The Last Great Pizza Thread

'Bout time we had a thread for all those that make their own dough and sauce. Too many good cooks on THP to let something as magnificent as that king of foods, pizza go unnoticed on this forum. This thread however comes with some rules to post...

1) Make your own dough and post the recipe. Thin crust. Whole wheat. Foccacia. NY or Chicago style. Naan....your choice!

2) Make your own sauce and post the recipe. Red. White. Olive oil w/ garlic. Whatever gets your mojo workin'!

3) Mandatory that it brings teh heat. Habs. Serrano's. Bhut's. T-Scorps. Fatalli. Hot sauce's and puree's will qualify. Using wimp sauce's such as Tabasco Brand or Franks will
be ridiculed with extreme prejudice and boooooed heavily!

4) Toppings can be anything. Pepperoni. Avocado. Greek olives. Pulled pork. If it came out of the ground or walked, swam or crawled, its all cool and the gang!

5) Bake them in the oven on a sheet pan. In cast iron. A pizza stone. On the grill. Got a wood fired pizza oven? Have mercy!

6) Pics are mandatory! Anyone can talk smack about it but put up or shut up. No pics? It never happened and ridiculing and boooooing will follow. Capiche?

Alright ya'll, lets get it on.....

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Treccia meaning braided, cool.
 
The point for pizza is meltability. I understand some low-moisture cheeses melt better, but also high-moisture do. It is the middle ground that does not. So when you take a very fresh mozz that is creamy, and is starts to solidify, it melts horribly. But if you take the low-moisture manufactured stuff it melts great. Something about fresh mozz losing moisture really hurts the integrity.
 
Some pizzerias around here buy fresh mozzarella in slicing blocks. Not the processed stuff, the "fresh" stuff, for margherita pies. But it is in a block made for the slicer. They put it on the pies in thin squares. This stuff is horrible! It is pure plastic. Sometimes you take a bite of the pizza and pull the cheese off. I'd rather they use the shredded cheese than this crap. Absolutely disgusting stuff.
 
Maybe that is what you call pizza cheese.

 

[cypresshill1973]

I have opportunity to buy mozzarella cheese made ​​the day. Going from my house to the city just half mile of distance, there is a cheese of very high quality. The specialty of this factory is the mozzarella, which is between the two best I know. 
They have a store right there on the road where you can buy cheese. The owner of that factory live next to my house. I talk to him and ask him to review. 
 
Anyway, now do not stay with the doubt.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Awesome!

 

[cypresshill1973]

Coincidentally I have in my fridge a purchased block last Saturday. This is the best cheese pizza I've ever had, and I've tried hundreds. None like this. 
 
When taking off the bag always has natural butter and cheese that appears trapped in corners of bag.
 

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Cool! That looks like great cheese.
 
That's different than what I meant though by fresh mozz in a block though. They do it fresh style but in a loaf instead of hand twisting it, and it ends up being more dense.
 

 

[cypresshill1973]

I understand. Once you make some pizza with fresh style moozarella?

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I'll get back into cooking soon, I don't have time these days. Can't wait though!

 

[Essegi]

Coincidentally I have in my fridge a purchased block last Saturday. This is the best cheese pizza I've ever had, and I've tried hundreds. None like this. 
 
When taking off the bag always has natural butter and cheese that appears trapped in corners of bag.

Ha, i remember that, the mythic mozz from Uncle Enzo!
 

Cool! That looks like great cheese.
 
That's different than what I meant though by fresh mozz in a block though. They do it fresh style but in a loaf instead of hand twisting it, and it ends up being more dense.
 

fresh_mozzarella_loaf.jpg

Yeah, that i what i meant too. To tell the truth sometimes i found something that wasn't so bad... But they all sucked if burnt... Not that burnig mozz is good itself but some times are worse than others...
For bruschetta is not bad since standard mozz is not good too cook along bruschetta, it suffers moisture more than pizza and for some reasons tastes bad. Better other cheeses.

Also there's cooking temp that plays a big role (considering mozz, of course is the most critical factor on pizza itself).

Here is a photo of september TD, a photo i didn't post here:

Max temp, 10 min at lowest position, 9 mins at mid high position.
Buffalo mozz.  Not too burnt.
 
See here, the first pizza i posted here with Bonci method.

Same oven, max temp, 10 min at lowest position, 6-7 min mid high position. Normal mozz.
Much too burnt, that mozz is quite moist but not as buffalo (said that this pizza was quite better than TD one, not for ingredients, it was just better, more cavities, better dough, you see crust is better... And the process and the flour were the same...).
 
I don't rememeber where, i've read that cold mozz or mozz covered with its liquid helps prevention of burning it...
Btw there another thing may people does: cook in lowest position for 10 minutes with just some oil or tomato, that should be enough to fix the dough, then put mozz and the rest. So no burning. That btw is not only to prevent burning but to cook better dough that is even more important. i suppose you need well strained mozz for that... I must try.
 
