Roccbox First Use

Corv

I made four balls of pizza dough using some Italian 00 flour I had. It was only two years past its expiration date.

Got the Roccbox preheated and stretched out the first ball of dough. Loaded it up in the kitchen and took it out to the oven, or at least that was the intention. It fell off the peel on the back steps. At least it wasn’t sticking to the peel. Sigh. Here it is moments before it took its dive.

Stretched out the second ball of dough, loaded it and cooked it. Here’s the obligatory photo of what the five hundred dollar pizza looked like. Looks like I forgot the prosciutto. It wasn’t bad except that the crust had a somewhat bitter taste.

That powder on the left of the pizza is Dizzy Pig's Pineapple Head - sure like it on pizza!

Did it again for the remaining two balls of dough. Here’s number 3 or 4, I forgot, immediately after I took it out of the oven. I learned that proscuitto should be put on while loading the pizza to crisp it.

And here’s the bottom.

Stretching the crust is still a bit of a challenge. The new flour came this weekend so I’ll be trying it again soon. I did try Ozzie_Issac’s approach of stretching it over a round ban, using my 14” round-bottom wok as the mold. That actually works reasonably well. The hard part is getting it off the wok. Regardless, I’ll be making some new dough soon to learn the techniques.

There may be a bit of a delay… a friend, a commercial baker, gave me about a dozen pounds of her seasoned sourdough cracker dough. I made a trial batch of dinner rolls with them and they came out quite good. Not surprise, the crackers are excellent. Try them at https://www.fullstopbakery.com/ if you're interested.  I want to try some other baking with that dough, including, yes, a pizza.

lkapigian

Sweet! 

JohnInCarolina

Awesome!  Your first run turned out much better than mine did.  Enjoy the journey!

Plutonium

Awesome first run! What toppings are those? I’d like to try one like that. 

For stretching, practice makes perfect. There are many variables that affect how easy it is to stretch the dough and how much it retracts back as you stretch. I’ve found 24-48 hr fermented dough stretches so much better than same day. 48-72 hour dough can start to get too soft and risk your fingers poking through while you develop technique. 

Corv

I used Alfredo sauce, mozzarella sliced to 1/8" thick (that was too thin), pineapple sliced about 1/8" to 3/16" thick, bits of prosciutto and spinach leaves. The spinach came before the prosciutto. I sprinkled Pineapple Head on half the pizza, not sure that would go well but I like it now, and sprinkled a bit of https://choicecityusa.com/product/deb-n-roo-labor-of-love-heart-of-gold-habanero-pineapple-hot-sauce/ on it too. In the future, I'd leave the hot sauce off. Good stuff but this wasn't the place for it.

The dough was from Ken Forkish's book and the first night, the starter rose. After mixing it all, the dough was an overnight dough. I certainly appreciate everyone's tips on all this and thanks to people who wrote about theirs (thanks, John, if that was you), was more cautious than I would have about the burned crust issue. And it still wasn't enough - that's one powerful oven. But I'm learning.

Legume

Solid first effort for sure. I prefer prosciutto cooked a bit on a pizza, but I've seen several pizza places add it after.  It's just a preference.  If you find the pineapple head is scorching at all, you can add underneath the toppings or shake on as soon as the pizza comes out.

jdMyers

Learning the hard way for me in the beginning.  Over worked dough won't stretch.  Cold dough doesn't stretch well.  Add a small amount of honey to the mix for a slight taste variety.  Pressing finger tips in the center of the dough ball going around the circle sets the shape.  But keeps it from getting to thin.

Llyods makes some very nice pans for slight deep dish.  

Keep up posting.  Also be glad yours slid off in the house.  Not the dough stuck to the peel and you launched everything into the back of the oven.  I use a mat that has sizes on it.  Non stick.  Clean up is easy

Langner91

I love seeing these threads.  I wish I had the patience to make my own pizzas.  I barely have enough patience to have one delivered. 

buzd504

Corv said:

I used Alfredo sauce, mozzarella sliced to 1/8" thick (that was too thin), pineapple sliced about 1/8" to 3/16" thick, bits of prosciutto and spinach leaves. The spinach came before the prosciutto. I sprinkled Pineapple Head on half the pizza, not sure that would go well but I like it now, and sprinkled a bit of https://choicecityusa.com/product/deb-n-roo-labor-of-love-heart-of-gold-habanero-pineapple-hot-sauce/ on it too. In the future, I'd leave the hot sauce off. Good stuff but this wasn't the place for it.

The dough was from Ken Forkish's book and the first night, the starter rose. After mixing it all, the dough was an overnight dough. I certainly appreciate everyone's tips on all this and thanks to people who wrote about theirs (thanks, John, if that was you), was more cautious than I would have about the burned crust issue. And it still wasn't enough - that's one powerful oven. But I'm learning.

I would suggest par cooking your spinach.  Spinach has a ton of water in it which is no bueno for pizza.

Corv

Worth a try. Of course so does the pineapple.

caliking

That's a strong start, for sure. 

Re: stretching dough over a bowl/wok, I've been watching  A LOT of pizza videos, and noted that I was not using as much flour as those folks were. I dust the overturned bowl with flour, make sure the dough has enough flour on it, and haven't had issues with the dough sticking. 

Sorry about the pie that hit the deck, man. Looks like you recovered well!

Corv

In my first post, I gave the wrong impression, sorry - no problem with the dough sticking anywhere. The issue removing it from the wok is that it crumples to the work surface and it's a real pain to reform it.

I use a bit of pizza flour on the work surface, which carries over to the wok. When I move the pizza to the peel, I dust the peel in semolina flour, just a dusting. So far, no stickies.

The Roccbox peel is excellent, if you need a 12" peel. It's designed to minimize crust sticking and it doesn't weigh much. Recommended.

Also recommended are the oven gloves that are sold on the Challenger bread pans site. Haven't used them with the Roccbox yet, but they are rated to 900 F. I routinely pick up the Challenger bread pan and cover at 475 with zero problem.

danhoo

Langner91 said:

I love seeing these threads.  I wish I had the patience to make my own pizzas.  I barely have enough patience to have one delivered. 

The first step is the hardest. 


I've got a good 3 hour start to eat dough.