Pickle and Garlic Cream Pizza

This is the first time I’ve ever put cucumber pickles on pizza (pickled peppers of various sorts is a staple topping for me - especially jalapeõs or banana peppers), and it’s also the first time I’ve put what’s basically ranch dressing on pizza (I.E. a mix of mayo and sour cream).

To be honest, the idea of ranch on was something completely foreign to me until I moved to the West Coast, and the idea still kinda grosses me out.

That said, it was delicious so now I’ve got this whole cognitive dissonance thing going on that I don’t know how to deal with, but it’ll probably be dealt with through pizza.

I mentioned slathering mayo in places where mayo generally doesn’t belong. Here is a video of Kevin Bacon talking about me getting him to slather mayo on things where mayo generally doesn’t belong: https://youtu.be/UbC7x5uJ1TY?si=w7TW5t25nxybia1N&t=30

This recipe uses my same-day New York pizza dough. You can find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXkT8LbCPOY

Makes 1 (16-inch) pizza

If you’d like to make pizzas of a different size, use my dough calculator here (you’ll have to make a copy to edit the fields): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bM6aBckf18k9XTc2exhPVVust_r78VJX_NjoD3c5Odc/edit

For the Sauce:

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon MSG (optional)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For the Pizza:

About 1 pound homemade or store-bought pizza dough

1/2 cup garlic cream sauce

2 to 3 ounces grated low moisture mozzarella cheese

A lot of sliced dill pickles

Some thinly sliced fresh hot peppers, such as Fresno, jalapeño, or Serrano

Procedure

1. Adjust oven rack to center position. Set a baking steel or stone on it and preheat to the hottest temperature your oven can muster for at least half an hour.

2. Combine all of the sauce ingredients, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Stretch a ball of dough out on a surface lightly dusted with semolina or flour. Start by pushing the dough out with your fingertips to form a lip all around the edge, then use your knuckles to gently stretch the dough out into a thin circle roughly 15-16 inches in diameter (see video at 15:53). Transfer to a peel lightly dusted with semolina.

4. Working fast, spread a thin layer of the garlic cream around the pizza with the back of a spoon, leaving the lip un-sauced (you can use as much or as little sauce as you’d like). Sprinkle with mozzarella. Add a layer of pickles, then add some pickled peppers.

5. Give the pizza a few more stretches to get it into its final size and shape, then carefully slide it off onto the baking steel or stone.

6. Bake until the pizza is crisp underneath and lightly browned on top, 4 to 5 minutes total. If your oven doesn’t heat evenly, you can rotate the pizza occasionally (don’t try and move it for the first two minutes of baking).