Now with Ferrari oven (my last and best one, sorry boss for that crosspost, this comes from Druknen Chef thread):

Seems a bit liquid? It's ambrosia. White stuff on slice pic is burrata after cooking (another really good stuff, i've not much experience with that).
Not the same buffalo mozz as above, but more or less this is the result, also with standard mozz. And it's much much much better in taste.
The difference is higher temp and less time (around 7 minutes, i haven't checked the clock but if pizza was ready ).
Temp in my oven should be around 270°C.
In Ferrari oven max should be 390°C. With a pyrometer i checked and measured over 380, not at max (the problem with max position is that resistance are off so you need to put pizza before that).
There are 2 problems:
1) 380°C is just not enough
2) just opening the cover for some seconds cause a loss of 50°C easily...
So in truth is still higher than a normal oven but not so much. Also that's why that pizza is a shade of what should be. It't still better than all my others.
 

I'll get back into cooking soon, I don't have time these days. Can't wait though!

Better be true, don't dare that be just words!
And remember: no pics, not happens!

 

[JayT]

I am going to get me some fresh buffalo mozzarella real soon...

 

[cypresshill1973]

Tonight I make two pizzas.   I wanted knead,  but my wife does not allow it. She said that mess much when I cooking. 
 
First pizza will have use cheese in whole milk with salt at room temperature. The other pizza will be cold cheese removed from the refrigerator.
 
Approximately 14oz of mozz be submerged for 4 huors in the milk. 
 

 
 
It will be successful or will I have to throw them trash? 

 

[tsurrie]

you can knead the small amount of pizza dough right in a bowl and not make too much of a mess .. your wife should appreciate your effort for cooking
 
report to us what you'll find out about the cheese difference ...

 

[PIC 1]

 
Italian Barese Sausage, Basil, Crimini Mushrooms, Italian Cherry Tomatoes (canned), Fresh Motz, Mild Provolone, backyard Red Bell Pepper.
 
Dough 475g "00" Flour
              25g Semolina
            325g Water
              15g Salt
                1 packet of ADY Yeast
 

 
Oil pan, stretch dough....rest 2 hrs..add squished and drained Cherry Tomatoes, Sausage pieces at 2" intervals, fresh Motz in scattered pieces, 1c of grated Provolone, sliced Bell Pepper and Mushrooms.......grated Parm
 

 
550 F for 20 minutes...add torn Basil and more grated Parm
 
[URL=http://s1033.photobucket.com/user/gregmoroz/media/Food%202014/bd7a1cc1-dc46-4013-a66c-fe4603aa158c_zps855e2f06.jpg.html][/URL]
 
all I can say is the house smells good !......................and yum!

 

[cypresshill1973]

well here we will show this experiment. I confess that seeing the result of thought cheese would fail. Still continue on.
 

The cheese looked very creamy, above a layer of salted butter was formed, had buttery taste and was delicious, drain and leave it seemed very liquid to put on pizza. 
Bullshit I'm saying? It was fantastic, it seemed like eating butter, same texture and flavor. Ideal for spreading on toast. Until shown more yellow. 
 
Still remaining skeptical for use on pizza
 
 

 
Put on the pizza with the rest of ingredients, black olives, mushroom and crushed fresh rocotto (was very spicy)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Verdict: Very good, exceeded my expectations. The cheese softened a little taste. Less intense, but much more delicate and sophisticated taste. He noted harder more, maybe for moisture loss, but very tasty and refined than before. Both agree on the same thing (my wife and I) 
 
Was worth the experiment, will be a common practice from now on when I have the time of preparations.
 
Thanks THP!  Great wisdom you carry


 

 

[Tinnie]

Looks delicious CH!

 

[sicman]

you guys are killing it. pic that is my kind of pie. 

 

[JayT]

Thanks THP!  Great wisdom you carry
 
 

Oh brother... that will go right to his head.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

YES YES look at that MELT!
 

Thanks THP!  Great wisdom you carry

 
Ha! Glad it worked for you.
 

Oh brother... that will go right to his head.

Yuuuuuup. It's stored there now like a loaded pistol.

 

[frydad4]

I promise on my throwdown crowns that this is legit! I'm not trolling with this post!!!
 
I don't know why this worked, but it is awesome!!!

I read this article a few days ago. Decided to give it a try. VERY glad I did!!!
2 ingredient pizza dough. 
Just Greek Yogurt and Self-Rising Flour. That's it. Knead for a few mins, roll it out, brush some olive oil on top, put on the toppings and bake for 10 mins. So easy. 
 
And the results are fantastic!! 

We like our pizza thin. So we rolled it out very thin, and it didn't resist at all. I use parchment to make transfer easier. We add seasonings to our crust. 
 
The crust had excellent chew and awesome flavor. I very highly recommend giving this a try. 
I recognize that this probably has nothing on the artisan stuff ESS and the other masters put on here, but I bet even they would be pleasantly surprised to see how quick, easy, and delicious this is!!
 
Had to take the pics on my phone. I'll be doing this again for sure. 
Here's the link to the recipe: 
 
https://www.yahoo.com/food/two-ingredient-pizza-dough-and-two-easy-pizza-recipes-100002596796.html
 

 

 

 
FD

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Always cool to see something new... and these hacks are usually crap but WOW!
 
I would not say this if I did not mean it, that crust looks bang on!
 
How about side shot to see the airiness? 

 

[frydad4]

Damn I already ate it. 
There wasn't much airiness because I rolled it too thin. 
But it had "pizzaria" chew. I really wasn't expecting much, and it came out great!
I'd be interested to see what happens if I roll it a bit thicker...
that being said, it holds up very well to being quite thin! Not all dough does that!