The Best Pizza Pie in Philadelphia

I've spent most of my time in the bedroom these last few days. Quit giving me the sassy eye, that's not what I'm talking 'bout. It's the only room in the house with an air conditioner. In case you haven't heard, there's a heat wave in Philadelphia. 

104 °F outside feels something like 9,941 °F in a South Philly row home. Accordingly, I've been treating the rest of my apartment like the surface of the sun and venturing out only for necessities like water refills and multiple showers. 

Baking? HA. Haha. Ha. Ha. Ha. What is that? I'm fairly certain if I turned on my oven it would spontaneously combust at this point. So while I'm in the kitchen, I'll just grab this pint of coconut sorbet and this bag of fresh cherries and head back to my crisp bedroom climate, thankyouverymuch. 

I've got a fridge full of just-picked garden-fresh veggies and herbs. But they're just gonna have to wait. Now is the time for going out to eat and grabbing take-out. And, oh yeah: Pizza. 

You probably already know about my love for pizza. It's a pure, deep and wholesome love. After a couple of terrible experiences with pizza joints around Philadelphia, I swore off pizza from the city entirely. Until I tried the vegan pizza at Whole Foods on South Street. 

I'm usually unimpressed with Whole Foods' pre-made vegan dishes, especially anything that comes out of their bakery. But this pizza is the best pizza I've had in Philadelphia. Seriously. It reminds me a lot of pizza from Scranton. Like if Calabria's and Maroni's got together and made delicious pizza pie babies. 

I have to confess, I found out about their pizza months ago. I get a slice every week on my Whole Food's shopping trip. But I've never held on to one long enough to document it. Usually, a slice doesn't make it out of the parking lot. What you're seeing here is the first slice to have a life-span longer than 15 minutes. Historical. 

So what's so great about it? The crust on WF's pizza is thin and crispy, but with flavor (they often use a multi-grain crust). The sauce is a little sweet, and tastes like it's freshly made. And the cheese, THE CHEESE. They use Daiya, which is a new vegan cheese product that actually melts and stretches. It's amazing. It's completely changing what it means to be vegan (or lactose intolerant)! Whole Foods' uses a combination of the mozzarella and cheddar flavor, and when those two powers combine the result is miraculous. The cheese actually gets gooey and melty in the best way possible. NOM NOM NOM

I cannot vouch for the quality at any other Whole Foods, but if you can make it to the one on South Street in Philadelphia, I highly recommend this snack. They usually have two vegan options, one with a chef's choice of toppings. Get a slice of each and thank me later. You can find me sprawled out on my bed along with Gracie in a very unlady-like manner trying to stay cool. Knock first, please. 

Chocolate-orange Filled Hearts

I don't want to fool you with all these heart shaped items, but February and Valentines day are my LEAST favorite time of year. I've always been the kind of girl that went straight from Christmas/New Year's to thoughts of shamrocks, leprechauns and Irish Whiskey. Okay, okay, it's true, every year up until this one has found me sans-sweetie and occasionally bitter about love. But besides that, I just can't see what's so exciting about forced declarations of love and cheesy pre-packaged gifts to "prove" said love. I'm all for giving and receiving gifts but prefer it to be sweet and spontaneous as opposed to dictated by a date on the calendar. And then last year I met the love of my life. (Simultaneous "awww"s and puking sounds inserted here). And then a few weeks ago I found a set of nesting heart-shaped cookie cutters on sale and some recipes for yummy V-day themed cookies and decided to quit being bitter and just make some god-dammed cookies.

This particular recipe drew me in with the pretty picture, and honestly, who doesn't get excited about anything FILLED WITH CHOCOLATE? The reviews were another story, and proclaimed this cookie to be "tasteless rocks." Because I love a challenge and am cocky enough to think I can fix any recipe, I decided to give these a Voltron kitchen makeover. (Voltron kitchen being the name of the kitchen in my apartment. Just go with it, I'll explain later.) Ken wasn't too excited about them, as orange marmalade is number 3 on the list of foods that he'd nuke out of existence if given a chance (followed behind Pop Tarts at Number 1 and fruit roll-ups at Number 2), but he liked them enough that this cookie is now added to the list of "Baked goods that have not made it out the door before being entirely consumed."

Are these my favorite cookie? Not by any means. Were they as terrible as the reviews said? Judging by the quickness with which they were consumed, obviously not. Could they be made better? Absolutely, and I've got a few ideas about that. Will I continue to ask questions and then answer them myself? I promise this is the last one, for this post at least.

*Note: This recipe starts with Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe and alters it. If you're not familiar with AB's recipe, you can find it here. It's a good standard recipe to build off of. It's not meant to be sweet, as the cookies are meant to be coated with icing, sugar, etc. I recommend generously covering them with sanding sugar before baking if you need your cookies sweet. 

Chocolate-Orange Filled Hearts

adapted from Food Network website

3 c. flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup earth balance vegan butter, softened

1 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

1 egg,  beaten

1 tbsp soymilk

1 tsp vanilla

Scant 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Ghiardelli 84% cacoa bar)

2 heaping tbsp orange marmalade

1 egg white beaten with 1 tsp water

Sanding sugar

Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar until well blended, then add the egg and milk and beat until well incorporated. With the mixer on low, gradually add flour until mix pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic, and chill for 2 hours. 

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Stir together the chocolate and the marmalade. Using confectioner's sugar to cover the surface, roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thickness (mine were probably larger) and cut out hearts. Place about 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, and place 1 tsp chocolate mix in center, spreading out leaving about 1/4 inch from the edge (I definitely used more than 1 tsp, as I only had enough filling for half of the dough). Using the egg wash and a pastry brush, brush around the edges of the cookies, place another cookie on top, and press together. Brush tops lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, or until done. Let cool on the pan and transfer to a rack. 

*I only used 1/2 of the dough, and came up with about 20 cookies. I used the rest of the dough the next day to make sandwich cookies filled with jam, which I'll be sure to tell you about soon.