My girlfriend and me are going to be running a pizza oven construction workshop. Would it be ok for me to post the details here? Would this be something that LTH'ers would be interested in?

I know I'm not a moderator, but feel free to construct a trial oven on my patio...(only kidding, but seriously, I'd be interested in that info so if you don't post it, please PM the details)

today's pizza for lunch
Melted leeks, artichoke hearts & crimini mushroom pizza with goat cheese

detail shot

I turned the artichokes myself (never done that before..) braised them in water, wine, lemon and a bit of salt. The mushrooms were browned in butter & EVOO and then a touch of thyme and some wine
covered and reduced. The leeks were chopped and slowly cooked down in butter and a bit of water.

Melted leeks, & crimini mushroom with fresh mozzarella ciliegine
over a san marzano tomato & roast red pepper sauce.

salsa verde & fresh corn pizza with queso fresco
Sprinkled with smoked paprika, cayenne pepper & cilantro

Made a few pizzas on the Big Green Egg tonight, one I liked the best was sauteed rapini, sausage and fresh moz. I painted the crust fairly heavy with olive oil, I was looking for crisp rich crunch, which I got in spades.

Sauteed rapini, fresh mozzarella, sausage

LTH,

Broke through the pizza barrier, time slowed down, interaction of individual components, variables, feel of the dough, viscosity/acidity of sauce, cooker temps, placement and types of ingredients opened their arms and embraced. Four pizzas one better than the next, friend who was over ordered a Big Green Egg the very next day.

Only took me about 100 pizzas to break though, hope this wasn't an anomaly.

Enjoy,
Gary

So above I noted the trick of making your crust on parchment paper.

Well, I have since learned... there is parchment paper and there is parchment paper. And it's one of those cases where cheaper is better. I bought some at Whole Foods and it turned out to be silicon coated. I'm sure there are circumstances where this is useful, though I'm not sure what they are. The problem, though, is that silicon coating makes it waterproof, so you lose a significant part of the point of baking on a heated stone (which is the moisture that's sucked into the stone, crisping the bottom.

I went to Strack & Van Til and found myself cheaper parchment paper from Reynolds and baked some bread just now. Much better.

Found top-notch ingredients at the Evanston f-mkt, and so made a deep dish pie, incorporating fresh porcini, chicken-of-the-woods, and goat mozzarella:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53256675@N ... /lightbox/

A recent mhill95149 inspired pie: corn, cheddar, cilantro, roasted peppers, tomato sauce

Stop 50 inspired Pear, blue cheese, shallot pizza

Pork belly, smoked provolone & home grown tomato pizza
pretty good but some thinly sliced onion would have been nice...

Here are a few shots of pizzas made using a small BGE and dough from Caputo's in Palatine... I get 3 pizzas from 1lb of dough...takes some time to work it thin....lots of cornmeal...

Nice first post!
Love the dough from Caputo's in Palatine

xxxKPDxxx wrote:Here are a few shots of pizzas made using a small BGE and dough from Caputo's in Palatine...

Nice looking pizza, I'm a fan of BGE and it looks like you are putting yours to good use. Is that snow I see on the ground, hope that is last years pics!

Enjoy,
Gary

Made a few pizzas last night

Tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, parmesan/manchego, basil (a little wet from the buffalo mozzarella):




Goat cheese, parmesan/manchego, thyme, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, pine nuts and oven roasted tomatoes



Tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, parm/manchego, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions

Some might not call this a pizza but I do...
A base of Crème fraiche under melted leeks topped with diced steelhead trout and chives

fingerling potato, onion, pancetta, pizza with some rosemary
on my first attempt with 00 flour.


potato_pizza_6488.jpg by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr

potato_pizza_6496.jpg by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr

mhill95149 wrote:Some might not call this a pizza but I do...
A base of Crème fraiche under melted leeks topped with diced steelhead trout and chives

I call it mouth watering pizza. Outstanding.

took the oven to 500˚ convection today and it worked a lot better than 475...
This pizza is a Chanterelle (sautéed in butter and oil prior)
butternut squash (sautéed prior)
goat cheese and fresh sage
with a light bottom layer of 4 Italian cheeses.

Looks fantastic. How are you liking the 00 flour?

-Dan

dansch wrote:Looks fantastic. How are you liking the 00 flour?

-Dan

Three words...

