Pepperoni for the first day of school

The first day of school was a success, and Adam got to choose dinner: pepperoni pizza made from scratch. That was the occasion behind the original photos, one of the whole pie and one close enough to see the browned cheese and pepperoni edges. My verdict in the comments was simple: we crushed it!

A friend asked the useful question: did the crust hold up, or did the slice flop? I explained the challenge of getting a crisp base from a conventional oven while keeping the cheese from burning. My approach at the time included a lower-moisture dough, a pizza screen, and a convection finish with the temperature turned down. I also described using thicker toppings or more cheese to give the crust longer to crisp before the top went too far.

The discussion moved on to pizza stones and steels. A dedicated pizza oven was still on my wish list. This was a family celebration made with the home-oven techniques I was working on then; the post doesn't record exact dough quantities or a baking schedule.

My phone archive fills in an earlier view of the same pie, before the green ribbons were added. The matching pepperoni and cheese connect it to the finished close-up: a small extra stage of that first-day-of-school dinner.