Share Your Best Pizza Dough...

[neoboy]

Has anyone had much luck recreating Chicago style almost pie like pizza dough here?

 

[molinari]

....

 

[FrenchTart]

Hey FT, is your recipe in Post #6 still your current recipe?

I actually have modified it a bit....

(one small pizza)
125g 00 flour
81.25g cold water (65% weight of flour)
NO olive oil
small pinch brown sugar
large pinch salt
1/4 a packet of instant yeast (you can get away with less than this - 1/8)

Aside from that rather than leaving the dough on grease proof paper I'm a convert to proper rolling/stretching, as per the video I posted above - but you can stick to the grease proof paper method if you prefer

 

[FrenchTart]

Has anyone had much luck recreating Chicago style almost pie like pizza dough here?

Have you tried the SE method? I've only made it once or twice but it seemed pretty good:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe.html

 

[molinari]

..

 

[FrenchTart]

Awesome. Be sure to post pics

 

[FrenchTart]

I've written up my current pizza dough recipe/method in the below Google Doc. Might be useful for some people. It includes a link to a MyFitnessPal recipe with the macro and kcal breakdown.

Single pizza is only 573 kcal, not including any extra toppings beyond the cheese and tomato.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14-6cKMXBMUSs7jHoHo-sCj-RUhzlX6495AgteAt9dtU/edit?usp=sharing

 

[FrenchTart]

Earlier today at Jolteh's recommendation I tried Rudy's Pizza in Ancoats, Manchester. Probably the best pizza I've had outside of when it has gone absolutely perfectly at home.

I had the special - which was a pretty basic one with 'nduja.

I could resist eating some as soon as it arrived so apologies for the pizza having a big chunk missing...



On the bottom you can see the leopard-spotting. I think the dough could probably have done with another day or so cold-fermenting but it wasn't as pale as the Nexus 5 potato cam makes it look.

 

[Jolteh]

Ahh glad you liked it. It's in a weird location isn't it?

If you're making pizzas that taste like that at home then I'm definitely going to give it a shot.

 

[FrenchTart]

Ahh glad you liked it. It's in a weird location isn't it?

If you're making pizzas that taste like that at home then I'm definitely going to give it a shot.

Yeah... It was a fair bit further than I realised and the 15 minute walk each way in the pouring rain certainly made it a fun journey

To be honest my home pizzas only rarely turn out as good as those sadly - especially since I've changed over to the electric pizza oven. Still getting to grips with it :/

 

[Kimi]

Have you tried it on a pizza stone in the bbq yet FT?

 

[oHUTCHYo]

G3 Ferrari G10006 Delizia Plus

Guys, I know a few of you have this gadget. Can anyone offer their opinions - but specifically considering my current method...

(1) My oven has a pizza setting, lower and upper elements heat to 300 degrees.
(2) I use a heavy aluminium pizza tray, I place it on the hob for a minute with the pizza on which helps cook the base a little and also heat up the tray
(3) Tray goes in oven, usually takes 5-6 mins to cook a Neopolitan 14" pizza

Will this gadget give me a different taste or texture compared to my oven?

 

[FrenchTart]

Have you tried it on a pizza stone in the bbq yet FT?

Sorry, I missed this originally.

I've not used the BBQ pizza stone method but from what I've seen it's good for getting a bit of smoke flavour in there but if you're wanting pro Neapolitan style it's not the best option

G3 Ferrari G10006 Delizia Plus

Guys, I know a few of you have this gadget. Can anyone offer their opinions - but specifically considering my current method...

(1) My oven has a pizza setting, lower and upper elements heat to 300 degrees.
(2) I use a heavy aluminium pizza tray, I place it on the hob for a minute with the pizza on which helps cook the base a little and also heat up the tray
(3) Tray goes in oven, usually takes 5-6 mins to cook a Neopolitan 14" pizza

Will this gadget give me a different taste or texture compared to my oven?

I'm not sure many on here have it actually. My experiences are that when you manage to get the hang of it you can cook a Neapolitan pizza in <3 minutes (unmodded). Once you fully mod it you can get that down to 1-1.5 minutes.

The results (again, once you have the hang of it) are awesome and far better than I achieved in my oven even with cast iron pizza stones massively pre-heated and the oven set to grill mode. To be more specific, the texture of the crust was better - soft whilst also chewy and with a good bite. It's quite hard to describe fully but it's definitely better.

If you're used to cooking 14 inch pizzas though you might find it a bit of a shock moving to the 10-ish inch pizzas you can make with the Ferrari.

