My Neo Style Pizzas ***not made on the BGE*** (sorry :) )

ringkingpin

While I enjoy reading the threads of people making pizzas on their BGE's, it's probably not something I'll ever tackle because I have a 2stone pizza oven.  When my wife was preggo, she was jonsing for good Neo style pizza.  After fooling my kitchen oven my tossing frozen wash clothes on the t-stat to bump it up to 700 degrees momentarily, I quickly realized that my oven was the constraint to me reaching pizza nirvana.  In comes the 2stone inferno oven.  Since then, three years ago, I have gone through 24, 55lb bags of Caputo 00 flour and am getting ready to purchase bag #25.  That's around 2200 pizzas at the size I make them of 250-270 grams of dough each.

I have two sour dough starters I use, one from Ischia, another from Cameldoli but right now I only have the on from Ischia up and running.  Lately, I've been making them at 63-65% hydration, 10% starter, 2% salt.  I want to share some more recent pics with you guys:

plain ol marg, one of my favorites and how i start every session:

white pizza with onion, garlic and clam!

this is why you don't use rolling pins when working pizza dough, you'll press out all of those lovely air bubbles!

I hope you guys enjoyed pics from my pizza journey!

krobertsmsn

Looks perfect!!!

 You obviously have a lot of experience with pizza. The crust looks awesome. I purchased 00 flour online and failed at dough making. I would love for you to share your dough recipe.What did you use for sauce? I'm inspired to try again after this post!

ringkingpin

Krobertsmsn, anything I can do to help!

Like I said, my pizza in naturally leavened, I'm using a sour dough culture to get the rise...

What happened when you tried making dough?  What part failed?

Here is a dough calculator for use with a starter: http://pizzamaking.com/preferment_calculator.html

My starter I keep at what is considered 100% hydration.  That means equal parts (by weight) of water and flour.  My pizza I make around 65% hydration which means in the total recipe, it is 100 parts flour, 65 parts water.  Here is a typical recipe I would use for my dough:

Final Dough:

Flour: 1197.6 g | 42.24 oz | 2.64 lbs 

Water: 578.44 g | 20.4 oz | 1.28 lbs 

Salt: 23.95 g | 0.84 oz | 0.05 lbs | 4.99 tsp | 1.66 tbsp 

Preferment: 200 g | 7.05 oz | 0.44 lbs 

Total: 2000 g | 70.55 oz | 4.41 lbs  | TF = N/A 

I get my starter, mix it with my water and then mix in my salt.  I then toss it in to my bosch universal mixer and slowly, add the flour, bit by bit with the mixer on a slow speed.  I make sure the dough stays smooth throughout this entire process.  I skip autolese (sitting) all together.  Once it is all homogenized, I transfer to a stainless bowl and wrap it in plastic and then put in my old wine fridge and store for 24 hours in a bulk ferment at 60%.  Then I ball it up, and let them proof to room temp for use.  It's very important to have your proofed balls close to room temp to ensure that it's going to cook evenly without a "gum line." 

ringkingpin

oh yeah, here is a dough calculator you can use if you aren't using a starter and are using instant yeast, or cake yeast:

http://pizzamaking.com/dough_calculator.html

krobertsmsn

This will be my project for next Saturday!!!

Thank you!!!

^:)^

krobertsmsn

LOVE the dough calculator!

ringkingpin

So what part didn't work the first time you tried this? 

With these kind of doughs, you want really high heat and the trick is to have quite a bit more heat on top than on the bottom.  I've read through some of the BGE pizza threads and it seems like a lot of people like to hit the bottom stone with a damp rag to remove some of the surface energy.  This makes sense to me.  Also, I haven't seen any on the BGE but there are some grill inserts out there.  A lot of people wind up making something called an "LBE" which stands for little black egg.  It's basically getting a weber or similar kettle grill and cutting it up and adding some stones and a turkey fryer in the bottom.

Here is a video of a nicely put together LBE:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vrjLcTMqQI

ringkingpin

Also, if anyone would like to try their hand at using a starter, I'd gladly send some dried starter through the mail.

krobertsmsn

The dough was flat, even tho it seemed to rise properly pre-cook. I didn't use a rolling pin. I cooked on BGE pizza stone sl above felt line on temp somewhere around 550 if I recall. I used parchment. I now remove it after 3-4 min so crust can brown. That was a yr ago.

I used a recipe from someone here. I'm sure the issue was w/me since there were/are accolades with that recipe. I know this sounds weird, but the white/pasty color was unappealing. I prefer an off white color if that makes sense. Mellow Mushroom style or a little lighter in color. 

I now buy Publix or Whole Foods dough. I prefer Whole Foods dough. I turn out good, not great pizzas with those. I feel like I'm cheating tho. I wanna do a good/great crust on my own.

ringkingpin

I see...

You're gonna want to aim about 150 degrees higher and have your stone at, at least 700 degrees.  I'd probably shoot for 750 and then wipe it down which will bump it down to 700 or lower and then put your dough on.  I'd also try to do it sans paper, it will burn at those temps.  For these types of doughs, you won't get any oven spring or coloration until at least 700 degrees.  Like I said, I've never done it on the bge but I think you'd also want to remove any daisy wheel or vent on top and open the damper all the way on the bottom to encourage as much convection as possible.  I came across this thread and Federalist seems to be getting good results on the egg: https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1155696/neo-neapolitan-pizza

krobertsmsn

I'll try that. I was afraid the damp cloth might pop my stone. Used parchment to transfer from peel cause I have not been successful at that yet. I am going to make a batch of dough and play pizza maker (without toppings, just for practice) one afternoon until I get it down tho. It's time to be victorious!!!

Thanks again!

ringkingpin

WHen I use a wood peel, I put some 00 right in the middle and then rub it in to the entire peel, then turn the peel sideways and anything that isn't "in" the peel, slides off.  

If you can put the pizza together and transfer to the peel, more power to ya!  If you put the dough on the peel and build the pizza on the peel, you need to work fast.  The moisture in the dough will absorb the flour and eventually it'll stick. 

You can use extra fine semolina which I'm told doesn't get absorbed by moisture but I've never used OR you can buy one of these, which I like to use: http://www.amazon.com/15-inch-Rectangular-Perforated-Pizza-Peel/dp/B008A755FA/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1382882556&sr=1-3&keywords=pizza+peel

That peel is AWESOME, albeit a little spendy. The aluminum stays very slick (as long as it's clean) and any excess bench flour falls through the slotted holes as you introduce the pizza to the oven.

caliking

Very nice pies!  I've lusted after that slotted peel for some time,  but forgot about it until now Thanks for all the details - very helpful.