The Home Made Pizza Thread

[davidabcd]

I appreciate the input.
My dough batch size is 40oz. I might approach the additions cautiously, say, 1/2t garlic powder and 1/2t onion powder and tweak the salt. Slightly softer for mine is not necessarily bad since I make squares. Not sure what that percentage is going to be; I'll work that out later.
I really like the inside texture and the bottom basically gets fried considering that I keep stepping up how much butter I grease my pans with.
Edit: I also do rounds, not Neapolitan, and that will be interesting to experiment.

 

[schematix]

Whipped up a quick batch of dough today using my sourdough culture. Will have to do this one again because for same-day pizza it was better than most 3-day slow fridge ferments i get.

Kid's pizza: Standard issue pepperoni and sausage with real san marzano tomato sauce.

My pizza: Pesto base with fresh mozz and sausage. Finished with balsamic glaze for some sweetness.

 

[schematix]

Best pizza I ever made

 

[brewbama]

Best pizza I ever made

View attachment 591289

Congratulations. What was the key to your success?

 

[schematix]

Congratulations. What was the key to your success?

#1 an amount of salt that should make most adults uncomfortable. I made this realization a while ago but it took a while to find the ceiling of where the pizza just starts to taste salty. The amount of salt in commercial pizza is close to an RDA for a decent sized slice.

But besides that...
-I dropped the expensive KA Bread flour in favor of generic bread flour. The KA is great but to me it tastes bready rather than crusty.
-I used my sourdough culture rather than dry yeast. Seems to bring a lot more flavor to the party without coming off as sourdough bready. Can also rise all day and be perfect for dinner.
-Cooked the crust crispy crunchy but yielding both top and bottom. This involved extending the bake time close to 10 minutes but i was able to keep the toppings from browning before the crust on bottom burned, giving the top crust time to brown. This involved a combination of pizza stone, pizza steel, pizza screen and the broiler.
-San Marzano tomatoes for the sauce. I didn't think it would make a difference but it really did.
-The toppings make a big difference too. In this case the sausage was a type i hadn't tried before. I knew my previous pizzas were lacking because i was using something like johnsonville hot italian sausage. It's good sausage, but it tastes like what should be in a bun or in spaghetti sauce. This had a unique seasoning that went really well with the pizza. Also was a little fattier, which helps with browning and flavor.
-Small portion of fresh mozz. The stuff is too wet in my experience to use 100% on a pizza unless you're cooking 800-900F, but 20% was big flavor addition.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

that looks like one of mine, congrats I like to add a handful of cheese just before I take it out on and top most of the time it's sharp cheddar and it adds a good flavor

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I've also found that the on sale peperoni can be very salty sometimes, took me a while to figure this out it can overwhelm the pizza

 

[mtnagel]

One of the better pizzas I've made from scratch. No knead. Overnight rise. Homemade pizza sauce. Some mozzarella, mostly goat cheese, red onions, roasted red peppers, banana peppers and a swirl of homemade pesto sauce made with home grown basil. Cooked in a Pizzacraft PizzaQue outdoor pizza oven. Yummy.

 

[schematix]

pretty colors. is there some sausage or pepperoni hiding under there somewhere?

 

[6Tap]

One of the better pizzas I've made from scratch. No knead. Overnight rise. Homemade pizza sauce. Some mozzarella, mostly goat cheese, red onions, roasted red peppers, banana peppers and a swirl of homemade pesto sauce made with home grown basil. Cooked in a Pizzacraft PizzaQue outdoor pizza oven. Yummy.

View attachment 591461

Looks awsome!

 

[mtnagel]

pretty colors. is there some sausage or pepperoni hiding under there somewhere?

Nope. Vegetarian.

Looks awsome!

Thanks!

 

[Schlenkerla]

Best pizza I ever made

View attachment 591289

Can you make one for me now?

 

[koopatrain]

First step for a pizza oven burn the polyurethane out of the barrel. Hopefully get this put together in the next couple of months but I’m not sure when the next day I can get out to the farm is. Planning to use firebricks and refractory cement for insulation with maybe a 304SS sheet metal floor.

