The Home Made Pizza Thread

[SEndorf]

Noob question for you experts.....
I bought some premade crust dough at Trader Joes.
Couldn't spread it out into the pan. It just kept receding into itself.
What did I do wrong?

 

[gromitdj]

Noob question for you experts.....
I bought some premade crust dough at Trader Joes.
Couldn't spread it out into the pan. It just kept receding into itself.
What did I do wrong?

I'm no expert, but... Did you take it out of the fridge and immediately start working it? How long did you work the dough? My first assumptions would be that you didn't give it enough time for the gluten to relax at room temperature or you over worked the dough.

I'd let it rest at room temp for an hour or so before shaping. And when shaping, the least amount of handling you can do, the better.

 

[ba-brewer]

No experience with premade dough, but have rushed to use dough before. Some times you need to stretch it out, then allow to sit a few minutes and stretch it some more.

As gromitdj said, allowing more time at room temp to proof will generally relax the dough and allow easier stetching.

 

[SEndorf]

I let it sit at room temp for about 15 minutes. Clearly not enough.
Thank you !

 

[applescrap]

I work dough cold as norm. Yep, just like you discovered it can retract, sometimes almost comically. Also oil I have found makes it slide back. Sometimes I will plan to have it stick in an effort to help it stay spread quickly. Rather than go out for lunch, for example, we might come home and decide on pizza. Little guys hungry and out comes cold dough. Typical scrappy style.

 

[orionol73]

Pan pizza. The night dictated it didn’t get to rise as long as intended

 

[applescrap]

Pan pizza. The night dictated it didn’t get to rise as long as intended
View attachment 633637
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Oh man that looks good. I made 4 the other day to freeze and use dough up. The nice circle pie is what can happen with cold dough. It shrinks and makes thicker pizza. So a few thicker and a few thinner. One was so thin it could be folded by style. It was my favorite.

 

[applescrap]

I make a pizza and then use the parchment too flip it in half and pinch the dough. Flipping ends under a little tip. This one is one end up one down to cover a hole. Tomato sauce with savory pizza seasoning, salt, mozzarella, and three sliced up oscar Meyers all beef franks. The kids were loving them.

 

[applescrap]

I like this technique for thin, also no mess. But, get some weird shapes. Well I made these really thin but we over topped them, especially with a wet ingredient like bell peppers, doh. Not what I had envisioned
Haha, also smoked house out because the sauce and cheese ran over edge. It's one parchment piece over the dough so it is easy to roll.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I was making dinner rolls and thought I need pizza, good thing I had dough and sauce made in the fridge

 

[applescrap]

Made a thin pan pizza, And breadsticks the other day. The breadsticks were just a pizza spread on parchment with chopped up green and purple basil from the garden and evoo. When they came out I brushed them with a little butter. Cut it in long strips across the whole pizza. Tasty.

 

[Hanglow]

Made 8 yesterday, a 48 hour mainly cold fermented dough. dough was very tasty and a bit too extensible for me but I'm not too worried about the shaping as long as it tastes good!

4x marinaras for freezing
1x pepperoni, chillies, buffalo mozz
1x quattro formaggi (manchego, taleggio, parmesan, buffalo mozz) and broccoli. could have used some sort of acidity
1x quattro formaggi with chanterelles and some leftover peperoni/chilli/peppers
1x chantarelle, peppers, buffalo mozz

 

[VApatriot]

Another standard pie from last night.

Dough is 50% KA AP, 50% Caputo 00, ~75% hydration, raised overnight in the fridge.

From the bottom up: dough, Mutti pizza sauce, home grown oregano and basil, hand sliced pepperoni, hand shredded Asiago, hand shredded mozzarella, sliced roasted red bell peppers (from a jar), sauteed Vidalia onions.

 

[rkhanso]

I just tried making pizza on my grill for the first time last night (Costco big blue egg - Pit Boss Kamado grill/smoker). I had the stone heat divertor that came with the grill on the firebox first, then the grate on top of that. Then I put the 2nd tier grate on there, with a 1/4" thick piece of steel to actually cook the pizza on on top of the upper grate. I did this thinking that the pizza up in the top of the dome will be at the highest temp in the grill and that would be better for cooking the top of the pizza and not just the bottom. The thermometer in the dome got up to about 775F.

-The first couple pizzas were OK, but the next 3 got gradually more burnt on the crust. The last one was mostly full-black on the bottom. There was not any beginnings of getting black bubbles on the top of the crust (which I'd like to see a little of). On the last pizza, there was a small area in the middle of the toppings that could have been heated a tiny bit more, even though the bottom was burnt.

The crust was home-made Peter Reinhart recipe that was 72-hour in the fridge version.

