My pizza keeps sticking

January 17, 2025 11:20 AM

I really want to get better at making pizza. I love pizza. I extra love leftover pizza. But I'm not very good at making it, and by making it, I mean I'm still buying pizza dough from the store.

So what I've started trying recently is to let the pizza dough sit out on the counter for a bit, until it's about room temperature. After I've done that, then I start pulling it into pizza shape. It seems to be working out well! I'm getting lots of nice bubbles in my pizza, and I love the bubbles.

A pizza topped with tomatoes and onion that was just pulled out of the oven — *Looks pretty good, right?*

Unfortunately, it looks like my pizza pan is becoming less and less non-stick. I could not get this pizza off the pan. I was trying to use my spatula to scrape it, but that pizza dough just would not budge, and I ended up with this mess at the end:

A large portion of the pizza is stuck to the pizza pan — *This looks less good*

Okay, I probably need a new pan. So I ate whatever I could scrape up from two slices of pizza, and then I just let the rest of the pizza sit there on the counter while I started playing video games with my sister. About an hour later, I started hearing noises. It had a crackling quality to it, and it sounded like pieces of the wall were coming apart and falling down. It honestly kind of freaked me out a little bit.

I walked over to where the noise was coming from, and it turns out that it was from my pizza! The stuck bits of pizza crust were popping right off the pan! After a few more minutes, almost all of the pizza crust was loose! I don't really understand the science behind any of this, but it made me think, "maybe I can still use this pizza pan."

So, against my better judgment, I tried to make another pizza a few weeks later. Maybe I just needed to use way more flour. So I dumped a huge pile of flour on the pan and the dough and my hands. I did the same thing where I let my dough sit out for a bit, and this time, a huge bubble formed before it even started cooking.

A side view of an uncooked pizza topped with tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms, with a dough bubble — *It's a little hard to see the bubble from this photo, but it was very noticeable when I was making it*

I poked at the bubble a little bit, but I didn't want to pop it, so I just worked around it and added the toppings right on top of it. I threw it in the oven and once it started cooking, that bubble just got bigger and it was crazy looking. I wish I could have gotten a photo while it was still in the oven, but you're just going to have to settle for this:

A pizza with a giant bubble, right after it was taken out of the oven — 😨

It deflated pretty fast once I pulled it out of the oven. And even though it was kind of weird looking, I actually thought the giant bubble was pretty tasty. But I know what you're thinking, did it stick???

The cooked pizza, with some stuck bits of crust next to it, and the spatula that I used to try to pry the pizza off the pan — *This does not adequately show you how much flour was everywhere*

Yeah, it did. Not as badly as the first time, but enough for me to conclude that I need a new pizza pan. (Okay, I know I determined this a few weeks ago) The pieces that didn't stick were completely covered in flour, and I was standing over a trash can trying to remove as much excess flour as I could before I ate it.

That pizza pan has now been thrown out, and I think I'm going to take a little break from making more pizzas. (There was another pizza attempt in the past month that is not represented in this post) But I do still have a lot of pizza sauce left 🤔

Filed under: pizza failing in my kitchen

A third attempt at pizza

February 28, 2023 10:15 PM

Me holding a pizza topped with tomatoes, basil, onion, and sweet potato

Hey! I did it! I made pizza and it didn't stick! In fact I had waaaay too much flour on the bottom. I also made this pizza on "Cook a Sweet Potato Day" (Feb 22) so I threw some sweet potatoes on it. I think sweet potato on pizza can be very good, but I don't think it really added much this time.

Anyway, I'm all pizza'ed out now.

Filed under: pizza

Two attempts at pizza

February 19, 2023 9:34 PM

About a week and a half ago, my boyfriend and I decided to make some pizza. We went to the store to buy some pizza dough and toppings, but after walking around for a while, we realized that the store doesn't sell pizza dough. At least we couldn't find any.

So we settled on buying some pieces of flatbread instead, and we just put some sauce and toppings on them. One pizza had pizza sauce, tomatoes, pineapples, and onions. The other had vodka sauce, green peppers, and onions.

Me putting a flatbread pizza in the oven

We also experimented and put one pizza on a baking sheet, while the other one cooked directly on the rack. I don't think cooking the flatbread directly on the rack was a good idea. It took a while for the toppings to get cooked, and which made the bread way overcooked and a little too crunchy.

