I think I would try eliminating the additions to the dough in the beginning, and wait and briefly work them in just before forming the crust. Garlic and onion both are known to have anti-microbial properties, and may well be what caused the breakdown. I used to add dried onion to my doughs back when I was making them right before cooking, but, truth be known, I never could taste it under all the toppings.

Just wanted to give praise to Bryan for posting this recipe/techniqe for making pizza dough. Since my first attempt, I have been making my own pizzas every week (except for one) since April. I have had consistent results every time. I have not bought pizza since my first try. My 7 year old daughter said today that she wishes I could make pizza for her school (they have pizza every Friday). Not real hard to beat school food, but made me feel good anyway. Now that I am comfortable with this technique, I may start making adjustments to see if I can make it better (for my tastes). Again, my praises to Bryan for sharing this with us. It has revolutionized the pizza experience at my house and hopefully at others as well.

quote:

Ceresota AP Flour (100%) 24.56 oz
Water (62%) 15.22 oz

My Salter only does fractional, not decimal oz, I'm going metric cuz it doesn't hurt my head

Ceresota AP Flour (100%) 696.26g
Water (62%) 431.48g


First balls are in the fridge for the weekend, can't wait!!

Let's talk cost. Once you get over any initial investments you have to make (screen, stone, scale...), what is the food cost per pizza based on what you are seeing? I realize this depends on size of pizza and toppings used.

I would think that if you buy smart and use the ingredients regularly so you don't waste, making your own delicious pizzas at home should be a money-saver.

One last item: I agree with a previous post-er about hand-tossing the dough. Used to do that when I worked at a place in high school. Just hand press it and stretch it out to about the size of a frisbee or a dinner plate, get it on top of your hands (your hands should be placed like you are holding a canteloupe from the top side, then toss it up with a twisting motion! You WILL drop some. Once you have it down, it always impresses the youngsters.

Alan,

I figure I am spending $10 - $13 (give or take for topping selection) for two 16 inch pizzas. The only local pizza worth considering charged $17 for one 16 inch... that was over a year ago. It's a big savings in my house.

Gary

So screens only it is then. For your NY style pizza's what kind of cheese/mix do you guys prefer?

I have a similar question regarding meats. What's a good pepperoni to use, or what are the qualities of the pepperoni like in your pictures Bryan?

So, in my previous dizza-sters (too doughy, uncooked middle, too thick, too much cheese, crummy cheese, lousy sandwich meat pepproni & salami for toppings) well you get the idea.

Do you use like a dry pepperoni from the deli?

My hands down fav roni is Ezzo Brand from Ohio. Look for the Margarita Brand, BJ's carries it as well as Costco I think and IIRC you have a Costco near you? The Margarita brand is a top notch roni. Hormel also makes a very good roni. Those are the only 3 I will buy. If your getting a soft center many things can be the problem or a combo of several. Crust too thick for the high temp you're cooking at. My NY style is pretty thin, about an 1/8" thick when the pie is done cooking. What are you cooking on a stone, screen, or a solid pan? I much prefer a screen. If cooking on a stone, about an hour preheat is ness. Also your temp is critical as well as the rack position in the oven. The latter is trial and error, only takes a few tries to get the rack position right. I do middle rack in the oven, full tilt @ 550º and the pies take about 8 min. Finding the right rack position is critical so the bottom and top cook at the same time and are done at the same time. If you get one where the bottom gets done before the top, just stick it under the broiler to finish the top. Top done bottom not move the rack to the lowest position but remeber it will brown very quick on you. Fine line between brown and burned after the pie has been in the oven for any period of time. HTH and good luck Bud.
EDIT: Link to Ezzo roni and where I buy it from. Penn Mac Co.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bryan S,

Alan, to me the cost is almost irrelevant. The quality of the pies I've been turning out is hands down better than anything I can buy locally. The most expensive pizza I've done was the one with pesto sauce. The ingredients included marinated artichoke hearts,calamari olives,roasted tomatoes, and feta cheese. I had enough to do two 18" pizzas.BUT, It was fantastic. Not the kind of pizza you want to do every week but a nice change. Usually we just have a veggie pizza(green peppers,onions,fresh mushrooms, and black olives) with pepperoni. Even the grand kids rave about the pizza and they are very picky eaters.

quote:

Originally posted by paul h:

............ Even the grand kids rave about the pizza and they are very picky eaters.

That's what it's all about!!!!!!!


Gary

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan S:
My hands down fav roni is Ezzo Brand from Ohio. Look for the Margarita Brand, BJ's carries it as well as Costco I think and IIRC you have a Costco near you? The Margarita brand is a top notch roni. Hormel also makes a very good roni. Those are the only 3 I will buy. If your getting a soft center many things can be the problem or a combo of several. Crust too thick for the high temp you're cooking at. My NY style is pretty thin, about an 1/8" thick when the pie is done cooking. What are you cooking on a stone, screen, or a solid pan? I much prefer a screen. If cooking on a stone, about an hour preheat is ness. Also your temp is critical as well as the rack position in the oven. The latter is trial and error, only takes a few tries to get the rack position right. I do middle rack in the oven, full tilt @ 550º and the pies take about 8 min. Finding the right rack position is critical so the bottom and top cook at the same time and are done at the same time. If you get one where the bottom gets done before the top, just stick it under the broiler to finish the top. Top done bottom not move the rack to the lowest position but remeber it will brown very quick on you. Fine line between brown and burned after the pie has been in the oven for any period of time. HTH and good luck Bud.
EDIT: Link to Ezzo roni and where I buy it from. Penn Mac Co.

