Perfect Pizza

Hi all,

I just been experimenting with a terracotta stone I bought from a DIY shop. I cranked up the temperature to 300°C /570°F.

Put my pizza on and it cooked within like 10 minutes with a bit of charring on top and the base pretty crispy

I been practicing with dough’s as well such as varying the amount of water I put in and how long I leave to ferment. I left it over night in the fridge and then took out to prove.

Overall my stomach is happy with the results, I was just wondering if anyone else has some points on how to make a really nice pizza from the dough stage to the topping stage to the cooking stages!

All help and advice is appreciated!

Thanks,

Matt :wink:

There's a forum for that:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/


:hungry:

Matt, it's a challenge making pizza on a baking stone at home. The problem is that the stone doesn't posses enough thermal mass to properly cook a pizza. Some Neapolitan pizza ovens go 750 to over 1200 degrees.

There are other ways to achieve the thermal mass required but will require a 1/4 carbon steel sheet. Pretty inexpensive at a local metal works shop, I think I paid $50. Put that in your oven and preheat to 550 for 20 minutes. If the dough is thin and the toppings light, should cook in less than 3 min, rotating half way through. Best dough will be made of Caputo OO flour (Amazon).

Happy cooking!

Mucho Bocho said:

Matt, it's a challenge making pizza on a baking stone at home. ..... I paid $50. Put that in your oven and preheat to 550 for 20 minutes....

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For over 25 years I've had the same 'Old Stone' brand rectangular ceramic stone...works great. About $40 on Amazon and, like above, preheat on your max possible setting for 30 min - 1 hr. Pies will cook in 3 -5 min., depending on your ovens max setting

Get maximum stretchiness out of the dough, also try putting some cornmeal on bottom of the crust. Go light on everything, especially the cheese and make sure sauce is very thick little moisture as possible.

Matt,

I use the following for a 12 1/2" New York style pizza:

211g bread flour
133g water (63% hydration)
1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp olive oil
3/4 tsp sugar

Form into a tight ball, mist with cooking spray, cover, and let rise in the fridge for 48 hours.

Like MB, I bake on a steel. Mine is 3/8" and I preheat at 550* for 45 minutes. Bake times run around 4 1/2 minutes and I sometimes turn on the broiler during the last minute or so if I'm looking for a bit more char on the top.

Hope this helps.

Stones are great too, especially if your oven have high heat capabilities, my oven makes my baking stone go up to 660. It's enough to cook a pizza under 6 minutes. With a stone you have to preheat at the maximum temperature to let the heat penetrate inside it, it may take a little bit more waiting time to get the best results.

Steels are very good to make pizzas but stones are better if you bake bread. Steel is more suited for making pizzas because it delivers heat in a quicker way.

For the dough, I use the same dough I use to make bread, just because it's easier to make only one kind of dough. I always save a little bit of dough from the previous batch for the next one, acidity helps to build the gluten.

i used to have a 1.5 in thick piece of soapstone counter top left over from a construction job I did. it fit exactly the dimensions of my oven. Best pizza I ever made at home came off of it. The 1200 degree wood fire oven I worked on at Barmouche in Phoenix wasn't bad either. Could cook a pizza in the time it took you to rotate it once. about a minute, perfectly crispy and charred.

I agree the the dough is best when left to develop in flavour for a day or 2 in the fridge unless you use a bread starter, and not to go heavy on the toppings as it stops the pizza base cooking quickly.

Thx for the advice:doublethumbsup:

Might try a turkey pizza after Christmas Day!:hungry:

Cool info here, thanks. Of course, now it looks like I have to buy a steel for pizza and a stone for bread...

If I may throw in another question: how to get the pizza onto the stone? Wooden peel and practice - practice - practice? Prepare it on the peel or on a board? Using baking paper - for transfer or can it go on a hot stone/steel? I have never been a friend of using corn meal, would like to avoid that if possible, but would also like to survive the transfer into 500F+ oven...

Stefan

apicius9 said:

....If I may throw in another question: how to get the pizza onto the stone? Wooden peel and practice - practice - practice? Prepare it on the peel or on a board...

Click to expand...

yes....practice. Cornmeal acts like little ball bearings, but flour will work too, and nothing wrong with parchment to learn. I stretch the dough mostly in the air, then onto the peel. Now work fast-ish so moisture in the dough doesn't cause it to stick to the peel. once the pie is prepped start with a small shaking or vibrating motion to get the pie moving on the peel, move to the stone, with the pie slightly moving on the peel, slide the peel to the back of the stone, one good yank and the pie hopefully stays behind. The real idea is to make sure you've broken the surface tension between the pie and peel before you try to slide it off the peel. If you make a mistake...LEAVE IT...it'll taste the same, but once part or all of the pie is on the stone, don't try to move it for 30-90 seconds, depending on your oven temp

I am using parchment paper atm. I just pull the paper onto my ceramic stone, and once the pizza starts to cook I pull the paper from underneath. Just be careful not to catch you arms on the inside of the oven:IMOK:

Cornmeal does help but I'm not much for the sandy grainy texture it leaves. I used to though pies for a living years ago. Best secret I ever heard for getting the pizza free from the peel is after the pizza is topped and ready for the oven, grab the crust and blow under it. The pizza will float on this air pocket off the board and onto the stone. Remember those parachutes from Elementary school that everyone would lift and others would run through its sorta like that.

Try a 50:50 mix of all purpose and rice flour. I've made a few unintentional calzones, but this works best for me.

Second the advice to work quickly when adding your toppings. Mise en place is important here. Also, it helps to give the peel a shake after each addition. The longer your crust sits on the peel, the more apt it is to stick. And yeah, if disaster strikes, the "lift and blow" technique can work.