Papa Who?

Today I gave my shopmade pizza steel a try.

Yesterday I made a pie on a makeshift steel, and it was a big improvement over a stone. I thought the pie was imperfect, though, because it was done more on the bottom than the top, and I didn’t think the rim was crunchy enough.

I decided to make another pie. I didn’t use any oil, except for an extremely thin film on the pan where I left the dough to rise. I reduced my sugar from 2.5 teaspoons to 1.5 teaspoons. This is for 225 grams of King Arthur Bread Flour.

I was afraid the dough would rip when I tossed it. Oil prevents that, probably by preventing the dough’s surface from drying during tossing. In the old days, I had some problems. When I took the dough out today, it worked fine. I believe the night in the fridge helped the dough become stretchier, so even though it probably dried out a little while I was working it, there were no holes

I baked today at 550° using convection. I moved the steel higher in the oven than yesterday.

After 9 minutes, I had a very nice pie. Pictures follow.

The crust was leathery, which is something I was shooting for, but the rim didn’t crunch quite as well as I wanted. The underside of the pie was beautiful. It had plenty of charring, but not enough to make the pie taste burnt.

For cheese, I used 1/1/1/ provolone/mozzarella/cheddar. It was very nice. I may reduce the cheddar next time.

When I was at the store yesterday, I bought cheese and bulk Italian sausage. Today when I got ready to make the pie, these things were nowhere in sight. I decided to check the car. When I opened the door, I smelled the odor of dead pig. The sausage had expired during the night. I had left all three items out there.

Before I assembled the new pie, I bought new stuff. I used the room temperature cheese from yesterday, though. I didn’t think sitting in the car would hurt it.

I put a number of globs of sausage on one half of the pizza. I was afraid I was using too much, but it turned out I should have used a lot more. I used raw sausage. I used to think pizza sausage had to be cooked in advance, but that’s wrong.

The steel is a big blessing. It produces better pies than a stone, and I have the satisfaction of knowing I made it myself.

Some people recommend half-inch-thick steels, but that seems to be overkill. Mine is 1/4″ thick, and it cooks the bottom of a pizza like nobody’s business. I think a thick steel would burn it.

Now I need a pizza stand to raise my pies off the dinner table. Not that I sit at the table. Come on. I’m a man, after all. I’ll start doing that when my wife moves in and not before.

My next pie will contain a tiny amount of oil. I wanted a leathery crust just like the ones I used to eat at Pizza Town in Manhattan, and now that I’ve made one, I think I went a little too far. Maybe a very small amount of oil will make the crust slightly less chewy without making it mushy like Papa John’s.