Pizza night at la Casa de Matt

[user 22118]

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

 

[user 22118]

just put the pizza in and it looks great and awesome

 

[davebl]

Keep us updated

 

[user 22118]

Pizza out of the oven and another in


Click for bigger

 

[Yooper]

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.

 

[davebl]

very nice!

 

[Zen_Brew]

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

 

[eschatz]

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

 

[MeatyPortion]

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

 

[user 22118]

Another out and the last going in now.


Click for bigger as well

 

[user 22118]

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.

 

[user 22118]

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

 

[RayInUT]

No pizza stone?

 

[user 22118]

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.

 

[user 22118]

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

 

[Zen_Brew]

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

 

[RayInUT]

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.

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.

 

[user 22118]

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.

 

[Zen_Brew]

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.

 

[RayInUT]

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.

 

[thataintchicken]

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

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

 

[Uncle Argyle]

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

 

[MMW]

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.

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.

 

[RayInUT]

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.

 

[user 22118]

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

 

[thataintchicken]

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

 

[Uncle Argyle]

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.

 

[bubbachunk]

Would you mind posting your dough recipe?

 

[Hugh_Jass]

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.

 

[Uncle Argyle]

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.