Never going back
using the Forno Bravo's Basic Vera Pizza Napoletana Dough Recipe
500 gr OO
325gr water
10 gr salt
3 gr yeast

I will try some variations with the dough that have been suggested (slower additions of flour & less yeast/ longer ferment)

lesson learned, let the oven get really hot before cooking pizza.
I was too hungry to wait and the crust is just not as good as it could
have been...

Margherita:


Slice of hot coppa and arugula:


Both pizzas tasted very good, but I was disappointed with how pale the crust on the second one came out. Can't figure out why it happened, as it was the same batch of dough, cooked a minute longer, and the oven should have been even hotter since it was cooked last, and 45 after the first one came out without ever turning down the oven. The coppa was right-out-the-fridge cold, but I wouldn't think that would be such a difference maker.

the new CI suggests that the pizza stone should be about 4 inches from the TOP of the oven for better crust browning
(and they add sugar their dough...)

I'm going to give it a try on the next pizza night.

Mine is indeed 4 inches from the top, but I refuse to mess around with sugar in the dough.

sooooooo.... im officially addicted. homemade pizza is the amazing and i cant stop thinking about it. i just got a pizza stone and peal about a month ago and ive made around 14 pizzas so far, and each one has been damn good. ive just been using the recipe from good eats for my dough, and that seems to be working well but i was thinking about trying a new dough recipe. maybe something with bread flour, but my oven can only reach up to 525 degrees and ive been reading that you need atleast 800 degrees for bread flour.......... anyone know a recipe with a combo of bread flour to regular flour that will work with a 525 degree oven???

anyway here are some pics from my pizza extravaganza before christmas.....

Dough resting

First margherita pizza we made, This really changed my mind about veggie pizza. the flavor was so bright, it turned out really good.


This was my favorite of the night i think. good eats tomato sauce, mozzarella, manchego, gruyere, and parm. with coppa and cherry tomatoes.


Im not sure why this one got so puffy... maybe its cause it was the last pizza i made so the dough was sitting out for a while....

i already have some dough made up and chillin in my fridge, hopefully ill remember to take pictures. the only thing im gonna try different is moving the pizza stone to the top to see if that gives me a little more of a charred crust. we shall see.

o and i havent had a craving for lou malnati's in forever which used to be my go to for pizza. never thought that would happen. lol

OK...I know this is probably not a "good" thing, but my furnace went down the other day, and as I was watching the repair man fix it I commented that it smelled like a pizza oven when all the gas burners got started. Light Bulb! There it was, right in front of me...a place so hot it would make for a great pizza oven. It could hurt to use the flames for 4-5 minutes...could it?

notob6 wrote:sooooooo.... im officially addicted. homemade pizza is the amazing and i cant stop thinking about it. i just got a pizza stone and peal about a month ago and ive made around 14 pizzas so far, and each one has been damn good. ive just been using the recipe from good eats for my dough, and that seems to be working well but i was thinking about trying a new dough recipe. maybe something with bread flour, but my oven can only reach up to 525 degrees and ive been reading that you need atleast 800 degrees for bread flour.......... anyone know a recipe with a combo of bread flour to regular flour that will work with a 525 degree oven???

Hi notob,
I use bread flour or a mix of bread flour and Italian 00 flour for my pizzas which I make in a conventional oven (mine goes to 550). Bread flour is higher in gluten than AP flour (desirable in pizza dough) and works just fine in a conventional oven. I actually use Vital Gluten Flour to boost the gluten content a bit. Many people, myself include, find that 00 flour does not work as well in a conventional oven. However, I've been using a Fibrament stone which retains heat really well and I am planning to try dough with 100% 00 flour again. Actually, when I have time, I want to do a side by side comparison of 50/50 bread/00 and all 00. Others on the board can give you there opinions--I know many people have had better luck with 00 than I. Also, the type of 00 flour makes a difference. 00 means that the flour is milled very fine but different 00 flours have different gluten levels (I believe I am right about this). In any case, you should be able to use bread flour in a conventional oven.

Kennyz wrote:Mine is indeed 4 inches from the top, but I refuse to mess around with sugar in the dough.

I put honey in my dough. I got this idea from Peter Reinhart's recipe. It doesn't make the dough noticeably sweet but it does help with browning.

thaiobsessed wrote:

Kennyz wrote:Mine is indeed 4 inches from the top, but I refuse to mess around with sugar in the dough.

I put honey in my dough. I got this idea from Peter Reinhart's recipe. It doesn't make the dough noticeably sweet but it does help with browning.

It's probably a fine idea but I'd feel like a cheater. Another issue to bring up with my psychiatrist.