The Home Made Pizza Thread

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bottlebomber said:
Unfortunately in my experience what is good for the crust is not always good for the cheese. In a 750°+ oven the crust more or less flash bakes and it works out. But in a 550° oven it takes longer and it gives the cheese time to overcook and lose all its moisture, giving you rubbery cheese. This is especially true of fresh mozzerella where it hasn't been in contact with the enzymes long enough for the proteins to sufficiently weaken. I can't always add cheese later because if I put the pizza in with no toppings it will turn into a giant pita bread. This is basically the one issue I still struggle with in my pizza baking. I need to do a pizza oven build.
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talk about first world problems. I feel for you buddy, hang in there...
 
ChugachBrewing said:
There are several things that can help you out. Great results with both methods.

1. Bake as high as your oven goes. put the stone in the BOTTOM of the oven. This will allow the crust to char from the direct heat of the element, as well as keep the cheese away from the semi-heat-reflective oven top. this results in a crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside crust.

2. Option 2. Bake on a screen rather than a stone. Preheat oven as high as possible. pre bake crust for 6 min on 2nd to top rack. top quickly, bake for 5-6 more minutes. broil 1-2 min on high to finish it off. If you start to get the "pita, poke a few holes as it starts to rise.

Both of these methods have produced the best pizza I've ever had - and I'm a monster of a critic.
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Cooks illustrated says that you put the rack at the top with the stone, creating a pizza oven type shape. Pre heat oven to 500 for 45 minutes and cook for ten. This is what I do and it comes out perfect every time. And I use fresh mozzarella along with about 1/4 lb parmesan.

An old retired Italian pizza maker once told me that everything that goes on a pizza should cook on the pizza and not before.
 
HoppyDaze said:
forgive me, but this is confusing
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It confuses me too, but I am familiar with the Cooks technique. Basically the pizza stone is placed on the top rack so that the dome shape of a real pizza oven is approximated with the radiant heat of the top of the oven coming into play. Oven is preheated to it's max temp for at least 45 minutes. And then according to what I remember the pizzas are baked with the oven on broil.
 
Methods tend to change over time, and it all comes down to what you're cooking in. While I am an avid fan of Cooks' Illustrated, I find their method to be disappointing and have varying results - mostly failure compared to other methods.

I'm not saying either of those are the only way to do it, they just produce the best pies I've eaten - and tried the method on several ovens. The pre-bake does allow some quick spring where normally there might be none due to topping weight.

The method I'd like to try is a stone for the pie, with "bakers steel" above to get more radiant heat. I've heard good things.
 
Typically, 00 flour is used in Neapolitan pizza in a wood fired oven and baked at 800° or so for about 90 seconds or so, which gives it a unique texture and flavor that you're not likely to get from a home oven. That's why they make mid and hi-gluten bread flour. Give it a try though. Turn the oven up all the way and preheat your stone well. Maybe it'll be just what you're hoping for. If not, you can blend it with a hi-gluten flour like All Trumps. Good luck!
 
HoppyDaze said:
So cook the pizza on top rack on broil? Seems like it would burn in a minute...
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Seems like it would, but it doesn't. At worst it will give you a couple of bad ass looking char marks on the crust as long as you keep on top of it. I usually give them one little rotation halfway through. You must have a pizza stone. I have a steel now, and it works even better. When it's that hot and you have a good preheated stone the pizza gets past the doughy stage in probably 2 minutes. Give it a shot.
 
Best results I've had in my oven without any special pizza making equipment is turning the oven on the highest it will go, pizza slapped down on a cookie sheet with cornmeal, bottom rack for 4 minutes, then move to higher rack for 4 minutes. In the first half it'll smoke and complain but it turns out good for what it is - nice crunch, not burnt.
 
Chuginator said:
Best results I've had in my oven without any special pizza making equipment is turning the oven on the highest it will go, pizza slapped down on a cookie sheet with cornmeal, bottom rack for 4 minutes, then move to higher rack for 4 minutes. In the first half it'll smoke and complain but it turns out good for what it is - nice crunch, not burnt.
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I've heard of people starting it directly on the bottom of a clean oven, and then moving it up. It's not a technique I've used for pizza, but I've baked pies on the oven floor.
 
bottlebomber said:
Seems like it would, but it doesn't. At worst it will give you a couple of bad ass looking char marks on the crust as long as you keep on top of it. I usually give them one little rotation halfway through. You must have a pizza stone. I have a steel now, and it works even better. When it's that hot and you have a good preheated stone the pizza gets past the doughy stage in probably 2 minutes. Give it a shot.
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I never tried it on broil (I don't remember seeing that, though I do remember "the hotter the better"). Though I am happy with the way things turn out now.
 
One other tidbit, if no one else has mentioned it. The flour the pizza joints use is Stone Ground. The flour that I found that is most readily available and least expensive is Red Mill. I noticed a drastic improvement in my crust when I switched to this brand from whatever other supermarket brand I was using.
 
Speaking flour: King Arthur - Sir Lancelot High Gluten is amazing flour for both bread and pizza. I source it at a wholesale store locally for $20/ 50lb. If you're in New England or close, you might give that a try...
 
