Yay, my kitchen is back together and Thursday can be pizza night again!
I tried Jeff Varasano's dough recipe this time, topped with buffalo mozzarella from Trader Joe's, spicy Italian sausage, basil, caciocavallo cheese and tomato sauce. I have to say, I like the Reinhart recipe with olive oil and a little sugar better (non-DOC worthy though it may be). Still, a tasty pizza.

Last night's pie: Fingerling potatoes, carmelized onion, gorgonzola and dill (inspired by a Donna Hay magazine recipe)

I'm making up for lost time.
I've noticed my pizza crust turns out better on the weekends because I have more time to preheat the baking stone (I turn the oven on about 1.5-2 hours before I plan to cook the pizzas) and I can take the dough out of the fridge about 2-3 hours before I start forming the pizzas. Unfortunately, this weekend I accidentally turned my oven off between pizzas and the second wasn't quite as good as the first. Also, I think I've given up on 00 flour. I feel like it makes the crust a little tough if you can't get your oven above 500. I'm planning a side-by-side comparison between 50-50 00 and bread flour vs. all bread flour.

Roasted eggplant, tomato, olive, feta, caciocavello:


Fior de sardo, parm, caciocavello, tomato sauce**, sausage


**I used Peter Reinhart's recipe for uncooked tomato sauce. You mix canned San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, salt, basil and oregano...and that's it. Very easy and I thought it came out great.

thaiobsessed wrote:I'm making up for lost time.
**I used Peter Reinhart's recipe for uncooked tomato sauce. You mix canned San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, salt, basil and oregano...and that's it. Very easy and I thought it came out great.

thaiobsessed,

I make tomato sauce similarly. In fact, I'm in the middle of editing a video demonstrating how I make it. Stay tuned. I hope you'll find it interesting.

Bill/SFNM

thaiobsessed wrote: Also, I think I've given up on 00 flour. I feel like it makes the crust a little tough if you can't get your oven above 500. I'm planning a side-by-side comparison between 50-50 00 and bread flour vs. all bread flour.

I was pretty happy with my 50/50 KAAP/00 mix, though my oven did get slightly higher than 500, and it's also possible that I enjoy a tougher crust.

Making pizza tonight - I did the Reinhardt dough recipe, it's sitting in the fridge now Will post a pic if it looks ok... toppings will probably be an assortment - fresh tomato, buffalo mozz, garlic, sausage, red pepper, maybe onion... I have some basil, too...

My pizzas turned out tasty, but I forgot to take pics

The crust didn't form those big bubbles like others' crusts did, but still tasted nice.

I made pesto from the basil, and did one Pesto, garlic, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomato and one tomato sauce with sausage, onion, red pepper.

And something I ate (not sure if it was this or an earlier meal) has given me gastric distress

So, I've made pizza with a new combination I really like a couple times recently but I keep forgetting to get a picture. Here are a few remaining pieces of a pizza with roasted butternut squash, carmelized onions, thyme, pancetta and little blobs of a mixture of ricotta and mascarpone plus a dusting of parmigiano reggiano.



I was supposed to be making a pizza margherita, but I got carried away and put sausage on it. Here's Pizza Margherita con salsiccia:


and another with sausage and four cheeses (encanestratu, fior de sardo, caciocavallo and parm)


In my most recent batch of crust, I added a little Vital gluten flour to the bread flour to increase the gluten content. I'm not really sure I could tell the difference--it might have had a little more chew. Anyone have opinions on this? Bill? (looking forward to the new sauce video, by the way)

thaiobsessed wrote:
In my most recent batch of crust, I added a little Vital gluten flour to the bread flour to increase the gluten content. I'm not really sure I could tell the difference--it might have had a little more chew. Anyone have opinions on this? Bill? (looking forward to the new sauce video, by the way)

How much VGF to how much BF? Perhaps it needed more kneading to develop the additional gluten. Not too much experience in this area since I strive for a light and tender crust. Sauce video should be up next week. (Waiting for a mic adaptor - this will be my first video with voice-over rather than cheesy music track.)

