The pizza trilogy is a 97 minute instructional DVD. (A second 40 min. DVD on basic bread baking is included as a free bonus.) The DVD contains four stand alone pizza making presentations. Two pizzas are made in each presentation. Therefore, eight pizzas are made using different dough making techniques, ingredients and types of yeast. I don't just make one pizza. I make eight. People all over the world are making great pizza today and a lot of people are in the pizza business because of the pizza trilogy. Pizza is as American as apple pie. The largest US pizza chain does more than seven billion dollars of business every year. How often do you come home from work, too tired to cook and call out for pizza? Fifteen to twenty dollars later the pizza man arrives and life is good. We the people love our pizza pies. The pizza trilogy will show you how to make pizza at home - fast and easy. Just the way you like it. Thick crust or thin, mild sauce, zesty sauce, extra cheese, any and all the toppings you want. Hot fresh from your oven, in your own home, in 20 minutes and for under $2. You can't beat that! People of all ages love pizza and will enjoy learning how to make pizza at home. The pizza trilogy is simple and at the same time loaded with information and tips to make even the novice a pizza pro. The straight forward approach is fool-proof. Even children will learn how to make great pizza and kids love pizza. Kids think pizza is a food group. The pizza trilogy makes several sauces. One is a simple zesty sauce that can be used on any pasta. Another is so simple that you can mix it cold and put it right on the pizza shell. You could also use your own special sauce. No previous experience with yeast or any sort of baking is required. Even if you have never made anything before you can make a great pizza on your first attempt. No special pan is required. You can use an old cookie sheet if you don't have a pizza pan. You don't need a baking stone or pizza oven either. The pizza trilogy is three titles on one DVD. First - I make pizza by hand, that's from scratch, starting with the flour. Dough making is not a magic process. Anyone can make pizza dough. Working with yeast and kneading are demonstrated in terms simple enough for children. The process is fast and uncomplicated. Second - I make pizza in a bread machine/mixer. The machine makes the dough. No more kneading by hand. No more clean-up or mess. One batch of dough from a two pound machine makes enough dough for two large pizzas. Third - a bread machine/mixer is used to make what I call gourmet pizza. Instant yeast, a flat dark beer, some Tabasco sauce and a blend of flours are used to make a really fabulous pizza. Bonus - As an added bonus, I've included my first pizza making title. It's simple, timeless and really good for kids. The pizza trilogy includes instructions on freezing dough and making garlic bread. Tips are given to make the ordinary home oven, gas or electric, produce crust every bit as good as a pizza oven. The pizza trilogy shows you how to get the cost of a large cheese and pepperoni pizza under $2! I make a large cheese and pepperoni pizza for $1.25. For the health conscious - when you make your own pizza you can limit the amount of sodium by cutting it down in the dough and using no salt added tomato sauce. You don't need all that cheese either, but you can go extra cheese if that's the way you like it. All recipes are original and given on screen. Start making your own pizza today. Check out my other baking DVD's. Click on "View Seller's Other Items" in the Seller Information section of this E-Bay page. THINK PIZZA! Reviewed by - Library Journal For Library Journal, Sheila S. Inter, GILS, Simmons Coll., Boston, writes: "Do you like pizza? Do you long to make it at home but fear the result will be a big mess - not even as good as the dull stuff you get from your supermarket freezer? This DVD is for you! Steve furnishes a simple but excellent lecture-demonstration on pizza-making, complete with the little hints that prevent failure. He takes his time demonstrating preparation of the dough and also discusses different combinations of toppings and cheeses, freezing techniques, and the alternative of using part of the dough for garlic bread. He suggests ways to save time, by using canned tomato sauce and spice mixes, and money by buying ingredients in bulk, and explains the value of different pans (although he says no special pan is necessary) and advises ways to obtain them at minimal cost." Ms. Inter concludes, "Steve knows his pizza and is skillful at imparting his knowledge. Recommended for public libraries and school library media centers in elementary and secondary schools." Reviewed by - Booklist For Booklist, Jeff Dick writes : "Showing viewers how