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I used this recipe: http://goo.gl/gWmQq2 to make pizza. The dough proofed overnight in a 21C-22C room, and more than doubled. Total rise time was about 17 hrs. I took it out of the bowl, and it was SUPER sticky! Extremely hard to work with. I managed to get 3/4 of it into a container and in the fridge; that will be focaccia later this week. For the pizza, I finally managed to stretch the dough out on a baking sheet (lined with parchment), topped it, got it into the oven for 12 min at 420F. Came out awful. The crust barely rose and was very dense and chewy (not the good kind of chewy). Where did I go wrong? My ingredients were measured out on a scale, so I don't think that was the problem. Maybe I handled the dough too much? It was almost like a thick batter rather than a dough.
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Oct 15, 2013 11:59
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Recipes for dough are always a little inexact because your flour might need more or less water to get the same consistency as someone else's flour. If your dough was too sticky it was too wet. However, since this is no knead dough, I think it's supposed to be super sticky and extremely hard to work with, so you'll just have to deal with it. You do want to dust it with flour while shaping, though, otherwise it will be too hard to deal with. Since it didn't rise very much at all, you probably manhandled it too much when stretching it out - see particularly the "note from Lahey" before that recipe you linked. Try more flour next time you're shaping it so that you can be gentler?
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Oct 15, 2013 15:46
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So the time has come to order my Baking Steel and I'm weighing up my options from their range. I'm trying to decide between the ⅜in Modern Cusisinist edition or the ½in Big edition... Honestly, I'm wondering if the big one would be ungainly and possibly bend my oven racks for very little gain... Thoughts?
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Oct 17, 2013 02:06
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Slice did a compare and contrast of the 1/2 in. and the 1/4 in. here. It looks like you get a better char, but it does seem a bit too heavy.
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Oct 17, 2013 02:36
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Heners_UK posted:So the time has come to order my Baking Steel and I'm weighing up my options from their range. I'm trying to decide between the ⅜in Modern Cusisinist edition or the ½in Big edition... Honestly, I'm wondering if the big one would be ungainly and possibly bend my oven racks for very little gain... Thoughts? I use the 1/2 inch one. I keep it in the oven at all times and haven't noticed any bending of the rack. It is a bit heavy to move around though.
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Oct 17, 2013 19:58
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I decided the ⅜in one is the choice for me as the difference will be minor to undetectable and I do need to move it from time to time. How fast do they usually ship them (to WA)?
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Oct 18, 2013 19:11
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I received mine in about a week shipping to OH. Enjoy the new steel, it was a major improvement from the stone I was using before. Reduced my bake time from 8 minutes or so to around 3.
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Oct 18, 2013 19:39
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I'm going to need more peels... I tend to make 4-6 pizzas a session, freeze some for lunches (they reheat well in a toaster oven at work). I can't make them fast enough for this thing!
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Oct 18, 2013 23:52
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So I substituted about 1/5 of my beard flour with spelt flour. It makes for a very loose dough. It definitely has a sweet aroma, I'm curious to see how it will taste - and I'll find out in a hour or two. EDIT: ever so slightly sweet whole wheat pizza. I also make a knot with butter and brown sugar that was good. Dukket fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Oct 29, 2013 |
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Oct 29, 2013 00:38
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Dukket posted:So I substituted about 1/5 of my beard flour with spelt flour. It makes for a very loose dough. It definitely has a sweet aroma, I'm curious to see how it will taste - and I'll find out in a hour or two. I don't think beard flour would rise very well, but I've only ever used organic hair from dark beards that I grow myself. Because beards do not produce their own gluten, that may be why your dough was so loose. While kneading creates stands of gluten, I've found that add strands of hair directly into the dough is not the same thing. Maybe it will shorten the time needed to rise a no-knead bread, but I can't be sure about that. In any case, I'd say that replacing beard flour with spelt is a good idea. How was the texture compared to your normally recipe? I've been seriously thinking about trying spelt, but I already have three kinds of flour. I don't want to have a fourth if I'm not ever going to use it.