BTW, those pizzas shown above look amazing. I shouldn't say anything to encourage you since people who insist on taking and showing-off photos of food are irritating.

Last night I experimented with using my barrel grill to cook pizza. I cut some angle iron and set up a pizza stone over the fire.



I threw a couple logs in and got the temp in the grill up to 800-900 very quickly (the thermometer maxed out above 700 almost instantly)





I used the Reinhart Pain a l'Ancienne recipe for the dough and put out a variety of cheeses and toppings for people to use. This one is mozzarella, parm, and basil.



I had a little bit of a problem with the bottoms getting a bit burned at first, but got it down to a system of 4 minutes on the stone and then 4 or 5 minutes off to the side on the grill to finish off the tops (at about 500-600). I definitely need to practice tossing the dough, but otherwise everything turned out great! I did a Gruyere and hard Gouda pizza with mushrooms that was my favorite of the bunch.

Nice shopping cart pizza oven. Now that there is some good street food.

First pizzas of 2010, brought to you by the good people at Bari and a little bit of oak. Crust was had some yeast and some sour dough starter. This particular pizza had portabella mushrooms, fresh basil, bari italian sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella, parmesan, and fontinella.

Before


During


Done

Tried a new type of pizza this weekend - Ajvar and Cevap pizza. I used Ajvar in place of tomato sauce, crumbled up some Cevap I had grilled the night before, and added some peppers. I topped it with a little bit of mozzarella and a lot of Manchego and Piave. It was really good - I'm surprised I haven't seen Ajvar pizza before, it seems like a natural fit.

drshoebocks wrote:Nice shopping cart pizza oven. Now that there is some good street food.

Yet another reason to push for making real street carts legal in Chicago - it is ready to roll!

sort of a margarita

Really late to the pizza party. No tricks up my sleeve, or fancy wood-fired oven; heck, I don't even own a pizza stone, so I rely on the parchment paper-dusted-with cornmeal method to provide a thin barrier between the pie and the oven rack. I took my first crack at the Reinhart pizza dough recipe. I divided it into 4 pieces, which makes about 4 14-inch pies. I made the dough entirely in my Kitchen Aid, first mixing with the paddle, then kneading with the dough hook. Apart from the overnight rest (which just requires advance planning), the recipe is simple, and results in a crispy thin crust with a slightly softer and breadier collar. I found that the dough tore if I tried to knead it with my fists (the recommended method) so I just eased it into shape on my peel (which is actually a rimless baking sheet).

My oven gets to 550 degrees, these were in there for 8 and 7 minutes respectively; next time, I'll cut the baking time down to 5 minutes.


Margherita pizza (w/sage instead of basil)


Caramelized onion, roasted piquillo pepper, garlic, olive oil


Crust shot

I used the last of the Reinhart pizza dough. I noticed that, after a 3-day rest in the refrigerator, the dough tore less, was more pliable, and resulted in a puffier, breadier collar. I don't know if that's a coincidence or not. I reduced the baking time to 6 minutes @ 550 degrees, and was quite happy with the results.


Mushroom, shallot, garlic, Uplands Farmstead cheese

aschie30 wrote:I used the last of the Reinhart pizza dough. I noticed that, after a 3-day rest in the refrigerator, the dough tore less, was more pliable, and resulted in a puffier, breadier collar. I don't know if that's a coincidence or not. I reduced the baking time to 6 minutes @ 550 degrees, and was quite happy with the results.

Pizza looks great. I don't think what you noticed is a coincidence, as the same thing has been the case for me. I don't use the Reinhart recipe, but with my dough too - the longer it rests in the fridge, the more air bubbles seem to form, and the puffier and breadier the collar seems to get. A little more chew to the rest of the crust too. I like the longer resting time quite a bit. Also makes terrific, airy focaccia after a few days' rest in the fridge.

