Pizza night at la Casa de Matt

So I am making up pizza and thought I would share. It is a little bit of home made dough, sauce and some mushrooms and mozzarella. I did this dough the no kneed way (2nd attempt this way) and it is really loose, so should have a bunch of bubbles.









Had an Orval that I was waiting to drink so I poured myself up a quick pint. Delicious and nutritious, tastes just like Brett! I will show what the pizza tastes like coming out of the oven.

Matt

just put the pizza in and it looks great and awesome

Keep us updated

Pizza out of the oven and another in


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Bob just looked over my shoulder and said, "Wow! And this APA would go so well with that! Can you ask him to FedEx a couple of slices?"

I laughed, but agree that is one awesome looking pizza.

very nice!

The pizza looks great, and the Orval......:cross:
The head just looks awesome. Makes me thirsty just looking at it.

I'm starving. That pizza looks so damn good. You're a bastid.

Dammit, midnite chow was 4 hours ago. Now I'm hungry...

Another out and the last going in now.


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This is on bachelor night too! I do this when SWMBO is in town, but she always wants stuff that I don't so it's my night right now. Pepperoni, mushroom and cheese. That's how I roll.

Orval and mushroom pizza are off the wall perfect.

Who needs Domino's, I have Matt-inos.

No pizza stone?

You kidding? Got a 16x16 stone. I still have thoughts of putting a castiron pan above it to get the real oven feel. I have used a pizza stone for four years and then it broke for six months and then SWMBO got me a new one that was way nicer than any that I would have bought.

Last Pizza, out and going to be eaten tomorrow for lunch (along with most of the other pizza too, I can only eat so much!)


larger still

Anything special you're doing with that dough recipe? The crust looks really good and nice air pockets.

Matt Up North said:

You kidding? Got a 16x16 stone. I still have thoughts of putting a castiron pan above it to get the real oven feel. I have used a pizza stone for four years and then it broke for six months and then SWMBO got me a new one that was way nicer than any that I would have bought.

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Sorry, in one of the pictures it looked like you just had it on an oven rack. I broke my stone recently and went with an 18x18 travertine tile. Works great and only cost seven bucks at home depot. I made pizza today for lunch with a no knead dough I make. I do 13 cups of flour in mine and it keeps for two weeks in the fridge. I have pizza any time I want now, which is good news because no one delivers where I live.

I went the home depot route and all of the stones broke. So after like five tries, SWMBO got me one off the internet. 13 cups of flour! Jesus man, I used four this time and it is enough for three or four people. Course, it is nice to have dough around for anytime pizza. I go one cup flour per person is just about enough, cause you have to figure that is about 5 ounces worth of food and then the water is another 3 ounces and then the toppings and soon you have your self like 12-16 ounces of food.

There are two main things I try to accomplish with my dough. First is that I season my dough. I use garlic, pepper, red pepper flake, salt and sometimes oregano. Second is lots of water in the dough and time. I like my dough very pliable and I like for it to rise at least two times, if not three. When I plan (not often) I can make the dough the night before in order for it to rest through the night in the fridge.

The recipe for just the dough (not with seasonings aformentioned) is this.

4 cups flour
2 cups water
1 tsp yeast
salt

When short on time I use more yeast. When I am really short of time I also use a little less water and kneed it more. For the best air pockets, I like to let it rise in pre sized portions and then you kinda have to be nice to it when you turn it out. I like pockets, but I also like a thin crust. It is a tough combo. Gentleness isn't my forte. The pizza style that I make is typically a little too wet and so doesn't have the firmness for a good tossing. It will rip in the center. It has the spring, but not the elasticity.

In all, it tastes way better than the cardboard that can be delivered, but I still have things to learn.

I've got some off the internet pizza stone. I just leave it in the oven all the time unless I need the shelf it is on. Never cut on it. It's been going strong for 2-3 years.

Hmmmm. I think I'm gonna have to give that home made pizza a try. I cook a fair amount, but haven't tried pizza from scratch in a long time, like since before I knew what I was doing.

I've been kept content by the reasonable taste of Papa Murphy's take and bake and have become lazy LOL.

For the cheese, real mozzarella I assume, not that low moisture part skim $hit.

Matt, your dough is very similiar to mine. I use 13 cups of flour, 5.5 cups of water, 1/2 cup of EV olive oil, three tablespoons of kosher salt, three tablespoons of yeast, and three tablespoons of sugar. I mix it all up in a home depot bucket and let it sit overnight. In the AM I dump the whole mess in a kitchen sized garbage bag and put it in the veggie drawer of my beer fridge. Pull off a grapefruit sized piece for a loaf of Italian bread and cook it in a pre-heated Dutch oven (no, not the kind under the sheets) at 475 for 1/2 hour with the lid on and 10-15 min with the lid off for bread. Make sure you shape the loaf. For pizza, I just pull a chunk out, form it into a ball, and let it rest for a little bit. Roll it out thin and flip it onto a pizza peel coated with cornmeal. Put your toppings on and bake it! The dough will last a few weeks in the fridge and you can always freeze it.

Just spent 10 Hours bashing out pizza at work...

Yours looks fabulous.
Especially after a couple of stress relieving IPA's.

I've been trying my hand at homemade pizzas lately. Like homebrew, once you get some techniques down, you can make some pretty good pizza at home.

Here is an attempt at the Boston "family house of pizza" style pan pizza

Uncle Argyle said:

I've been trying my hand at homemade pizzas lately. Like homebrew, once you get some techniques down, you can make some pretty good pizza at home.