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Oct 29, 2013 22:21
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contrapants posted:
Well, as you can imagine - goon beards have many wild yeasts that add...uh "unique" flavors Well, much of what I've read suggests that you can't simply substitute with spelt, there are some recipe modifications you must make as well - I hadn't read that yet when I made this dough, so I subbed it 1:1, and didn't treat the dough any differently. We bake all of our pizza in a Lodge cast iron pan. With that in mind -it cooked a bit more quickly - knocked a few min off. -The crust was crispier, thicker -Because it didn't rise as much, it was a bit thinner and harder to compare the texture. It was slightly sweet, and whole wheaty EDIT for spelling
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Oct 30, 2013 00:05
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So i am really trying to conquer making pizzas on my big green egg, and I am really struggling. Everything I read and all the videos I have watched seem to contradict my results. The ideal temp seems to be about 650-700 at least for cooking on an egg. I've been previously cooking at lower temps than that but am struggling with burning the bottom of the pie before the top and the crust has any color at all and isn't doughy feeling still. It seems like the trick is I need to get the top to cook faster than the bottom so I can pull it from the grill when the crust is ideal. I am just not sure what to do to cook it hotter and not burn the bottom crust even faster. The pizza pictured below was what I thought was my best attempt of the weekend, still managed to burn the bottom, though at the time I was cooking it I thought it looked good, guess the lighting was bad and couldn't tell how done it was getting. For that attempt I used a air gap between my plate setter and the pizza stone. I also let my grill get up to about 500 with the plate setter in, before adding the pizza stone. I then waited about 15-20 mins to let the stone start coming up to temp. The drawback I had with this attempt was I was running low on lump, so I was forced to use the crap at the bottom of the bag and it choked my airflow and I was only able to get back to 450'ish once I put the stone and the pizza on. I do need to get a IR thermometer, been meaning to get one for a while now, but that can't be the only thing holding me back. 
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Oct 30, 2013 18:45
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I gave up on getting consistent pizzas on the BGE--just not worth the effort. Have you had a pie accidentally fall in the fire yet? It's a great way to completely ruin your day.
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Oct 30, 2013 18:55
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BraveUlysses posted:I gave up on getting consistent pizzas on the BGE--just not worth the effort. Have you had a pie accidentally fall in the fire yet? It's a great way to completely ruin your day. Ouch, no haven't come close to that happening yet. Would I be better served trying to do pizzas in my weber kettle. I know it can get pretty drat hot, as I can barely grab the handle on the lid when I decide its time to do my "purge it with fire" method of cleaning.
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Oct 30, 2013 20:11
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The KettlePizza thing looks pretty sweet, especially when paired with a baking steel, but if you already have a BGE I would have a hard time justifying spending even more money.
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Oct 30, 2013 22:05
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BraveUlysses posted:The KettlePizza thing looks pretty sweet, especially when paired with a baking steel, but if you already have a BGE I would have a hard time justifying spending even more money. yeah.. I don't want to spend anymore money. I just meant using my kettle. I don't want to buy that kettle pizza thing. I just am really frustrated not being able to make a decent pizza. its even more frustrating when I've worked at like 3 different pizza places during my youth. I feel like I should have this poo poo down. 
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Oct 31, 2013 00:32
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niss posted:I am just not sure what to do to cook it hotter and not burn the bottom crust even faster. I'm no pizza master but you could use a lighter doughball for the same size pie or maybe eliminate preheating the stone altogether. niss posted:yeah.. I don't want to spend anymore money. I just meant using my kettle. I don't want to buy that kettle pizza thing. I just am really frustrated not being able to make a decent pizza. its even more frustrating when I've worked at like 3 different pizza places during my youth. I feel like I should have this poo poo down. Well, it looks loving awesome so I wouldn't get too down about it! You're just a pizza or 3 away from nailing that crust. Chin up.
