j biesinger
TVWBB Platinum Member
Jim Lahey of Sullivan St Bakery (NYC) took the world by storm a few years back with his "no knead" bread recipe. I've been meaning to try it but I just don't do a ton of bread making (none to be exact). Lahey has now branched out into a pizza restaurant called Co. which I've been two twice and their pies are outstanding. It was at Co. that we learned the Lahey had this book in the works, which I have since received as a gift for my birthday.
I've tried lots of different frozen doughs and a few from scratch, but everyone of them were difficult to work with and didn't cook correctly. That's probably why I'm so excited about this recipe. It's super easy to make, it was a dream to stretch and it cooked perfectly. I had a few burn, but I think it was the result of not using enough flour on the peel (flour insulates the crust from the heat of the stone).
I started by building an oven with fire brick. I got the idea from the steel kettle pizza ring. I threw an extra stone on top to help get some radiant heat down on the top of the pie (I think there was too much head space and it didn't quite work the way I wanted). I used a hinged grate and had one opening in my slot so I could feed charcoal as needed
I had no problem getting her over 600*. Tossing a few chunks of dried apple in really made the temps spike. Some of the best pies were the later ones when the fire was in the 500* range. They took longer but had more browning.
the pies were all from the book
margherita (tomato sauce, mozzarella di bufala, basil)
flambe (bechamel sauce, lardons, mozzarella, onion)
bechamel, guanciale, mozzarella, rosemary, garlic, egg
it was nearly impossible to jerk the pie off the peel and on to the stone with out losing a raw egg
I did a couple others(bianca and bosciaola) that I didn't take a picture of, but I had some dough leftover so I made a meat lovers for next days lunch.
the dough was so simple to stretch, I kept going long after everyone tapped out. I literally got board rather than frustrated, which is more typical.
here's a shot of my crust
and since I'm in Buffalo, you can't have pizza without wings. I ran these in the sous vide tank for about 5 hours at 175* then finished them under a broiler
tare
Buffalo
I've tried lots of different frozen doughs and a few from scratch, but everyone of them were difficult to work with and didn't cook correctly. That's probably why I'm so excited about this recipe. It's super easy to make, it was a dream to stretch and it cooked perfectly. I had a few burn, but I think it was the result of not using enough flour on the peel (flour insulates the crust from the heat of the stone).
I started by building an oven with fire brick. I got the idea from the steel kettle pizza ring. I threw an extra stone on top to help get some radiant heat down on the top of the pie (I think there was too much head space and it didn't quite work the way I wanted). I used a hinged grate and had one opening in my slot so I could feed charcoal as needed
I had no problem getting her over 600*. Tossing a few chunks of dried apple in really made the temps spike. Some of the best pies were the later ones when the fire was in the 500* range. They took longer but had more browning.
the pies were all from the book
margherita (tomato sauce, mozzarella di bufala, basil)
flambe (bechamel sauce, lardons, mozzarella, onion)
bechamel, guanciale, mozzarella, rosemary, garlic, egg
it was nearly impossible to jerk the pie off the peel and on to the stone with out losing a raw egg
I did a couple others(bianca and bosciaola) that I didn't take a picture of, but I had some dough leftover so I made a meat lovers for next days lunch.
the dough was so simple to stretch, I kept going long after everyone tapped out. I literally got board rather than frustrated, which is more typical.
here's a shot of my crust
and since I'm in Buffalo, you can't have pizza without wings. I ran these in the sous vide tank for about 5 hours at 175* then finished them under a broiler
tare
Buffalo
