Pizza making. Your tips, tricks and traps.
 

I'm quite good at making pizzas. But certainly not very good. What are your tips, tricks and traps when making the perfect pizza?

Wife makes our crusts with her sourdough. It adds a very unique element to the pizza, and it's pretty awesome.

Aside from that, I have no special secrets...just white sauce instead of red for me.

The best pizza I ever made came from a Ooni Pro 16. Store bought dough, canned sauce, really good cheese.

I have always said the sauce and the cheese are the key. I use a Sicilian style sauce that I found online and then perfected. I always use a good quality mozzarella... NEVER the bag stuff. The crust I always go homemade and I use cornmeal. I always pre cook the crust just a bit before I add toppings. While adding toppings, I let my grill and stone come up to around 550 then it all goes back in.

The most important tip for making pizza at home:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1651884816.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Flour-Pizza-Flavor/dp/B00GCDPLC6/ref=asc_df_B00GCDPLC6?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80607997944581&hvnetw=o&hvq mt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid =pla-4584207577296780&th=1

Some excellent tips!!!

My friend Hamish has an outdoor wood fired pizza oven that he heats up to 400 Celsius (that's 750 F). Does a ciabatta dough, random toppings, loads it in with a big wooden paddle. Then he only cooks it for a couple of minutes. They are amazing.

I use bought, but good quality bases, good toppings, but they are definitely a poor cousin to Hamish's pizzas.

Type 00 flour, lots of gluten. After it raises let it age 3 days.

700 degree pizza stone.

After that? Nothing but crushed and drained tomatos with garlic and italian herbs, buffalo mozzarella, and peperoni and mushrooms. :)

Grill it...

2/3 mozzarella and 1/3 munster cheese is what we used, iirc.

Dough was beaten to sticky gluten mix in an industrial mixer 5-7am, weighed, cut, and folded up into rounds on a olive oil stainless sheet, placed into freezer to settle.
Take out a cold dough ball,
Squash it out in a circle,
Grip around the edges while rotating until a fat edge is made with a big lump in the middle,
Slap onto the flowered plastic countertop, push and rotate until a basic shape made, repeat any steps as necessary.
Toss and turn on both your knuckles while spinning. One guy could bounce the things on a single finger.

Ladle sauce in a circle and smooth out. Same with cheese.

Oven was 450 on stone. hot and fast. iirc

That's all I can remember atm.
It was a damn good detroit-based pizza company which served a fine product.
All their food was great.

cook bacon crisp, crumble on top of pizza prior to cooking

this will improve everything but a vegetarian pizza

acquaintance has a wood fired pizza oven in his backyard, which is pretty sweet, I have done them over mesquite on a weber kettle and had them turn out fantastic.

Less is more.

Here in New Zealand pizzas are "more, more, more" which ruins a pizza. Some of our (bought) pizzas are more like a quiche they are so loaded up with ingredients. I need to stop myself to keep the pizza as it should be.

Pizza steel in oven, heat with broiler for 1 hr.

Dough is sourdough starter fed, 3 days in fridge to ferment.

Good tomato, good mozz. Also like Rabe and sausage, and figs w/ prosciutto.

What didn't work: the pizza stone thing from Pampered Chef. I used it on grill one time and it split in half.

I've been up in Vermont visiting my mom... no laptop, and sketchy cell service...

For the last few years making a really good simple pizza margherita has been akin to Sisyphus... I make in my mind a perfect pizza... then the next one is a disaster.....

Anyhow: Less is more...

It takes at least 3 days to make the dough...00 flour (Caputo, Anna, King Arthur, Anson Mills)...yeast, salt, water... that's it.. Initial rise at room temp.. then at least 2 days in the fridge.. get the dough back to room temp before preparing the pizza..

Sauce: San Marzanos, hand crushed..

Cheese: Drained fresh Mozz. not the pre-shredded garbage...

Cooking: As hot and quick as possible...Over 700f if possible..it makes a difference..

Finishes: basil and olive oil.....grated grana padano, parm.......

To fancy it up: pesto....

I do have an oven I can get up to almost 900f... I got a gen 1 Ooni when they were offered on Kickstarter... It's crude compared to what they offer now... but it works...

Ooni

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1651962676.jpg

Basic


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1651962866.jpg

Ramp and Garlic scape pesto


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1651962866.jpg

Off the res... on this one

Roasted beets, balsamic caramelized onions...goat cheese


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1651963236.jpg

+1 for Typo 00 flour.

Damn you Tim. I haven't eaten and that looks amazing LOL

I kid of forgot a "Money Shot" LOL

You can see the sauce through the bottom of the dough


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1651964307.jpg

Sorry, I had to fix that for you! :)

LOL


I like the sound of these Ooni machines like Tim's. The gas one would suit me.