How do I pizza - and what do I dough

[Mike Matei's Penis]

If you are in America and can't get real cheese, don't bother.

 

[ckcc]

put chicken nuggets on your pizza and take a pic

 

[MembersSchoolPizza]

Are there any trade secrets for gourmet, restaurant-quality pizza you guys can share with the class, be it the equipment, ingredients, cooking methods and the like?

I make pretty damned good pizza. I don't try to make the crappy Neapolitan pizza, I think it's incredibly overrated. But a lot of the same basic rules apply.

• Your hydration rate for the dough is key. I like a high-hydration crust to get lots of air bubbles. I work with about 68%, but when you're starting off, start lower - working with higher hydration takes more skill.
• Get good flour. Get bread flour or high gluten. You can get the 00-grind flour that the pizza sites all rave about, and if you're doing Neapolitan style, it's worth it... For american-style pies, though, it's not. I actually find it counterproductive, at least in a home kitchen. The finer grind actually makes the pizza not turn out so good if you're baking lower and slower. And it's quite pricey.
• If you're cooking in a home oven, of any sort, get a pizza steel or stone. Some people will say "steel is better", and it is, for some things, but it isn't a universal truth. If you're doing fairly thin pizza with limited toppings, it works excellent. But if you're going for a thicker crust with more toppings, it can cause the underside to get too done. Rule of thumb is 8 minutes: If your pizza cooks in less than 8 minutes, steel is better. Longer, stone is better.
• The hotter the oven the better, but if all you have is a home oven, all is not lost. There's a trick you can do with the cleaning cycle if you really want to that gets hotter than the oven is otherwise meant to, but I wouldn't suggest it unless you like burning your house down. You can get "close enough" with a combination of three things: Crank your oven as hot as it will go (most electric ovens in America will hit 550), using a pizza steel or stone with a very long preheat, and putting everything on the VERY top rack. Open the door, put the pizza in, close the door, quick as you can. If you've got a couple of cast iron pans, put them on the lower rack too - it provides thermal mass and keeps the temperature more constant; electric ovens are not the most constant oven.
• All that said, if you REALLY want to do Neapolitan style, a 45+ minute heating cycle on a 550 with a steel + broiler will get you very, very close.
• I know convection ovens change things, but I don't have one. Can't comment.
• Don't over-complicate the crust. Flour, water, kosher or non-iodized salt, yeast, a small amount of olive oil will get you where you want to go. I know, the traditional Neapolitan pizza doesn't use olive oil. Food science time: Neapolitan pizza is meant to cook in 1-3 minutes. With a home oven, and a larger pizza, that's not happening. I cook a pizza in 10-12 minutes at 550; if you do that without a little bit of oil in the crust, the crust will be a little tougher and dryer than you're going to want. Let the crust ferment for at least 12 hours, preferably 24-36.
• However, if you DO want to over-complicate the crust just a tad, and this *particularly* applies if you want a faster crust - add a very small amount of barley malt syrup to the crust. This does a couple things: It makes the yeast work faster, and it provides a nice malty flavor that, while not a 1:1 replacement for the yeasty flavor of a long ferment, is an acceptable second best. If you're going to do a lot of baking, I highly suggest picking up barley malt syrup. It's fantastic for many baking uses.
• Learn to toss your crust, or at least gently press it out. Rolling pin does not give as nice a chew and destroys gas bubble structure.
• Low moisture cheese, not pre-shredded (Caking agents can do funny things to the melt), whole-milk mozz not skim. For a little more flavor a little bit of jack cheese or even some white cheddar, but the majority should be mozz.
• Slice-it-yourself pepperoni will elevate your game with minimal extra work, provided you're good with a knife.
• If you want to flavor your crust, do it after you bake it. Mix up some parm, garlic, and maybe oregano and a dash of salt with some butter and brush it on the cornicione.
• If your pizza looks a little anemic when you go to pull it out, hit it with the broiler for a few seconds.
• Probably don't need to be told this, but don't put too many toppings on it. Just doesn't bake as well.
• If you're going to put veggies on, particularly watery veggies like onions or peppers, toss them in a hot, dry pan for a little bit to slightly pre-cook and pre-char them, since without a 900+ degree oven, they're not going to get that nice char otherwise. You can even do this ahead of time and have them ready to go when it's time to bake. Stir fry quickly at a high temperature, with just a sprinkle of salt to help draw out the water.

Happy pie making!

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Pizza time.

 

[Lurkmastergarbo]

If the mozzarella doesn't find itself as one, singular blob of cheese in your fridge: don't use it for pizza.

 

[suzzy suz]

You can send pizza as as a prank to someone’s house without paying for it! Just don’t do that in Louisiana, though. It’s illegal there.