A tomato and cheese flatbread pizza and a green pepper and onion pizza

It didn't taste bad though! It was a nice, filling meal, but it wasn't quite pizza. It just felt like pizza toppings on a piece of bread. So, the next week, I made sure to go to Aldi to get some pizza dough so we could have a proper pizza.

Pizza right out of the oven

Doesn't that look great?! I was so happy when I took the pizza out of the oven.

A pizza with two slices that were attempted to be removed, but they just stuck to the pan

...and then I tried to cut it up and I realized it was all stuck to the pan 😱

How do I keep managing to bake things and have it stick to the pan?! I've made pizza plenty of times before and I've never had this happen! I think I've used cornmeal in the past, and I just didn't add any this time.

It still tasted pretty good, but I need to redeem myself. I will make a good pizza.

Filed under: pizza failing in my kitchen

I'm still cooking

September 4, 2022 7:44 PM

It's hard for me to have two active projects at once. I started my Teochew site in 2018, then took a break from it and started my food blog in 2019. Now that I'm working on the Teochew site again, it's hard for me to find the energy to devote to the food blog. But I did take a few pictures, so I wanted to share some of the things I cooked (or helped cook) over the past couple of weeks.

Bao wasn't the only exciting food I helped make while I visited my grandma's. We made fresh spring rolls every day for "pre-dinner snack". It seemed a little excessive, but it was delicious.

An assortment of spring roll fillings

I need to figure out how my aunt prepared that pork. It was SO GOOD. On the first day, I just ate three spring rolls, but by the last day, I was eating five, which is more than I what I eat for a meal sometimes. It's okay. It's healthy.

Strawberry pizza

When I got back, I made some strawberry pizza. (I actually made it twice!) My sister and I made this pizza way back when I first started the food blog, and it was one of my favorite recipes that we tried. I think it tasted good, but not as amazing as when I had it with my sister. On my second attempt, I added goat cheese, and I think that was a good addition.

A plate of roasted eggplant salad, chicken tikka masala, and rice

Every other week, I have a "co-working day" with my friend, and after work we pick a dish to cook together. This week we made chicken tikka masala and a roasted eggplant salad. It was all very good, but my friend ended up replacing 1.5 teaspoons of chili powder with 2 teaspoons of ground red pepper in the tikka masala, and it was way too much heat for me. I usually only stick to 1/4 teaspoon if I add any hot pepper 🥵

A bowl of shrimp poke with some of the toppings shown on the table

Finally, my boyfriend requested some poke, and while I didn't have any sashimi grade fish on me, I did have half a pound of frozen shrimp. I cooked that and grabbed whatever poke appropriate ingredients I had for toppings. Poke is great because apart from the fish, I really don't have to plan for it at all. I always have poke ingredients in my kitchen.

Filed under: spring rolls pizza indian food eggplant poke

Tomatoes and mozzarella

August 21, 2022 4:59 PM

My favorite pizza topping is tomato. Not tomato sauce, fresh slices of tomato. Why did I decide to make pizza in the first place? Maybe it was because I had a small amount of shredded mozzarella cheese that I wanted to use up.

I'm making pizza — *But that's parmesan in my hand*

So, I bought a bag of tomatoes from Aldi. Even though I didn't have too much shredded cheese in the bag, I still wasn't able to use it all up, and now I had four more tomatoes to go along with it. And, I'm gonna detour away from the pizza for a moment to show you a couple of other tomato-y things.

Tomato rice on a plate with a spoon

One of the things I made with the other tomatoes was tomato rice. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I know I was thinking, "hey, I could use up a tomato in this!" But it actually called for diced tomatoes and tomato paste, so this didn't really help me cut down on my tomatoes.

I was able to use up some tomatoes (and mozzarella!) in my tomato and mozzarella panini. This was probably way too much effort for a workday lunch, but it was pretty good! I actually made it twice, and the second time I added basil and mint because I felt like it needed something leafy inside. It was a little strange, but I thought it was a good addition.

Tomato and mozzarella panini, cut in half, on a plate — *Sandwiches aren't really that aesthetic*

But before I made it, I actually went and bought a log of mozzarella because I was worried that my shredded mozzarella wasn't going to be enough. I used up all of the shredded stuff, and then I still had a lot of the mozzarella log left.

Bottom half of the tomato and mozzarella panini on the panini maker — *But it looks a lot cooler when you can see what's inside*

And I know. You're seeing a never ending cycle now, where every time I finish using up one ingredient, I still end up having too much of another. Does it ever end???

I don't know. But I'm gonna make more pizza tonight.

Cooked pizza