- Hi, I'm Niki and I like to make pizza,
because I like to eat pizza.
Cut, we're done, go home. (laughs)
So my friend Annie has given me a bunch
of pizza making hacks
to try today and we'll see if they work,
if they're helpful or not.
Generally with baking it's really hard
to kind of cut corners,
which I think a lot of hacks try to do.
So (groans), we'll see.
(calm jazz music)
This is a beautiful pizza
and this was made without any
of the hacks that we're trying.
I'm using the homemade pizza recipe by Tasty,
and that's what this is.
It's like nice and thin,
but it has like a nice puffy crust,
lots of nice cheese and sauce,
classic margarita pizza.
(upbeat jazz music)
We're gonna dissolve some yeast into some water.
One teaspoon of sugar. (groans)
The recipe calls for two teaspoons of yeast,
but our first hack that we're using
says use three quarters of a teaspoon more yeast
so that it will rise more quickly.
This I don't know about.
Generally I would say follow your recipe, (chuckles)
but we're gonna try.
Two teaspoons, three quarters more.
So this is a one quarter, so we got one, a-two, a-three.
Mix in so it dissolves
and you have to make sure your water is warm,
otherwise it won't and it'll just clump
and then I won't dissolve and your bread won't rise.
Okay so it's been about 10 minutes
that the yeast has been blooming in here.
And I will say, looks very yeasty.
(sniffs) Oh, it smells like bread too.
(sniffs) God, yeast is weird, right, what is it?
Next we've got seven cups of flour.
I think this recipe makes like four pizzas.
And then I've got six tablespoons of olive oil.
A teaspoon and a half of salt,
so I'm gonna sprinkle salt in with the flour
and I'm just gonna mix this all in.
Make a little well in the middle
for our wet ingredients to go in.
And we're gonna throw in the olive oil
right in the middle, ooh.
Wow, look at those yeasty bubbles!
At this point I would just like mix this
with this wooden spoon,
but there's a hack that says
you should use the other end of a spoon
because it's less messy.
This one I'm very very uncertain of,
but I guess I've never done it, so who knows?
(calm jazz music)
And I would normally use like this end of a spoon.
And then when it starts to come together
then start to use my hands.
I don't know why this is less messy
than the other side of the spoon.
So I don't know about this hack,
I think it's a. (Niki lips deflating)
The reason we don't have to use sticks
is 'cause we have spoons.
I'm kind of reaching my end here with the spoon,
so I'm just gonna use my hands.
Not a hack just a thing.
My arms are tired.
And there's another hack,
you can take a little piece,
like a, maybe like a golf ball size
and you wanna be able to stretch it
so it becomes like a little window
and then you should be able to see light come through it.
That's how much you should be able to stretch it
without it tearing.
Ah, look at that. Nice and stretchy.
Oops. A little tearing.
Don't look at that.
(calm jazz music)
I mean, it's not great, but that'll do.
So we're gonna shape it into a ball.
And I'm going to put it in a bowl.
We're going to grease the bowl with a little bit
of olive oil and just so the dough doesn't stick.
And then at this point, you wanna let the dough rest
so it can rise and do its thing.
You can wrap this in Saran wrap.
You can wrap this in like a kitchen hand towel,
but there's a hack that says you can use a shower cap.
Kitchen towels maybe are, they let too much air in and out.
They're like porous.
And then this is not.
We're just gonna, (soft crackling)
the important part is that your dough's covered.
I think it's cute.
(upbeat jazz music) (clock ticking)
Look at how big she is.
It's been like two hours.
The dough's been resting with this shower cap situation.
(upbeat jazz music)
(chuckles) Look at her.
I wonder if this was the extra yeast.
Cause it was only two hours
and this has like more than doubled in size.
I love how the shower cap made it
so beautifully round, good job shower cap.
(upbeat jazz music)
I just wanna look at it, wee!
Bread is so satisfying.
Let me flour my surface.
Wait for it.
It's just a lot of kneading in this video.
Are there any kneading hacks? (chuckles)
That would've been helpful.
Okay. And then I'm going to split it into four.
'Cause I think this is a recipe to make four pizzas.
(soft knocking)
Okay, I've got four little dough portions and
I'm just gonna make them all into nice, neat little balls.
If you like to feel things like I do,
you should get into making bread,
'cause it's very satisfying.
I'm just going to sprinkle with a little bit
of flour and then they're just going to rest
like this for about 30 minutes.
I wonder if I can use this again?
Does it look like a chef's hat?
While the dough is resting,
we're going to make tomato sauce.
So I've got a can of tomatoes here and some salt.
So usually when you make tomato sauce
it's like easiest to use canned tomatoes.
That's what I do as well.
This is a can of whole tomatoes
and they usually come in like a liquid and one of the hacks
which I don't know again if it's really a hack.
It's like a thing you probably should do,
just recommends draining the liquid cause canned tomatoes
can have a lot of excess liquid, a lot of excess water.
And I'm just gonna open the can
of tomatoes and drain the liquid.
Be careful with your fingies.
Oh, there they are.
Whole peeled tomatoes.
Generally, you want to be draining liquid
from canned tomatoes anyway.
So I guess like, yes, this is a hack,
but also it's like a thing you should do.
And then we're just going to add a tablespoon
of salt and then we're gonna blend it.
(machine whining)
(Niki chuckling)
This is nice and chunky and not too liquidy.
Tastes like salty tomatoes, tomato sauce.
Has it been 30 minutes, do you think?
Oh, so puffy, puffy babies.