Should I change the way I cook the next time? Just get the temps lower (though I've seen videos online where real pizza brick ovens get up to 900F)? Something different?

Sorry, no pictures. They would not have been near as nice as any of them posted in this thread.

 

[applescrap]

I had similar experience with steel on gas, except steel was even closer. I think the pizza between the two in a tight space on the stone could help? Otherwise all my skillet, grill, griddle, pizzas now are cooked, flipped, and then topped and bottom cooked. I would suspect with egg better top cooking maybe lower next time but it will get the bottom quick. I theorize the slim space is key but idk. Hope to see an answer! Until then the flip and top is nice we do it camping too.

 

[Hanglow]

The ovens that hit 900f+ have floors that aren't very conductive, so while they are incredibly hot they don't burn the pizza too quickly. I have a firebrick floor in my WFO and if I got it up to 900f it burns the base within 15 seconds, but at 750f it takes about 2 minutes.

Steel is better suited to kitchen oven temperatures as it is even more conductive, I'd try and keep the temperature of it below 600f

Another thing to consider is the dough, if it has oil or sugar or uses a malted flour then it will burn/brown much quicker than a dough without any of those ingredients

 

[applescrap]

The ovens that hit 900f+ have floors that aren't very conductive, so while they are incredibly hot they don't burn the pizza too quickly. I have a firebrick floor in my WFO and if I got it up to 900f it burns the base within 15 seconds, but at 750f it takes about 2 minutes.

Steel is better suited to kitchen oven temperatures as it is even more conductive, I'd try and keep the temperature of it below 600f

Another thing to consider is the dough, if it has oil or sugar or uses a malted flour then it will burn/brown much quicker than a dough without any of those ingredients

So fire brick on grill instead of steel?! That green egg stone is like fire brick, no? So cook the pizza on it?! Iirc I have seen videos of people fashioning pizza ovens on grills with fire bricks.

 

[Hanglow]

It should certainly be less conductive than steel, although I think cordierite is between the two if it's made of that

 

[davidabcd]

Another standard pie from last night View attachment 637850

The pepperoni and jalapeno looks great.

 

[applescrap]

Salchicha pies. Two big ones.

 

[elgatovolador]

Starting to venture into napoletan style pizza.

I’ve been making more pizza than beer...this needs to change soon.

Pie #1

Pie #2

 

[davidabcd]

I used a six-burner, propane grill to cook some Detroit style pizzas (3 small square and one large). I put four in a row on low and two on high and adjusted to keep the pizzas at 520 for ten minutes. I put the pizzas over the burners on low.
They turned out really well; unfortunately, I didn't take any photos so this never happened.

 

[ba-brewer]

Salchicha pies. Two big ones. View attachment 638825View attachment 638826

I did a quick google on Salchicha but not really helpful, is that some kind of sausage or just a nice name for hot dog?

 

[applescrap]

I did a quick google on Salchicha but not really helpful, is that some kind of sausage or just a nice name for hot dog?

Spanish for sausage/hot dog one of my favorite words. In Mexico we were looking for the hot dogs and salchicha entered vocab.

 

[ericbw]

Dough on Monday; pizza on Weds. my wife and I stretched the dough in pans, then let everyone top them. (We have homegrown shishitos that are going crazy.)

With the oven at 550, it takes about 15 minutes. There was one directly on a stone, and the rest were in oiled pans set on the stones.

 

[applescrap]

Dough on Monday; pizza on Weds. my wife and I stretched the dough in pans, then let everyone top them. (We have homegrown shipoopyos that are going crazy.)

With the oven at 550, it takes about 15 minutes. There was one directly on a stone, and the rest were in oiled pans set on the stones.

View attachment 639343View attachment 639344
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That crust looks fantastic. Anything in the dough that helped it brown?

 

[applescrap]

As I learn more about diastatic malt powder apparently the amylase breaks down starches into sugar. The sugar then browning I assume. So I wonder, what would happen with a pinch of glucoamylase in pizza dough? Anyone know? Thanks as always.

 

[Bryggeri]

Pizza making.com, great source, the homebrewtalk of pizza. Pros, unbelievable home pizza makers and the dough doctor.

 

[applescrap]

My mom came over and was hungry so I whipped up this pie. Par cooked gave the crust color. Thanks for the tip. I need to check that site out. I spent a lot of time on the deep dish site and enjoyed it.

 

[orionol73]

That crust looks fantastic. Anything in the dough that helped it brown?

Sugar always helps

 

[applescrap]

I'm circling. It wont be long. The Napoli is affordable, dual fueled and inexpensive. I think I can get an uuni3 for inexpensive but I dont like door. Anybody have any of these. Need some help picking.

