The Home Made Pizza Thread

[shanecb]

I've been playing around with the dough pH to make my crust brown better. Turns out, a higher pH really helps get rid of that anemic white look.

Despite this being in the top 3 i've ever made for visual appearance, this crust was borderline inedible. Spongy, no chew, and flavorless.

So my experiment has been successful in showing that with a marginal ingredient change i can completely change the look of the dough. But i need to find another way to raise the pH because it destroyed the texture and flavor of my normal recipe.

What method did you use to raise the pH?

 

[schematix]

What method did you use to raise the pH?

baking soda. IIRC that picture was about 0.5% in bakers %.

 

[brewbama]

Just made three 12” pies using the Lombardi’s recipe. No photos. I wasn’t quick enough.

View attachment 579123

 

[z-bob]

I've been playing around with the dough pH to make my crust brown better. Turns out, a higher pH really helps get rid of that anemic white look.

Despite this being in the top 3 i've ever made for visual appearance, this crust was borderline inedible. Spongy, no chew, and flavorless.

So my experiment has been successful in showing that with a marginal ingredient change i can completely change the look of the dough. But i need to find another way to raise the pH because it destroyed the texture and flavor of my normal recipe.

Try brushing the edge with a sodium carbonate solution. (I've never tried it) I would not add anything to the dough to raise the pH throughout; you'll ruin it.

ETA: sodium carbonate is washing soda. Not the same thing as baking soda, but I think you can make it out of baking soda by roasting it.

 

[gromitdj]

Took my first crack at the new Blackstone Oven on Sunday. I made a quick dough to use the same day, so I wasn't real happy with it (too much dusting flour also), but the oven worked extremely well. Can't wait to try it with my cold-fermented dough and proper cheese/sauce. This pizza was in the oven for about 2 min., 30 sec.

 

[applescrap]

^^that is awesome cant wait to see more. Although not too much more, i already want one bad enough; )

 

[gromitdj]

^^that is awesome cant wait to see more. Although not too much more, i already want one bad enough; )

If only you were closer, we could have an equipment swap, I'd love to get my hands on the griddle.

 

[Jwin]

Try brushing the edge with a sodium carbonate solution. (I've never tried it) I would not add anything to the dough to raise the pH throughout; you'll ruin it.

ETA: sodium carbonate is washing soda. Not the same thing as baking soda, but I think you can make it out of baking soda by roasting it.

Common method for pretzels (big uns) is a baking soda wash before bake
I'm sure similar bicarbonates would have similar, if not more drastic, effect.
Wouldn't mix it in though.

pH has way more to do with crust/color on exterior.
Using baking soda plus yeast in dough probably Fs up the yeast....
Think about it. Know any breadstyle that raises pH? Nope

 

[schematix]

Common method for pretzels (big uns) is a baking soda wash before bake
I'm sure similar bicarbonates would have similar, if not more drastic, effect.
Wouldn't mix it in though.

pH has way more to do with crust/color on exterior.
Using baking soda plus yeast in dough probably Fs up the yeast....
Think about it. Know any breadstyle that raises pH? Nope

The yeast didn’t seem to mind. I made 3 consecutive doughs where the only diff was an addition of 0.25 bakers % and then 0.5. Very little difference between 0 and 0.25. 0.50 was significantly more brown and the texture was squishy. All doughs had a similar rise.

With that said i don’t think I’d use it again because even though it browned better, I didn’t get what I was really after.

 

[Hanglow]

made eight pizzas last night, here's three of them. still a bit wonky shaped :0

 

[applescrap]

They look awesome, what, how did you bake them?

 

[user 254557]

[
Poor mans wood fired oven. Gas grill with wood chunk and chips. I make the pie on the back of a parchment lined pan. Slide parchment and all onto stone. After 3 minutes, remove parchment from underneath. I shoot the stone with a laser thermometer. 450°F to 550°F is good. 10 to 15 minutes. Over 550°F will blacken the crust way to much in a very short time. Hydration as high as I can handle it (65 to 70%). A little cornmeal in the dough for crunch.[/QUOTE]

What kind of stone are you using, looks awesome.................cheers

 

[applescrap]

Hmm, last time I tried my Steel on the grill I got it too hot, blackened it too quick and never went back to it. I'm going to have to try it at a lower temp because I don't want to heat the oven up. Although it will be hard to keep me off the griddle.

I think I found what I'm looking for. I saw Jim Lahey make a pizza and heated the oven to 500 and then switch to broil with the pizza in the top third.

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Hmm, last time I tried my Steel on the grill I got it too hot, blackened it too quick and never went back to it. I'm going to have to try it at a lower temp because I don't want to heat the oven up. Although it will be hard to keep me off the griddle.

I think I found what I'm looking for. I saw Jim Lahey make a pizza and heated the oven to 500 and then switch to broil with the pizza in the top third.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/03/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe.html

 

[applescrap]

Well hows it look so far. Keeping in mind I don't think I've ever had it and I'm from Colorado. When I was in Chicago the one time we got the stuffed pizza with two crusts. I used the real deep dish guys recipe. Shredded mozzarella because that's all I had, then a layer of sauteed peppers and onions from yesterday's barbecue. They were really good and caramelized. Then a layer of pepperoni, hamburger (all i had), and pizza sauce. Dashed with parmesean.

