When Publix Gives You Pizza Dough…

I’m a food snob; I don’t know when it happened but “it is what it is”. In college a “older” man (he was a senior and I was a freshman) took me to a “fancy” steakhouse in Louisville, Kentucky and introduced me to “blood rare” beef… there was no turning back. Little by little over the years, I made it a point of buying and eating the highest quality foods I could afford. It didn’t matter what the type food it was, I wanted the ingredients to be the best. In 2011, while in Italy, I had Neapolitan  pizza and a new world opened up for me. I thought I had been eating great pizza before… I was wrong.

I am not a baker and working with yeast can be tricky… at least for me. After trying various frozen and prepared pizza doughs and commercial chain pizzas, all of which were disappointing, a friend suggested that I might like the pizza dough sold at Publix. From her description, it sounded like the kind of dough used for the pizzas made in Italy. The closest Publix to me is in Anderson, South Carolina, about a half-hour from The Manse. Time for a road trip… (My list and rating of commercial pizzas and prepared doughs I have tried are listed at the end of this article.)

Before driving to Anderson, I called and learned that Publix did indeed sell fresh pizza dough. After being assured the dough would freeze well, I ordered six. I had the choice of balls or rolled. I went with rolled to be picked up the next morning. When I arrived, my order was ready; however, it was balls and not rolled. The bakery clerk offered to roll the balls but I decided to take the balls rather than wait. Price $2.99 per ball.

The Man and I both love pizza but our taste in ingredients is vastly different. He likes tomato sauce; I don’t. He likes only pepperoni; I like sausage and a few fresh veggies plus jalapenos. We both like extra cheese. Luckily, making pizza at home makes it easy to accommodate both our tastes.

When making the first pizza, I coated the dough ball with EVOO and fresh chopped herbs from my garden – basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme – in a large bowl and covered it to raise until it doubled in size (a couple hours). I punched it down and then let it proof for a couple more hours. I stretched the dough to fit on my pizza stone. I added the toppings; baked at 500F for about 15 minutes and then let it cool on the counter for a few minutes… The Man swooned.

I froze the other five balls, hoping that they would indeed rise when thawed… they did and since that time we have had a couple more perfect pizzas.

Thank you Publix. Publix is an employee-owned grocery chain with stores in several Southern states including Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Other pizza doughs I have tried but fall short of the fresh Publix pizza dough include (rated 1 – 5; 5 being the best):

Wewalka Classic Pizza dough (in the hanging deli area with canned biscuits) – 3 1/2

Pillsbury Canned Pizza Dough – 3

Boboli Shelf Stable – 3

DiGiorno Frozen – 2

Molinaro’s Hand Stretched Pizza Kit (at Costco) – 1 – the crust tasted like cardboard. The worst of all I’ve tried.

Pizza restaurants:

Spago – 5

Barones (North Hollywood) – 4 1/2

California Pizza Kitchen – 4

Forget the rest…

In addition to being a member of the Internationale Guilde des Fromagers (Jura and Garde) and an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.

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