to get a 'from-scratch' pizza (with two-bucks' worth of ingredients) in the oven within 20 minutes is the goal of this culinary-instruction program. Beginning with homemade crust preparation, a genial and effective chef shows how to 'make it how you like it - better than the pros' in clearly demonstrated steps. Close-ups are carefully used for emphasis and visual variety, while graphics list the necessary ingredients and cooking utensils. The need to knead is stressed, and a lesson on making garlic bread from unused dough is also provided. Made to order for pizza-loving cooks who have the time and inclination to make their own pies." Bread baking has become a lost art. A generation or two ago your mother or grandmother made bread for the family. Today we just don't know how anymore. We forgot! The DVD will show you how to make a basic loaf of bread. The process is explained in detail from start to finished loaf. You will learn to proof your yeast and gain a through understanding of its function in baking. How the gluten in flour forms the structure of the finished loaf. How to knead dough and for how long. How to shape your loaf and how long to bake it. The DVD is visual step-by-step instruction. It's a cooking class that you take at home, in your spare time and at your own pace. No previous baking experience is required. The DVD will encourage you to learn more about bread baking. Maybe you haven't made bread for years and just need a refresher course. Maybe you've never made bread before in your life. Learn right from the start. It's great fun. Bread baking is a craft. You can make better more nutritious bread than you can buy. Cost is another incentive for making your own. A good loaf of bread in the store is not cheap anymore. You can make that loaf for a fraction of the cost. Check out my other baking DVD's. Click on "View Seller's Other Items" in the Seller Information section of this E-Bay page. Great for kids. Start baking today! BREAD BAKING TIPS - It's "ALWAYS THE YEAST". Having problems with your bread rising? It is "ALWAYS THE YEAST". When you purchase a two pound package of active dry yeast or a one pound package of instant yeast, also known as bread machine yeast, proof it. Put two cups of water at 110 degrees in a bowl. Actually measure the temperature of the water with a candy thermometer. Sprinkle in one tablespoon of yeast. Do not stir the yeast. After five minutes the yeast should start to bloom, blossom, grow, foam, froth and bubble. At seven minutes the yeast should look like the picture. If the yeast does not bloom, consider taking it back to the store. It may very well be bad or sub-par yeast. Bad or sub-par yeast is more common than you might think. It is not your imagination if all of a sudden your bread stops rising like it used to, or comes out undercooked in spots, seems doughy, takes longer than usual to rise or seems to have "clumps" - most of it rises, but some spots are dough balls. Your first reaction might be to think you did something wrong. That's natural, but if you have been making bread for years and all of a sudden things just stop working, let me tell you right now in no uncertain terms that the problem is the yeast - period! It is not you. It is the yeast. Either the yeast is sub-par or you did not soak it at the right temperature or you did not use enough. I assume, since you are an experienced baker, that you soaked your yeast and used enough and again it is the yeast itself - period! I promote bread baking and don't like to see the novice or anyone else discouraged because of bad/poor quality yeast. Recently, I had to purchase yeast at three different stores to find good really active yeast. After purchasing two one pound packages of name brand instant yeast, my bread did not rise well, was doughy and seemed under cooked. The yeast did not proof. The same store had only one package of active dry yeast on the shelf and it was punctured. I took the yeast back and purchased a one pound package of a lesser known brand name instant yeast. It worked, but did not proof and gave me a slower rise than I was used to. I went to a national membership store and purchased two one pound packages of the other name brand instant yeast. My bread did not rise well, was doughy and seemed under cooked. The yeast did not proof. I took it back. Again, it was not my imagination. The yeast was not the good really active yeast that I was looking for and was used to working with. I went to another national membership store and purchased a two pound package of national brand active dry yeast. It proofed really well. It was good yeast and really active. Again I have great fully risen loaves with a fast rising time. Thank God I'm not a beginner. How easy it would be to get discouraged if you happened