Another Mack's Pizza Attempt 7/05/2011

The next Mack’s attempt went fairly well.  Steve and I tasted the Shurfine tomato paste right out of the 12 oz. can and it tasted a little bitter like the Gangi Sauce does.  Steve added different amounts of water, salt, sugar, dried basil leaves, and oregano to the Shurfine tomato paste, until we thought it almost tasted like the Gangi sauce right out of the can.  Steve added 1 tsp. of sugar, 1 tsp. oregano, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon of crushed dried basil leaves to the 12 oz. size can of Shurfine tomato paste.  Steve added water, until he thought the Shurfine tomato paste was about the thickness of the Gangi sauce that comes out of the hose at Mack’s pizza.  The mixture was put into a squeezable bottle to be applied.

Steve and I weighed the dough ball before it was opened and it weighed 20.9 ounces. The dough balled opened up nicely and could be tossed.  Steve applied 7.5 ounces. of tomato sauce with the squeezable bottle and 10 ounces of white cheddar cheese (Steve bought at Russo’s) in two steps. We wanted to weigh the unbaked pie, but were too busy to weigh it.  After the pie was baked, we did weigh the baked pie and it weighed 35.3 ounces, right out of the oven.

The dough ball was pressed out a lot before opening it.  I don’t know why, but the while the pie was in the oven some bubbles wanted to form on the rim and in the middle of the pie.  They were broken with my bubble popper.

The finished pie tasted a lot like a Mack’s pie and the crumb, texture and taste of the crust seemed like a Mack’s pizza.  Steve and I thought there was too much white cheddar cheese added and maybe a little more sauce could have been applied.  The taste of the white cheddar Steve bought did taste almost like a Mack’s pizza cheese, but could have been a little more tangy.  Steve and I both thought the taste of the tomato sauce could have been a little sweeter.  I think if we try the same sauce again we would add more sugar to the Shurfine tomato paste.

All in all this attempt was almost like a Mack’s pizza, but still could use a few tweaks in the sauce and cheese.

Norma