I am understanding my white crust more and more. My dough has no sugar in it and then can sit in fridge after rising for 14 days. So not a whole lot of sugar left to brown.

https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/05/best-backyard-pizza-ovens-review.html

 

[ericbw]

That crust looks fantastic. Anything in the dough that helped it brown?

It has sugar in it, but not much. I think the longer it sits in the fridge the less browning. High heat helps.

Btw, it’s Shishito not shipoopyo. Friggin auto correct.

 

[brewbama]

Tonight’s Pie

 

[applescrap]

It has sugar in it, but not much. I think the longer it sits in the fridge the less browning. High heat helps.

Btw, it’s Shipoopyo not shipoopyo. Friggin auto correct.

Exactly my thinking at this point. After a 2 hour rise and 2 weeks in the fridge, there isnt a whole lot of sugar left in the dough, if any. Also I wonder if added sugar would make it 2 weeks, so that's why I went with dmp.

So got it today. Wow Amazon. Kneaded it into a few pies and my wife and i agree that it tasted better. I fear perception bias. But even with only a quick knead in, the dough seemed to have a richer taste and crumb. My wife said it tasted more professional/commercial. Made a non malt pie and it tasted dry like something missing. Wasnt as good. New bucket whipped up so I will update more later,but for lower temp browning and long fridge ferments some specialty thinking seems necessary.

 

[applescrap]

Tonight’s Pie

Good color on this one. Looks tasty. What's on it?

 

[brewbama]

Lots of mozzarella, pepperoni, and bacon. My wife calls it burnt. I call it awesome.

 

[VApatriot]

I haven't read every post on this thread so I don't know if this has been posted before or not. So if it has, my apologies. Having lived outside Chicago for about a year, I've always liked Giordano's stuffed pizzas. The site in the link below has some good info / recipes. I'm still working on perfecting a stuffed pie like Giordano's makes. I still haven't figured out quite how they get their crust more like pastry than bread. Anyway, I thought this might be good here because, you know, pizza is great but even better when you made it yourself.

http://www.realdeepdish.com/

 

[applescrap]

I haven't read every post on this thread so I don't know if this has been posted before or not. So if it has, my apologies. Having lived outside Chicago for about a year, I've always liked Giordano's stuffed pizzas. The site in the link below has some good info / recipes. I'm still working on perfecting a stuffed pie like Giordano's makes. I still haven't figured out quite how they get their crust more like pastry than bread. Anyway, I thought this might be good here because, you know, pizza is great but even better when you made it yourself.

http://www.realdeepdish.com/

It has, but no apologies necessary, thanks from me would be better. That is one of my favorite sites ever. And it is great to be reminded and shared with others. Especially since it is a long thread. You can also find my beautiful Chicago pies. Not their crust like you are describing though. Search the thread for deep dish or Chicago and you will see them. I love them. My kids and wife have banded together in a no deep dish love and it broke my heart and havent made one since. But maybe it's time to sneak one in I would guess his recipe would make what you are looking for, but dunno. I have heard pilsberry, and iirc croissant (or some other dough cant think of). Great crust with longer bake. I followed his instructions to a t and it really did make a great pie! Hope you share some pics! I will probably find and post those pics if anyone would like.

 

[beernutz]

My kids gave me a pizza stone, peel, and cutter for father's day. My wife and I christened them with a fresh mozzarella and home grown cherry tomato and basil pie cooked on a RecTec pellet smoker. It was pretty good for my first smoker pizza. Ignore that jar of Ragu on the counter.

 

[Jwin]

Been a while but I'm still slinging...
I've been experimenting with some light dme mixed with my flour/cornmeal mix I use to stretch with.
It's early but promising results with browning. I think at this scale, I need more dme than I was initially comfortable with.
DME in the dough doesn't seem to help in long ferments and I doubt you could put enough in to matter without making a super sweet dough....
Also, I want to try using some potato starch I'm my dust. I've been using it for fried chicken and it stays crispy for *days*. See Korean fried chicken. Wonder what it will impart on the crust.

Exactly my thinking at this point. After a 2 hour rise and 2 weeks in the fridge, there isnt a whole lot of sugar left in the dough, if any. Also I wonder if added sugar would make it 2 weeks, so that's why I went with dmp.

So got it today. Wow Amazon. Kneaded it into a few pies and my wife and i agree that it tasted better. I fear perception bias. But even with only a quick knead in, the dough seemed to have a richer taste and crumb. My wife said it tasted more professional/commercial. Made a non malt pie and it tasted dry like something missing. Wasnt as good. New bucket whipped up so I will update more later,but for lower temp browning and long fridge ferments some specialty thinking seems necessary.