 

[schematix]

View attachment 591542

First step for a pizza oven burn the polyurethane out of the barrel. Hopefully get this put together in the next couple of months but I’m not sure when the next day I can get out to the farm is. Planning to use firebricks and refractory cement for insulation with maybe a 304SS sheet metal floor.

Burning plastic. Fantastic.

 

[koopatrain]

Burning plastic. Fantastic.

About a 1mm coating on the bottom of the barrel. But yes, not the best stuff.

 

[applescrap]

My plan is to finally splash out on the blackstone someday

 

[koopatrain]

My plan is to finally splash out on the blackstone someday

I’d love to spend some money in the future. Not at this house, but maybe do a cob oven with tile floor. This should do in the meantime though, all free or used materials.

 

[schematix]

4th pizza in 7 days!!!

 

[matt_m]

We tried the 2-ingredient crust that’s made from Greek yogurt and self rising flour today. Turned out good but the recipe calls for way too much yogurt or cup of flour. I rolled them out pretty thin. Definitely would make it again as it’s healthier than a regular crust and a lot quicker to make.

Also made sauce with fire roasted tomatoes, red pepper, and red onion. Finished on the stove with some garlic and Italian seasoning.

Pizzas were variations of a chicken margarita pizza.

 

[davidabcd]

I made pizza from scratch yesterday and today. The usual reason for two days in a row is I over-prep cheese, sauce, meat and vegetables. I set the oven to 500 and preheated the stone for an hour.
In order, I have 16" round on a screen, a deep dish round 16" and a 10" X 14" deep dish.

 

[applescrap]

I made some pizzas yesterday. Dindnt get pics. Started them at 500 and switched to broiler. Meh. Well cheers to the journey! Then it hit me, salt. The blandness wasnt the cooking, but the seasoning. Dough never stryck me as bland, but I do keep it neutral because sometimes I make cinnamon bread or rolls. Next time I will try to add it on red sauce. For crust, maybe I need to par bake.

 

[Kent88]

I forgot the salt in my dough recently. It was super bland. I feel your pain.

 

[orionol73]

I made pizza from scratch yesterday and today. The usual reason for two days in a row is I over-prep cheese, sauce, meat and vegetables. I set the oven to 500 and preheated the stone for an hour.
In order, I have 16" round on a screen, a deep dish round 16" and a 10" X 14" deep dish.View attachment 591818 View attachment 591821 View attachment 591822

Buddy's style! MMMMMMM

 

[davidabcd]

Buddy's style! MMMMMMM

That's exactly it, the place on Conant and Six Mile (McNichols). There're a few off-shoots as you know and all pretty good.

 

[davidabcd]

Pizza update!

I'm pretty happy with the big three--dough, cheese and sauce--but not perfectly happy. To eliminate the thin layer of semi-cooked dough directly beneath the cheese, I'm going to cook the dough in the pan for five minutes but not on the stone. Then I'm going to dress the pizza and use the stone.
I use the Lipari brick cheese from Eastern Market. I believe a 3:2 ratio of Lipari to Monterey Jack might be useful. I've been doing 2:1 or 3:1.5 of Brick to sharp white cheddar.
I mixed some butter and olive oil (4:1) and greased the pan to sort of fry the crust which is working.
Edit: Square dough is pretty good for rounds on a screen but not ideal.

 

[davidabcd]

I made some pizzas yesterday. Dindnt get pics. Started them at 500 and switched to broiler. Meh. Well cheers to the journey! Then it hit me, salt. The blandness wasnt the cooking, but the seasoning. Dough never stryck me as bland, but I do keep it neutral because sometimes I make cinnamon bread or rolls. Next time I will try to add it on red sauce. For crust, maybe I need to par bake.

You mentioned salt. Made me remember. I've been going to Five Guys burgers for quite a while, like that they cook to order. But the darn things were so bland that I didn't really enjoy.
How I missed that it was salt is beyond me. I salted my last order when I got home and they were great. Still think they should use a grill instead of a flat top but very good.

 

[davidabcd]

Best pizza I ever made

View attachment 591289

I saw your cooling rack. I need to start doing that also to avoid moisture. Nice product!

