OT**The Unofficially Official Pizza Thread**OT

JohnInCarolina

Great looking pies, @ColtsFan !  I love the hot honey add to the brie and apple one.

One of my favorites of late is nduja, blue cheese, and hot honey.  I put that over the top of a standard red sauce and mozz base.  Give it a shot.

TEXASBGE2018

This has inspired me again. Fired up the oven for the 1st time in about a year. Had to get my memory back on using wood for fuel again. Will be making pies Friday.

Photo Egg

FJohnInCarolina said:

Great looking pies, @ColtsFan !  I love the hot honey add to the brie and apple one.

One of my favorites of late is nduja, blue cheese, and hot honey.  I put that over the top of a standard red sauce and mozz base.  Give it a shot.

That is absolutely beautiful…!!!

alaskanassasin

TEXASBGE2018 said:

This has inspired me again. Fired up the oven for the 1st time in about a year. Had to get my memory back on using wood for fuel again. Will be making pies Friday.

This makes me hesitant to take the plunge.  Is it just a pain or takes a lot of planning or what

NDG

Am I the only one with a BlackStone pizza oven that still works ?!?!

TEXASBGE2018

alaskanassasin said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

This has inspired me again. Fired up the oven for the 1st time in about a year. Had to get my memory back on using wood for fuel again. Will be making pies Friday.

This makes me hesitant to take the plunge.  Is it just a pain or takes a lot of planning or what

My oven is a good size. I can cook a 14" pizza in about 90 seconds. It's super fast once at temp. Getting it to temp can be time consuming. For
my oven to get to 700 takes about an hour and if using wood you have to feed it splits pretty regularly to maintain that temp. But I enjoy that part. if I use the gas burner instead of wood there is no worries about watching it and it will get to temp in about 20min. If you have the funds but are in the fence I'd say go for it. It's a fun tool to use to mix things up.

alaskanassasin

Thanks @TEXASBGE2018 I guess I was referring to your statement that you haven’t used it in a year. Did you get bored with it or it’s a pita process or you too busy patrolling the streets of the hoa for infractions?

TEXASBGE2018

alaskanassasin said:

Thanks @TEXASBGE2018 I guess I was referring to your statement that you haven’t used it in a year. Did you get bored with it or it’s a pita process or you too busy patrolling the streets of the hoa for infractions?

Mostly my kids got tired of pizza every Friday night for weeks on end so we changed it up. I could use it to cook other things but just never really have. If you want to experiment with one I wouldn't invest in a gozni dome or anything unless you are seriously going to use it. Mine was in that price range and if I could do it over again I'd go with one of the cheaper ooni offerings that is dual fuel.

alaskanassasin

TEXASBGE2018 said:

alaskanassasin said:

Thanks @TEXASBGE2018 I guess I was referring to your statement that you haven’t used it in a year. Did you get bored with it or it’s a pita process or you too busy patrolling the streets of the hoa for infractions?

Mostly my kids got tired of pizza every Friday night for weeks on end so we changed it up. I could use it to cook other things but just never really have. If you want to experiment with one I wouldn't invest in a gozni dome or anything. Mine was in that price range and if I could do it over again I'd go with one of the cheaper ooni offerings that is dual fuel.

 That is funny, I remember crying in my canned spinach at the table while everyone else was watching a movie because you can't leave the table until your plate is clean.  Was that normal? lol

U_tarded

alaskanassasin said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

alaskanassasin said:

Thanks @TEXASBGE2018 I guess I was referring to your statement that you haven’t used it in a year. Did you get bored with it or it’s a pita process or you too busy patrolling the streets of the hoa for infractions?

Mostly my kids got tired of pizza every Friday night for weeks on end so we changed it up. I could use it to cook other things but just never really have. If you want to experiment with one I wouldn't invest in a gozni dome or anything. Mine was in that price range and if I could do it over again I'd go with one of the cheaper ooni offerings that is dual fuel.

 That is funny, I remember crying in my canned spinach at the table while everyone else was watching a movie because you can't leave the table until your plate is clean.  Was that normal? lol

Mine was over creamed peas.  Still can’t stand them.