 

[sillbeer]

I spy a Miller Lite.

**Good looking Pie!!

 

[applescrap]

I spy a Miller Lite.

**Good looking Pie!!

Haha, my wife asked if we should move it. Here is the finish. Best pizza i have ever had i think. It was sooo good. A little thick where wall met base on some pieces but was good to, i like crust.

 

[sillbeer]

Hmmmm. That looks amazing. I'll have to give it a try.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

sauce on the top ? haven't had that, good looking pizza

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Ive made plenty deep dish I'll have to post some, sorry Ive been busy

 

[applescrap]

Yes sir, sauce on top. It protects the massive amount of toppings from over cooking, i read. Massive layers of cheese sausage and pepperoni. Each of these pans had a half pound raw beef and a pepperoni layer. That real deep dish site guy is pretty passionate about his chicago pizza. Has the history of it and more. It feels like a pretty legit source.

 

[Hanglow]

They look awesome, what, how did you bake them?

I have a WFO called a Maximus, it's similar to the pizza party ovens. Can thoroughly recommend them. I think bake time was about two minutes and a bit, so not quite neopolitan speeds

 

[NeilMac]

Quicky Pizza.

Fife flour 75% hydration
Onions, Tomato, Coastal Cheddar, dill and Basil. Spiced up with my own grown pepper spice mix.

 

[ba-brewer]

I'm back!!!!
Pilot run of my new(used)Pizzacraft Pizzeria Pronto on my Blichmann burner
The first pizza baked at 750 charred the bottom and under baked the top.
Over the course of four pizzas, I think I learned the oven pretty well.
The last za, the one with pepperoni, didn't need to be finished under the broiler.
About 600°F seems to be the sweet spot
Not much char, but a great crunch, wonderful cell structure and no gell layer to speak of.
Not bad for 4 hour dough speed proofed in a warm oven.
Neapolitan style dough
500g/.5liter water
23g sea salt
5g yeast
10g olive oil
1.7kg 00 flour
Made 4 decently thick 12" dough balls.
All and all, for $32 off of eBay, happy with the purchase.
By far closer than I ever got to NY brick oven style with my home oven at 550.
I halfway expected the burner to be too much, but it worked out well once I found how to tune it.
Cheers!View attachment 578549View attachment 578550View attachment 578551View attachment 578552View attachment 578553View attachment 578554

Thanks for posting about this pizza oven. When I first seen the post I thought that would be a good thing for my propane burners that are collecting dust since I went electric for brewing. The new price was a bit higher than I wanted to pay, but I checked a couple days ago and the new price was down to $89 on amazon so I bought one.

I used a bayou classic with a BG12 burner and the hole in the oven seemed like a perfect match. Took about 10min with a fairly low flame to get up to 700 according the built in thermometer. The pies were smaller than I normally do in the home oven but they cooked pretty fast, like 5min for a simple cheese pizza compared to 10mins in the home oven. All and all it worked pretty well, so thanks again for your post.

Need to work on the crust now. I was wondering about the measurements in your recipe, 1700grams of flour and 500grams of water seem like a pretty dry dough. Is that the correct proportions?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

 

[applescrap]

Came home from pool and kids were hungry and needed quick so i went with a pan. Mostly because the dough was so wet i could spread it with a spatula. I spread the wet doungh into pan and pre baked 10 minutes or so, then topped with cheese and pepperoni. Broil for a few secs at the end. Some pics of pre and post broil. Ok, nothing special other than i whipped it up start to finish in well under 30 minutes.

 

[applescrap]

Used rest of wet dough. Kneeded in a massive amount of flour. Tried rolled out dough and layed in pan technique. Pinched up the side. Started with a brush of evoo, layer of mozzarella, layer of smoked diced ham, layer of hamburger, purple basil from garden and then sauce. I threw in some pics of the slices because I thought it was cool how they just stay together.

Edit, the scrappys wheels are turning. What about mozzarella, grilled chicken and alfredo sauce on top. The possibilities are endless .

 

[RatCity]

Used rest of wet dough. Kneeded in a massive amount of dough. Tried rolled out dough and layed in pan technique. Pinched up the side. Started with a brush of evoo, layer of mozzarella, layer of smoked diced ham, layer of hamburger, purple basil from garden and then sauce. I threw in some pics of the slices because I thought it was cool how they just stay together.View attachment 581756View attachment 581757View attachment 581758View attachment 581759View attachment 581760View attachment 581761

That looks awesome!! Everyone's pizza game here is so on point. I've been making pies regularly for years now but haven't strayed much as far as recipe & cooking technique. Have done a few right on the grill using Alton Brown's Good Eats recipe. Works well but a little tricky to pull off.

Inspired to try some deep dish. There's a local place here that sells wood-fired pizza that I've become obsessed with...love the hint of smoky flavor. Might try to mess around with wood chips to replicate it.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

all my dough is wet dough, I have a process after raising I pour it out into a mound of flour, roll and store in the fridge, very soft that way

 

[koopatrain]

Pizza night last night with some recently kegged Red IPL (5.6%, motueka, Centennial, and galaxy). 70% H2O dough with 9hour rise, and one hour proof in smaller balls, but I think I kneaded it for a few too many minutes as it was a little tougher than others I’ve done at this hydration. Good nonetheless!

Edit: baked on coriarite pizza stone preheated at 550 with the broiler on.