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baking First Pizza on the Baking Steel

samcanadian

samcanadian

I hope I don't get trouble for cross posting this, but I wanted to make sure I get these pictures in the proper forum!
 
I had a baking steel fabricated lately, and tonight was our first opportunity to try out a few pies.
 
First off, my semi fail pizza crusts.  They sat in the fridge for about 20 hours, and they were still pretty sticky/goopy when I tried to work with them.  They were IMPOSSIBLE to round off into nice pie shapes without plopping onto the parchment and pushing them into place.  I will have to figure out a proper way to do it if I want to improve on maintaining the air bubbles etc.
 
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Just a regular pepperoni pizza.  This is after 5 minutes cooking on the 500 degree steel and under the broiler.
 
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The bottom
 
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And a shot from the side.  This one could have cooked for another minute longer or so, but the bottom was still crisp, even if it was a bit flat and not totally cooked through in all the spots.  
 
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Here was the other pizza.  Just added peppers and onions to the pepperoni, but forgot to add them on top of the cheese, which I prefer. 
 
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We cooked this one for a minute or two longer because it as thicker and the crust rose a little bit nicer....even though it wasn't 100% cooked through all the way.  
 
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Things we'll do next time
 
1. Continue to use the parchment and my makeshift peel.  Worked like an absolute charm getting pizza in and out of the oven.
2. Probably either put the broiler on low or else turn it on after 5 minutes of cooking..because it was starting to get pretty brown on top and as evidenced, the bottom of the pizza, while crispy...could've used a bit more cooking to get through the dough.
3. Figure out my dough issues.  This one seemed to be okay and tasted really great, but I wish I could've gotten an easier to work with dough (i.e. shaping it on the back of my knuckles etc etc FUARK.  It just kept dripping off or stretching out too far, etc.  Really hard to work with)
4. My wife's pizza sauce apparently is my favourite sauce ever :rofl:  She had a recipe she uses that's fantastic...everything from scratch too.
5. Keep it simple.  Less ingredients make the pizza crust and sauce stand out.  Now to look into expensive cheeses 
 
I like to be liking the first one with the thin crust.
 
That's my kind of pizza.
 
Once you get the steel seasoned up enough you can get rid of the parchment and should double the awesomenessess.
 
I say you did it up pretty dang goodern' hell!
 
texas blues said:
I like to be liking the first one with the thin crust.
 
That's my kind of pizza.
 
Once you get the steel seasoned up enough you can get rid of the parchment and should double the awesomenessess.
 
I say you did it up pretty dang goodern' hell!
Click to expand...
The parchment was mainly to get the pizza to slide off the peel.  This dough recipe in particular was really tacky and I didn't want to risk an accident on my first try, especially with company over!
 
The steel is seasoned to perfection.  Burnt cheese slides off like it was on oil, it's awesome
 
texas blues said:
I like to be liking the first one with the thin crust.
 
That's my kind of pizza.
 
Once you get the steel seasoned up enough you can get rid of the parchment and should double the awesomenessess.
 
I say you did it up pretty dang goodern' hell!
Click to expand...
I've converted to a thin crust as well. Now I make thin crust pizza most of the time. I'll make a thick crust personal pizza for my 16 year old son in a griswold #10 skillet. I use the old 1890's cast iron bail handle 16 inch cast iron griddle for an extra large thin crust. Its the bomb for a perfect pizza crust.
 
Amazing pizzas, surely among the very best i've seen on thp!!!
samcanadian said:
5. Keep it simple. Less ingredients make the pizza crust and sauce stand out. Now to look into expensive cheeses
Click to expand...
Kiss shoud be written in stone speaking about pizza!!!
For cheese imho the absolute best is buffalo mozz.
Depends also by other toppings (example: bacon and gorgonzola are awesome together), but to tell the truth, if done well, margherita is still the best pizza imho and a good mozz is the best topping.

If you want take a look at that:

https://translate.google.it/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=it&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.profumidalforno.it%2Fportal%2Fricette%2Fforno%2Fpizza%2Fpizza_spezzatura_a_due_farine&edit-text=&act=url

Sry, but i can't find a proper translated one. Pay attention that this is wrong:
Salt, at the rate of 25 gr. per pound of flour;
Sugar at the rate of 1-2 g. per pound of flour.
It's per kg.
it's a basic recipe that works fine. Now i'm doing practice with that but i need a stronger oven...
In that site there also other good recipes too.
 
Consider corn meal so the dough doesn't stick to the steel plate. It's like little wheels.
 
Also when you ladle your sauce on spiral it from the center and push a little more sauce to the outside. The extra weight helps keep that unsauced edge from puffing up too much and creating that angular slice.
 
Heyo, thought to post this awhile ago but obviously didn't.
 
My favorite recipe, higher moisture content makes it easier for mental midget bakers (I've throw away so many unworkable piles of bread cement :rofl: )
 
Bread Bible
 
Makes a very crunchy, chewy dough. Leaving it in the fridge for a few days developes some wicked flavour. I usually end up making garlic potato pizza XD
 
I highly recommend using a steel plate for pizza.  It allows you to simulate the high temperatures of the deck ovens used in pizzerias.  The faster cooking times (4 min or less)  makes such a big difference in the taste of the crust.  For true NY style its the way to go in a home setting.  But steel needs to be used with your broiler because it cooks the bottom so much faster.  So if your oven doesn't have broil steel isn't a good option for you.
 
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Green peppers, homemade spicy Italian sausage, onions caramelized in fig balsamic
miguelovic said:
Heyo, thought to post this awhile ago but obviously didn't.
 
My favorite recipe, higher moisture content makes it easier for mental midget bakers (I've throw away so many unworkable piles of bread cement :rofl: )
 
Bread Bible
 
Makes a very crunchy, chewy dough. Leaving it in the fridge for a few days developes some wicked flavour. I usually end up making garlic potato pizza XD
Click to expand...
There are an insane amount of pizza dough recipes with very very slight changes in the ingredients themselves. What I'd like to know is what part of the method changes in order to make the kind of pizza dough you can easily toss around without it gooping apart. Sure it all tastes good in the end....but it's always a roll of the dice as to what consistency the dough will be when I'm stretching it out.
 
Variations in flour and gluten developement I would assume, but I'm more of an academic baker than an actual one XD
 
The recipe I linked is a no-knead, hence the different end texture/crumb.
 
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