The Home-made Pizza thread

[BurnHard]

Aight, haven't found anything like this around. I want to have a thread where we can discuss home made pizza, ingredients, techniques, post pics and vote on the best pie, ask questions & find advice.

My very first question - does anybody know of a good high-gluten Type 00 flour supplier in/around the Denver/Boulder area? I was thinking of walking in at Protos in Boulder and asking them if they can hook me up with a 50lb bag of their flour, but would prefer knowing a good supplier in the vicinity.

Also looking for San Marzano tomatoes in town, I can't find a store that carries them!!! I am going to grow my own this summer, but want to find ready-ones for the time being.

And just to get the thread started:

(stolen from wikimedia)

Here's my basic dough recipe:
1000grams high-gluten flour (11.5-12%)
650ml luke-warm water (I've been going with 65% hydration lately)
7grams Dry Yeast
pinch of salt
tbps of brown sugar

So I usually start my pizza dough the night before using it. I basically mix the yeast, the water, and the sugar in a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Mix the salt with the flour, dump the yeast-water in, and mix & knead the dough for a good 20 minutes. Rub the dough in some olive oil & I let it rise for 30 minutes before wrapping it in ceran wrap & letting the dough 'mature' in the fridge for 12-18hours. The next day I pull the dough out and let it warm up to room-temperature, then let it rise 2-6hours depending on how rushed I am.
Making pizza Thursday night so I'll have some actual pics of my pies

Let's get this thread goin!
-b

[rideit]

I usually add warm Guiness and dried herbs into the dough.
Finding the right Mozzarella is key, NO KRAFT PRODUCTS!!!
Oven @ 500 on a stone.

[grrrr]

For retail flour, go with King Arthur/Sir Lancelot...fairly readily available.

Another excellent tomato sauce is Hirzel/Dei Fratelli out of Toledo OH. While not a San Marzano variety, it is local production using vine-ripened product; far far better than anything else american I've found.

For a limited time only, here's my secret sauce recipe:

Crush garlic together with anchovy or anchovy paste. Place in sauce pan of warm extra-virgin olive oil and heat gently until garlic begins to sizzle and get aromatic - do not brown. Add fresh chopped oregano (and basil or other herbs as you see fit), and stir quickly. Let herbs aromate in oil briefly, then add tomato puree. Reduce heat to low and stir occasionally.

[BurnHard]

I've been using King Arthur's bread flour for my pizza dough and yeah, it's definitely a great flour! But at $5 for a 5lbs bag, it's on the expensive side, plus not as refined as Type 00
Mozzarella is definitely key, shame on whoever uses kraft shredded mozzarella I think tomatoes are THE key ingredient besides dough, though. They make or break your pizza!
I'll try the Hirzel/Dei Fratelli ones, thanks for the tip! I do usually get whole peeled tomatoes over paste though, and simmer them in abundant olive oil & minced garlic - I'll have to try the anchovy paste idea!

[pappag]

Ricotta, garlic, porcini mushrooms, and EV olive oil would do it for me.


If we're doing tomatoes, make them plump and make the cheese buffala mozzarella. Toss in prosciutto and/or pancetta.

[Pura Vida]

I usually keep it simple with pizza. For sauce, I usually dump the San Marzano tomatoes in a bowl, crush them by hand, add them to a pot with some olive oil and cook them down a bit (I don't have a 1000+ degree oven at home, but if you have access to one pre-cooking the sauce isn't necessary), remove from heat and season with oregano, salt, and often I'll ass some red chili flakes as well.

As far as cooking the pie, I've found a large pre-heated cast iron pan turns out a better product than a pizza stone. I'll crank the oven as hot as it will go, brush the dough with a little olive oil, par cook really quickly, remove and add the sauce buffala mozz (another trick if you are in the USA, the buff mozz is never as fresh as it should be and can soak up a lot of brine, so I'll slice and let the slices rest b/w some paper towells, prior to cooking, preventing a soggy pizza). Fire it till it begins to take on some nice char and the cheese is melted. Made an excellent one a couple weeks ago with sausage, pancetta, buffala mozz, and finished it with a big pile of fresh arugula and olive oil after it came out of the oven =

[BigDaddy]

Hmmmm.. sounds good. One of my chef friend's recipe is to cook the pizza on a weber grill. You toss the flatened dough on the grill first, then take it off, add your sauce and fixings, then put it back on. It's a GREAT way to cook it and a fun evening with friends. Can't wait for BBQ season...

[snowswine]

The big question is where to get a hold of some mozz curd so you can make your own. I have done this in commercial kitchens and it makes a pretty big difference on top of some reggiano or grana padano. King auther does the job for me, yeah it's $$$.Fuck now I'm hungry.

