The Home Made Pizza Thread

[applescrap]

^^thanks for the thoughts, the oven is 500, I guess I can set it at 550 too. Sometimes I dont let it preheat long enough. Its a convection oven and i have done both. Havent really documented very well. I dont know where heat comes from but on bake it seems the steel on the bottom shelf works better but I dont know. I have brushed crust and used to brush the whole pizza lightly. Dont know why I stopped that. Anyways, I wonder if the artisan bread recipe has something to do with it. Or lack of sugar and oil in dough. Haha, I am totally using the pin.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

500 is pretty darn hot for the kitchen range. ( I'm not a fan of burnt crust, browned is great, black is not ) Letting it fully preheat may help. I have a thin stone and if I don't let it preheat at least 20 mins my bottom crust doesn't brown. I haven't used a convection oven, but with the air circulating, moving it to the top shouldn't matter.

 

[Jwin]

I took some dough and ingredients to my mom's around Thanksgiving and made a few pies for the family.
She had a convection oven. I had almost no color to the crust and the cheese was browning.
I fully utilize the bottom burner in my old school oven to get the crust crisp and brown.
Depending on the crust thickness, I will either finish it two slots above the burner on the rack or drop it there after the stone, pull and cool the pie and then finish on the stone(NY street style, as the double bake has a lot more to do with it than some ppl give credit).
No oil and to much flour will also contribute to pale crust. Too low hydration can as well. 55-60% is where I stay, personally. Higher or lower if doing pan or stuffed pan, respectfully.
If your oven has a broiler, you could put your stone on the next to top rack. Preheat. Switch to broil a minute or two before loading. Load pie on the rack below the stone on a quality screen(the larger the preforation, the better. Finish on the stone under the broiler.
The pie being under the stone will limit air flow, there by limiting top bake, allowing some melt left for the broiler. The radiant heat will allow the dough to still bake well as you are just limiting circulation, not temperature. Meanwhile, the stone will get plenty hot under the broiler.
Note, once you hit the broiler, pay close attention. I would crank it to 550 for the preheat.
Also, make sure you keep all moisture away from your stone. NO WATER EVER.
If you put a previously wet stone under a broiler, it will most likely break. There is still a greater chance of it breaking by putting it under the broiler and I refuse to be held responsible.
No worries with a steel.
Another option would be to sandwich the pie between two stones(on one, below another).
The general rule of thumb with pizza/bread and convection is time=bake temp=color IIRC.
Here's a short write-up of using the broiler and a steel in a convection oven.
http://www.bakingsteel.com/blog/perfect-pizza-using-baking-steel-broiler-method

Good luck!

 

[schematix]

Whats your dough fermentation process?

I rock my oven at 550F and i don't think its hot enough. My last oven was easy to override and i could get it up to 650F easily. Made GREAT pizza. My current oven is gas too, which sucks. Love the gas range but gas ovens are the devil when it comes to browning since it's moist heat. This was all with a stone.

Things are greatly different with a steel. 500+ will blacken crust in under 3 minutes so you need to be very careful.

 

[Dcpcooks]

my pizza dough always ends up too crispy, I use 50/50 bread dough/normal flour, it is very good and bread like just a bit stiff, Id like to make it more flexible, maybe the normal flour has baking powder in it?

Try cooking hotter for a shorter period of time. May help

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I've got got figured out now, the right pan for the oven makes a huge difference

 

[Hanglow]

My first ever attempt at pizza romana

I seem to have only taken pictures of the badly shaped ones, the other few I made were round. honest.
dough was

100% Molina grassi 00 -first time using this, made a lovely dough imo
61% water
2.8% salt
0.2% IDY
glug of EVOO

balled straight away, 12CF + 2 hours to come to rt . Each dough ball was 180g, so was pretty thin. Next time I'll top it up to the rim as you can see it bubbled underneath where it wasn't topped

various badly added toppings

Mozzarella, scamorza, jarlsberg, ricotta, parmesan, olives, pesto, chilli, fried aubergine and mushrooms, sweet peppers, salami milano, evoo, pepper. I think that's it

 

[Jwin]

(mostly)Sourdough and Italian yeast dough.
Made soughdough poolish last Sunday, dough Monday, balled on Wednesday.
I did an experiment on baking position
Long story short, starting on the stone and finishing below the stone over direct heat(no screen) yields far superior bake n my personal setup.
Pies were olive oil, garlic, poly-o moz, ricotta, San Marzano sauce, more oil
And SM sauce, pep mush and Polly o
A bit of GFS moz on the second

 

[applescrap]

@Jwin solid tips, much appreciated. Screen is great idea. How do parchment and screen compare? Tonight we are babysitting friends kids so we let them make pies. And I noticed the girl rubbed sauce all over crust and it browned well!? So dont know about that. Convection was clearly problematic and this crust is so much better and airy. I let it sit out of the fridge longer and it was a wetter dough. Look forward to trying broiler and above tips soon. A little oil in dough or spread, starting under steel, maybe screen. Didntvquite understand double bake method. Could you expand a little on that, please? Thanks again

 

[Jwin]

Sure
So, as far a NY street slices go...
If you grab a slice on the street, it is on display as being just barely underbaked and it is reheated/baked a second time after cooling. The cell structure of the dough is there, the melt is done, but it's not fully browned.
It's akin this to double frying, where you pull the food being fried shortly before completion but after the exterior is done, cool for a moment, then fry again.
Both allow a bit of steam/moisture to escape the product, allowing for a crisper crust/exterior.
Also, not all screens are equal.
I personally love these screens, see attachment. Never had a pie stick to one once seasoned. Excellent for any heating in the oven of bread or breaded items as well.
I believe they are called quick discs. Lots of air flow and they get hot fast, due to material and less mass(I assume).

