Oven Ready, Convenient, Kosher

Tom Baliker is founder and president of Spartan Foods, the parent company of Mama Mary's Gourmet Pizza Crusts. Since the company’s founding in 1987, these crusts have achieved great success.  And, yes, there is a real Mama Mary, Thomas Baliker's mother, Mary Baliker, currently resides in Florida. She was born in 1915 and will celebrate her 96th birthday this September.

Mama Mary’s Gourmet pizza crusts are manufactured and shipped from a state–of–the–art facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Tom Baliker decided to go kosher because he felt that it was in keeping with the company's commitment to quality in ingredients and manufacturing. The products are all Kof–K kosher certified, dairy.

The crusts are available in several sizes, including a 7–inch individual crust which we found perfect for a single meal or snack, and a larger 12–inch family size. Crust choices include Traditional, Thin & Crispy, and 100% Whole Wheat with honey. KosherEye especially enjoys the Thin & Crispy, but truly, we like them all.

As the company advises ”keep your taste buds ready!”, Mama Mary’s is excited about their hot new product "Firecracker Crust" infused with red pepper flakes. And, in the pipeline are Mama Mary's Bread Sticks in two flavors, Italian Herb with marinara dipping sauce and Cinnamon with vanilla icing for dipping. We look forward to tasting these when they have their kosher certification.

We find Mama Mary’s crusts indispensible, especially for those times when we need dinner in a hurry and when we want an easy but delicious all in one meal.  It is so simple: preheat the oven to 450 degrees, brush the crust with olive oil, add the toppings, reduce temperature to 425 degrees, and bake for about 10 minutes. If you are grilling, the crusts can be made directly on the grill. So easy, so good!

If you have children, we can assure you that they will love a pizza buffet. Just give each an individual crust, brush on some olive oil, a bit of marinara and line up an array of toppings. Some buffet topping possibilities are: black beans, parve burger crumbles such as Morningstar Farms, cheese, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, peppers, basil, olives, pineapple, spinach, eggplant.  The choices are endless…

A pizza buffet paired with a beer buffet makes for a fabulous, casual “grown-up" party as well.  And, yes, pizza can also be a delectable dessert. For a dessert pizza, brush the crust with butter, bake the crust, and while it is still warm, add peanut butter or Nutella spread, M&M's, chocolate chips, nuts and return to the oven just until the toppings are melted.

The website provides some excellent recipes, but we would like to suggest several of our own kosher combos.

Just brush the crust with olive oil and add:
•  Feta Cheese, fresh chopped garlic, kalamata olives, fresh basil, cherry tomatoes
•  Marinara sauce, onions, mushrooms, roasted peppers and mozzarella
•  Spinach, mushrooms, Swiss cheese
•  Marinara Sauce, parve sausage, such as Lightlife brand, roasted red peppers, mozzarella cheese

And then there are dessert pizzas. We think that the Cranberry Pear Pizza is a definite winner – Danish in a pizza crust!

Do you have a special Mama Mary's pizza recipe you dream of creating? Then enter it in Mama Mary's® 2011 Pizza Creations Recipe Contest™ and become eligible for the Grand Prize: A trip to Disney World plus $5,000, half of which will be donated by Mama Mary's to the charity of your choice!

For more product information, please visit Mama Mary's.com.

July 7, 2011