The Home Made Pizza Thread

+1 try no knead method.

 

That’s a solid looking pizza. Great color.

 

Ok well for what ever reason I thought you HAD to get that gluten developed by kneading it. I'll give the no knead method a shot and see what happens.
so you are mixing and just letting it set. separate into size of ball you want roll or toss to get the skin at the size and shap you want and THEN let it rise again like making bread?

I'll give it a shot.

Cheers
Jay

 

Thanks! They taste good! I just want to perfect MY pizza. Who knew there was so much involved in making a scratch pizza?
You have to start with a good dough recipe and get that right.
Then you have to have a good sauce recipe AND get that right
Then you have to apply a good solid selection of toppings AND get that right
THEN you have to cook it right

Screw up on any 1 of those and...WELL you still have a pizza.... Baaahhhaaaaaaaa!!!

Man I had no idea the rabbit hole was so deep! LOL

Cheers
Jay

 

what's even worse it can change every pizza just like beer

 

Changed that for ya...LOL

Cheers
Jay

 

Even with no knead you’ll get gluten development. But the web structure is much more course, which is how you get the big bubbles (and rustic look). I find it’s not strong enough to spin (but I do high hydration). I usually make a disk then toss it around on my knuckles until I feel like I’m losing control of it then get it down on the peel.

Sounds easy when you put it that way. Still trying to get even 1 of those right. Feel like I’m closest on the sauce and overall I make a good pizza but I don’t think it’s something I’d pay someone else $10-20 for. I think the oven is the most important and hardest to get right.

 

Tell me about it! It's been a very hard road to get them right. They cook in about 2-3 min in this thing. I am finding myself actually turning the oven temps down and trying to get the dough to cook a little slower.

CHeers
Jay

 

Watch a bunch of videos on stretching out the dough and I got a lil bit better however still can’t get them as round as I’d like. I am using store bought dough and letting it proof, so I bet that’s the main issue.

 

Sausage, caramelized onions, arugula, and fresh mozzarella. I hand toss the dough and cook in a 500 degree oven on convection bake setting.

 

Never actually used the convection setting in my oven. How long do you warm the oven/pizza stone for on convection?

 

White sauce base, onions, portuguese chorizo, foraged chantarelles, touch of gorgonzola




evoo, mozzarella, foraged winter chantarelles, portuguese chorizo.

 

Getting there! Used the no Knead method! That's AWESOME! THANKS ALL!
I am leaning how to better use my Kizza oven also. I turned the temps down a bit. I am running about 600* stone temp and 800* top temps and I think it cooks better! A LOT BETTER!
Cheers
Jay

 

A couple from yesterday.



I also wondered what that burning plastic smell was...oops!

 

Must have been pizza day yesterday!

 

EVERYDAY IS A GOOD PIZZA DAY! LOL

Do any of you guys add spices to your dough? I added Italian seasoning to mine yesterday and REALLY prefer the straight oregano over the mixed.

Cheers
Jay

 

I don't. I'm trying to work on my Neopolitan style pizzas, which requires something similar to the Reinheitsgebot... Flour, Water, Salt, and Yeast only.

 

I like a little garlic in mine but that's it

 

Awesome Jaybird. Those temps sound right on. Coming in late, the no knead or a ferment of some kind was the answer. If refrigerated, letting it come to temp and gently working it is key. Plus strong heat, i wonder is also a factor. You have that covered with that sweet pizza oven. I am learning ingredients are important. The better the sauce, mozzarella, and toppings, the better the pie.

 

ok. Well the no Knead method is amazing! This is absolutely the best pie I have made to date. Dough was totally on point if what I want. Flavor and crunch and big massive air pockets! I am LOVING this dough! I also learned the parchment paper trick as well. Makes handeling the pizza durring prep so easy! Total game changer!
I also tried my hand at a white sauce for the first time. Freeken to die for!
This is the first pizza I would say I would spend $$ on that I made.

Sorry for the blurry pict!

Cheers
Jay

 

Starting to get the hang of it! Making my all time favorite pizza. A local hole in the wall General Store would make this and I haven’t had a pizza quite as delicious since. Appropriately named El Diablo, its a white pizza with minced garlic, pepperoni, hot cappocolo, red pepper flakes and jalapeño slices, all covered under a blanket of mozzarella. Sadly, that place has closed down so thankfully I partook in enough of that pie to recreate it.



Baked at 550 on a stone:


And the original El Diablo:

 

This was a same day dough with 20% white spelt. made for very nice pizzas. made 6 in total, here's a few

 

I have not made homemade pizza in a couple of years. The dough I make is 2 cups of bread flour, 1 cup of water, a tablespoon of oil, yeast, and salt. (can't remember if it's 1/2 tsp or full tsp of salt.) I want to make one tonight because it's cool enough to use the oven, and I don't have bread flour. I wonder what happens if I use all-purpose? Probably will need a little less water and a lot more kneading. With bread flour, I hardly knead it at all and let the yeast ripen it.

