Bring your Pizza skillz

Karate Monkey

Well-Known Member
@Dingo I guess you could use no oil, though almost every bread (except maybe baguettes/crispy breadsticks) uses some kind of fat.

I would try a two-pronged approach: hotter oven (if it can, push it to 500), and/or preheat the oven for 1 hour BEFORE putting it in. IE, not just when it dings. #2 is crust that errs on the thin side, and use a touch of sugar (could be honey, sugar, syrup, etc...) 5-10 grams should do. The more you use, the slower the dough will rise for the same amount of yeast, and the faster/more the crust will brown.

I was having trouble getting the middle of the pizza 'done' (crisp/not soggy) until I made some tweaks to the recipe. For convenience, I've reproduced it here:

Tipo 00 (half of the little bag...something like 3 cups. Maybe a little more.)
62.5% water (~1-1/3 to 1-1/2 cups)
5% olive oil (1 Tablespoon, plus more for 'greased' bowl/ball stage)
3% salt (roughly 2 teaspoons Kosher salt, little less (1-1/2) if you use table salt)
2% sugar (Little less than 2 teaspoons. You can add more, maybe up to a Tablespoon for a crisper crust)
2% wheat gluten (<---magic ingredient. Stretches for days. I've increased mine a bit, roughly equivalent to a heaping tablespoon.)
2 teaspoons of yeast (Less for a slower rise, BUT...)

My thoughts, as they vomit forth from my brain:

Wheat gluten is a game changer. Yes, extra fine milled flour has more protein available due to the grind, but not like this. Bob's Red Mill makes a...1 pound(?) bag of Vital Wheat Gluten. Most Shoprites carry it, and my local Acme, at least, has added it to their staple of Bob's Red Mill products. I guess word has gotten out that gluten is a good thing for bread? Either mix it into the flour before you add it in, or add it into the mixing bowl after the other dry ingredients. It soaks up water/forms aggressive gluten bonds, so it doesn't mix nicely if you dump it into water/dump water on it.

More sugar makes the crust brown more. Lots of sugar=lots of brown. Brown crust is gonna be crispier.

Sugar is junk food, even for yeast. If you use to much, the dough takes longer to rise. The longer it takes to rise with lots of sugar, the more 'beery' it is going to taste. Some people don't care--I can't stand the smell or taste, personally. The more yeast you use, the more the problem compounds.

Yesterday was hands down my most successful dough--stretchy, but not overly difficult to stretch. My thoughts can be summed up pretty much as, "This dough is way too firm, and it's going to be a bear to stretch. Hey, this isn't bad. This is going to tear, it's definitely going to tear, wow--it didn't tear. It's HUGE!" So, last night, I got home. I wanted to cook, because I didn't ride, but I didn't want to be up until all hours of the night, so I modified the recipe a bit. I removed the sugar (sugar inhibits yeast growth, even in smaller amounts, as I have since learned after earlier posts), accidentally added a LIIIIIIIITLE too much oil, accidentally added a LIIIIIIITLE too much salt, and a LIIIIIIITLE too much gluten...proportions reflected above. The slightly-more-than-half-a-bag of flour that I used made three jumbo pizzas. At least 12x18", the largest 14x20 (and I probably could have stretched the other ones out).

Now, my oven can just squeak out 550 F (really more like 530-40ish). I'm sure that 50 degrees makes a difference, because it sure as hell did when I took the pans away and threw the pizzas directly on the stone. The hotter you can get your cooking space, the less time it takes to cook the bread, and the less the stuff on the top of the pizza is charred to death.

Last thought: since I switched to using a scale instead of measuring cups, EVERYTHING I've made has become more consistent. Also, scaling recipes is super easy. I think I picked up an Escali San Jamar. It was something like $25, and worth every penny.
 

Dingo

Well-Known Member
Will do on the sugar and higher oven temp.
No "dinger" on this oven, that is why I checked the steel plate with the IR temp gun. Takes a good 30 min to get up to 450.
 

olegbabich

Well-Known Member
I do not use sugar.

Try Honey instead of sugar, if you want to add sweetener.

I divide the dough into portions, roll into dough and let it rest in the fridge for 24 to 36 hrs. Then roll or pull the pies.
 

Dingo

Well-Known Member
I do not use sugar.

Try Honey instead of sugar, if you want to add sweetener.

I divide the dough into portions, roll into dough and let it rest in the fridge for 24 to 36 hrs. Then roll or pull the pies.
I always let it rest 24 hr. Cold ferment.:thumbsup:
 

Karate Monkey

Well-Known Member
I've never tried a cold ferment for pizza, at least, not on purpose. Maybe next week...

PXL_20201212_003745236.jpg

I added the eggs at the beginning when it went in, and aside from being an absolute bear to get it off the peel with the eggs still on the pizza, it was way too long to cook (obvs).

Next time I'll cook 75%, then drop the eggs on.
 

Magic

Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
Team MTBNJ Halter's
The cold rise does have two advantages if it applies to pizza the same way as making bread. The cold dough is easier to work with and shape, and it pops more when it hits a hot oven for a nice rise. It’s hard to time bread well. If you want a same-day loaf for dinner, you’re starting at 9-10am. Lots of patience required.
 

jackx

Well-Known Member
I seem to have a pie like this once per week. cooked on a stone at 450F.

Mozzarella cheese
small-cup pepperoni
red onion
green bell pepper
baby portabella muchrooms
breaded eggplant
res sauce - sometimes arrabbiata sauce for added spiciness.

a pile of roasted garlic on the side. Bam!


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Karate Monkey

Well-Known Member
Pizza pizza (pizza)PXL_20201222_021246609.jpgPXL_20201222_022454149.jpgPXL_20201222_022832705.jpg

Eggplant; fried cutlet with buffalo sauce/sriracha squiggle; combo pizza with eggplant, cutlet, sriracha squiggle.

The last iteration of the dough recipe above is what I've been using, sans sugar. Draws consistently thin, is difficult to tear, and is ready to use in 2 hours if in a hurry (two teaspoons of yeast/warm kitchen). I knead it for about 10-12 minutes with the dough hook on medium speed.
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So my wife found a recipe for bread pudding on reddit and decided she wanted to make it. The recipe called for a cast iron skillet, which we somehow didn't have. So she bought one, we made the bread pudding, and it was excellent. So then we're like, "what the fuck else can we make in this thing?" Spoiler alert: pizza.

So we've made pizza in this thing three times now. We've been buying dough from Wegmans, because lazy. The first two times, we used the entire dough for one pizza, and it made the fattest crust you've ever seen. Tonight we decided to split it and make two pizzas. The crust was still ginormous and awesome.

Pizza the first:
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Sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, peppadew peppers, and shaved parmesan (plus mozzarella and sauce obviously).

Pizza the second:
1FE2D8DA-D1AD-46E5-9996-48597F9356B4.jpeg
Traditional Margherita.

Cream Puff was unimpressed:
38656E63-3414-4C6D-BB7A-134EEF539C64.jpeg
 
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