A Visit with Emmy: Exploring St. Louis-Style Pizza

Greetings, my beautiful lovelies! It's Emmy. How are you? I'm excited to welcome back my lovely audience today and share with you an incredible recipe that I've been eager to try – St. Louis-style pizza. But before we dive into the fun part, I want to give a big thank you to Thrive Market for sponsoring this video. As many of you know, Thrive Market is an online membership-based grocery store that aims to make healthy living easy and affordable. Their commitment to providing wholesome food options resonates deeply with me, and I'm thrilled to partner with them today.

Today's pizza recipe is inspired by the classic St. Louis-style bar or party pizza. This type of pizza has gained popularity in recent years, and for good reason – it's a game-changer! The key features of this style include a thin crust that's crispy when you bite into it, toppings that go all the way out to the edges, no crust on the edge, and it's cut into little squares or rectangles. Perhaps most famously, St. Louis-style pizza is made with Provel cheese – Hoffman's Provel cheese, to be specific.

What I love about this recipe is the fact that we don't have to wait for the dough to rise or rest or proof, because this dough contains no yeast whatsoever. I'm excited to experiment and see if I can get an entire pizza done in the time it would take to order a pie from your favorite pizzeria and have it delivered right to your doorstep. To make this happen, we'll be using two cups of self-rising flour – or you can substitute all-purpose flour with the same amount, along with one teaspoon of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. It's time to get our hands dirty!

With two cups of flour as our starting point, I'm going to add a little bit of corn syrup because, according to accounts from Imo's, a pizza chain that specializes in this style, the crust and sauce are slightly sweet. I'll also be adding some olive oil – just plain old water will do for now – two tablespoons should suffice. When making traditional pizza dough with yeast, we need to allow the dough to rest to create those CO2 bubbles that make the crust bread-like. However, because this recipe doesn't contain yeast, we can skip this step and work directly with the flour and water.

If you have a bit of time on your hands, it's great to let this rest for about 10 or 15 minutes before stretching out into two pizzas. But if you're short on time and still want to beat the delivery order, go ahead and roll it out right away! I'm using a little sifter that I picked up at a thrift store many years ago – it looks like it's very purposeful, doesn't it? Today, we'll be cooking with this trusty pan. Let me know in the comments if you know what specific type of pan this is for.