Thanks Bryan, I'm going out to try and find some pepperoni today, I'll hit Costco, a butcher shop that does some of their own sausages, and a couple delies. I'll keep an eye open for those brands.

Just to clarify, my previous pizza disasters were not using your dough recipe. I've tried a few different pizza dough recipes in my bread machine.

Any special preference for type of cheese or blend to go with the pepperoni ?

Ray this probably doesn't help you, I think they are Canadian but I'm going with Saputo mozza, at least at first.

quote:

1st Prize at the 2006 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix in the Mozzarella Category
1st Prize at the 2006 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in the Pasta Filata Cheese Category
1st Prize at the 2006 World Championship Cheese Contest in the Mozzarella Category

What I can mention that might help, I will not use cheap no name brand mozza again. I suppose one could be ok, but the one I tried was horrible. It was so soft it would barely grate, it was tough when melted, didn't stretch and didn't taste good. I thought Kraft mozza was pretty lousy too. Edit: primary objection to Kraft was it was way too salty

Once I have my crust nailed I'm going to try the roasted tomatoes for sauce and fresh grated asiago/parmeseam/romano no mozza and fresh herbs sort of thing.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

mozz topped with ny cheddar for my ny style.

Gary

Thanks Bryan for the pizza dough recipe. We had been using a bread machine recipe that included sugar, powdered milk, oil. It was OK, but your simple recipe processed in the KitchenAid 6 qt pro is the winning ticket! Just made another batch - this will be a regular item here.

Richard

Where should I begin .... OMG!

That was so good! I can't believe I made that!!

I wish I could have took a pic but my wife is off with the camera today.

I need some practice shaping, but it was pretty good for first try. I did it on a 16" pan and it was round except for a straight line across a section, 1" at the furthest point from where it should have been. It had a moderate but not excessive edge crust. So it could have been better round and some of the dough from the edge might be better distributed evenly across the surface area, but that little nitpicking might take years of practice to perfect, and frankly it didn't bother me a bit.

I'll hit the pizza forum for some tips and instructions on shaping. Tonight I used parchment paper. I stretched the dough as far as I could holding it straight up and 'turning the steering wheel'. Then layed the dough down on the parchment and would lift up about 1/3 of the pie, stretch then lay down on the parchment. Repeated this a couple times until it was about 18" in diameter then rolled up an edge crust. The parchment held the dough in place when it was put down.

Cooked 6 minutes, flip 180, about another 6 minutes. Beautiful color, fully cooked crust. The parchment came off without any issue.

The 'screen' I used is one from the brined almond smoke pics. Not really a screen like yours but lots of paper punch size holes. The bottom of the crust had nice brown spots where all the holes were.

I don't have a big flipper, so the parchment worked to move it from the counter on to the pan and from the pan on to the cooling rack. Only thing about it: I have to trim the corners off next time, didn't this time and they went quite dark, smoked then crumbled (didn't see any fire though).

I should clean the oven before next time .. set off the smoke detector 3 times...

I LOVED the taste of this dough (5 day ferment). Crust was chewy and tender at the same time.


The ultimate critic: my 10 year old son groaned when I told him I was making homemade pizza tonight (I have made some truly lousy pizzas). You should have seen his eyes pop out when I set that 1/6th piece of the pie in front of him! He said two things while we ate ('Can I have another one please' x 2).


Thanks Bryan!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

Shawn, glad to hear it came out good for you. Whish you had the camera, would have loved to see a pic of it. How did make out on your Pepperoni search?

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan S:
Shawn, glad to hear it came out good for you. Whish you had the camera, would have loved to see a pic of it. How did make out on your Pepperoni search?

I found something that was ok, better than sandwich meat slices at any rate.

Schneiders is a retail brand, I got the pepproni chub and Ham & Bacon Sausage chub. Just used the pepperoni tonight. The ingrediants on the pepperoni listed no mechanically seperated or by-products and it's about 1.5" across. I did find Piller's presliced pizza pepperoni at Safeway, I can try that sometime. Have you tried that one?

I also bought a wine chorizo to try and some hungarian salami from a deli.

I found the Saputo cheese I wanted but I also bought some Franco mozza from an Italian deli. The Saputo is still sealed so I used the Franco tonight and it was great. Way better than crap store brand mozza I've tried before.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

quote:

Originally posted by r benash:
Any special preference for type of cheese or blend to go with the pepperoni ?

One mix I have seen used a lot is a blend of mozz, prov, and Fontana. I'd say start with 1/3 each, then experiment to get it the way you want it. Buffalo mozz is also supposed to be very good.

Made another one tonight, trimmed the parchment to fit ... no smoke, no smoke detectors going off

It was great! Used Saputo, Ham and Bacon Sausage, and Hungarian Salami. I'm pretty sure my last two dough balls are not going to last 8 more days. I have to whip up another couple of batches. I'm going to try the food processor, it says it makes dough.

BTW, I called Ellison Mills in Lethbridge today (where Costco got the flour I'm using) and found out the protein level is 13 - 13.5%, I think that's right up there with King Arthur Bread flour. It stretches well so I don't think I need to add gluten, but I probably will try bumping it up and see if it makes a difference.