It was a close call...

...but I didn't mess them up. They're called Mini Deep Dish Pizzas (or pizza muffins as my neighbor called them). By being called mini, that does not in any way mean easy. These little things stressed me out! I had a good attitude at the beginning. "These will be perfect for Super Bowl Sunday!" I thought. I got all my ingredients out, ready to go at it. Since I had 1 lb of dough, I needed to double the recipe. Ok, that shouldn't be hard. So, instead of 6 chunks of dough, I needed 12. Well, being the bright one that I am, I still managed to cut 6 chunks and thought nothing of it until I stuffed the first couple dough circles into their tin muffin homes. "Man, that's a lot of dough in there. How the heck am I gonna fit all the cheese and good stuff in there?" Good thing my muffin tin had 12 sections, which helped me realize that I didn't have enough dough for each little muffin hole. See, what'd I tell you...I'm a bright one! It definitely was a close call. Those would have been some extremely doughy little pizza muffins. So...after I cut the correct 12 little chunks of dough, I then had to roll each little piece out. "Geeze, I really didn't realize how much work this would be. And I'm the one that suggested the recipe this week!" The counter was covered with flour and my special toppings were falling all over the floor. "Oh, this is great. And we're having company over too!" After the initial stress wore off, I managed to get the pizzas in the oven.

Ok, they look good. They're in. Now, we just wait and see. So, after 12 minutes. Yes, only 12 minutes. I pull them out and they don't look done at all! I can't serve doughy mini pizzas to people! To make a long story short, these pizzas went back in the oven about 5 or 6 more times because I was worried that the dough would be too gooey to eat. Finally, I took them out for good, poked them with a toothpick and made the chef's decision that they'll just have to do.



I asked my dad and our neighbor Greg to rate the pizza muffins (5 being the best and 1 being the worst) and tell me what they liked and disliked about them. They both agreed that the pizzas needed more flavor. I am in complete agreement. Also, my dad said his dough was tough. Well, that would make sense! After all, I did put them back in the oven about a million times! So...after some talk about what was bad and what was good, Greg settled on a rate of 3 and Dad decided they deserved a 3.5! Could be worse!

I think these mini pizzas have potential. I mean, look at that picture. They sure do look yummy! I just think they need to be experimented with. Perhaps with some more flavorful toppings and fun spices. So, in the end, we conclude that little things can cause a big stress, but there is hope for a better pizza muffin future! Onward!