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Damn straight you can. Honestly, pizza is so easy, I'm not sure why the Hut is even still in business. You guys are making me hungry.

Pizza Hut is still in business because it's about the best you can find in some places. I grew up in Buffalo, NY and you might get shot if you ordered a pizza from PH. In Utah, PH is pretty good compared to some of the other stuff I've seen passed off as pizza. Me, I make my own as we live up in the mountains and the nearest good pizza place is about seven miles down the mountain and it is WAY expensive. A 16" pie withcheese and pepperoni is about $20. I could probably make six or seven pizzas for that price and mine tastes better.

I think another pizza night might be in order. Perhaps tomorrow! Woohoo.

By the by, I used to make oblong pizzas so that they would fit on a cookie sheet. I never thought of doing the square thing

I think tomorrow will be Pizza night at casa chicken.
Pics shall be posted. :rockin:

Made a NY thin crust tonight...




I made an extra dough ball...I wanted to try and make a buffalo chicken calzone...came out pretty good.

Would you mind posting your dough recipe?

Here is the one I use. It was recommended from another thread on this forum. I use the high gluten bread flour for the crust, initial rise and a secondary cold rise.

Edit:
Here's the other thread.

I got the recipe from this thread on PizzaMaking.com - Pizza Making, Pizza Recipes, and More!...
Papa Gino's Recipe

Here is the recipe for 2 12" pizzas.

Dough
King Arthur's Bread Flour ~ 12.76 oz measured by weight
Water ~ 7.66 oz measured by weight
IDY 0.45 tsp
Salt 1 tsp

Cheese
2 cups of low-moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 cup white cheddar

Sauce
28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes in a thick puree (Redpack brand)
2 tsp sugar
3/8 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.
3/8 teaspoon of oregano leaves
3/16 teaspoon of garlic powder
a couple of dashes of crushed red pepper
a couple of dashes of basil.

A couple of tips that I learned from the thread I listed.
- After mixing the dough ingredients, let sit for 15 to 20 minutes before kneading (Autolyse?) .
- Make the dough and sauce the night before and let cold ferment in fridge for 24hrs.
- Measure flour and water by weight and NOT volume.
- Preheat stone if you have one @ 500 for at least 45 mins on the bottom rack.
- Cooked for about 7 minutes.
- I used cornmeal on the pizza peal...it gives it a nice taste...there are others that recommended using flour.
- Less is more. Too much on the toppings can create a hard to cook mess. This happened to me on my 2nd attempt. I used too much sauce and the cheese floated around as I tried to move the pizza. I also used too much cheese and it was hard to melt it all the way through in the cooking time.
8.5 ounces of cheese mix, 6 ounces of sauce should be a good starting point.

I am a pizza making rookie, but I am pleased with my early results and so are the kids...that's the real test!

Definitely check out PizzaMaking.com - Pizza Making, Pizza Recipes, and More!, a lot of great stuff.

I'm sure I left something out. Let me know if I can help any way.

Mike.

I love pizza and think it should be part of the menu at least once a week. Whats better than home brew and homemade pizza? We have been looking to purchase a home pizza oven because it just is too expensive to keep buying it from our local pizzeria. Think about the parties you could host then. Fresh beer on tap and have everyone bring an item to put together killer pizzas, sounds great! Does anyone have experience with a commercial pizza oven at their house? We have been thinking about adding one to our outdoor kitchen, http://www.superprod.com/category/cooking-beverage/pizza-ovens.do any thoughts? Its a big purchase but I cant really think of a better way to accessorize the new space we have.

MMW said:

Damn straight you can. Honestly, pizza is so easy, I'm not sure why the Hut is even still in business. You guys are making me hungry.

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And yet soooooo many places still fark it up. A new pizza joint just opened at the entrance to my subdivision. Atrocious! Hard to believe anyone goes into the pizza business making crap like that. It's like they don't have a clue and aren't even trying.

Man, if only I could take over that pizza joint and then use the adjacent, never-used new building for a brewery. I don't think the elementary school across the street would mind at all.

100% agree with all of the above. I live in a pizza deprived area and nothing comes close to home made. Everything here is commercial crap, the best is probably at the mellow, and even that is a chain!

I love living close to Russian River for beer and pizza. They make a mighty fine pie!

FYI, for adventurous pizza makers,

Never, ever use whole wheat flour for your crust. Just saying.

Places to avoid in Madison: Pizza Pit, Pizza Hut, Pizza Extreme

Places to patronize: Pizza Brutta, Gino's Restaurant, Pizza Oven

Hmm, I'm going to have to make some pizza this week and try out that sauce! I have my dough recipe perfected (for my tastes) but the sauce and cheese need improvement over store bought stuff (sauce from Trader Joes, cheese from Safeway).

passedpawn said:

FYI, for adventurous pizza makers,

Never, ever use whole wheat flour for your crust. Just saying.

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Booom!
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5682.0.html

pnj said:

Booom!
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5682.0.html

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Hey man, go for it. I can tell you that my family, myself, and the dog wouldn't touch it. I thought the ultra-high gluten would allow me to make the ultimate thin crispy crust, and I was right. Tasted like asphalt shingle, though.

I enjoy making my own pizzas and the family really likes them.

A few months back I did a breakfast pizza (same type of crust as a regular one, but the topping were all breakfast foods including eggs and hashbrowns, and the sauce was country gravy.) That one was a hit too.