NY Style & Sicilian! First-time this weekend

NY Style crust

20 oz. KABF (by weight)
12 oz. water (by weight)
1.5 tsp Morton Kosher Salt
3 tsp honey
1 tsp ADY

Combine flour and salt together.

Warm water in microwave until hand hot then stir in honey until dissolved. Add ADY and wait 5-10 minutes.

Mix with wooden spoon in large bowl, then hand knead (I don't have a proper mixer).

This makes two dough balls. Place each dough ball in an oiled bowl, cover and regrigerate 24-48 hours.

Set the dough out on counter until it is room temperature. Then turn out on floured surface and bake on a stone or screen at 550.

Sicilian

This is for a 14.5 x 11 dark metal pan.

14.4 oz. KABF
0.37 oz Morton Kosher Salt
0.75 oz. EVOO
Bit under 1 tsp IDY
8.33 oz. water (a touch over 1 cup)

Make dough ball similar to above. Refrigerate for 18 hours minimum. Set out on counter until it is room temperature. Press dough into oiled pan, allow to rise for about 40 minutes. Bake at 525.

This is the sauce I made:

1 28 oz. can Cento Italian Style whole tomatos
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Morton Kosher Salt
3/4 tsp coarse ground black pepper
1 tsp sugar
drizzle of honey
1/2 tsp cinammon

Finger-drind the basil and oregano. Mix all in with tomato sauce. Puree. Refrigerate overnight.

Cheese blend (based on what I had):

2/3 Part-skim low-moisture Mozzarella
1/6 Provolone
1/6 Fontina

Ok, here's the deal. This is my first pizza making endeavor at home. The NY style recipe was lifted straight off of pizzaforum, and I can't remember who posted it (sorry). The Sicilian is a modified version of the Lehmann Sicilian recipe (modified since I didn't have the same size pan as what it called for).

Made the NY dough balls this afternoon, fairly uneventful. They sure look right. The Sicilian I'll make later this evening.

I think my oven only goes up to about 475, so we'll see what that produces. The NY style I'll cook on a well-seasoned pizza stone I have on hand.

Bought some bulk Italian sausage at the grocery store earlier, and cooked it in a cast iron skillet in irregularly shaped pieces. Pepperoni is Wilson-brand, which as I remember is only ok. Also will slice some white onions thin, and mix them on top.

The Sicilian will be made with the cheese going directly onto the dough, then the other toppings, and finally two rows of sauce "dollops" on top. This is how I remember making it when I worked at a pizza joint in high school (that was only about 30 years ago!).

Will provide full write-up on results with PICS, sometime Sunday evening.

Holy Toledo, it worked! By type:

NY Style: pressed/pounded on the dough ball on a floured countertop. Pressed it out into a larger circle, then picked it up and started "slapping dough". Then got it on top of my knuckles, and starting tossing it! The kids LOVED that part of it. Didn't try spinning it up high. Laid it out on a cookie sheet that I'd put some cornmeal on. Sauced it, cheesed it, sprinkled some basil on top then slid it perfectly off onto the hot stone in the oven. Came out nicely browned. We all loved it.
The second one (pepperoni, sausage, onion) I ended up making the crust too big, and it didn't all fit onto the stone! Foled a few areas up, but some pepperoni slid off onto the base of the oven (which ended up making a nice little conflagration for a few minutes). It too was very nice. I'd like to get the bottom of the crust a little crisper, so this will take some time, but otherwise it was great.

Sicilian: pressed the dough into the corners of the pan, put on the cheese, and on half of the pizza put on the pepp, saus, and onion (the littlest ones want cheese-only). Put on a few rows of sauce dollops on top. Came out really nice. Crunchy on the outside of the crust, soft more towards the top side. Maybe more "bready" than I want it. This, too, will require work.

I'd say the pizza was at least as good as what is typically delivered here. Not the best pizza I've ever had, but a great start.

Try it sometime!

Alan, it takes a full hour to preheat your oven to pizza temps so that the stone, walls, ceiling, and floor of your oven heat evenly. Turn on an exhaust fan for cooling your kitchen!

I usually preheat my oven with the stone on the top rack (heat rises, ya know) at 550 degrees convection (= 575 degrees without convection) for 1 hour before sliding the pizza onto the stone. If you don't have convection, just use 550 degrees or the highest temp your oven will allow and bake your pizza a minute or two longer.

IMO, most people take their pizzas out of the oven just a little too soon. The pizza should be lightly charred in a few spots for optimum flavor and visual appeal.

When I have 4 or 5 stones on an equal number of racks in one oven for a pizza party, I allow 1 1/2 hours to preheat. Those stones sink a lot of heat.

Rita

Yep, I'm with you on all that. I probably could have pre-heated the oven longer to get that stone really hot, but time was of the essence.

Fortunately, last night was nice and cool here, so opened up a door and had some windows cracked to de-smoke the house.

I agree on the tendency for under-cooked pizza.

Alan, there is a way of "tricking" your oven to get higher temps. I think it involves using the self cleaning feature which kicks the temp up really high. Can't give you the exact procedure but if you put the self cleaning feature on to preheat the oven and stones it would get you that higher temp. Since higher temp pizzas don't cook that long you'd be ok.

My self-cleaning oven won't heat up to cleaning temps unless the door is locked, and won't unlock until the temp drops below 500°

Doug, you are correct. I read into this more and the procedure requires you to put aluminum foil on the door sensor so that the door may be opened while the cycle is in operation. Don't know if I really want to take those kind of risks just for a pizza

Yep, I've read about the cleaning-setting thing. Agree with some that it just doesn't seem right, so I'll shy away from that. My next pizza cook will be on Friday for my daughter's sleep-over guests (4 very loud 12-year olds!), and I'll be sure to fire the oven up early and let that pizza stone really soak up the heat.

I also have the bug bad to build my own brick wood-fired oven in my backyard. If and when that happens, I won't have the problem of less-than-optimal heat!

Doug, that looks really nice. Might just have to do something like that. It would definitely do the job

If you already have the burner, I would think a beat-up, yard sale bargain of a kettle would do the trick nicely. Wouldn't even need the wheels.