upon bad/slow rising yeast. This experience is not that unusual. The last time I purchased yeast, I ended up with a bad two pound package of name brand active dry yeast - it did not proof at all. As a matter of principle I returned the yeast and got my money back. In all these examples the expiration dates, when given, were good. The bags were not punctured. The yeast was not active enough for my liking. The frequency of finding bad/slow rising yeast being sold to the unsuspecting consumer is higher than you might expect. The results can be so damaging to someone getting started. Again, it is "ALWAYS THE YEAST". Salt has no function in your bread other than flavoring the bread - if you have a problem you can rule out the salt. Sweetener is optional, you don't need any at all - if you have a problem you can rule out the sweetener. Oil is optional also - rule out the oil. Flour types do make a big difference, but that's another story. If you don't know if your problem is yeast or flour, make a sample loaf of white bread using any type of white flour - you will rule out flour as your problem. Again, it is "ALWAYS THE YEAST". I know bread baking to be a craft. It takes time and experience to become an artisan bread baker. Here is something I have found that shows you will never know it all. There is always more to learn. When you first buy a bag of yeast and proof the bag that is not necessarily the end of the story. It has been my experience that some bags of yeast that do not proof well are sub-par and that other bags will proof better over time. Some yeast companies claim that the foaming that we look for while proofing is from additives and does not affect the rising properties of the yeast. Who knows what to believe? That is where experience in the craft comes into play. To be safe, I hunt down fast acting yeast that proofs really well and I get consistent results. I suggest that you do the same. When I find a really active batch, I have been known to purchase several bags. They are sealed well, don't need to be refrigerated and will keep arguably almost indefinitely. BREAD BAKING TIPS - USING ENOUGH YEAST? Are you using enough yeast? Try using 50% more yeast. Years ago a packet of yeast measured a full tablespoon. Today a packet of yeast measures less than two teaspoons. That's right - years ago there was 50% more yeast in a packet. Pricing pressures have forced companies to reduce package size in a variety of industries. A year ago, my favorite yogurt came in an 8 ounce container; today it is in a 6 ounce container. The cost is still the same. Why do they call it inflation when the packages get smaller? Go figure! The major yeast companies contend that today's yeast is more active and therefore, not as much yeast is required to make a loaf of bread. This may be true, but I have found that using more yeast gives me a bigger fuller loaf of bread and the bread baking process takes considerably less time. All my recipes use one full tablespoon of yeast or one and one half packets of yeast. Try it and see for yourself. No more letting the dough rise covered, in a warm place, etc. No more waiting more than an hour for dough to rise. With more yeast, second rising time is generally only 30 minutes. Using more yeast really works - much faster rising times and bigger fuller loaves. A good rule of thumb is one full tablespoon of yeast for every 4 to 4 1/2 cups of flour. If your recipe calls for a tablespoon of yeast make sure that you use a full tablespoon or one and one half packets of yeast. BREAD BAKING TIPS - BUYING YEAST I always buy my yeast in quantity. The price difference is incredible and it lasts for well over a year when stored properly. You do not need to refrigerate and unopened package. Just keep it in your pantry. Don't let it get too hot or too cold. A quarter ounce packet of yeast cost about 75 cents, US, in the grocery store. A two pound loaf of bread uses one and one half packets of yeast. That is a yeast cost of more than one dollar, US, per loaf. You may as well buy your bread at a bakery. The quarter ounce packets are just too expensive. Yeast is less expensive when purchased in four ounce jars, but still costs too much. A four ounce jar contains 16 quarter ounce portions of yeast. A quarter ounce portion of yeast costs about 55 to 50 cents, US. The yeast required to make a two pound loaf of bread costs about 75 cents, US. This is still no bargain by anyone's standards by anyone's standards. Active dry yeast is available in two pound packages. Two pounds of yeast is 32 ounces of yeast or 128 quarter ounce portions of yeast. The cost of a two pound package is about three dollars, US, in a membership store. Three dollars divided by 128 portions gives us a cost of 2.3 cents, US, a packet/quarter ounce