At this point you would maybe reflour the surface
and then squidge this until it becomes a pizza shape.
One of the hacks says to use semolina flour instead
of regular AP flour 'cause it gives it
a little bit of a texture.
And also when it bakes it doesn't like stick so much to it.
Flour has like a taste.
When you get a pizza or something
and there's just flour on the bottom and there's like a.
(soft licking)
So we're going to use some semolina flour.
Oh, it's very fine too.
We're just gonna slowly turn her into pizza.
This is like the situation, right?
(calm jazz music)
(dough slaps)
Oh, semolina flour everywhere. (chuckles)
Nice looking, I think when you buy pizza at a restaurant,
sometimes what can make the baking process really nice
is they have a pizza stone,
which is basically like this big stone that gets really hot.
In the oven and you can put pizza on top of it.
Baking get nice and crusty,
there's this other hack where you can bake it
on an upside down cookie sheet.
And that will be your big, hot pizza stone.
So we're going to bake it on an upside down cookie sheet
and it needs to be preheated,
so I'm just putting that in the preheated oven.
(metal rattling)
That's like a very clean oven.
Has anyone used that yet? (chuckles)
Our pizza stone, upside down baking sheet is in the oven.
And so I'm gonna transfer the dough onto this.
Now in restaurants and fancy pizza people
have pizza peels.
Isn't that one right there? (chuckles)
If you don't have a pizza peel,
you can just use like a chopping board.
So that's what we're going to do.
No pizza peel? No problem.
- [Man] It's literally just in the background
- I don't have one at home, so it's okay.
I have a cutting board at home.
So just use what you have.
Okay, so I'm just going to put semolina
on the chopping board so it doesn't stick.
(wood scratches)
Yay, she's pretty.
Now to the toppings.
One of the hacks and Annie's hack sheet says to spread
on the tomato sauce, but not too much. (chuckles)
(chuckles) When you spread the sauce on,
you should still be able to see the dough underneath.
I think 'cause the thinking is that sauce is wet (chuckles)
and it can be soggy.
No one likes soggy pizza.
Well, I'm sure someone does.
I've spread the sauce
and I can still see the dough.
Cheese time. My favorite time.
Mozzarella usually comes
in this liquid to keep it fresh
and soft 'cause you don't want mozzarella to dry out.
So we've got some kitchen paper.
Look at these cute little pillows of cheese.
I love cheese.
Italian people really got this right.
Okay, cheese done.
There's another hack on here that says.
(Niki laughing)
So there's another hack that says you should only
have three toppings on your pizza
because that's like the right amount of toppings.
Listen, put whatever the (beep) you wanna put
on your own pizza, okay?
You wanna put 12 toppings on there, do it.
You're eating it.
Annie didn't get me any toppings, so we've got basil.
So some people will put olive oil on
before or some people will put it on after.
I think really it's just personal preference.
Sometimes I do a little bit of both, if we're being honest.
Nikki hack, olive oil whenever you feel like it.
I made pizza.
So now we will slide this onto our
upside down cookie tray in the oven.
This as my pizza peel should just slide the pizza right
onto the hot baking stone.
(metal scratches)
Ooh, this makes me nervous.
(metal rattling)
Oh, you know what?
That worked out pretty well.
It was a pretty easy transition, good hack.
(upbeat music) (clock ticking)
Pizza pie, I'm just gonna another quick tiny little drizzle
of olive olive, yum.
Okay, another hag says to just tare basil
with your hands instead of using scissors
but who cutting basil with scissors?
Okay. I hack onto pizza.
I think this upside down cookie sheet
worked out really well.
This is hot before you put the pizza on it.
So that underneath gets nice and hot and crispy right away
instead of baking it on a sheet that has to get hot
while the pizza's getting hot at the same time.
So good hack.
The semolina flour helped it not stick too badly.
And I think it gives it like a little bit
of a crunch because it's like a more textured flour.
Another hack is to use scissors to cut pizza.
Which is like, yeah, why not?
I feel like Asian people like to use scissors
to cut everything in the kitchen.
So this is like, this makes a lot of sense to me.
If you were like, oh,
an Asian grandma made this hack.
I'd be like, yeah.
Can I eat it now?
(upbeat music)
It's steamy.
So hot. (Niki blowing)
Hack, if your pizza's too hot blow on it. (chuckles)
(upbeat music)
Mm, that's really good.
Not too much sauce.
Very nice crispy crust. Not soggy at all.
It needs salt.
Tomatoes are naturally very sweet.
Now that I'm like eating it, eating it,
I don't love all of the semolina on the bottom.
It is like a texture.
You can feel it in your mouth.
It's like a little bit Sandy.
The last pizza hack.
Apparently if you're looking
for an alternative way to reheat your pizza,
you could use a waffle iron.
So I'm just going to cut a kind
of a big piece and then you're supposed to like fold it
and then put it in a waffle iron
Ooh. (soft sizzling)
This feels silly.
So I guess if you're like,
I need these pizza hot and crispy now,
you can whip out your waffle iron.
Whoa, very hot and melty.
Does it work?
Yes. Would I do this?
No, this was so much work.
Now I have to clean my waffle iron.
So here are my three favorite pizza hacks from today.
One, the shower cap.
Oh, that was very effective
Two, using the upside down cookie tray
as a pizza stone.
Three, the chopping board as the pizza peel.
Having that chopping board was really helpful
with the semolina and it just slid right off.
I have done it in the past and it has been very messy.
The fact that it wasn't messy this time,
I think it was a great hack.
(speaking in Italian)
(Niki laughing)
(upbeat music)