I just found a local place that has probably my favorite pizza in my area, but the only caveat being that the guy cuts it - a 14" round pie - into squares. This leaves four tiny postage stamp-sized pieces that are only crust and four squares in the middle that have no crust.
Do you think it would be rude if the next time I order I ask him to cut it traditionally? It really feels like the square cut is a sort of trademark for his business or something. I just really dislike it compared to traditional slices.
That's variously called "party cut" or "bar cut" and it's the norm for midwest thin-crust styles.
I don't think he'd be offended by a request for a different cut.
If you're getting takeout or delivery, asking for an uncut pizza isn't too unusual of a request because some people want to slide it into a hot oven for a minute when they get home.
Caputo Flour. did I get a bad bag?
I recently bought a new bag of the Caputo Blue 55lb Bag Pizzeria flour. This is not my first experience with Caputo. The problem I am having is the dough never seems come together properly, never gets stretchy, it always tears apart. I have been making my dough the same way for last 20+ years and used Caputo for most of that (not always available where I live in Canada) Never seen anything like this. Since this problem with the new bag of flour, I have tried increasing the knead time, autolyse time, same results, changed hydration levels from 60% to 75%, changed fermentation times, tried 24, 48, and 1 week but still couldn't be stretched out without tearing, adding oil not adding oil. I wonder if the blue bag I got somehow has a much weaker protein level flour in the bag? For comparison I made a batch with some AP flour and it came together way better and had way more stretch to it. This sucks because I have used up nearly a 1/4 of the bag so far and have not had one good pie yet. and the bag cost nearly $100
Im trying to get a great pizza sauce for my napolitana - simple with quality ingredients.
San Marazano tomatoes, fresh basil, salt, olive oil.
The only issue is that my home oven only reaches 300 degrees - therefore this pizza sauce can be quite watery even after cooking the pizza. I imagine in a hotter pizza oven, this extra water would dissipate.
Is it acceptable to cook the tomato sauce for a while first to reduce it? Or is there another way to do it?
Any other tips/advice welcome! Thanks
degrees celcius or fahrenheit? if 300F that is pretty cold, 300c should be fine. What I do is I pour the tomatoes into a sieve and capture all the moisture into a bowl that falls through the sieve. I let it sit in the sieve for about 5 to 10 minutes. I then crush my tomatoes if not already crushed in the sieve all the watery content will go into the bowl. I then use what's in the sieve to make my sauce in a different bowl. If I find that too thick I can add back in a little of the tomato/watery liquid from my capture bowl. I have in the past tried reducing the tomatoes in a pan under the broiler, that does reduce the water level in the sauce but it also cooks the tomatoes and has less of a fresh taste when done. Also to get a little bit more oomph out of your oven leave it set to it's highest setting on broil until just before you throw the pizza in and keep the stone/steel near the broiler, this will ensure you are getting every ounce/gram of heat out of the oven that you can.
Neapolitan pizza dough left overnight in the fridge or room temp?
Hi guys, I have recently bought myself a pizza oven and I’m going to have my first crack at making Neapolitan pizza this weekend.
I am preparing my dough now for tomorrow and I’m just wondering when it comes to leaving the dough for up to 24 hours which seems to be the advised practice from what I’ve read online. Is it best to store it overnight in the fridge or room temp? I’ve seen the fridge recommended more so, so I’m just wondering what difference it makes.
It kind of depends on the recipe, temperature of your place, and how much yeast you are using. It's also not clear where you are in the process when you plan to let it sit for 24 hours. In the Forkish Elements of Pizza book, for example, after making the dough balls you let them proof for five or so hours and then use them within the next five hours. If you plan to use them the next day then you let them proof for like 4 hours then put them in the refrigerator. You'll need to take them out of the fridge probably two hours prior to use, more or less.
Pizza Stone
So I tried using a pizza stone for the first time. I made some dough using this recipe [https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/neapolitan-pizza-base/](https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/neapolitan-pizza-base/) and I just couldn’t get the dough to go thin enough.