Before we move forward, let me give a quick shoutout to Jayson Tatum, who hails from St. Louis and recently recorded an Imo's-sponsored video by singing their jingle – it was delightful to see! I've also got to say that my children are huge fans of the Boston Celtics, just like many people in New England. And, as we cook along with me today, let's make some memories, shall we?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(upbeat music)- Greetings, my beautiful lovelies.It's Emmy. How are you?It's great to see you and welcome back.Today's video is sponsoredby Thrive Market.Thrive Market is an onlinemembership-based grocery storewith a mission to make healthyliving easy and affordable.So big thanks to Thrive Marketfor sponsoring this video,and I'll talk a littlebit more about them later.So today we're gonna bemaking St. Louis-style pizza.Now, this pizza I've neveractually tried before,but its basic gestalt isthat it has got a thin, thin, thin crustthat's crisp when you bite it.The toppings go all theway out to the edges.There's no crust on the edge,and it's cut into littlesquares or rectangles.It's often called bar or party pizza.And most famously, it'smade with Provel cheese,this cheese.Hoffman's Provel cheeseNow, what I really love about this recipeand what drew me to it is the factthat we don't have to wait for the doughto rise or to rest or proof,because this dough containsno yeast whatsoever.I wanna see if I canget an entire pizza donein the time that you would order pizzato have it delivered to your own house.We're gonna use two cupsof self-rising flour.If you don't have that,you can substitute all-purposeflour, same amount,along with one teaspoon of baking powder,and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.Ooh. Two cups.I'm gonna add a little bit of corn syrup,because based on accounts of Imo's,which is a pizza chain,I've read that the crust and the sauceare a little bit sweet.Now we're gonna add some olive oil.Don't mind that. (imitates oil pouring)Two tablespoons, just plain old water.So with normal pizzadough made with yeast,we would have to allow the dough to restto make the CO2 bubbles thatmake the crest bread-like.So I'm just working theflour and water together.and if you have time,it's good to let this restfor about 10 or 15 minutes,and it'll make it easierto stretch the dough outinto two pizzas.Now, if you don't have time,if you wanna beat the delivery order,then you can go ahead androll this out right away.I'm gonna add a littlebit of oil to my pan.I know someone is goingto ask where I got this,and I just picked thisup at the thrift storemany years ago, just as like a sifter.But today I'm gonna be cooking with it.It looks like it's very purposeful.If any of you know whospecifically what this pan is for,let me know.Two pieces of parchmentpaper that were greasedto assist with this rolling out process.So I like to roll from the middle out.So I live in the New England area,and the Boston Celticsare very popular here.And I have to say mychildren are also huge fans.And we were delighted tosee an Imo's-sponsored videoby Jayson Tatum,who hails from St. Louis.And he was singing the jingle\"The Square Beyond Compare.\"Oh, we were so tickled by thatwhen I was doing theresearch for this video.I'm like, \"It's Jayson, oh my gosh!\"There's my pizza dough.I'm gonna pop this into apreheated 425 degree ovenand parbake this for about three minutesjust to ensure thateverything gets extra crispy.So while that's happening,let us prepare our cheese.Provel-ing it up.In the St. Louis area, of course,you can buy this pre-grated.There's also a version thatlooks a bit like pasta.Looks like it's beenextruded out of a pasta die.It's got kind of this squigglypasta-like shape to it.(Emmy speaks in a foreign language)The texture is verysimilar to American cheese,kind of melty, creamy, very homogenous,a little bit plasticy.I think it will evenshow more of that qualityonce it's melted.It's a little bit differentthan American cheese, for sure.It has more flavor to it.It reminds me a little bit of Gouda.It's got a little bit of a nuttiness,a little bit of a smokiness, very creamy,homogenous texture.But all in all, morecheese-like than cheese.There is our pizza crust.It's a little bit golden aroundthe edges, just tiny bit,and very, very flat.You can just make this a plaincheese pizza if you like,but I'm gonna be making The Works version.Add some sauce and get itall the way to the edges.cheese, some peppers, sliced onion,bacon.This bacon has been pre-cooked.And then some mild Italian sausagethat has also been cooked.I'm gonna place this backin the oven and cook itfrom 8 to 10 minutes or untilall the toppings are nice and cookedand bubbly and warmed upand our crust is thin and crispy.Alright, see you a little bit.So while we're waitingfor our pizza to bake,let me tell you a little bitmore about Thrive Market.so Thrive Market is an onlinemembership based grocery storewith the mission to make healthyliving easy and affordable.It is such a great way to save time,but what I really really like about it isthat if you've got certaindietary restrictions,or you're following a certain plan,it's such a great wayto get the ingredientsand foodstuffs that you need,because you can sort all the productsusing different kinds of filters.For example, if youhave a gluten-free diet,or if you're looking productsthat are keto-friendlyor plant-based or vegan,and you can just add those filters.And what I really like isthat you can be introducedto new products that youhaven't tried before,tasted before.And the best thing is that you save money.You can can find tonsof different products,organic, natural food productsthat are below traditional retail pricing.And Thrive Market offers ahuge selection of products,including organic groceries,snacks, supplements,eco cleaning supplies, meats, veggies,even frozen items, plant-based items.It's great.You have an entire grocerystore at your fingertips,and it will arrive right to your doorstep.I picked up a bunch ofpantry staples like oatmeal,walnuts, pumpkin seeds.I feel like you never canhave too much maple syrup.So if you'd like to try Thrive Marketout for yourself today,click the link down belowor head over to thrivemarket.com/emmymadeto receive 30% off your first orderand a free gift worth up to $60when you join Thrive Market today.Big thanks to Thrive Marketfor sponsoring this videoand for allowing me to makebetter videos for all of you.♪ Looks so good ♪♪ It looks so good, looks so good ♪♪ Look at this, lovelies ♪Goo goo goo goo yeah.Slide it onto our cutting board.Ooh.Now we need to slice this into squares.All right, my lovelies let'seat this while it's hot.My first taste of St. Louis-style pizza.Look at that.Itadakimasu!Mm-hmm. I like that.So the crust is very thin.You see that?Thin, thin, thin, thin, thin.So when you bite into it,it has a noticeable crunch.Based on descriptions that I've read,since I've never actuallyhad St. Louis-style pizzain St. Louis before,It's even thinner, almostlike a chip kind of crunch.Mine's pretty crunchy.But I suspect it goes even thinner.So for me, the purpose of this crustis more of a textural experience.You get a nice big crunch,little bit of slight sweetness in there,but it's not really about the flavorsthat are developed by the yeast at all.It is similar to acracker or a peanut bread.It's just the kind of blank canvasto put all of your toppings on top.I really love cutting it into a square.I think that's brilliant.It's a really simpleway to present a pizzaand everyone can have a little bite.It's perfect for sharing.This combination, bythe way, is fantastic.The smokiness of the baking goesreally well with the cheese,and the cheese here, I don'tmind the cheese at all.I know that Provel gets a bad rap,but I don't see what the problem is.It's really, really melty,and it doesn't overpower anyof the flavors going on here.The crust also remindsme a bit of frozen pizza.I grew up eating frozen pizzasas a snack, little slice,after school, and this reminds me of that.This is much thinner, butthe same kind of mouth feel.And if you have everything on hand,definitely faster than a drive through.You can have an entire pizzadone and about 20 minutes.That includes prepping the dough,prepping all theingredients, and cooking it.Mm-hmm.And of course, cheaper than delivery too.Alright, my lovelies.Thanks so much for watching,and big thanks to Thrive Marketfor sponsoring this video.If you'd like to tryThrive Market for yourself,click the link down belowor head over to thrive market.com/emmymadeto receive 30% off your first orderand a free gift worth up to $60when you join Thrive Market today.Thanks again for watching.I hope you enjoyed that one.I hope you learned something.Please share this video with your friends.Follow me on social media.I love hearing from you.I learn so much from you.Like this video, subscribe.Check out my website for aprintable version of this recipe,and I shall see you on the next one.Toodle-oo. Take care.Bye.(quaint music)Pizza time.\n"