I finally tried the Reinhart pizza dough recipe after having it bookmarked for a year or more. I did it by hand, having no mixer/dough hook, so I kneaded for 10 minutes and hoped that the gluten had developed enough. The crust was very light and crisp, really nice and airy--I've tried a few other dough recipes that are either too dense and crisp, or too puffy and bread like. This one will now be my go-to dough. It probably would have been even better with a more restrained hand with toppings -- I'll try to learn restraint between now and the next time I make pizza.

#1--bari hot italian sausage, fresh and whole-milk mozz, sauteed spinach and mushrooms:


#2--BBQ sauce, shredded chicken (leftover from last night's thomas keller roasted bird), red pepper and red onions:


Sorry for the camera phone pics....my camera is in the shop after corrupting my memory card containing all my photos from a recent trip overseas. I'm too mad at it to pick it up right now.

Kennyz wrote:

aschie30 wrote:I used the last of the Reinhart pizza dough. I noticed that, after a 3-day rest in the refrigerator, the dough tore less, was more pliable, and resulted in a puffier, breadier collar. I don't know if that's a coincidence or not. I reduced the baking time to 6 minutes @ 550 degrees, and was quite happy with the results.

Pizza looks great. I don't think what you noticed is a coincidence, as the same thing has been the case for me. I don't use the Reinhart recipe, but with my dough too - the longer it rests in the fridge, the more air bubbles seem to form, and the puffier and breadier the collar seems to get. A little more chew to the rest of the crust too. I like the longer resting time quite a bit. Also makes terrific, airy focaccia after a few days' rest in the fridge.

Foccacia sounds great. I, too, noticed more air bubbles are after the 3 day rest. I'm hooked!

So I had to come with something new for the Monthly Challenge at the pizza making forum. The April challenge is "breakfast pizza". I've done the predictable egg on a pizza, pizza benedict, pizza frittata, etc. The LTH thread on French toast and the debate on baked French toast inspired my entry:

Orange Cinnamon French Toast Pizza



- Eggs beaten with vanilla extract and orange oil spread on 48-hour room-temp dough
- Sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and drizzled with melted butter

I was surprised how good it was and how much it actually tasted like French toast.

Thanks to this thread, I'm trying Reinhart pizza dough recipe for the first time...

Not exactly even dough balls but then again, my pizza eaters come in a range of sizes too!

Margherita:



Margherita undershot:



Hot coppa and watercress:



Hot coppa and watercress sideview:

Looks awesome. Was that with the 00 flour mentioned above? What was your oven temp?

aschie30 wrote:Looks awesome. Was that with the 00 flour mentioned above? What was your oven temp?

Thanks - both pizzas were quite tasty, though I preferred the crust on the second. I pulled it from the oven at about the 5 minute mark as opposed to about 7 for the first one , and enjoyed the foldable NY-style effect that resulted.

Crust is 2 cups 00 flour, 2.25 cups King Arthur AP flour (as opposed to 2.5 cups last time as I was going for a wetter dough this time), 2 good pinches of salt, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 package active dry proofed in 1.5 cups of warm water. Baked on a ceramic stone preheated in a 550 degree oven.

Kennyz wrote:Crust is 2 cups 00 flour, 2.25 cups King Arthur AP flour (as opposed to 2.5 cups last time as I was going for a wetter dough this time), 2 good pinches of salt, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 package active dry proofed in 1.5 cups of warm water. Baked on a ceramic stone preheated in a 550 degree oven.

One of these days, I'll get around to buying a pizza stone. I use a wetter dough, too, so I'll have to try your dough next time.

Mushroom, thyme, black pepper, taleggio, grated Parmigiano Reggiano:

I liked this combo a lot.

Folded slice of margherita:

When it comes to pizza, I think I'm still a NYer at heart so I'm really digging how these crusts have been coming out.

Some of the dough I made on Saturday.

White bean pizza with caramelized onions, goat cheese & sage

Messed up the uncooked dough so no full pie shot

HI,

I made a pizza that was just gobbled up before any thought of pictures: leftover marinara sauce, carmelized onions, fresh mozzarella and venison Bologna crisped in a dry frying pan. It was a rather homely pizza.

Regards,

Pulled out the pizza oven last night....