When I tried to put the pizza on the stone using a floured metal peel it stuck to the peel and the ingredients ended up on the stone. It now looks like this after one use and a wash, it also smells quite burnt.
Does anyone have any tips on using a stone or have a trusted dough recipe they use?
Thanks
https://preview.redd.it/hfqx8su1smsc1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2caf258d5fe6198e6d0cf5a94468aa2f0a69b3f
just use way more flour on your surface you make the pizza on like your counter, then flour your peel and then slide your pizza on the peel, by lifting up on the pizza a bit and then with one solid motion slide the peel underneath. Then immediately transfer to the oven for cooking, the pizza should be on the peel for like 2 seconds, the longer you wait with the dough on the peel the more likely the moisture from the dough will mix with the flour and then get sticky. Also when ready to get the pizza off the peel do little shakes to get it moving then try sliding it off the peel. Use way more flour then you expect, so put a lot of flour then use more. Also don't lay your dough on the peel then build your pizza on the peel, this is guaranteed to stick unless you build it in like 5 seconds. That all said the parchment paper trick is almost flawless unless you are cooking at really high heat, like 500F+ it will burn at those temps.
I’m sorry but parchment burning is false. It is. It’s probably true if you’re using a super high temp pizza oven, but a home oven and 550 and pretty much all brands I’ve used have no issue burning. In fact, often I can get multiple uses out a single piece of parchment, especially if I remove it halfway. If I am using the broiler method, then for sure remove halfway.
And also. If you’re bound and determined to cast raw dough onto stone or steel. Do not use flour. I repeat. DO NOT USE NORMAL WHEAT FLOUR. Use semolina or rice flour. Some people may enjoy raw flour coating their lovely dough but I don’t. I also don’t enjoy scorched raw flour, because if your oven is hot enough to burn parchment, it is going to burn that flour too. I use the minimal amount of flour I can possibly use to open the doughball and do my best to remove all raw flour from the stretched skin.
Semolina or rice flour if you’re gonna cast raw. Never use your wooden peel for anything other than casting raw dough.
Do you like your pepperoni to char heavily like the Ezzo SS or would you prefer the let side picture of GiAntonio?
[https://www.ezzo.com/products.html](https://www.ezzo.com/products.html)
Baking Steel question! I baked a focaccia on it yesterday and it over-rose and spilled some olive oil on the steel. I scrubbed as much of it off as I could with a brush and hobbed at it with a silicone bowl scraper. Is metal a no-no on a baking steel, or could I hack at it with a bench scraper?
I don't care about the discolouration, more that the steel is kind of tacky in the oil spots and I've read it can cause problems with launching/retrieval in the future.
Thanks! I suppose that’s the cardinal rule of baking steels/carbon steels/cast iron - just cook with it. But more generally, I know metal utensils are actually *good* for cast iron - do you know if the same is true for baking steels (or at least not bad for it)?
I came across the Instagram page “doeshebakedough” and his pizza looks great. But his dough recipe calls for .25g dry yeast.
First off how the hell do I measure that? lol
Second, would that be active or instant dry yeast?
I use a .01g scale for that.
My notes say a teaspoon of dry yeast weighs 3.1g so it's like 1/12th tsp?
I also have one of those sets of fractional teaspoons - like this:
[https://www.amazon.com/Measuring-Stainless-Tablespoon-Teaspoon-Ingredients/dp/B091SW8BD5/](https://www.amazon.com/Measuring-Stainless-Tablespoon-Teaspoon-Ingredients/dp/B091SW8BD5/)
You'd have to ask them which kind they use. IDY is about 30% stronger than ADY.
