My first pizza.


 

Chuck R

TVWBB Fan
I baked my first pizza today. Using a scaled down version of Bryan S.’s NY Style Pizza Dough,, I made two balls of dough for 10” pizzas. Thanks Bryan!

2 balls:10.125 oz / and 10.5 oz., for 2 - 12” X 0.089” thick)
KAB flour: 12.25 oz./12 ¼ oz/347.29g (100%)
Filtered water: 7..625/7 5/8 oz /216.17g (62.%) at 68º
Red Star Quick Rise Yeast: 375 tsp/3/8 tsp/1.05g (0.30%)
Diamond Crystal Kosher salt: 1.25 tsp./3.5g, (1.01%)

On Monday, I made up the dough and put in the refrigerator, hoping for a 5 day ferment.

Air and table temp. 69.3
Humidity 47%

Using a Kitchen Aid Pro 6 with a “C” hook, I combined water and salt to dissolve. Added yeast and stirred. On speed 1, slowly added flour and mixed for two minutes. Let stand for 20 minutes. On speed 2, kneaded dough for 5 minutes. Hand knedded about 10 times until depression popped up. Halved dough and placed each in lightly oiled 3 cup Zip Lock cups. Dough temp. 69 º. Placed in bottom drawer of refrigerator which was 40 º. Next time mix water and flour, rest, add yeast and salt, mix and knead.

After 24 hours, the dough was rising and smelling good.

Dough after 24 hours, top view.
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Side view:
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While waiting for the dough to finish, I picked up a box of Dal Tile Red Blaze Q40, 6” X 6” X ½” unglazed quarry tile to line my Weber Genesis Gas Barbecue. I placed three half tiles vertically across the back of the grill to keep the pizza from touching the grease build up on the back of the gasser, then horizontally, a row of 3 across the back, 4 across the middle and ½ of 3 across the front. I placed two and 2 halves of tiles on the fixed warming rack above the grill and two more tiles on the lid warming rack (more doesn’t let the rack swing when the lid closes and they tend to fall out.. I didn’t cover the grill entirely so that heat could rise instead of funning out of the bottom vent/grease hole. To crack tile in half, I set the tile on the shank of a long drill bit, centering the shank on one of the female corrugations, stepped on one side and whacked the other side with a rubber mallet. Not rocket science. Wear safety glasses as some small tile shards go flying.

Because the corrugations on the back of the tile had something similar to silicon to prevent scratching in transit, and to burn out anything that could be burned out of the clay, I turned the gasser on the lowest notch for 10 minutes which took the temp up to 170 º, then the second notch for 10 minutes which brought it up to 230 º, then to 430 º, 520 º, 600 º, then two more notches to the maximum. The thermometer pegged at 600 º, two notches below maximum. I could hear a greater flow of gas so I am sure the temperature increased. I am going to order a lazer temperature gauge so I can get a better handle on the temp.

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This morning, after the dough had fermented between 54 and 56 hours, one on the dough balls collapsed about an inch a half. There were some large bubbles on the top.

Dough #1 top view
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Side view
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The other ball had not collapsed.

Ball # 2 top view.
56hrstop2.jpg


Side view
56hrsside2.jpg


Fearing that the first ball had over fermented, I decided to bake it today, rather than waiting until Saturday.. I set the ball on the counter for two hours, then pushed the center down and out, to about 6”. I then picked it up and stretched it out to about 10” and placed it on the peel. It started to spring back to about 8”. I pick it up and stretched it again, but finally settled on an 8” X 10” pizza as the middle was getting very thin and opaque. I sauced it with ¼ cup of my own sauce, 4 oz. of ¼” cubed Precious (Sorrento) low-moisture part skim mozzarella cheese and two minced cloves of garlic.

Topped.
Toipped.jpg


I preheated the Weber to 550º. I was shooting for 600º+ but it was gusty outside, so at one hour, I slid the pizza in the
”oven”. I immediately heard sizzling. Didn’t know if this was normal or not. After two minutes, I looked in to see if it needed turning and say that the bottom was smoking and was stuck to the tiles. I pried it lose from the tiles and placed it on a cooling rack.

Done
Done.jpg


The crust was a very light golden brown, with the appearance of pastry but was not flakey. At first, I thought that it wqs undercooked but that wqs not the case. The mozzarella had not totally melted, but had spreqd out by the time it was cooled and sliced. The bottom was burned.

Bottom
bottom.jpg


The rim was light, with up to ½” bubbles. It was very thin at the end, but stood straight out without drooping. Once I got pqst the burnt crust, it tasted very good, not like a heavy bread, nor doughy. The best I can describe is was as a warm French bread, but not a sourdough.

Side of slice
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All in all, it was a great first experience, a learning experience. Next time, I will let the dough rest after combining the water and flour, then, after the rest, add the yeast then salt. I will cut down on the yeast to 1/8 tsp beause of the over fermentation for a cold ferment. I will probably get a pizza screen and start the bake on that, then transfer to the tile fo crisp up the crust.

Also, my sauce was a little heavy. I used 6 in 1’s with tomato paste and spices, uncooked. Next batch, I will eliminate the paste for a “fresher” taste. This sauce will make a great spaghetti sauce though.

I need to get a better temp. on my Genesis. At 550º, the crust shouldn’t have burned in two minutes so it may have been much hotter. I’ll have to wait until my infrared thermometer gets here next week.
 
