The Home Made Pizza Thread

headbanger said:

Very nice! :rockin:

Click to expand...

High praise from you dark overlord!!

That Aidell's chicken italian sausage is AMAZING stuff. I don't care about fat or sodium, I like TASTE. Also, their pork chorizo and andoullie blows anything else I've had away.

cheezydemon3 said:

High praise from you dark overlord!!

That Aidell's chicken italian sausage is AMAZING stuff. I don't care about fat or sodium, I like TASTE. Also, their pork chorizo and andoullie blows anything else I've had away.

Click to expand...

Who does worry about that garbage? Good tasting things always comes with some fat and other delicious stuff

Swarley88 said:

Who does worry about that garbage? Good tasting things always comes with some fat and other delicious stuff

Click to expand...

Agreed!

Sorry, but I feel the need to qualify anything I say involving "chicken sausage" because some people hear "Diet" or "Turkey bacon" or "Healthfood" just because it isn't made from a swine's behind.

FLAVOR is KING

I've planning to make my own "pepperoni" one of these days. It is to sausage what a triple decoction lager is to homebrewing however. So I need to start from extract (fresh sausage) and work my way up the chain before I can attempt dry-cured fermented salami. Did you know pepperoni is an american term? In Italy, peperoni is a word for sweet pepper, like a bell pepper in the supermarket! What we call pepperoni is in Italian terms a spicy "salami".
Anyway, the guy who makes that Aidell (?sp?) sausage is one of the gurus of American sausage making.

Well regardless, that pie looks fantastic!

TD

cheezydemon3 said:

Put stuff on it.....pure genius!

Click to expand...

I hope I wasn't getting too technical.

cheezydemon3 said:

High praise from you dark overlord!!

That Aidell's chicken italian sausage is AMAZING stuff. I don't care about fat or sodium, I like TASTE. Also, their pork chorizo and andoullie blows anything else I've had away.

Click to expand...

Good stuff for sure! I've got a pack of their mango Jalapeño links in the fridge waiting on Saturday.

Not to derail.......

Their chicken apple sausage with saurkraut and good mustard has seriously infringed on my bratwurst intake! Good GOD! Delicious.

Speaking of saurkraut and mustard, my friend Norma and I, just yesterday made this pizza, using a blend(50/50) of yellow mustard and mayo as the sauce, along with a mild white cheddar, saurkraut, sliced onion and smoked kielbasa. It was actually quite good in a "hotdog" kind of way.

LOL!!!! AWESOMENESS INCARNATE!!!!!

No reason it wouldn't work.......maybe the mustard and mayo cold on top at the end might be a thought, but I'd sure eat it!!

The mayo is there to temper the bite of the mustard a bit. It really does work quite well. The topping possibilities are endless, of course. I'm thinking chile, Texas style.

Evets said:

The mayo is there to temper the bite of the mustard a bit. It really does work quite well. The topping possibilities are endless, of course. I'm thinking chile, Texas style.

Click to expand...

Anything that would make a good sandwich is a no brainer.

I am thinking maybe a turkey and dressing pizza with gravy as the sauce

Or shepherd pie pizza with mashed potato and beef stew.

Sure, why not?! Tho, at some point you may want to consider a Chicago style deep-dish crust. oooh, baby!:rockin:

I've had taco pizzas and cheeseburger pizzas that were both awesome.

mtnagel said:

I've had taco pizzas and cheeseburger pizzas that were both awesome.

Click to expand...

Ooooh!

Gonna have to say that a fry bread crust with taco meat, tomatoes, onions, hot sauce and monterray jack would be AWESOME!!!!!

One of the best pizzas I've had was a fajita pizza. I'm thinking about replicating it myself. Cook up the flank steak and veggies on the grill, slice up the meat then make pizza with it.

cheezydemon3 said:

Anything that would make a good sandwich is a no brainer.

I am thinking maybe a turkey and dressing pizza with gravy as the sauce

Or shepherd pie pizza with mashed potato and beef stew.

Click to expand...

Rueben pizza with corned beef, sour kraut and swiss on rye sourdough crust?

ChshreCat said:

Cook up the flank steak and veggies on the grill, slice up the meat then make pizza with it.

Click to expand...

Even without the fajita theme, grilling the meat and veggies first is a good way to remove some of the water that would otherwise be on top of your pizza. I always grill or stir fry anything wet like peppers and onions and shrimp before I make up the pizza.

reynolds5520 said:

Even without the fajita theme, grilling the meat and veggies first is a good way to remove some of the water that would otherwise be on top of your pizza. I always grill or stir fry anything wet like peppers and onions and shrimp before I make up the pizza.

Click to expand...