Botch

U_tarded said:

alaskanassasin said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

alaskanassasin said:

Thanks @TEXASBGE2018 I guess I was referring to your statement that you haven’t used it in a year. Did you get bored with it or it’s a pita process or you too busy patrolling the streets of the hoa for infractions?

Mostly my kids got tired of pizza every Friday night for weeks on end so we changed it up. I could use it to cook other things but just never really have. If you want to experiment with one I wouldn't invest in a gozni dome or anything. Mine was in that price range and if I could do it over again I'd go with one of the cheaper ooni offerings that is dual fuel.

 That is funny, I remember crying in my canned spinach at the table while everyone else was watching a movie because you can't leave the table until your plate is clean.  Was that normal? lol

Mine was over creamed peas.  Still can’t stand them.

Fried beets, here.  

CTMike

Botch said:

U_tarded said:

alaskanassasin said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

alaskanassasin said:

Thanks @TEXASBGE2018 I guess I was referring to your statement that you haven’t used it in a year. Did you get bored with it or it’s a pita process or you too busy patrolling the streets of the hoa for infractions?

Mostly my kids got tired of pizza every Friday night for weeks on end so we changed it up. I could use it to cook other things but just never really have. If you want to experiment with one I wouldn't invest in a gozni dome or anything. Mine was in that price range and if I could do it over again I'd go with one of the cheaper ooni offerings that is dual fuel.

 That is funny, I remember crying in my canned spinach at the table while everyone else was watching a movie because you can't leave the table until your plate is clean.  Was that normal? lol

Mine was over creamed peas.  Still can’t stand them.

Fried beets, here.  

Liver and onions here, parents used to serve it once a week. I would stuff it in my pocket when they weren’t looking and then flush it down the toilet. 

FarmingPhD

Anybody use pizza screens?  We bake most of our pizzas in the oven at this point out of convenience and time constraints.  I usually bake on a stone in the oven.  I preheat the stone at 500 for ~hr and then run the broiler for 7-8 minutes before loading a pizza, shooting for ~650 deg F on the stone in the middle at least before putting in the pizza.  Bake for 7-9 minutes depending on size of the pizza and toppings and then re-apply the broiler re-heat on the stone surface between pizzas.  This has been a solid method, but want to speed up the process by not having to reheat the stone between pizzas and get a better crust consistency.  
I have determined some other deficiencies already where I have a habit of stretching the pie too thin to get a bigger pie and need to increase my dough ball size to make the same size pizza.  My hope is using a screen will do a couple things:
1) force me to make a more consistent and constrained size pie while also adding more dough to get a thicker crust.
2) More even baking of the crust. The stone method I am using now does ok, but struggles at times to get a more consistent crispiness on the crust.
3) Doesn’t require the skills with a pizza peel to load/unload the pie.  Currently the only one that knows how to do this in my house, on a screen, I think my wife can manage it.  She could learn how, just just hates a mess in her oven and also prefers she can blame me if there is a mess

Question for anyone who uses a screen - do you do it with or without a stone in the oven?  Watching YouTube videos and web searches, see folks doing it both ways.  

Question on veggies, I have seen several folks recommend sautéing veggies ahead of time to get moisture out. I usually run out of time to get this done and really don’t like the pre-cooked veggie taste. is there still a good way to get moisture reduced to help not make the pie soggy without pre-cooking?  Thinking about pre-cutting all the veggies and letting them dry out in the fridge for 12-24 hrs ahead of time, but not sure that will reduce moisture as much as I think. Thinking about how a papa John’s supreme pizza has all raw veggies and is not soggy. 

Thanks in advance for the advice - hope you are all doing well - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

JohnInCarolina

@FarmingPhD - good to see you back here.

I can’t help you with the screens, but with veggies one trick I have seen is to par cook the crust first.  That sets it and minimizes the moisture transfer from fresh vegetables.  

Ybabpmuts

My momma once cooked a meatloaf that had a bandaid in it. Since then I can't eat bandaids, because all I can think of, is that they might taste like her nasty meatloaf.

Botch

FarmingPhD said:
Question on veggies, I have seen several folks recommend sautéing veggies ahead of time to get moisture out. I usually run out of time to get this done and really don’t like the pre-cooked veggie taste. is there still a good way to get moisture reduced to help not make the pie soggy without pre-cooking?  Thinking about pre-cutting all the veggies and letting them dry out in the fridge for 12-24 hrs ahead of time, but not sure that will reduce moisture as much as I think. Thinking about how a papa John’s supreme pizza has all raw veggies and is not soggy. 