 

[applescrap]

All good tboughts and great looking pizzas davidabcd. Never had lipari or heard of it. Sounds great.

 

[davidabcd]

Thanks.
Lipari makes a pretty decent brick cheese. I also got Widmer's brick cheese from Wisconsin one time. Great product but not sold here in Michigan so pizza cheese cost would be out the roof. As it is, the brick cheese is around $9 or more.

 

[Hanglow]

pepperoni, mozz/jarlsberg, bit overdone in places. Nice though

 

[Schlenkerla]

I made some pizzas yesterday. Dindnt get pics. Started them at 500 and switched to broiler. Meh. Well cheers to the journey! Then it hit me, salt. The blandness wasnt the cooking, but the seasoning. Dough never stryck me as bland, but I do keep it neutral because sometimes I make cinnamon bread or rolls. Next time I will try to add it on red sauce. For crust, maybe I need to par bake.

A Super hot oven is good in my opinion.

I like thin crust pizza. Healthy though. 1.5 lbs of dough makes 2 pizzas.

I do a 1/3 cup whole wheat 2/3 cup unbleached flour, 7/8 cup of hot water, 2 tablespoons of oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 and tablespoon yeast. Through it all in the bread machine, liquids first then dry stuff. Hit dough cycle.

I use a red sauce with tomato sauce, & paste, garlic, oregano, paprika.

Add toppings and cheese.

Then bake it 575F for exactly 7 minutes on a pizza stone, I mean exactly 7 minutes, 15 seconds too long means black dots on the cheese.

Once out, I paint the crust with oil to make it super crispy.

It's awesome... I don't do it often enough. Not sure why. As for fall, until the snow hits I'm smoking meat.

 

[brewbama]

Three day cold ferment

 

[z-bob]

The pizza I made last week wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that good. (I'm out of practice) Biggest problem was I couldn't find my Old Reliable pizza pan and used a fancy (but cheap) perforated pan -- with my kinda wet dough. I did grease the pan, but that just made it hard to press out the dough. When I baked it, it stuck tight to the pan and I folded a steel spatula trying to get the slices out. I almost threw the pan away, but decided it might still be good for frozen pizzas or something. And I did find my good pan while the pizza was in the oven...

Wife is going out of town next week and I'll be baking pizza every other night, and brewing a couple of times.

 

[applescrap]

Those holes in that crust look nice brewbama.

 

[ba-brewer]

If anyone is in the market for a pizza steel, they have a thinnish one for under $20 on amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NMLKW6Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1​

First attempts with it today, 3 day old cold ferment AP flour dough, 8 mins at 475. Bottoms of some were not too dark but they were fairly crisp, think I should of preheated it longs but was hungry.

 

[applescrap]

Salt, that was it. I put oil on dough and then salted it. My wife kept raving about how good it was. Yet, that was the only thing changed. Also,she pulled them out half cooked. When put back in they got better. I think salt and par cook are what I am looking for. My daughter helped make these and she made a pepperoni face when i wasnt looking.

 

[VApatriot]

Here's another one of my standard pies from last Thursday night.

 

[hotwatermusic]

Been a while. Hey all. Haven't posted but I've been making pies. This is a sourdough made with a fed starter. For good measure I posted a pic of the beer it was accompanied by. My first try at a brut ipa. A little long in the tooth but it is actually aging pretty well....
I'm trying to rehab my starter for bread next weekend. The fed starter has less sd aroma in the crust when split open but behaves a little easier. I did a dumb thing, if you ever reball your dough, you should not under any circumstances coat your dough ball in olive oil for the initial rest. [emoji36]

 

[applescrap]

Par cooked the dough. I think it was better. Really good air structure. More salt in dough but wasnt enough. For the effort, I am so happy with the return. I just slap it on parchment, spread with evoo and throw gloves away.

 

[applescrap]

Made a pan style by spreading dough with evoo. Then par baked and topped. Used cream cheese as topping. I like that soft inside and toasted outside it gets. Had nice crust that made a sweet cracking sound. I liked the no fuss, make one pie, no mess aspect.