 

Try it. You'll know why you don't for next time

I find it's OK to use King Arthur AP flour for pizza because that stuff is borderline bread flour compared to the standard national brands. But i don't use regular mass market AP flour for pizza because it tends to tear and is too soft.

It can work but it's not ideal.

 

Sorry for the delay. My notifications aren’t working.

I hear the oven for ~45 minutes before I start assembling the pizza.

 

Thanks. That's what I decided already. I bought a 5-pounder of bread flour today and will make pizza tomorrow or the next day instead of tonight. (eating leftovers tonight to get rid of them. That's good too)

 

I make a greek pizza that gets rave reviews.. I start with a "from scratch" olive oil bread dough recipe. (well actually, it is a modified bread dough recipe that works well as a pizza crust. Essentially, it is a stickier dough that crisps up well on the bottom when cooked in a heavy pan with olive oil.) I let it rise once, then I cut two portions out of it and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. I just use off the shelf pizza sauce and a pre-shredded pizza cheese blend.

Then of course all the toppings that a classic greek pizza would have. I bake in a 450F oven in a large pre-heated cast iron skillet with Olive oil. I blind bake my crust for a bit, pull it out, add sauce and all toppings, then bake again till bubbly! A 5 or 10 min cool down and it's good to go! Wish I could find the pics of my last round.

I do the same thing for my kids... but I make a half and half cheese/pepperoni pizza for them.

BTW... this pizza thing is just as fun as beer making. although I don't do much anymore, I had some fun experimenting with dough recipes and with toppings. I made a lot of Pizza.

The same can be said about wings. I've lost count of how many wing recipe variations I tried.

 

Before I acquired my Caputo 00, AP flour is all I used. Both King Arthur and Store Brand. I believe AP flour is what Peter Reinhart recommends in American Pie as a replacement for Italian 00.

In my opinion, 100% bread flour brings too much gluten to the party.

 

What style pizza are you usually making ?

 

Maybe that's the thing. I'm trying to recreate a neopolitan pizza. In any of my posts prior to the last 2 (which were Caputo 00), all of my doughs were made with AP.

 

Pretty much same ratios as mine i think, less yeast for longer rise, more for quicker. Yes a full tsp is right, thats a good starting point, adjust up from there.

 

most of the best italian flour producers sell differing strengths of flour depending on the desire fermentation times, so you use weaker flour for say a quick same day dough, up to ones that hold up to well over a day at room temp fermentation, or many days in the fridge

eg
http://www.molinodenti.it/en/farine/pizza/
https://www.molinograssi.it/i-nostri-prodotti/uso-professionale/per-la-pizza.html/

I've recently been using the calbal calculator, which is quite cool as it tells you the best strength of flour to use with whatever fermentation you are doing. unfortunately only italian flours tend to tell you the actual strength of the flour, but you can find rough conversions for flours from other countries
http://www.calbal.altervista.org/

i only have one italian 00 flour that is bread flour strength, then i mix in british flours depending on how long i'm letting the dough ferment

 

Wont be long now

 

Wife is going out of town this week.
My oldest was devastated when I told him we weren’t doing pizza every day while she was gone.

 

Still struggling with temps. I am going to go back to 550 degrees and then try finishing crust under broiler. The first one was ok, rest hit and miss. Light on cheese and that didnt help. Some were thick, others were thin. I liked them both for different reasons.

 

I'm getting excited about making pizza soon. Sent my mixer in for repair and will get it back in about a week.
In the meantime, I'm refining my cheese blend, deciding which oven rack position is best for cooking the pizza and trying to make my sauce as simple as possible.
Someone asked earlier about adding spices to the dough. I have the exact question. Garlic powder? Onion powder? More salt?
Anyone know what adding those spices might do to the dough?
Great photos, everyone!

 

I was reading about adding garlic on pizza making.com and apparently both it and onions have the effect of making the dough softer and more extensible when added at a rate above 0.15% of the flour weight. It's probably more of an issue for commercial pizza makers though.

As for salt I like it at about 3% flour weight, which is more than most recipes but seems about right for most neapolitan recipes. Really depends on the type of pizza you make and personal preference

 

I made pizza dough this morning before church; left it on the counter to rise. I used a full tsp of salt and a tsp of yeast. I used all bread flour, but I didn't knead it any more than what was necessary to mix it. It makes a good "medium" thickness crust that way. The dough is way too soft to do anything with right now, so I put it in the fridge to ripen some more and to stiffen it up from the cold. Will bake it tonight with hard salami, hot pepper slices fresh from the garden, and maybe some canned mushroom stems & pieces.

 

Good looking pies Applescrap

 

Hmm. Curious.... What did you put on the grill grates?