portion. Since we use one and one half quarter ounce packets per loaf, that would be about 3.5 cents yeast cost per loaf. What a cost savings! Buying yeast in quantity is the only way to go. Compare the price: YEAST COST - OVER ONE DOLLAR PER LOAF vs. 3.5 CENTS PER LOAF! That is 1/28th the price! You might say to yourself that I will never use that much yeast. You don't have to - it pays for itself. Here is another way of looking at it. Once you have made three loaves of bread the rest of the yeast is free. Follow the logic. One two pound loaf of bread uses one and one half packets of yeast, at a cost of over one dollar. After making three loaves of bread using yeast purchased in quarter ounce packets you have spent over three dollars on yeast. You could have bought a two pound package of yeast for the same three dollars and would now have 123.5 quarter ounce portions left. You could make 80 plus loaves of bread with the yeast left over and not spend another cent on yeast. Will it keep? Yes. I have kept yeast for over a year and it was still good. I store my yeast in the freezer once opened. A two pound package of yeast comes in a foil bag. Fold/squeeze the air out of the bag and seal the top with a clip of some sort. The type of clip used to seal an opened bag of potato chips works well. When making bread, take the yeast out of the freezer, use what's needed and put the yeast back immediately. Exposure to air, oxygen, and temperature will steal the life of the yeast. If you forget and leave the bag out open on the counter over night, part of the life of the yeast will be lost. Get it out, use what's needed, fold the air out of the bag, seal the bag and then return the yeast to the freezer right away. Instant yeast, also known as bread baking machine yeast, comes in one pound packages and goes for about the same price as active dry yeast. BREAD BAKING TIPS - BAKING ISSUES & STONES Baking stones are fun to experiment with, but rarely needed in bread baking. I only use a baking stone to stop the bottom from burning when making a large loaf that requires extra baking time. Baking stones are sometimes misunderstood. Years ago, a friend of mine bought a pizza stone. The directions said to make the pizza on the stone and then put it in the oven. That completely defeats the purpose of the stone. The whole idea of the stone is to preheat the oven with the stone in the oven to get the stone hot. The stone has mass and holds heat. Baking stones, pizza stones and oven bricks all perform the same function. The theory is that you will get a better crust. When using a baking stone, in your home oven, you are trying to simulate a brick oven. Stones are great, but you can make "artisan" loaves in your home oven without using a stone. You can get a crusty loaf by varying the temperature at different stages of baking - first hot, then normal and then leaving the bread in the oven at low heat to dry out. When a loaf is finished baking it out gases hot vapors and wets itself. That is why bread comes out of the oven crispy and then the crust seems to soften as it sits for a while. The only time I use a baking stone is when I'm making a huge loaf. When the baking time is so long that the bottoms would otherwise burn. The stone retards the cooking on the bottom of the loaf. When I have bottom burning issues, I use a stone. I make a seven pound loaf on a deep dish dark coated pizza pan. It looks like something out of the middle ages. I bake the loaf for 52 minutes. I use a stone to stop the bottom from burning because the loaf takes so long to bake. I also put a tin foil shield on top of the loaf, after 15 minutes, to stop the top from burning. Even pizza does not require a pizza/baking stone. I use a dark coated pizza pan. Pan color really makes a difference. When making a loaf of sandwich bread I always use dark pans and never the silver pans. If you use silver bread baking pans, the bottoms of the loaves will not cook properly. I don't even own silver pans. Position in the oven also affects the bottom. If you want something darker on the bottom then lower it in the oven, closer to the element in your electric oven. If you want less dark then raise it in the oven. If you have top burning issues, cover with tin foil after the loaves are browned to your liking. Baking stones are great to experiment with, but very rarely required in bread baking. You may discover how to make your perfect loaf. I use mine only for bottom burning issues due to extended baking times on large loaves. BREAD BAKING TIPS - ACTIVE DRY YEAST vs. INSTANT YEAST In my opinion, active dry yeast produces better more consistent results for home bakers than the newer instant yeast. Active dry yeast has been around since WW II. Active dry yeast needs to be "activated" by soaking it