Yeah I used a “pinch” measuring spoon. We’ll see what happens. Worst comes to worst I’ll just 4x the batch and have 4 dough balls. Pizza party at my place lol
I use a pizza recipe that calls for “water or beer”. Do you use beer? Does anyone have a preferences on the best beer to use when making dough? Or is this one of those straight to jail situations? Hope everyone has a great week!
they usually say use beer if you are doing a same day dough prep, by using beer you simulate some of the complex flavours you get from fermenting for several days. So if you are going to be making the dough, putting it in the fridge for several days, use water, you will get natural fermentation and flavours developing over time. If you are doing same day dough and want a little more flavour, use beer, it's a bit of a pizza hack and I'm sure purists would get their panties in a knot but it works decently. Otherwise just water I make plenty of great tasting pizzas with same day prep and just water.
Sounds like a sloppy recipe because beer has some sugars in it.
I don't put beer in my dough and unless it's a very flavorful beer i wouldn't imagine it changes the flavor a lot.
Give it a try both ways.
I am still working on Vitos recipes and the results are getting better (slowly). Something he doesnt clearly state is the temperature of the water though. I tried different temperatures and the results vary a lot. I'm guessing he is using cold water - just because when I used warmer/rt water, the yeast worked very much in the beginning and nearly exploded. Is that correct? And is it bad for the dough if the yeast works that much? My latest dough rised about \~3x the initial size.
I am looking at getting into this whole thing, and want to get a steel. I read around in the FAQs, but I found [https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Plate-A36-0-50-Thick/dp/B0888SKK8K](https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Plate-A36-0-50-Thick/dp/B0888SKK8K) online. Does anyone see anything wrong with this steel?
Mostly the price, but also it would take you 90 minutes or longer to get that much steel preheated, and the only upside is that it recovers quicker between pizzas, which is good if you are trying to cook several. Bad if you just wanted one.
Check out some of the options here:
[https://cookingsteels.com/factory-seconds/](https://cookingsteels.com/factory-seconds/)
If i want to get into (NY style) Pizza, should I try without a steel first or just buy a steel (money not an issue)? Last time i tried a Papa J copy crust and i think i cut too many corners and had a pretty lame result. My home oven sets to 550F, but I've never tried the broiler. I'm trying to pace my entry to temper against my ADHD enthusiasm cycle.
You'll want your pizza to be smaller than the bottom of the pan to make it easier to get in & out. Also if you have a pizza stone you can put that on the rack directly above your skillet so it retains and radiates heat above the pizza, as well.
Preheat for longer than you think you need, then another 15 minutes after that.
HELL YES! I've never tried it with the skillet upside-down, but it looks like your aim was good enough to stick the landing. How did the bottom look?
My setup:
https://i.imgur.com/75v6YAc.jpeg
Not sure where else to ask this but I've been looking for a recipe similar to this place called Pizza King (Indiana chain)
[https://www.theoriginalpizzaking.com/](https://www.theoriginalpizzaking.com/)
Anyone who has experience with their pizza had any luck finding a dough recipe comparable to this crust?
Anyone have experience with the [Piezano pizza oven](https://www.buypiezano.com/)? I'm pretty skeptical that an oven that hinges open at the back can retain heat well enough to really bake a pizza properly, but at $119 it's too cheap not to at least look into.
It's not so much about retaining heat as it is about being a small area with active heating.
It probably works. I didn't see what size pizza it accepts.
I just found a local place that has probably my favorite pizza in my area, but the only caveat being that the guy cuts it - a 14" round pie - into squares. This leaves four tiny postage stamp-sized pieces that are only crust and four squares in the middle that have no crust. Do you think it would be rude if the next time I order I ask him to cut it traditionally? It really feels like the square cut is a sort of trademark for his business or something. I just really dislike it compared to traditional slices.
That's variously called "party cut" or "bar cut" and it's the norm for midwest thin-crust styles. I don't think he'd be offended by a request for a different cut. If you're getting takeout or delivery, asking for an uncut pizza isn't too unusual of a request because some people want to slide it into a hot oven for a minute when they get home.
If there are only four without crust on a 14" pizza I don't think that's a normal party cut
I guess that's a reasonable argument. Does seem like an odd way to cut a pizza in that perspective.
What should I change in my recipe for a pizza dough if it comes out too sticky? Should I just use more flour when mixing?
