Another Pizza Thread - lessons learned

SciAggie

I've been seeing a lot of pizza threads lately. I, like everybody else, am trying to figure things out. I experiment and have some successes and some failures. I thought I would share some conclusions I have for now.

I have messed with 00 flour, dough made with sourdough starter, quick recipes with kneaded dough, and no-knead dough. Here's what it boils down to - they all work IF you give the dough time to develop. I made some dough using Jim Lahey's no-knee recipe last night http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/03/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe.html
I made the dough at midnight and left it on the kitchen counter until 6:00 PM today when I made the pizzas. The dough was supple and easy to stretch. I used King Author bread flour. 

I've had good and bad results making pizza but I find the common characteristic of the good ones is a long fermentation period. It can be in the fridge or on the counter, but the dough needs TIME. 

I also don't use sugar or oil in my dough. I cooked tonight's pizzas at 550. I want to push the temp to 600 next time. I've been using an IR thermometer to take the temp of the pizza stone through the top vent hole. I also like the way the pizza cooks when it's high in the dome. The top cooks at the same rate as the crust when the pizza is high. 

This is is not a complete report on how to make pizza by any means but I hope it helps somebody and furthers the discussion of how to make great food on the egg.

This pic shows the height of the pizza stone. I don't use a water pan for pizza (this was from a bread cook).





Thanks for taking a look.

SmokeyPitt

Man that looks great.  What are you using to raise the stone?

SciAggie

SmokeyPitt said:

Man that looks great.  What are you using to raise the stone?

I wish I had a pic; It's just a small grate I picked up at Home Depot held up with bolts and washers. It sits on the regular grate. I haven't measured it but it raises about 4-5 inches. 

blind99

Great looking pie!

Homebrewguy

That looks fantastic!

ScottNC

Sri, Thanks for posting,
 "I've had good and bad results making pizza but I find the common characteristic of the good ones is a long fermentation period. It can be in the fridge or on the counter, but the dough needs TIME."

 I've been getting pretty close with my 00 Flour, but I do find I'm always "pushing it" going to try your TIME method, I'm sure it'll help!

bgebrent

Great looking pie brother!

Thatgrimguy

I'm hoping I can get one of my Artisan bread in 5 recipes to turn out decent pizza. That way I can decide after work I want pizza and then eat said pizza an hour later.

I'll definitely try this recipe too! Thank you for sharing. I think pizza is going to be my next project. I just got done figuring out our perfect burger (my perfect bun still needs tweaking but it's good enough now to kill anything I can find at a restaurant.)

SciAggie

@Thatgrimguy I'm sure your recipe will work. If I could make a suggestion, allow it a long fermenting period either on the counter or in the refridgerator and I bet it will turn out well. Prep the dough one day and then pull from the fridge and rest an hour on the day you want to cook.