in warm water when making bread. Active dry yeast can be used when making bread by hand, using a bread machine or using a mixing machine. Instant yeast, also known as quick yeast or bread baking machine yeast, has been around for about 15 years. Instant yeast was developed with commercial baking in mind, not the home baker. Instant yeast is added to the dry ingredients in big mixing machines at commercial bakeries. Instant yeast is also added to the dry ingredients in a home bread machine. Control of temperature is the key to successful baking at home or commercially. In commercial baking the big mixing machines create friction and produce needed heat. When making bread at home in a bread machine the heating element turns on during the mixing process and adds the needed heat to activate the instant yeast. When making bread by hand, if you use instant yeast, there is not enough heat in the process to produce big full loaves, even if you soak the instant yeast in warm water. Instant yeast and active dry yeast are not the same. Active dry yeast was designed for home baking. That is why I use and recommend the old standard active dry yeast. When using active dry yeast I am in full control of the bread baking process and I get consistent results. Most home bakers in Europe are using instant yeast for hand bread baking and bread machine use. I do not recommend instant yeast for home baking by hand. Can a whole continent be doing it wrong? Who knows? I have heard stories of people in the UK preheating their flour before making bread. That is indicative of temperature problems when using instant yeast. You do not have to preheat flour when using active dry yeast. In the US, two major brands of yeast are available - Red Star and Fleishman's. Red Star sells a two pound package of the good old fashioned Active Dry Yeast. That is what I use and recommend. Fleishman's sell a two pound package of what they call Instant Active Dry Yeast. Is it instant yeast or is it active try yeast? Again, who knows? I have found that the good old fashioned active dry yeast produces better more consistent results in home baking. BREAD BAKING TIPS - WHOLE MILK MOZZARELLA FOR PIZZA It is getting harder and harder for the consumer to find good mozzarella cheese for making pizza at home. I live on the west coast and I now have to special order whole milk mozzarella cheese. All the stores are carrying is skim milk mozzarella. The skin milk cheese does not melt properly and has no pull. If a novice tries making a pizza with skim milk cheese they will be disappointed and think that you can't make good pizza at home. I make better pizza than I can buy. Hot, fresh, the way I like it from my own oven. Ask your store to carry whole milk mozzarella cheese. If you have to, special order it. I just bought a case today that I had to special order. It cost me $50 for four 5 lb bags. I freeze it. When I am ready to make a pizza I take a bag out of my freezer and smash it with my rolling pin to break up enough cheese to use. It works fine. The cheese is just going to melt anyway. I have had problems getting good parmesan cheese also. Some brands have no flavor and don't melt in cooking. The shredded parmesan seems to be ok, but again it depends on the brand. We consumers need to be more assertive with our local stores. If you have a problem in your area getting quality cheese, go in and talk to the manager and ask them to stock better quality cheese. It's out there. Complaining never hurts. If they won't stock good whole milk mozzarella or good parmesan cheese then start looking around. Once you find a source you will be set. Look in your phone book yellow pages for food brokers, wholesalers and distributors. Make some phone calls. If they are not into pizza supplies ask who in your area is. BREAD BAKING TIPS - Pizza: Thick Crust vs. Thin Crust Thin crust pizza is default pizza. If you don't know what you are doing you will end up with thin crust pizza by default. I was raised in Upstate New York. Thin crust pizza was very popular. New York City is famous for their thin crust pizza. On the other hand, Chicago is famous for their thicker crust deep dish pizza. Thick crust vs. thin crust is all about personal taste. Producing a thick crust vs. thin crust pizza is about how and when you make the dough. I have had people ask me for my secret dough recipe. Dough is dough. There is no secret to dough. Dough is flour and water and yeast and salt and maybe some oil and maybe some seasoning. Yeast baking is a craft. There are a number of variables in making pizza. The type of flour used makes a big difference. The temperature of the dough making and storage are variables. The amount and type of yeast are variables. The time from mixing and kneading till the pizza is put into