What is your water/flour ratio?
1.7-1.8kg of flour per 1l of water
That or use more bench flour when handling it. Handling sticky dough comes with practice, can be useful to oil up your hands a bit.
It's more about the fact that it's so sticky I can't place it properly in the oven without using so much flour that it will drop and burn on the stone
Use semolina instead of bench flour then. And maybe don't make such wet dough. I don't know why people think higher hydration is always better.
Caputo Flour. did I get a bad bag? I recently bought a new bag of the Caputo Blue 55lb Bag Pizzeria flour. This is not my first experience with Caputo. The problem I am having is the dough never seems come together properly, never gets stretchy, it always tears apart. I have been making my dough the same way for last 20+ years and used Caputo for most of that (not always available where I live in Canada) Never seen anything like this. Since this problem with the new bag of flour, I have tried increasing the knead time, autolyse time, same results, changed hydration levels from 60% to 75%, changed fermentation times, tried 24, 48, and 1 week but still couldn't be stretched out without tearing, adding oil not adding oil. I wonder if the blue bag I got somehow has a much weaker protein level flour in the bag? For comparison I made a batch with some AP flour and it came together way better and had way more stretch to it. This sucks because I have used up nearly a 1/4 of the bag so far and have not had one good pie yet. and the bag cost nearly $100
Im trying to get a great pizza sauce for my napolitana - simple with quality ingredients. San Marazano tomatoes, fresh basil, salt, olive oil. The only issue is that my home oven only reaches 300 degrees - therefore this pizza sauce can be quite watery even after cooking the pizza. I imagine in a hotter pizza oven, this extra water would dissipate. Is it acceptable to cook the tomato sauce for a while first to reduce it? Or is there another way to do it? Any other tips/advice welcome! Thanks
degrees celcius or fahrenheit? if 300F that is pretty cold, 300c should be fine. What I do is I pour the tomatoes into a sieve and capture all the moisture into a bowl that falls through the sieve. I let it sit in the sieve for about 5 to 10 minutes. I then crush my tomatoes if not already crushed in the sieve all the watery content will go into the bowl. I then use what's in the sieve to make my sauce in a different bowl. If I find that too thick I can add back in a little of the tomato/watery liquid from my capture bowl. I have in the past tried reducing the tomatoes in a pan under the broiler, that does reduce the water level in the sauce but it also cooks the tomatoes and has less of a fresh taste when done. Also to get a little bit more oomph out of your oven leave it set to it's highest setting on broil until just before you throw the pizza in and keep the stone/steel near the broiler, this will ensure you are getting every ounce/gram of heat out of the oven that you can.
i want to make a pan pizza but only have an aluminum pan. will that work or should i use my cast iron skillet?
Neapolitan pizza dough left overnight in the fridge or room temp? Hi guys, I have recently bought myself a pizza oven and I’m going to have my first crack at making Neapolitan pizza this weekend. I am preparing my dough now for tomorrow and I’m just wondering when it comes to leaving the dough for up to 24 hours which seems to be the advised practice from what I’ve read online. Is it best to store it overnight in the fridge or room temp? I’ve seen the fridge recommended more so, so I’m just wondering what difference it makes.
It kind of depends on the recipe, temperature of your place, and how much yeast you are using. It's also not clear where you are in the process when you plan to let it sit for 24 hours. In the Forkish Elements of Pizza book, for example, after making the dough balls you let them proof for five or so hours and then use them within the next five hours. If you plan to use them the next day then you let them proof for like 4 hours then put them in the refrigerator. You'll need to take them out of the fridge probably two hours prior to use, more or less.