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Oct 31, 2013 00:38
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Niss I wouldn't get too discouraged; that looks like a great pizza. Have you tried changing your dough recipe? A thinner crust seems to cook more evenly for me. The Big Green Egg cookbook has a pizza recipe that works well for thin crusts: A cup of warm water Teaspoon of sugar Teaspoon of yeast 3 cups all-purpose flour Teaspoon of salt Teaspoon of olive oil Lots of cornmeal for dusting. I'm sometimes a bit more generous with the olive oil. I've had a good string of luck cooking pizzas on the egg with the plate setter legs up, the metal grate on that and the pizza stone on the grate. Fill the firebox up, put the plate setter and stuff in, keep everything open for about 20 minutes, close the lid, keep the vents open and wait another 20 minutes or so until the fire is white-hot. Be careful opening the lid when the egg is super hot, as you can get a flashback. keyrock fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Oct 31, 2013 |
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Oct 31, 2013 05:33
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keyrock posted:Niss Yup, this - though I don't change my recipe, I just use smaller rounds.
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Oct 31, 2013 12:11
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Thanks for the suggestion guys.. Ill try them out and see what kind of results I can get. 
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Oct 31, 2013 12:28
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Okay Pizza Weekend update. I was pretty excited to try out the suggestions to see if they helped and it was difficult to wait until sunday afternoon to make pizza, but the wife wanted steaks on saturday. The dough turned out well, no thin spots or rips and I got it quite a bit thinner and split the same volume from 3 dough balls into 4. So I let the egg open for the suggested 20 or so minutes, then put the plate setter and stone in while I got the first pizza ready. I just did a plain cheese for the first pie as I usually screw that one up, and I needed to have 3 good ones. Well the first one came out perfect pretty much, see pic below, and I was super happy. The dome temps were reading about 600.   I made my pizza next as I was still waiting on some mushrooms for the wifes, it took about 5 maybe 8 minutes before I got my pizza on the egg. About 3 minutes later I started smelling something burning. I looked under the pie and sure enough the bottom was burnt to poo poo. I didn't even bother to let it finish cooking all the way, since it was ruined. So I took the stone out for what was about 10 mins while I got the third pizza ready, put the stone back in and put the pizza on it. I guess in that 10 minutes the stone cooled off way more than I had assumed it would. The Pizza came out okay, the wife liked it, but I was not happy with the results. It lacked color, and wasn't as crispy as it should have been when cutting it. I left the stone in for the 4th pie and it turned out basically like the 3rd, but with a bit better color. It would seem that my stone is really heating and cooling way way to fast. I don't know if I just need some more thermal mass in there. Towards the 4th pizza my charcoal was getting a bit used up as the temps had dropped to under 500. I didn't bother to take pics of the other pizzas, as I was just more concerned with getting something edible for the wife and daughter for dinner. I did some more looking around and someone suggested using parchment paper, but leaving it under the pizza the whole time and that should keep the chance of it burning down some. At this point I'm willing to try it, I'm also thinking I should stack some fire bricks on my plate setter, one to add some more thermal mass and two to get the stone closer to the lid, maybe get a bit more heat reflecting down. I also thought about somehow lining the lid in a few layers of heavy duty tin foil, but that could be trick to execute, and might not provide any added benefit.
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Nov 4, 2013 13:51
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when i was egging pizzas i used the plate setter legs down and put a pair of firebricks on the platesetter. pizza stone went on top of the fire bricks.
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Nov 4, 2013 19:17
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At least that first pizza looks awesome! Not to mention you could chuck that sucker into a rotary engine and it'd fit like a glove. Good job!
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Nov 4, 2013 19:18
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I tried a rather bizarre pizza recipe the other night that turned out awesome. Used standard dough, and cooked on a pizza stone at 500. Pizza Sauce: Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce Toppings: Kalua (or pulled) pork, Pineapple, Red Onion, Mozzarella, cilantro 
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Nov 4, 2013 20:07
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The Midniter posted:At least that first pizza looks awesome! Not to mention you could chuck that sucker into a rotary engine and it'd fit like a glove. Good job! Haha, thanks. I guess its fitting as I used to own 4 RX7's a few years back.