Thanks in advance for the advice - hope you are all doing well - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

About a year ago I started microwaving my sliced mushrooms for two minutes before stir-frying, they shed a lot of water (paper towels top/bottom); should work for pizzas too.  
Happy Holidays to you too!  

FarmingPhD

Thanks John and Botch. I like the idea of microwaving, takes little time and effort to try.

Zippylip

FarmingPhD said:

Anybody use pizza screens?  We bake most of our pizzas in the oven at this point out of convenience and time constraints.  I usually bake on a stone in the oven.  I preheat the stone at 500 for ~hr and then run the broiler for 7-8 minutes before loading a pizza, shooting for ~650 deg F on the stone in the middle at least before putting in the pizza.  Bake for 7-9 minutes depending on size of the pizza and toppings and then re-apply the broiler re-heat on the stone surface between pizzas.  This has been a solid method, but want to speed up the process by not having to reheat the stone between pizzas and get a better crust consistency.  
I have determined some other deficiencies already where I have a habit of stretching the pie too thin to get a bigger pie and need to increase my dough ball size to make the same size pizza.  My hope is using a screen will do a couple things:
1) force me to make a more consistent and constrained size pie while also adding more dough to get a thicker crust.
2) More even baking of the crust. The stone method I am using now does ok, but struggles at times to get a more consistent crispiness on the crust.
3) Doesn’t require the skills with a pizza peel to load/unload the pie.  Currently the only one that knows how to do this in my house, on a screen, I think my wife can manage it.  She could learn how, just just hates a mess in her oven and also prefers she can blame me if there is a mess

Question for anyone who uses a screen - do you do it with or without a stone in the oven?  Watching YouTube videos and web searches, see folks doing it both ways.  

Question on veggies, I have seen several folks recommend sautéing veggies ahead of time to get moisture out. I usually run out of time to get this done and really don’t like the pre-cooked veggie taste. is there still a good way to get moisture reduced to help not make the pie soggy without pre-cooking?  Thinking about pre-cutting all the veggies and letting them dry out in the fridge for 12-24 hrs ahead of time, but not sure that will reduce moisture as much as I think. Thinking about how a papa John’s supreme pizza has all raw veggies and is not soggy. 

Thanks in advance for the advice - hope you are all doing well - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I've been using screens in various ways for 25+/- years and I'll suggest to you that they are only good for removing the pie onto to cool after baking which allows airflow and eliminates steaming between the pie & any solid surface, which is the death knell for the crust.  Baking on them, which I’ve done 1000 times, will never yield superior results, only convenient results.  Get a baking steel and do exactly what you described you do with the stone, you’ll get better results, and by better I mean crispier crust, more color, and shorter recovery time.  And no need to waste money on a ‘name brand’ one for $100, the one below is $28 & will crush your stone, literally and figuratively.

As far as vegetables go, they’re all different.  Some work best raw like green peppers and onions, but to avoid excess moisture should be sliced very thin, pre-cooking them changes the texture too much, unless you like that change.  Fresh tomatoes work best partially desiccated, slice thin and sandwich between paper towels until the towels are drenched prior to adding to the pie.  Mushrooms benefit from pre-cooking to remove moisture, it’s really hard to overcook a mushroom. 

https://www.amazon.com/Rounded-Corners-Steel-descaling-Cleaning/dp/B09G3FXCF3/ref=asc_df_B09G3FXCF3/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=675736098856&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9120019874250884400&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9053112&hvtargid=pla-2247622773798&psc=1&mcid=11c7a6f7208e357e8bb063c3a17663c9

NDG said:

Am I the only one with a BlackStone pizza oven that still works ?!?!

you're not, mine still works though I think the flame thrower of a burner has eaten through the heat shield that directs half the flame to the upper stone, so its days may be limited

JohnInCarolina

Bumping this thread in memory of @Carolina Q

FarmingPhD

JohnInCarolina

@FarmingPhD - nice!  Love the jalapenos sliced thin and added to the top of that mushroom and pepperoni pie.  That's a great combo.  And yes I did notice that they only apply to 1/4 of the pie!