the hot oven is a variable. All variables relate to the type of oven used. There are many types of commercial ovens and then there is the basic home oven. The amount of oil used to coat the pan, whether or not a corn meal coating is used and the temperature of the oven are all variables. Whether you use a pan at all is based on the type of commercial oven and whether or not you use a stone and peel in a home oven. There are many variables. You have choices based on your hardware - the oven, pan, stone, etc. It's really not that complicated. You get what you get. I advise people going into the pizza business to start with the oven. The pizza you will be serving is based on your choice of oven type and size. Home ovens are home ovens. Gas vs. electric does not matter. Commercial ovens run a lot hotter than home ovens and may heat up to 800 degrees. They are really hot because they need to serve customers fast. Home ovens don't need to get that hot because we can wait a little longer for our pizza. Back to thick vs. thin. In a commercial operation it's all based on work flow. Same thing goes at home. A lot of pizza shops don't make their own dough. They buy their dough. It shows up once a day in the morning in trays with lids holding six balls of dough. Shops that do make their own dough make it once a day early and store the dough for later use in the same trays. When it's time to make a pizza they take a ball of dough and press it out on a pan or hand toss it or just spread it out by hand and put on the ingredients and into the oven. The work flow I have just described generally produces a thin crust pizza. The yeast in the dough becomes partially played out over time and therefore the dough won't rise that much in the oven. To make thin crust at home I make my dough in the morning and let it sit in the fridge all day before I make my pizza. If I wait till the next day I will get a really thin crust pizza. Some pizza shops keep dough for a few days. These are thin crust operations. I call thin crust default pizza because a novice who does not know how to work with yeast and does not activate the yeast properly will end up with a thin crust pizza and very happy - by default. When I make thick crust pizza, I use freshly made dough. I prefer thicker crust pizza. It's just that simple and it's faster to make at home. I make the dough, make the pizza, eat the pizza - no waiting. For pizza shops it's about work flow and marketing. There was an advertising battle going between two really large pizza chains. One claimed to have fresh dough, the other aged dough. It went to court and they are probably still fighting now. No way of making dough is better than another. It's based on personal taste and the work flow of the operation. You can make either thin crust or thick crust at home in a home oven. It's all about personal taste. It's also about knowing the craft of yeast baking. If you don't know the craft, you will produce thin crust pizza by default. EBAY Feedback means something. Some sample feedback follows: EXCELLENT transaction!....GREAT dvd!!! **Highly Recommend** Very informative DVD, highly recommended! Wonderful Trans & Shipping; Five Star Seller*****Thank You :o)breads delicious Fast shipping,great item and great ebayer!A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thank You, Thank You.Excellent Video & Trans, five star seller*****Will be back! Excellent Instructional Videos, highly recommend. Perfect Bread Loaves! A+++ What a great video! I learn something new every time I watch it. Many thanks. Top Ebayer Fast International Shipping A++++++ Excellent Product, Outstanding Customer Service, Great Communication. A+!! Prompt Shipping...Well Packaged...Very Pleased...Thank-You...A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+ Fast delivery and excellent videos Thanks Great videos need more of them Thank you The DVD's will help improve my bread baking. Thanks Excellent instructions in breadmaking!!! AAAAAAA++++++++ Fast delivery & quality..recomended thanks. Esteban Fast Shipping, Great Product, Email Friendly, Thank You!!! A wonderful product! thank you! Highly recommended! Super fast shipping!!!!!!!!!Fantastic DVD!!!!!!!!!A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ i love the dvd video on bakeing. thanks so much ReallyGreatVideo,WellPackaged,FastShipping,A+EbaySeller!!,Thanks!! A+++++++++++ e-bay seller, fast shipping, great product, highly recomend, thanks Fast shipping! Lots of great infomation on baking. A+A+A+A+A+A+A+ HONEST & Reliable. It was well Worth the money. AAA+++ Marlinsten item as described would buy again ++ and I did Great seller, quick shipping and nice product! Great bread making video. Fast shipping. Highly recommend. 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