 

[oHUTCHYo]

Sorry, I missed this originally.

I've not used the BBQ pizza stone method but from what I've seen it's good for getting a bit of smoke flavour in there but if you're wanting pro Neapolitan style it's not the best option



I'm not sure many on here have it actually. My experiences are that when you manage to get the hang of it you can cook a Neapolitan pizza in <3 minutes (unmodded). Once you fully mod it you can get that down to 1-1.5 minutes.

The results (again, once you have the hang of it) are awesome and far better than I achieved in my oven even with cast iron pizza stones massively pre-heated and the oven set to grill mode. To be more specific, the texture of the crust was better - soft whilst also chewy and with a good bite. It's quite hard to describe fully but it's definitely better.

If you're used to cooking 14 inch pizzas though you might find it a bit of a shock moving to the 10-ish inch pizzas you can make with the Ferrari.

Thanks pal. I keep seeing mods being mentioned on the youtube videos but it doesnt expand on what those mods are, presumably element/temperature related?

I'm tempted to buy one, especially if it results in a soft and chewy finish.

 

[FrenchTart]

Thanks pal. I keep seeing mods being mentioned on the youtube videos but it doesnt expand on what those mods are, presumably element/temperature related?

I'm tempted to buy one, especially if it results in a soft and chewy finish.

There's a few, though I can't remember the proper names for them all They're pretty much in order of simplicity here.

1) Add a circular aluminium baking tray to the top, just behind the heating element. This will work as a heat reflector.

2) Thermostat mod. The default thermostat settings suck and will essentially turn off the heating element half way through making your first pizza. It's a simple mod and worth doing before you even start trying to use the oven.

3) Element mod(s). One option is to take the thing apart and move the element that is under the stone up to the top. This is the simplest element mod but still requires a fair bit of rewiring and some drilling. I've not got round to it but I can tell it would improve my pizza a lot. Once done you can get your pizza cooking down to sub 2 minutes.

4) Revolving pizza stone mod. I've just seen this posted once and it looks great. Quite involved compared to the other mods though and you can work around not having this.

This thread has loads of info: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=19732.0

 

[oHUTCHYo]

Thanks for the extra info Tart. Before I commit to another gadget I've decided to pick up some pizza stones to try instead of my aluminium.

I also bought some semolina flour to try on the base, I've been using a little olive so far on the tray to prevent sticking so am keen to see how the semolina works.

 

[One More Solo]

I'm not really a fan of semolina on the base. I think I stole this method off FT, but I rate stretching your dough on to non-stick greaseproof paper and then cooking it on that. Means no extra flour is needed, keeping the quality of your dough.

 

[FrenchTart]

Yeah, I've had okay results with semolina but I prefer the greaseproof paper method above.

Best results can be had by getting familiar with a pizza peel though

 

[f00b4r]

I was after a steel peel but ended up getting a wooden one that was on offer in Aldi or Lidl, according to something I read they are less "sticky" than the steel ones (although don't look as cool). The peel and a very small amount of semolina or polenta works fantastically, you don't need loads and I personally like the slight tang it adds.
I have some of your dough recipe in the fridge at the moment FrenchTart so will be testing it this week and will report back

 

[f00b4r]

Okay I tried FT's dough yesterday and tonight (4 and 5 days). I have a 3cm corderite pizza stone, the same material used in ovens for firing clay, which had been giving me really good results using Jamie's and then Suzanne Lenzer's (of Truly, Madly Pizza book fame) dough recipes.
Freshly made dough definitely gives me inferior results that taste far too bready for me but the Suzanne Lenzer technique is a bit different and also involves wrapping it tightly to help create more flavour (not sure if I believe it makes a difference or not though).
I stretched the 4 day dough yesterday on a peel using semolina and was really impressed at the flavour, bubbles, texture and lightness of the dough after cooking but it was a bit of a pain to work with.
Tonight I decided to try using greaseproof paper and it worked great until I pulled it out the oven, it stuck to the pizza and even after managing to remove it from most of the pizza I could see that the base was nowhere near the same quality as normal (3cm of corderite holds a lot of energy and apparently is porous so they recommend you not using barriers).

Overall I am definitely a fan of going to 4-5 days and the taste and texture changes it brings to the dough but think I might test with my usual dough to see how good that is with the longer cold ferment time and will report back (it's hard all this pizza research!). ;P

EDIT: I didn't grease the greasproof paper which led to it sticking but I still think it would have had an effect on the base.