New Pizza Data
October 8th, 2008Approaching Perfection
Mike and I collaborated on a pizza the other day. I was anxious to watch his tossing technique, because he is completely fearless with the dough, whereas I feel like I’m juggling a greased baby over a terrazzo floor.
We used 2 cups of flour to make a 14″ pie. I made the dough, and he plopped it on the glass stove surface (my tossing area) with no worries at all. It stuck, but he was still able to get it loose and work it. Weird.
He stretched it on the stove, pressing his hands down into it and out. It somehow worked, even though the dough should have welded itself to the surface. He tore it once, but when he does that, he just pinches the edges together and pulls them up into a flap, which he folds over onto the pie.
It’s always scary, moving the crust onto the screen. I wanted to see how he handled it. It turns out he usually tosses dough that has been in the fridge, so it’s not as fragile. He was worried about handling the warm dough I made. And he said the warmth made it more likely to get stuck in the screen. That has been a concern of mine; I didn’t know he was using cool dough. My solution has been to spread the sauce with my fingers, which lets me use very little pressure. The more pressure you use, the more likely the dough is to bond with the screen.
I’ve been making insanely thin crusts lately. Usually, there are areas you can see through. So you can imagine how easy it would be to make them stick to the screen. But it works. I used this technique on the pie I made.
The pizza was amazing.
It seems like the pies are better if you let them rise really high, mash them down, and let them rise again. Also, I’m considering putting a tiny amount of olive oil in the dough. I like a tough crust with a little fight in it, so I usually use oil only on the outside.
It’s remarkable how cheap pizza is. Between the Costco cheese and the virtually free sauce, it’s ridiculous. You could make big cheese pizzas every day for a week for something like twenty bucks.
I believe I’ll have one now.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:03 AM
I’ve been making them mostly by your book for a month or two now. I like a thicker crust, so I’ve been making a triple batch of dough for two pies, or 4x for 3 pies.
I get a block of Sargento mozzarella at the local wholesale store for $3.20 a pound, it works great once you shred it (in the food processor, of course…) and when I ran the numbers it was about $3 a pie, and $1.60 of that was a half pound of cheese. Since I’ve dropped to a quarter pound per pie, this is now what, $2.20 a pie?
The takeout pizza around here makes Papa John’s look awesome. Yeah, making my own is an easy choice.
One comment, I don’t use a screen. I toss my dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, on a big cookie sheet (no lip on at least 1 side). Put on the toppings, use the cookie sheet as a peel, slide the dough/paper onto the stone, cook 3 minutes, open the oven, slide the cookie sheet under the paper, pull it and the dough/paper out of the oven, put your thumbs on the paper, and slide the pizza onto the stone.
It works great, I never worry about sticking to the screen, and I don’t have to buy and store a peel and screen. Sure, after the first couple hundred pies this way will be more expensive. I’ll deal with it.