Chuck, hey it's the first try.
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The first ball with the big bubbles and then the collapse is due to not getting all of the air and or voids out of the dough when kneading into a ball for the cold ferment.
As far as the burnt bottom, and raw top, that's due to way too much bottom heat, and not enough top heat.
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You need to get the refective heat off of the inside of the lid to heat and brown the top of the pie. You need to get the pie up towards the lid more and away from the lower burners to get the top and bottom cooking together/even at the same time. Also you might have too many tiles on there and not getting enough heat going up around them, but that looks minimal from the pics. I take out the warming rack, and use reg bricks on their side and a pizza screen for this when using the gasser for making pies. HTH And keep trying.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Chuck R:
Bryan

Do you set up your bricks vertical or horizontal on the grill? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I added some more above for you. Horizontal to raise the screen up about 3" off the grate. I use 3 reg old house bricks setup so the outer rim of the screen barley rests on them as not to block the air flow under the screen.
 
I'd also suggest mixing the flour into the wter at speed 2, kneading on 2 (as you did) then do a finishing hand-knead just long enough till smooth, probably a couple minutes at the very most.

For the sauce, yes, skip the paste (I use paste for nothing) and just break up the tomatoes with your hands. If using mozz that is other than fresh grate it, using the large holes of a box grater or something similar.

It seems very likely to me that your tiles were much hotter than 550. To burn that quickly is indicative.

Great write-up. Give it another shot soon.
 
If I may suggest...try one pie in your oven on the hottest setting. Mine goes to just over 500* and cooks a 14" pie in 6-7 minutes. Ovens are easier when you are starting out.

My other thought is somebody needs to develop a 'convection' mod for gassers and charcoal grills for more even cooking.

Finally, perhaps precooking non-cheese topings will help some too. The real issue is getting the top and bottom of the crust done evenly. Another option for grill cooking of pizza-try cooking crust for a short time, flip and top the pizza and cook again.....Thanks for sharing your efforts.
 
Thank y’all for the suggestions and encouragement.

Bryan, when I did a trial run when burning off any foreign objects on/in the tile (on a warm calm day), it pegged the temperature gauge at 600 º, two “clicks” below maximum, so I am pretty sure there is enough heat getting past the tile. I’ll find some fire brick and raise the cooking surface.

Bryan said “. . . And keep on trying.” This is now a challenge! This pizza was good enough, even with the char on the bottom, that I want to perfect my methods. It’s still better than the fast food pizza shops around here but not as good as our favorite pizza joint.

Kevin, I’m going to check out the grater on the Kitchen Aid (basically lazy) to see if the holes are large enough. I don’t think I want a “mini zester” size cheese. The Bride and I did a blind taste test (well, The Bride was blind, I just can’t hear), with Precious, Campania Felix Bufala and Grande Part Skim and we both preferred the Precious. The bufala tasted more like ricotta and the Grande left an after taste, even 20 minutes later. Not real scientific, but I’m not making my pizzas for a bunch of scientists. My remaining ball of dough popped the top off of a three cup container this morning, and when I pulled the container top from the dough to transfer the container to a Pam sprayed baggie, the dough stuck a bit and deflated like a balloon, so I may cook that up tonight for The Bride if I can find a pizza screen. I used a 0.30% (3/8 teaspoon for this recipe) IDY ratio, but this is definitely too high for a cold ferment so I may try 1/8 tsp. for my next batch.

Steve, my electric house oven reads 550 º maximum so I will also give that a try. When I get the gasser down right, I want to try dropping a chunk of lump or fruitwood on the grill to see what a little smoke will do.
 
Even though it didn't go as well as hoped, I appreciate you sharing. For those of us in your same shoes (experience wise), its often easier to learn from less than successful attempts rather than the outright successes. No doubt the next will go much better.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steve Petrone:
My other thought is somebody needs to develop a 'convection' mod for gassers and charcoal grills for more even cooking. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Steve, I figured you knew about this. Link for you.
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There you go, ask and you receive....Bryan that looks good.

Did you happen to watch the dough making video? Sounds a little like me and my free form measurements-so much for percentages!
 
Bryan, never thought about the bricks for support. Great idea!!! Will do that as soon as we get over to our new place and I can experiment. I can't find anymore of the unglazed quarry tiles at HD or Lowes. I've been using some small stone tiles. I guess they'd work. Any ideas on the quarry tile??
 
Paul-
I read one of your posts you did awhile back regarding the Maverick ET-73. Are you still liking that thermometer or have you moved on to something else. I want a good wireless one for my husband for Christmas. He has a Traeger to grill temp is not so important but I saw that you said you could put a second food probe in that connection instead. I have also thought about the Maverick ET-7 which is just a dual probe one. You can also email me at clair@move-northwest.com
 
When I used to cook pizza from scratch at home I'd throw some cornmeal on the peel & the stone to keep the dough from sticking. Also like Steve mentioned above you can just put it on the grill, lightly cook one side then flip and top.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by paul h:
I can't find anymore of the unglazed quarry tiles at HD or Lowes. I've been using some small stone tiles. I guess they'd work. Any ideas on the quarry tile?? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Paul sorry. I have no idea, never looked for them. I'm a screen guy for life.
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