Best pizza yet - a Keeper!!

Well, I tweaked a few ingredients in my dough, and tweaked my setup a bit (with help from the forum), and I made 2 killer pizzas tonight. One of them was maybe the best pizza I've ever eaten (and I'm from Chicago, so that's saying something!). Here's the dough recipe (enough dough for 2 - 14" pizzas):

2 cups warm water
2 packages ADY
3 1/2 cups bread flour (plus more for dusting, etc.)
1/4 cup corn meal
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp italian seaqsoning
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 TBSPN Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Combine yeast with warm water, and let work for 10 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, put the yeast and water, the bread flour, corn meal, whole wheat flour, salt, sugar, italian seasoning, parmesan cheese, and olive oil. Mix well (a mixer is nice, but you can just use your hands).

Put a tablespoon or so of EVOO in a mixing bowl, and roll the dough ball around in it. Cover with a kitchen towel and let sit at room temp for 45 minutes to an hour. Punch the dough down, add flour if needed for the right consistency, and let sit in the fridge for a few hours to overnight. Make sure you let the dough warm up to room temp again before you begin rolling it out later, or the next day.

Set up my egg with an adjustable rig, pizza stone on the top:



I let the egg get set between 500 - 550, then I cooked one of the crusts for 3-4 minutes per side, and the other crust for 5 minutes on just one side (I'm experimenting!)

Made the first pizza with Blues Hog BBQ, pre-cooked chicken tenders, and a few onions and some pre-cooked sausage on part of it. I put the cheese on the bottom for part of the pizza (a chicago-style pizza trick) and on the top for the rest, so I could compare later.


2nd pizza was more traditional, so I put the cheese on the botoom - like they do at Malnati's, Gino's, etc. Then put the 6-in-1 tomatoe sauce. (Using the 6-in-1 is a trick I picked up at pizza making forum. They have an entire section devoted to Chicago style pizza, and many claimed that you just can't get the authentic "Chicago" taste if you don't use the 6-in-1 tomatoes. I could really tell a difference, I will be using them from now on! Worth checking out if you can find them - I think they're actually from California, but my local italian grocer carries them.
You can also get them here: http://escalon.net/products.aspx).



After the 6-in-1, I put on some pre-cooked italian sausage, onions, mushrooms, and on part of the pizza, I used pepperoni and left out the mushrooms and sausage (for my son).



First pizza was on for 15 minutes, but the top didn't look done, so I left in on another 5 minutes. It was a very good pizza, maybe the crust was a bit too crunchy (also, this was the crust where I pre-cooked both sides). Still, overall very good - family loved it.



2nd pizza was outstanding. I left it on for 15 minutes. The crust was perfect - one of the best I've ever had, if I do say so myself. And the 6-in-1 tomatoes did give it a different (and better, I think) taste to the sauce. It doesn't look like much, I think because the cheese is on the bottom, it doesn't have that nice brown, bubbly look, but I'll tell you, friends, it tasted GREAT! I forgot to take a picture before we had dug in, so here's a "partial" picture of the finished pie.



The dough recipe is very close to perfect for me, and it's a relatively easy crust to make - pretty foolproof. The egg gives the crust a nice, crunchy "brick-oven" texture I've never been able to get out of an oven. I wish the pictures made it look better - it truly was a hell of a pie! The first pie was also very good, but next time I will stick to just pre-baking the one side of the crust (I do this to prevent that mushy millimeter of crust right below the sauce or cheese - it's a trick I picked up on this forum, and I just like it better that way). By the way, I couldn't really tell any difference in taste on the first pizza when the cheese was on the bottom or top. It certainly looks more appetizing when the cheese is on top.