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Nov 4, 2013 20:50
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If you're looking for a pizza steel on the cheap, call up your local steel supplier. Ask for sheared hot rolled carbon steel in whichever thickness you want. I picked up a 3/8" thick plate for my oven for about $25. Then I had a local sandblaster hit it up for that nice textured look. A bit of time with a file to remove the burrs and it looks great. For extra cheapness call a surplus steel center (aka recycler). Gotta love that look when you tell them you'll be baking pizza on it.
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Nov 4, 2013 21:06
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Okay.. So I decided to give it another go this evening. Both pizzas turned out really well. I decided to dial my temps down to 400 or so. I let everything stabilize for about 30 mins and then put the pizzas on. On the second one, I ended up throwing a spare grate on top of the pizza stone for the last 2-3 mins as the bottom looked done but I wanted the top to cook a bit longer (spinach and tomato one)   Thanks for all the suggestions guys for whatever reason my setup just needs a lower temp to turn out a decent pie..
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Nov 5, 2013 01:34
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Yooper posted:If you're looking for a pizza steel on the cheap, call up your local steel supplier. Ask for sheared hot rolled carbon steel in whichever thickness you want. I picked up a 3/8" thick plate for my oven for about $25. Then I had a local sandblaster hit it up for that nice textured look. A bit of time with a file to remove the burrs and it looks great. For extra cheapness call a surplus steel center (aka recycler). Just make sure to hit it with some corn or vegetable oil immediately after the sandblasting to stop it from corroding, and season it when you get home, just like cast iron. (Importance of these steps depends on exactly what alloy you end up with.) I just got the first layer of seasoning on mine. Super-excited to use it for the first time.
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Nov 5, 2013 14:48
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niss posted:Okay.. So I decided to give it another go this evening. Both pizzas turned out really well. I decided to dial my temps down to 400 or so. I let everything stabilize for about 30 mins and then put the pizzas on. On the second one, I ended up throwing a spare grate on top of the pizza stone for the last 2-3 mins as the bottom looked done but I wanted the top to cook a bit longer (spinach and tomato one) Mmm that looks wonderful. And dat upskirt shot
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Nov 5, 2013 14:52
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Sacrilage posted:I tried a rather bizarre pizza recipe the other night that turned out awesome. Used standard dough, and cooked on a pizza stone at 500. That sounds absolutely amazing. Nice work.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:09
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My first job was working at Dominos Pizza; aside from the severe emotional damage from witnessing extreme sexual acts with pizza pie, I learned to at least form a decent pizza. I stress Decent; somewhere between acceptable and terrible. The one thing my co-worker taught me (who had owned his own pizza shop previously; talk about a rough fall) was that good pizza sauce is a hell of a lot more than tomatoes. Kind of got me into thinking about different sauces. Aside from Mae Ploy, my next favorite is to do a Arrogant Bastard IPA Barbeque Sauce, cut with good Alfredo to limit the overwhelm factor, and use that as the start of a barbeque chicken pizza. Sacrilage fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 18:36
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Sacrilage posted:The one thing my co-worker taught me (who had owned his own pizza shop previously; talk about a rough fall) was that good pizza sauce is a hell of a lot more than tomatoes. Could you elaborate on this? I'm not sure I agree. I mean just tomatoes by themselves do not a good sauce make, but they should be the starring role, not a bit part in a mess of other ingredients.
