"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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