Happy slappin.

Edit,
Never used parchment for pies
It's rated for 400-450. I'm use I'd find a way to catch it on fire at 550
Between the screens, stone and direct heat, I've never felt it was needed.
I just build my pies on the screens like hundreds of thousands of other pizza places do.

 

[hotwatermusic]

Got a KA mixer for Xmas and finally used it for pizza dough. Made a quadruple batch with it. The gluten development was great. Would have cramped up hand mixer to get the equivalent.

my wife is the BEST!

 

[Homercidal]

We made a couple of pies the other day. The crust was decent. Bready, but just a bit salty. I'd probably cut the salt in half next time and maybe add a ring of cheese around the outside.

We tried a small jar of "white pizza sauce" from the store. I didn't care for it. Plain alfredo sauce is better IMO.

I'm still struggling with how to spread the dough out. It's stretchy and keeps springing back! I need to find a trick.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

this was my huge 3 person pizza, you cant really see how loaded it is I think i was a 19" 2 pound pizza

 

[gromitdj]

<snip> ...I'm still struggling with how to spread the dough out. It's stretchy and keeps springing back! I need to find a trick.

In my experience, if the dough is too "springy" you're handling it too much, not giving it enough rest time, or a combination of both. My dough balls sit at room temp. for a couple of hours before I'm baking them and when I shape the pies, I try to handle them as little as possible.

Also, I think a higher hydration percentage helped me.

 

[schematix]

A long rest in the fridge helps to relax the dough. When I take it out I make a 6” round and let it rise/warm for another hour. By then it’s relaxed enough to go all the way.

 

[hotwatermusic]

...or oil. It's an easy way to make a change through recipe formulation. A half a percent increase should give a noticeable difference.

 

[brewbama]

One of today’s pies using this dough recipe: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/same-day-pizza-dough-51132621

 

[applescrap]

Pizza! The kids made these, and I don't know why I cut them then pictures. They were really thin crust and really good. I finished them on the steel without the parchment. I used a little more cheese and I think that's why I haven't enjoyed the pizza as much. I think they needed more. My four-year-old did a very good job spreading the sauce on her Pizza. I really like the mini pepperonis

.

 

[Jwin]

Went deep with sourdough in a 14 inch cast iron tonight. 6 day old dough. Cold proof followed by a 4 hours warm rise in 110° oven. Parbaked with sauce on it for 5 minutes at 550.
Topped, dropped to 425.
Cooked underneath a stone for ~12 minutes until top was browned well, covered and turn off the oven and let rest for another 15 or so.
Three toppings, can you guess what they are?
Quarter placed for scale.

 

[JPBrewLI]

Glad i stumbled on this thread. I've been making pizza for about 8 years now.
Been using the same san francisco sour dough starter though out most of my experiments with different stones and ovens.
I dug up some pics of the past pies and equipment as i don't take pictures of them much anymore.

 

[Evets]

Nice pies! Soapstone?

 

[JPBrewLI]

Nice pies! Soapstone?

Yes thanks, my favorite one. It's heavy but better in everyway than the others i've used 16x16x1.
I like that oven in your avatar, i had to settle for the mini weber wood pellet fired grill insert you see there.

 

[applescrap]

Wow jwin, awesome as always and the clever cooking process helped my pies too.

Welcome jpbrewli.

 

[hotwatermusic]

Made a couple pizzas and pretzels for the eagles game.

the first one is dandelion leaves, porcini, gorgonzola, truffle oil, and f Brady. The second is pickled peppers and suck it belichek. Both were perfect.[emoji12]

 

[Kent88]

Ok, @applescrap your username has been bugging me. Is it "apple scrap" like maybe the cores and the skins, or is it "apples crap", like what you'd say if you really didn't feel like having a bunch of apples and someone brings home a bushel or so. Or is it something completely different?

Its like "Pets Mart"/"Pet Smart", I can't figure it out and it bugs me.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Ok, @applescrap your username has been bugging me. Is it "apple scrap" like maybe the cores and the skins, or is it "apples crap", like what you'd say if you really didn't feel like having a bunch of apples and someone brings home a bushel or so. Or is it something completely different?

Its like "Pets Mart"/"Pet Smart", I can't figure it out and it bugs me.

Asking the questions we all want to know!

 

[MaxStout]

Maybe it's "Apple's crap." As in, not a fan of iPhones, etc.

 

[MaxStout]

Yes thanks, my favorite one. It's heavy but better in everyway than the others i've used 16x16x1.
I like that oven in your avatar, i had to settle for the mini weber wood pellet fired grill insert you see there.

I'm curious about the soapstone. Where did you get it?

 

[applescrap]

You're not the first. My cousin was the first to point that out. I figure you and him have similar senses of humor as do others who point it out. My degree is in jazz guitar, it would be apple scrap, a derivation of the charlie parker tune scrapple from the apple. I think apple scrap is slang for sausage not in a tube.

 

[applescrap]

Pizza! The finish on the steel method has been grape. I have an answer for when parchment smokes. I put a really small bread loaf in at 500 and after I think it was 28 minutes it started to smoke according to my wife. Might have been before but it wasnt when i got to it. This dough had been sitting for a week in fridge. It was really good! Silver palate pasta sauce and salchicha with mozzarella and cheddar. I thought I over-cooked one but man did I like it. I almost like both a little softer and chewy and a little more crunchy. I took the dough right out of the fridge rolled it out hard and made it. Based on how light and Airy it was it makes me think that the longer the dough sits in the fridge the more that quality becomes prevalent.