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Nov 5, 2013 20:16
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The Midniter posted:Could you elaborate on this? So Domino's pizza sauce was really just tomatoes, sugar, and salt. I was lamenting at work one day that I was having trouble making my own pizza sauce at home, and when I told him what I was adding, he chuckled and gave me a recipe to try that opened my eyes. My current pizza sauce recipe is: 4-6 medium fresh tomatoes - Vary the amount of tomatoes depending on how traditional you want the sauce; more tomatoes, more traditional - I use the tomatoes from my garden, and make 2-3 gallons a year and can it 1/2 green/red bell pepper 1/2 Anaheim pepper (or use jalapeno, sparingly: flavor, not heat) 2-3 garlic cloves 1 tablespoon honey 3 tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano cheese 3/4 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon oregano 1/4 teaspoon marjoram 1/4 teaspoon basil 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper salt to taste Put everything in a blender and blend roughly; you want chunks, as they add character. Once blended, put the sauce in a pan and heat over medium heat; reduce to desired consistency. They longer it sits on the stove, the more infused the flavors, so add water if you need more time but the consistency gets too thick. It took me a while to come to this recipe, but as I got more experienced, I put on fewer and less toppings, and let the pizza sauce come out more. Like you said, less is more on toppings; the sauce, and hence the tomatoes in a traditional pizza sauce, needs to be a star player. This is what I meant when I say the sauce is more than just tomatoes; there is a lot of character to the pie you can get just through the sauce.
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Nov 5, 2013 20:50
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Yea I'm gonna have to disagree. I prefer a simple sauce with just tomatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper, and romano cheese. I usually just mix that up and let it sit before I start stretching the dough out. I always add some fresh cut basil after the pizza comes out of the oven, but that's not in the sauce. But hey, whatever works for you.
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Nov 5, 2013 22:37
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I started out with really complex sauces which called for being stewed for long periods of time, and over time trended towards simpler sauces. Now most of the time I just do a raw tomato sauce with some garlic, oil, honey, basil, salt and pepper. I also keep my dough recipe down to just flour, water, salt, and yeast. If I'm cooking the sauce I always use wine if I've got it.
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Nov 5, 2013 22:58
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I moved to using a no-cook sauce made with tomato paste, water, honey, parmesan cheese, garlic, and a bunch of seasonings I just premix in a bottle so I can spoon it in with no real work. It's pretty spicy and flavorful, and I have no regrets there.
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Nov 5, 2013 23:39
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quote:Pizza Sauce Chat nmfree posted:I'm sure this will offend pizza purists, but I make Alton's All-purpose Pantry Tomato Sauce, run it through the blender long enough to make it extra smooth, and freeze 2 cup portions in quart-sized Ziplok Bags.
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Nov 6, 2013 00:26
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OtherworldlyInvader posted:I started out with really complex sauces which called for being stewed for long periods of time, and over time trended towards simpler sauces. No arguing there man; the recipe I posted above takes a ton of time, which is why I make a shitload of it all at once and can it in mason jars for a year. Takes a full day, but after that, I can do pizza every week without worry about it! I prefer my sauces to be spicy, hence my recipe for a modification to the standard tomato and olive oil recipe. And thebigpicture, I'm not preaching, it's just a personal taste thing, so I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with. If we're talking about a pizza that needs the tomatoes to be front and center, yeah, simple is best. De gustibus non est disputandum. My original comment of "good pizza sauce is a hell of a lot more than tomatoes" was simply an observation that I was trying to pigeonhole a simple tomato pizza sauce into a pie that needed something else.
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Nov 6, 2013 01:13
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Killer robot posted:I moved to using a no-cook sauce made with tomato paste, water, honey, parmesan cheese, garlic, and a bunch of seasonings I just premix in a bottle so I can spoon it in with no real work. It's pretty spicy and flavorful, and I have no regrets there. Yeah, using the tomatoes kind of screws my qi up; so much juice that it turns runny if I don't evaporate for a while. I think I'll try using tomato paste this winter though, and do the no-cook thing.
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Nov 6, 2013 01:24
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Sacrilage posted:And thebigpicture, I'm not preaching, it's just a personal taste thing, so I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with. If we're talking about a pizza that needs the tomatoes to be front and center, yeah, simple is best. De gustibus non est disputandum. My original comment of "good pizza sauce is a hell of a lot more than tomatoes" was simply an observation that I was trying to pigeonhole a simple tomato pizza sauce into a pie that needed something else. Absolutely. Didn't mean to come off snarky or anything. We all have our preferences.
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Nov 6, 2013 02:09
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