Pizza Stone So I tried using a pizza stone for the first time. I made some dough using this recipe [https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/neapolitan-pizza-base/](https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/neapolitan-pizza-base/) and I just couldn’t get the dough to go thin enough. When I tried to put the pizza on the stone using a floured metal peel it stuck to the peel and the ingredients ended up on the stone. It now looks like this after one use and a wash, it also smells quite burnt. Does anyone have any tips on using a stone or have a trusted dough recipe they use? Thanks https://preview.redd.it/hfqx8su1smsc1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2caf258d5fe6198e6d0cf5a94468aa2f0a69b3f
just use way more flour on your surface you make the pizza on like your counter, then flour your peel and then slide your pizza on the peel, by lifting up on the pizza a bit and then with one solid motion slide the peel underneath. Then immediately transfer to the oven for cooking, the pizza should be on the peel for like 2 seconds, the longer you wait with the dough on the peel the more likely the moisture from the dough will mix with the flour and then get sticky. Also when ready to get the pizza off the peel do little shakes to get it moving then try sliding it off the peel. Use way more flour then you expect, so put a lot of flour then use more. Also don't lay your dough on the peel then build your pizza on the peel, this is guaranteed to stick unless you build it in like 5 seconds. That all said the parchment paper trick is almost flawless unless you are cooking at really high heat, like 500F+ it will burn at those temps.
I’m sorry but parchment burning is false. It is. It’s probably true if you’re using a super high temp pizza oven, but a home oven and 550 and pretty much all brands I’ve used have no issue burning. In fact, often I can get multiple uses out a single piece of parchment, especially if I remove it halfway. If I am using the broiler method, then for sure remove halfway. And also. If you’re bound and determined to cast raw dough onto stone or steel. Do not use flour. I repeat. DO NOT USE NORMAL WHEAT FLOUR. Use semolina or rice flour. Some people may enjoy raw flour coating their lovely dough but I don’t. I also don’t enjoy scorched raw flour, because if your oven is hot enough to burn parchment, it is going to burn that flour too. I use the minimal amount of flour I can possibly use to open the doughball and do my best to remove all raw flour from the stretched skin. Semolina or rice flour if you’re gonna cast raw. Never use your wooden peel for anything other than casting raw dough.
tell that to my wife who will not let me use it all in our oven when doing pizza I have had numerous fires.
I’ve had one fire and it’s because I used someone else’s oven with convection. 🤷♂️
Use parchment paper if you’re relatively new to making pizza. It imparts no flavor and ensures you’re not gonna eff it up putting it in the oven
Do you like your pepperoni to char heavily like the Ezzo SS or would you prefer the let side picture of GiAntonio? [https://www.ezzo.com/products.html](https://www.ezzo.com/products.html)
Baking Steel question! I baked a focaccia on it yesterday and it over-rose and spilled some olive oil on the steel. I scrubbed as much of it off as I could with a brush and hobbed at it with a silicone bowl scraper. Is metal a no-no on a baking steel, or could I hack at it with a bench scraper? I don't care about the discolouration, more that the steel is kind of tacky in the oil spots and I've read it can cause problems with launching/retrieval in the future.
You can media blast it if you want but there's no reason to worry about it
[удалено]
Thanks! I suppose that’s the cardinal rule of baking steels/carbon steels/cast iron - just cook with it. But more generally, I know metal utensils are actually *good* for cast iron - do you know if the same is true for baking steels (or at least not bad for it)?
I came across the Instagram page “doeshebakedough” and his pizza looks great. But his dough recipe calls for .25g dry yeast. First off how the hell do I measure that? lol Second, would that be active or instant dry yeast?
get your cocaine scale out :)
I use a .01g scale for that. My notes say a teaspoon of dry yeast weighs 3.1g so it's like 1/12th tsp? I also have one of those sets of fractional teaspoons - like this: [https://www.amazon.com/Measuring-Stainless-Tablespoon-Teaspoon-Ingredients/dp/B091SW8BD5/](https://www.amazon.com/Measuring-Stainless-Tablespoon-Teaspoon-Ingredients/dp/B091SW8BD5/) You'd have to ask them which kind they use. IDY is about 30% stronger than ADY.