[AbsolutStoli]

im definitely a noob at making pizza, but i did do some baking when i was going to culinary school. had a lot of fun with dough. definitely want to start playing around with it.

anyway, cant give any denver/boulder stores that sell san marzano tomatoes, but heres a link for a store in nj that i used to go to a lot. http://www.corradosmarket.com/Store/...x?CategoryID=4 scroll down a bit and you'll see san marzano tomato products. theyre canned, but hopefully thats what you were looking for. dont know where you can get fresh ones around here.

PS - i was playing around with some leftover dough at the restaurant and made a pie with basil, sage, sliced roma tomatoes and fontina cheese. i ended up stretching the dough too thin, but the aromas from the pie were promising. didnt get to taste it though because the thing just fell apart.

Hmmmm.. sounds good. One of my chef friend's recipe is to cook the pizza on a weber grill. You toss the flatened dough on the grill first, then take it off, add your sauce and fixings, then put it back on. It's a GREAT way to cook it and a fun evening with friends. Can't wait for BBQ season...

thats how we do it at the restaurant. not on a webber, but precook the dough on the grill and then make pizzas to order.

The big question is where to get a hold of some mozz curd so you can make your own. I have done this in commercial kitchens and it makes a pretty big difference on top of some reggiano or grana padano.

yeah, we made fresh mozzarella in class, night and day difference. i can email my instructor to find out where the curd might be available.

[wandering, not lost]

mmmmm, home-made pizza is delicious.

I haven't made my own crust since high school, but back then my sister and I used to make whole wheat dough that was really excellent.

In terms of toppings, I'm allergic to tomatoes so I've had to experiment.

Favorites:
olive oil, fontina, caramelized onions, granny smith apples, grilled chicken

balsamic vinegar brushed on the crust, mozzarella, roasted veggies (combo of carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, garlic cloves), fresh ricotta, basil

[SiSt]

Guess I´m a cheater:

Dough: Flour, yeast, salt, water. The flour I use is just normal flour, but Norwegian flour is high in gluten, so no problem there. I use quite a lot of yeast, and just make the pizzas immediately after throwing the dough together. Precooking the dough is key. The oven should be at full throttle.

Sauce: One box of canned tomatoes, one tin of reduced tomatoes, a lot of olive oil, a lot of oregano, and some black pepper.

Toppings range from marinated beef (fennel seeds, powdered ginger, allspice, chili) to the legendary bacon and egg pizza. (Tomato sauce, random cheese, a few strips of raw bacon and a raw egg in the middle. Makes a great breakfast.)

[Ripzalot]

I find the simplest pizzas are often the best ones. Give me a thin cracker-like crust, a touch of tomato paste mixed with an even smaller touch of ketchup (sweetens it up), a thin dusting of mozzerella, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, a light dash of extra virgin olive oil...et viola!

[Pura Vida]

anyway, cant give any denver/boulder stores that sell san marzano tomatoes, but heres a link for a store in nj that i used to go to a lot. http://www.corradosmarket.com/Store/...x?CategoryID=4 scroll down a bit and you'll see san marzano tomato products. theyre canned, but hopefully thats what you were looking for. dont know where you can get fresh ones around here.

When looking for real San Marzano tomatoes beware of the imposter brands that aren't actually DOP San Marzano tomatoes. For example the brand name "San Marzano Tomatoes" pictured below aren't the real deal.

[bagtagley]

Charcoal grill with a stone is nice for getting that ripping high heat.

Last time my dad was in town, we made a whole wheat dough similar to the OPs recipe. One of the pies was white truffle oil, Gran Padana, Asiago, Regiano, Prosciutto and a really good aged hard salami. It was heart attackingly delicious.

[BurnHard]

I like where this thread is going Staaaaarving for some good pizza now!

I'm definitely with you Ripzalot - the simplest pizza usually turns out to be the best! When my friends load their pizzas with a metric ton of toppings, I go with good tomato sauce, good mozzarella, sliced cocktail tomatoes (cherry tomatoes), and some fresh basil...

As for my cooking procedure, this is what I do:
I have two different methods, depending on what I want. For thin crust Napolitana pizza (I make those usually round) I use about a 200gram dough-ball and stretch it out to ~14" diameter (letting the dough mature overnight really gives the gluten a pop!), put it on a pizza peel, top it off, and throw it on a pizza stone in the oven pre-heated to 550F. Less than 10 minutes cooking and the pizza is as perfect as it can get in a home-oven. I like the grill idea, I had read that somewhere else before, with the variation of using a pizza stone ON the grill. Gonna have to try it soon.

My other variation is deep-dish "Pizza al taglio" (the usual kind of pizza you buy at the corner store for lunch in Italy). There I use a 300-400gram dough-ball for a big pizza. I oil the pan well, stretch the pizza out, oil the top slightly, and let sit for 15-20minutes to let the dough spring up again. Then I cook at highest heat in the oven until golden, remove from the pan and let it cool on a wire-rack to release moisture. Once cooled, top it off, back in the oven at ~400F until the mozzarella is bubbling.