't get any better from a chain. At $13 for take-out, it's a fine value too.
Numerical Score: A blowout.  It's 38-0 at halftime.  You watch Lady Gaga, settle into the couch to maybe watch the rest or perhaps not, and let escape a gentle and modest burp, still fresh and flavorful from its origin's recency, and drift off, profoundly satisfied.

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"Big Game" Pizza Week, Day 3: The Homemade Option

Big Meeting Day at Food Kingdom Headquarters
Hello, foodies!  An all-day business meeting at the studios today is preventing J.N. and I from reviewing another chain pizza today, but I didn't want day 3 of our week-long challenge to pass without any additional pizza recommendations, so today I want to share with you what I believe to be the best, and one of the easiest, home-made pizza recipes out there.  Making your own is really a very viable option and it gives you ability to time the arrival of your pies perfectly, and to periodically re-supply your guests with additional bites as the game progresses without having to keep calling for delivery over and over.

It's All About the Sauce
There are many storebought crust options out there for the home cook, from refrigerated dough in a bag to frozen dough discs, from Boboli to my current favorite, prepackaged naan.  But the element that will make the biggest impact on the quality of your finished pizza is the sauce, and so I share with you here a super-simple recipe for a powerfully pungent, irresistibly aromatic sauce.  I first heard of it from legendary Washington D.C. chef Roberto Donna when he shared it on Julia Child's show Cooking With Master Chefs, but it's so elemental that it probably goes back generations.

INGREDIENTS:

1 28 oz. can plum tomatoes (I prefer Hunt's but any high quality brand's fine)
1 head garlic, cloves peeled and minced (I think that's a fair amount but it's hard for me to have too much garlic!)
4 tbs finely chopped fresh basil (you can also do a basil chiffonade, which is taking about 10 broad leaves of italian basil, rolling them up tight and then slicing the roll crosswise, as thin as you can imagine.  It makes a lovely presentation)
1 tsp olive oil
Fresh pepper to taste (you don't need extra salt, believe me)

First, drain all the juice from the tomatoes and reserve for another use.  Next, take each plum tomato and start pulling it apart into little mushed up strips with your hands.  This will seem a bit laborious compared to just pureeing it, but this is how you get the juicy chunks that make this sauce special.  After you've done this you'll have a raggedy mass of tomato pulp and shreds, the foundation for your sauce.  Drain off the additional tomato juice that has burst out of the plum tomatoes (you don't want a wet and watery sauce) until you're left with mainly tomato pulp and shreds and just a little bit of juice.  Add the garlic, olive oil, and 3/4 of the basil, reserving the rest for garnish.  Voila!  You now have enough sauce for at least five good-sized pizzas, probably more.

Fire It Up
Regardless of what dough or pre-made crust you use, you'll want to get those nice wood-oven style crispy edges.  This calls for an oven temp of at least 450 degrees and preferably a nice hot surface.  Pizza stones are everywhere now, and they're fine, but even better are unglazed quarry tiles, which you can get at any hardware store.  If you give them a good soapy scrubbing first, they're perfectly safe as a cooking surface.  Line your oven rack with these and they'll act like one big pizza stone and you won't have to worry about fitting the pizza to the size of your round stone.  If the inside of your oven is on the small side, you may need to cut some half tiles to get the right amount of coverage, but once you've got these things they'll last forever.  And they're dirt cheap anyway.

Which Cheese?
That's really up to you.  I like some nice fresh mozzarella slices for this sauce, finished with a sprinkle of Parmesan and basil for a classic Pizza Margherita.  But shredded mozzarella is fine if that's your preference.  Be sure not to overwhelm your pie with toppings because that's a recipe for messy disasters.  Other than that, let your creativity rule.  Happy Baking, and I'll see you tomorrow with another mass-market option.  If there are any particular ones you'd like to see reviewed, let us know.

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