Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza

When my pal, Andris, the brilliant mind behind Baking Steel sent me a box load of their fresh new product, 72 Hour Pizza Dough, I wasn't sure where to start. I had all of these wacky pizza ideas, including one for a sausage and rhubarb pizza with red onions and briney green Castelvetrano olives. Too weird or just right? There is only one way to know so I'm still 100% trying that recipe out soon. But, I realized that I needed to start with a baseline, after all, I needed to give that 72 Hour Pizza Dough a close look without overloading it.

If you aren't familiar with Baking Steel, you need to get acquainted immediately. It's basically a thick slab of heavy ass steel that you heat up in your oven on the hottest setting possible, for about an hour, until it's basically as hot as the surface of the sun. You throw a homemade pizza on that surface and within mere minutes you bake up fancy, pizzeria quality pizzas in your home oven. Complete with the bubbliest cheese and toppings you can dream up and a gorgeous array of leoparding, you know those charred up and bubbly bits that give the crust a deep flavor and chewy texture. It still blows my mind every time I bake such a dreamy pizza in my home oven, and I owe it all to my Baking Steel. Still don't believe me, just scroll down and check out my latest pizza creation, this Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza. Or take a peek back the archives and get a closer look at this Garlic & Fennel Mushroom Pizza with the biggest charred up bubbie ever. Or check out this to vibrant and mouthwatering Fig & Pistachio Pesto Pizza recipe from late last summer. The proof is in the pizza, people.

Over the past year and a half I've made myself a brand ambassador for Baking Steel because the product literally changed my whole homemade pizza game. The hubs and I were considering building a giant rammed earth, hut style pizza oven in our backyard, which likely would have ended in disappointment and talk of  divorce. I can only imagine the fights we would have gotten into trying to build that thing from scratch. Then I found Baking Steel on Instagram and had to see for myself. I happened to visit Boston shortly after following Baking Steel and Andris kindly invited me out to their test kitchen to give it a go. Let's just say I was sold on it immediately. The first pizza we popped into the oven was, hands down, of the best pizzas I'd ever tasted in my life, anywhere - even in Italy. It was a simple little thing with pepperoni and mushrooms and I still dream about the half that I left behind on a bench while waiting to catch the train back to Boston. I sure hope it went to a good home.

Baking Steel has a brand new baby, they are working to get chewy, mature, flavorful pizza dough delivered fresh, directly to your doorstep. A brilliant move, as the dough part is always what seems to hang people up. For a pizzeria style dough, you need to either steal some from a legit pizzeria or make your own. But if you want the full flavor, it needs a little time to age. Like say, 72 hours. I've been using this recipe for the Baking Steel 72 Hour Pizza Dough for about a year now but I have to admit, I struggle at times to find time 72 hours before I want to make pizza at home. This is where the dough delivery system is so comes in, it takes the planning out of if. All you have to do is pick up the toppings you want and the tasty dough is delivered straight to you, just in time for pizza night on Friday. Genius.

I put my rhubarb pizza idea on the back burner (for now) so I could really test out the new dough and give it my honest to goodness opinion. I needed a simple recipe that complimented the dough nicely without distracting from it. Cheese pizza is nice but who doesn't love a cheese covered, aromatic mix of garlicky, herbed up butter soaked garlic bread? Nobody, right. So I figured the 72 Hour Dough would serve as an ideal vessel for this Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza recipe. I could not have been more right. I actually think I will make garlic bread this way now every time from now on, that chewy thin crust doesn't get spongy like most garlic bread. It's the perfect texture, a tasteful thickness and balances the basic yet powerful flavors of this Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza.

I am a super fan of red sauce so I serve this Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza with a big ol' side of of my favorite Keep It Simple Red Sauce for dipping. But you'll need your own bowl because I double dip with wild abandon and no apologies. Get yourself a side of red sauce and when you dip, I dip, we dip. It seems a little cheesy to say this Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza was life changing but I inhaled half of the pizza within 90 seconds and had to force myself to stop so I could save at least a single slice for the hubs. Neither of us have stopped thinking of this Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza since I made it last. And now that it's in my brain, I must make it tonight! Good thing I have another round of 72 Hour Pizza Dough in my freezer that will be ready to roll tonight if I set it out now. 

Check out the new 72 Hour Pizza Dough program from Baking Steel and do that dough, people. But first, get yourself a Baking Steel. It may seem a little spendy but I promise, it's worth it's weight in steel. For real. 

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This post was made is in partnership with Baking Steel. Follow Baking Steel on Instagram and Facebook, or check out bakingsteel.com to shop their impressive product line and check our their new Kickstarter campaign for the 72 Hour Pizza Dough Delivery program. 

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