Bacon and sausage go on raw if feasable for me! Sausage is usually partly cooked but not bacon. Of course I am with you on reducing water, that is why I don't use fresh mozzerella

Embarrassing fact. One time I put homemade mushroom con fit on a pizza... it came out like pizza soup.

It was tasty, but it wasnt pizza.

Stromboli I made on my new stone last night. Third time I use it just keep forgetting pictures. Getting a little better with it and this crust was really great.

dannnggg that looks good!

cheezydemon3 said:

Ooooh!

Gonna have to say that a fry bread crust with taco meat, tomatoes, onions, hot sauce and monterray jack would be AWESOME!!!!!

Click to expand...

There's a pizza place here in Baltimore, which have a deep fried cheese Steak.

which is a cheese steak wrapped in a pizza dough and deep fried.

also wanted to try it

Breakfast.....fry bread covered in sugary cinnamon butter syrup. AWESOME!!!

Ugh maybe my eyes are to tired to be staring at this tiny screen, Im trying to locate the fry bread info.

My native American fry bread is thinner than that. Not like a tortilla,but not thick either. Makin pizza with a big round one might be cool. Fry it in a large pan of oil,using cooked meats & such,with cheese & veggies. Gotta get down to Heini's for some more Amish cheese. Their smoky sharp/extra sharp is the bomb on pizza.

Yesterday I made my first real pizza's for lunch. I think they came out great and won't be ordering pizza again. I just have to figure out how to stretch the dough further to make a thinner pizza.
Used all the tips I read in the thread so I wanted to say thanks to all you pizza gurus.
Made a pepperoni/sausage/grilled onion/green pepper pizza as well but no pics alas..

FermentNEthinG said:

Yesterday I made my first real pizza's for lunch. I think they came out great and won't be ordering pizza again. I just have to figure out how to stretch the dough further to make a thinner pizza.
Used all the tips I read in the thread so I wanted to say thanks to all you pizza gurus.
Made a pepperoni/sausage/grilled onion/green pepper pizza as well but no pics alas..

Click to expand...

Yeah this thread is responsible for my buying a stone and pizza equipment and effectively banning pre made pizza in my house. Your pizza looks awesome btw!

Ostomo517 said:

Yeah this thread is responsible for my buying a stone and pizza equipment and effectively banning pre made pizza in my house. Your pizza looks awesome btw!

Click to expand...

Thanks man!
Funny thing is I had a pizza stone in my cabinet for a couple years, as well as the stand mixer for the dough. All came as gifts from getting married a few years back. I am still wading through that wedding pile.
I had to wander around to a few stores and found a piel. The only piel I could find came with another pizza stone so I will be using that one in my grill for the next round.

Ostomo517 said:

Stromboli I made on my new stone last night. Third time I use it just keep forgetting pictures. Getting a little better with it and this crust was really great.

View attachment 124277

View attachment 124276

Click to expand...

That looks tasty. My wife, an east coaster, recently tasked me with applying my pizza skills to stromboli which I, a west coaster, have never even seen up close let alone tasted. I'm still not sure exactly what separates a stromboli from a calzone.

Gutpunch said:

That looks tasty. My wife, an east coaster, recently tasked me with applying my pizza skills to stromboli which I, a west coaster, have never even seen up close let alone tasted. I'm still not sure exactly what separates a stromboli from a calzone.

Click to expand...

The answer is cheese.
Calzone uses ricotta. Stromboli uses mozzarella, but not sure if it can be cheese less or contain other cheeses. This is from a friend who is Italian and formerly worked at a pizza joint. There are a couple of ways you can try to shape the calzone. There is a fancy food over from both sides to meet in the middle, but I like the fold in half and shape a nice thin and wide crust at the margin so you can break it off and dip into sauce. Be sure to use a vent hole if you add sauce to your calzone/Stromboli for steam to escape.

TD

So my 1st 2 attempts a week ago ended up shaped like the state of California. The dough kept tearing and I had to use a rolling pin. Last week I did a better job preparing the dough and was able to shape these properly and even toss them a bit - thank you all for getting me hooked!

I was low on basil and my wife just threw them all on instead of chopping lol:

AnchorBock said:

So my 1st 2 attempts a week ago ended up shaped like the state of California. The dough kept tearing and I had to use a rolling pin. Last week I did a better job preparing the dough and was able to shape these properly and even toss them a bit - thank you all for getting me hooked!

I was low on basil and my wife just threw them all on instead of chopping lol:

Click to expand...

Looks great. I dig the whole basil leaves.

If your dough is tearing, it could be that you haven't kneaded it enough (assuming you're making it yourself). Kneading develops the gluten structure in the dough, making it both stronger and more elastic so it holds up to the kind of stretching required to shape a pizza. I mix and "knead" my dough in a KitchenAid (too lazy to do it by hand), and it usually takes about fifteen minutes to get the structure I'm looking for. If you can tear off a tiny piece of dough, gently work it flat and stretch it between your fingers without tearing it until you see a little light through it, you're in good shape (that's called a window pane test).