Yeah I used a “pinch” measuring spoon. We’ll see what happens. Worst comes to worst I’ll just 4x the batch and have 4 dough balls. Pizza party at my place lol
I use a pizza recipe that calls for “water or beer”. Do you use beer? Does anyone have a preferences on the best beer to use when making dough? Or is this one of those straight to jail situations? Hope everyone has a great week!
they usually say use beer if you are doing a same day dough prep, by using beer you simulate some of the complex flavours you get from fermenting for several days. So if you are going to be making the dough, putting it in the fridge for several days, use water, you will get natural fermentation and flavours developing over time. If you are doing same day dough and want a little more flavour, use beer, it's a bit of a pizza hack and I'm sure purists would get their panties in a knot but it works decently. Otherwise just water I make plenty of great tasting pizzas with same day prep and just water.
Sounds like a sloppy recipe because beer has some sugars in it. I don't put beer in my dough and unless it's a very flavorful beer i wouldn't imagine it changes the flavor a lot. Give it a try both ways.
I am still working on Vitos recipes and the results are getting better (slowly). Something he doesnt clearly state is the temperature of the water though. I tried different temperatures and the results vary a lot. I'm guessing he is using cold water - just because when I used warmer/rt water, the yeast worked very much in the beginning and nearly exploded. Is that correct? And is it bad for the dough if the yeast works that much? My latest dough rised about \~3x the initial size.
I am looking at getting into this whole thing, and want to get a steel. I read around in the FAQs, but I found [https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Plate-A36-0-50-Thick/dp/B0888SKK8K](https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Plate-A36-0-50-Thick/dp/B0888SKK8K) online. Does anyone see anything wrong with this steel?
Mostly the price, but also it would take you 90 minutes or longer to get that much steel preheated, and the only upside is that it recovers quicker between pizzas, which is good if you are trying to cook several. Bad if you just wanted one. Check out some of the options here: [https://cookingsteels.com/factory-seconds/](https://cookingsteels.com/factory-seconds/)
If i want to get into (NY style) Pizza, should I try without a steel first or just buy a steel (money not an issue)? Last time i tried a Papa J copy crust and i think i cut too many corners and had a pretty lame result. My home oven sets to 550F, but I've never tried the broiler. I'm trying to pace my entry to temper against my ADHD enthusiasm cycle.
If you have a large cast iron skillet, that works well, too, without having to buy a new heavy piece of cookware.
Nice! I got a 12" lodge that should work just fine. Thanks!
You'll want your pizza to be smaller than the bottom of the pan to make it easier to get in & out. Also if you have a pizza stone you can put that on the rack directly above your skillet so it retains and radiates heat above the pizza, as well. Preheat for longer than you think you need, then another 15 minutes after that.
https://preview.redd.it/u7h8m61wtpuc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cad10e0d40d3767b2cda4bab98f864800b3a283a
HELL YES! I've never tried it with the skillet upside-down, but it looks like your aim was good enough to stick the landing. How did the bottom look? My setup: https://i.imgur.com/75v6YAc.jpeg
Nice! Bottom was great! Probably over floured, but texture was there!
https://preview.redd.it/1dfwmalstpuc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00275eaf7f6946f484063d0f13004fb677f2900f
Thanks! I might just use the bottom of the pan so it's flat with no lip. Good tip on heating too
Not sure where else to ask this but I've been looking for a recipe similar to this place called Pizza King (Indiana chain) [https://www.theoriginalpizzaking.com/](https://www.theoriginalpizzaking.com/) Anyone who has experience with their pizza had any luck finding a dough recipe comparable to this crust?
Haven't tried it, but this might be a good starting point: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/dining/tavern-thin-crust-pizza-chicago.html
Yeah I've made Kenji's before, it's great don't get me wrong but it's not quite like Pizza Kings. Thank you though!
Anyone have experience with the [Piezano pizza oven](https://www.buypiezano.com/)? I'm pretty skeptical that an oven that hinges open at the back can retain heat well enough to really bake a pizza properly, but at $119 it's too cheap not to at least look into.
It's not so much about retaining heat as it is about being a small area with active heating. It probably works. I didn't see what size pizza it accepts.