I made some pizza tonight for the first time since new years eve. I decided to blow the dust off my home made portable oven that I take camping at festivals. I didn't use it at all last year, so figured I'd give it a spin.

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Holy crap Evets, those pictures are pure pizza porn, my friend.

What's the deal though - no pizza since New Years Eve? Were you sick? Just burned out on pizza? Too inconvenient due to weather? Inquiring minds want to know!
 
Man.... that one that's just cheese and sausage has me drooling into my coffee mug. This won't be a healthy eating day.
 
What if you have no pizza stone?

I've posted this to another forum also and I no longer use my pizza stone as this method is far superior in my situation.

I recently picked up a great tip for making home pizza from those two pizza guys on food network(UK).

The tip is to cook your pizza on a dry pan before finishing it under the grill(US=broiler).

Basically by cooking on a dry pan you get a great crispy crust with some small burned parts just like with a stone oven pizza, then flash it under the grill to melt the toppings.

I have a pizza stone, but this is my new method, I am not bothering with the pizza stone anymore as it is not as good as this method by a long shot.

My recipe for base is
600g strong flour
1TSP salt
2tbsp Olive oil
25g fresh yeast
2TBSP sugar
100ml boiling water, to melt sugar,
200ml cold water to cool the previous 100ml hot.

Mix the sugar water and yeast, don't put yeast in the very hot water. Let that to stand for a few minutes then add the olive oil then add to the flour and salt and mix. I use the dough hook to knead for ten minutes on my mixer, then let proof once and then make your bases.

Put that straight onto a hot pan and then build your pizza on this whilst the base is browning, then under the grill. Keep an eye on the base not going too far.

I also got a tip on sauce from them, simply open a tin of tomatoes (they prefer san marzano) then crush them by hand, leave a little few bits and pieces and then season it, that is all.

BEST PIZZA EVER, seriously, try it.


Here's one I did for the kids recently, it was a small one and I didn't photograph mine.

IMAG0544.jpg
 
Chuginator said:
Holy crap Evets, those pictures are pure pizza porn, my friend.

What's the deal though - no pizza since New Years Eve? Were you sick? Just burned out on pizza? Too inconvenient due to weather? Inquiring minds want to know!
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Thanks for the compliments.

To answer your question; SWMBO(need I say more?) put us on a diet. I did lose 15 pounds or so though, so I guess it's not all bad. Plus, I still hang out at my friend, Normas' one day at week, farmers market pizza stand every Tuesday, so it's not like I'm totally on the wagon. ;)
 
I think I'm going to return that 00 flour until I can get a stove that reaches those temperatures. Amazon, gotta love it.
 
Yeah, I think Caputo is pretty much the industry standard, but there are other brands. In fact General Mills recently came out with a 00 Neapolitan pizza flour. They sent me a 50# bag for free to try out. It was pretty good, I thought. I had to modify my dough a little to get close to the results I get with Caputo. I've never actually seen it for sale anywhere, but I haven't really looked either.
 
Evets said:
Yeah, I think Caputo is pretty much the industry standard, but there are other brands. In fact General Mills recently came out with a 00 Neapolitan pizza flour. They sent me a 50# bag for free to try out. It was pretty good, I thought. I had to modify my dough a little to get close to the results I get with Caputo. I've never actually seen it for sale anywhere, but I haven't really looked either.
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I tried getting a free bag after you mentioned that awhile back. They called me back and were ready to send me one until they found out I wasnt using it commercially :D
 
Evets said:
I made some pizza tonight for the first time since new years eve. I decided to blow the dust off my home made portable oven that I take camping at festivals. I didn't use it at all last year, so figured I'd give it a spin.
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Do you have a build thread for your portable oven?
 
Made 3 pies tonight with Chef's mighty sourdough. The first one was pepperoni and fresh chopped white onions. The second was sauteed white onions, peppers, and tomatoes. The third is the same as the second, but the dough was pre cooked 2 minutes. The last was the best, but they were all good. I used the bottom of the oven tip, worked wonders on the last one.

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rockinmarty said:
Do you have a build thread for your portable oven?
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Not really a build thread, but I did take a few pics of the components. The first pic shows the underside of the lid/dome. I fastened firebrick splits with the old cooking grate. The cooking deck(firebrick splits) sits on the old charcoal grate which I moved up near the top edge and supported with all-thread rods. there's an open area in the back where small chunks of wood provide heat to cook the top. The middle section is a piece of 18 gauge flat stock bent into shape and coated with a mixture of Portland and pearlite, as is the top.

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Evets said:
Not really a build thread, but I did take a few pics of the components. The first pic shows the underside of the lid/dome. I fastened firebrick splits with the old cooking grate. The cooking deck(firebrick splits) sits on the old charcoal grate which I moved up near the top edge and supported with all-thread rods. there's an open area in the back where small chunks of wood provide heat to cook the top. The middle section is a piece of 18 gauge flat stock bent into shape and coated with a mixture of Portland and pearlite, as is the top.
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Nice. Thanks for sharing the photos.
 

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