FarmingPhD

JohnInCarolina said:

@FarmingPhD - nice!  Love the jalapenos sliced thin and added to the top of that mushroom and pepperoni pie.  That's a great combo.  And yes I did notice that they only apply to 1/4 of the pie!

Thanks John! The dad pizza gets a limited variety.  

I had already ordered screens by time I asked here and I was really surprised how much it helped at least my process. Reading some pizza forums I determined I was way overstretching my dough, so increased my dough ball size from ~450g to 600g for roughly the same size pizza I had been making and the screens forced me to hold to a size.  Also reduced hydration and increased oil following a copycat of the papa John’s dough since my wife likes a thicker and more chewy crust.  Cooked on the screens @500F for 8 minutes and then on the stone for 1 min to brown the middle.  I should have kicked the broiler on to brown the top of the pizza with peppers just a bit to help really set the cheese as it was a bit more gooey than I was targeting.  Overall, this reduced prep and cook time as I only pre-heated the oven for ~30 min @500 on convection since I was only shooting for using the stone to finish the crust and I didn’t have wait times between pizzas.  A baking steel would be great, but already own the stone.  The winning response from my wife and kids was I prefer you make pizza than order it.

@Botch - microwaved the mushrooms per your suggestion and made a huge difference.  Insane amount of water came out of them from just 60 seconds in the microwave and made a noticeable difference in moisture reduction on the top of the pie.  Also thin sliced my onions and let them sit on paper towels for about an hour ahead of time and seemed to help as well.
  

buzd504

FarmingPhD said:

JohnInCarolina said:

@FarmingPhD - nice!  Love the jalapenos sliced thin and added to the top of that mushroom and pepperoni pie.  That's a great combo.  And yes I did notice that they only apply to 1/4 of the pie!

Thanks John! The dad pizza gets a limited variety.  

I had already ordered screens by time I asked here and I was really surprised how much it helped at least my process. Reading some pizza forums I determined I was way overstretching my dough, so increased my dough ball size from ~450g to 600g for roughly the same size pizza I had been making and the screens forced me to hold to a size.  Also reduced hydration and increased oil following a copycat of the papa John’s dough since my wife likes a thicker and more chewy crust.  Cooked on the screens @500F for 8 minutes and then on the stone for 1 min to brown the middle.  I should have kicked the broiler on to brown the top of the pizza with peppers just a bit to help really set the cheese as it was a bit more gooey than I was targeting.  Overall, this reduced prep and cook time as I only pre-heated the oven for ~30 min @500 on convection since I was only shooting for using the stone to finish the crust and I didn’t have wait times between pizzas.  A baking steel would be great, but already own the stone.  The winning response from my wife and kids was I prefer you make pizza than order it.

@Botch - microwaved the mushrooms per your suggestion and made a huge difference.  Insane amount of water came out of them from just 60 seconds in the microwave and made a noticeable difference in moisture reduction on the top of the pie.  Also thin sliced my onions and let them sit on paper towels for about an hour ahead of time and seemed to help as well.
  

Pizza looks great.  Needs more jalapenos.

Salting your onions will also help get the moisture out and improve flavor.

FarmingPhD

Dobie

Pizza is an art, maybe when I retire in a few years I can put sometime into it but for now living vicariously through these posts.

JohnInCarolina

FarmingPhD said:

Whoa.  You have upped your dough game considerably.  

FarmingPhD

JohnInCarolina said:

FarmingPhD said:

Whoa.  You have upped your dough game considerably.  

Definitely made improvements and pretty solid for home hotbox pizza.  Learned mostly that lower hydration and higher oil content makes a crust more in tune with my family’s tastes.  

FarmingPhD

Rolling pizzas on a busy Friday night.

CP92

My two bakes for today were a Butternut Squash puree, parm, fresh mozz, Gorgonzola, and Chorizo. The second was a Mushroom and Onion Cream with fresh mozz, fresh herbs (thyme, sage, rosemary) topped with parm. The butternut puree and onion cream were "sauce". Both were outstanding!.

I'd give the butternut a 9, but think I overloaded it.  The mushroom was the best pizza I've ever turn out. Not just taste, but the whole bake overall.  It tasted AWESOME.

paqman