I think when I retire, am going to make pizza everyday for a week and try to get a better feel on my dough and technique. It is tough to master if you only make dough for pizza once in a while. I often make in bulk, then freeze. Can you perform the knead after its initially kneaded then allowed to rise, punched down, and rise again, then portioned and frozen? I had some dough recently that was poorly elastic as well.

TD

This link really shed some light on the whole pizza dough process:
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

It's a long read but there is some great info in there.

TrickyDick said:

I think when I retire, am going to make pizza everyday for a week and try to get a better feel on my dough and technique. It is tough to master if you only make dough for pizza once in a while. I often make in bulk, then freeze. Can you perform the knead after its initially kneaded then allowed to rise, punched down, and rise again, then portioned and frozen? I had some dough recently that was poorly elastic as well.

TD

Click to expand...

I've never frozen my dough, so I can't speak from experience on this, but theoretically, that should work. I know people do it all the time, but not having tried it myself, I'm not sure how the gluten structure will behave after freezing; since water freezes in crystals, it seems a little like packing a fishing net full of swords, but maybe there's no noticeable difference. If I was going to try that myself, assuming the dough was properly kneaded before frozen, what I would probably do (at least as an experiment, which is sort of how I view all of my baking) is let the dough thaw, give it a few stretch-and-folds to realign and strengthen the gluten, form into a ball and let it rest until it achieves a pliability you can work with. Half hour? Two hours? Depends on the dough and how you like to shape it.

How do you usually handle your frozen dough?

LaFinDuMonde said:

This link really shed some light on the whole pizza dough process:
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

It's a long read but there is some great info in there.

Click to expand...

The article rambles and repeats itself a lot, and while I agree there's some great info there, I think some of it is a little misleading or vague. A couple things I'd like to mention...

He talks about Autolysing being a critical step, and I totally agree (fwiw, he does his for 20 minutes, I prefer 30-45), but he includes the salt. In my opinion, this is counterproductive. Salt impedes absorption of water into the flour, slows gluten development, and interferes with yeast reproduction, and the whole point of autolysing is to give all of those processes a headstart. I add my salt after autolyse, during kneading.

He says, "If you've made the dough correctly you should be able to spread it with no problem. If it is pulling back on you and trying to shrink, you have not mixed it enough."

This is not necessarily true. Dough toughens as you work with it, and relaxes as it rests (think of gluten networks as tangles of rope -- pull the rope, knots get tighter). If the dough is trying to shrink while you're spreading it, it's entirely possible it was mixed properly, but just needs to be left alone for 10-20 minutes, then will be ready to rock.

IMHO, YMMV, etc etc.

Made my first pizza on the grill tonight. In general, things turned out very good. I would change a few things, but the crust came out excellent. It might not have been the prettiest thing and I burnt the bottom of the crust on one side, but it still tasted great. I might not go back to the oven after using the grill!

What I did was grill some veggies first - onions, peppers and broccoli. Took them off, then grilled the plain dough for a couple minutes. Took it off, then flipped it and added the sauce, cheese and toppings. Put it back on and grilled it for maybe 5 minutes more. Apparently my grill has hot spots because part of the crust burnt and part was perfect. I guess next time I'd turn down the heat or rotate part way through. Overall it was awesome and very pizzeria-like, except the burnt spot on the bottom and it was a little bumpy on the bottom from the grill grates, but oh well.

So does anyone have any tips for grilling pizza?

Ostomo517 said:

Yeah this thread is responsible for my buying a stone and pizza equipment and effectively banning pre made pizza in my house. Your pizza looks awesome btw!

Click to expand...

I hope you got a good stone, it's totally worth the money

Homemade mozzarella and pizza, we have this treat once a month. I make the cheese and SWMBO makes the dough. Best pizza I have ever had, nothing else comes close.

Gutpunch said:

Looks great. I dig the whole basil leaves.

If your dough is tearing, it could be that you haven't kneaded it enough (assuming you're making it yourself). Kneading develops the gluten structure in the dough, making it both stronger and more elastic so it holds up to the kind of stretching required to shape a pizza. I mix and "knead" my dough in a KitchenAid (too lazy to do it by hand), and it usually takes about fifteen minutes to get the structure I'm looking for. If you can tear off a tiny piece of dough, gently work it flat and stretch it between your fingers without tearing it until you see a little light through it, you're in good shape (that's called a window pane test).

Click to expand...

it could also be the flour some of the cheaper AP flours are lower in protein content ( <9%) and will never make a good pizza crust. I only use King Arthur flours as even their AP is 11.7%, you would be amazed how thin you can stretch their 14% sir lancelot flour