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.....

 

[Essegi]

I'm really not able to do the same thing twice.
And i was tired to do pizza with short time and lots of yeast, sounds noob to me...
And i want to improve, i must find the right flour. Not that my dough is so bad, but i feel its taste isn't just how it should be.
So i made some homework. No spectacular ingredients (well, i still think if ingredient and mozz in particular are good, margherita is still the best pizza. Maybe with some fresh pepper), today it's simple. I tried this:
 
Dough ingredients:

• 170 g manitoba flour
• 130 g durum wheat
• 200 g flour
• 13g salt
• 4 g beer yeast
• 300 g water

no sugar, no oil. Keep it simple, stupid. Of course the stupid is me.
 
Method:
 

• I've found the rule of 55 in the net: speaking in °C temps, flour temp+water temp+environment temp should be = 55°C... I cooled a bit water...
• I use aqueduct water that's bad for chlorine, so i left it in an recipient for an hour to evaporate it.
• I've sift wheat and flour, so impuritues are removed and all is  oxygenated. Seems oxygen is important to rising.
• I've melt yeast in a glass with water (used from 300 cc total water). Some yeast was sticked in the bottom of glass so not all 4g was really used. That's good cause the correct recipe says 1g (0,2%). That's an huge difference, normally i used half or a full yeast cube that is 25g. I was a bit skeptical for that.
• Salt must not touch yeast:
  mix yeast with 400g out of 500g of wheat/flour and hand knead for 5 minutes using water. Then mix remaining flour with salt, then mix that with the flour and the remainig water. i've knead again for 15 mins, i've read that is not good to knead too much.

Now some pics.
 
Dough:

 
After 6 hours:

That was a good slow rise!
 
Made balls, avoiding to manipulate dough as much as possible:

 
And after 4 hours, with ingredients:

That was a great rise with small yeast!
 
Now pizzas!!!
I've been cursed with some of the worst mozz... Not that it tasted so bad... But didn't pour out any water after cutting, and kept all humidity for cooking. And when cooked was quite tasteless... It was the cheapest mozz, better change next time.
 
Oh, that was the first time ever for me that i've hand flattened dough, No rolling pin. With that dough was possible and quite easily!!!
 
Mine:
 

Tomato, mozz, sausages cured with my wine-onion-pepper sauce, my homemade olives, pepper powder.
 

Cooked at max temp... If i had a stronger oven it would have been better...
 
Some detail:

Way too much mozz!!! And was too humid! And mozz itself hadn't a great taste!!!
But i was intererested in dough...
 
Simple margherita with little mozz:

 
Another with tomato, mozz, gorgonzola, anchovies and capers:

 
First pizza has been well cooked, last 2 even better cause i used same base that was already very hot. That helped.
Hand made dough: very very thin in the middle, thicker in the external. But well cooked.
Too bad for mozz and maybe not all was perfect but i was interested in dough taste.
Well, that was spectacular! Definetly an improvement! Maybe best i've done so far. Next time i'll try with even less yeast.

 

[texas blues]

Damn Essi.
 
I gained 5 pounds this last week and now I have to look at your awesome pizza pics.
 
Just looking at those pizzas I can hear myself getting fatter.
 
I'd hit that anchovy caper pie like a pinata!

 

[neoguy]

Do you deliver?

 

[JayT]

For the love of Lou Malnati!!!  I am gonna make a Chicago deep dish pizza.  
 
Ingredients:
 
Dough: 
1 cup 00 flour
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup corn meal
teaspoon salt
teaspoon sugar
4 oz warm water
Tbs olive oil
2 tsp yeast
 
Sauce:
onion
can crushed tomatoes
garlic
oregano
basil
sea salt
sugar
 
Toppings:
1lb hot Italian sausage browned crumbled and drained
1lb fresh mozzarella cheese sliced
4oz freshly grated mozzarella
 
Mix the yeast, sugar and warm water together and let proof.  While this is happening, mix the dry ingredients together in a mixer.  On slow, slowly add the water/yeast mixture and the olive oil.  After a minute or two, bring speed to medium and let mix for five-seven minutes or until it pulls away from the bowl.  Take out, form into a ball adding bench flower as needed.  Once it is smooth and elastic, rub with a little olive oil and place into a bowl to rise.  Cover bowl.  Let rest at least and hour.  Punch down, knead a bit and divide into two balls.  rub with olive oil again, cover and place in the fridge for four hours or overnight is even better.  This recipe is only making once pizza so I am saving the second dough ball for another use.  Stretch the dough out into an oiled cast iron pan so that the dough goes an inch or so up the sides.  Layer on the cheese, then sausage, then sauce, then sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake at 425 for about 40min.  When the crust is golden brown on the bottom it is done.
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[JayT]

 

 

 

[Essegi]

Sounds good Jay! Onions + sausages is a winner!
 
Sorta teaser for me:

Sry if it is a stupid pic but i must track my experiments!
 
I've used Molino Spadoni (wich is a cool name since Spadoni=Greatswords) flour for pizza:

http://www.molinospadoni.it/prod_cf_42_en.php
I've read that this is one of the best non pro flour for pizza you can find in the market. w=200-240, maybe just a bit weak but good...
 
Quantities:
500g flour
300g cool water (suppose 15°C)
12-13g salt
1-2 g yeast beer
 
As last time sift flour, knead 4/5 with yeast for 5 minutes, the put rest of flour with salt...
I've done it at 00:15 am... 
 
EDIT: rest of dough history:
 
9:30 am
 

 

 
2:15pm:

moved on cooler place:
 
6pm:

 

 
7:30pm

 
Top part was too dried and was an issue to flatten dough. Somehow i did it.

 

[texas blues]

I am so sorry Jay.
 
I'd love to try that Chicago style chingaderra but mrs. blues was in Chicago last month.
 
She had real deal Chicago style sheeit while she was there and gives it the finger.
 
If I even look at that sheeit when she's around I'll get bitch slapped.
 
But for the record....
 
For a Chicago style yours is way light on the meatness.

 

[JayT]

Says the guy who doesn't eat meat...

 

[texas blues]

Says the guy who doesn't eat meat...

 
So says the guy that does.
 
That pizza was still way undermeated.

 

[JayT]

Its a lb of sausage for a twelve inch pizza.  I dunno, I read some recipes and that is what they seemed to call for.  Maybe it is because they are still in pretty big chunks that they don't cover more area.  Oh well, either way, it is pretty good.  Still have to work on the crust.  Rawkstah said I need to add melted butter next time.  I used oil, think she is right.

 

[Essegi]

Updated previous post with complete dough chronology... Boring and skippable post. Here more interesting:
 

 

 

Margherita with half cow mozz half buffalo mozz.
This is for TB since no meat. No joke, i repeat that with good mozz Margherita is maybe the best pizza. A little more would not have hurt.
 

Only sausage (andsome cow some buffalo mozz)... Fried with hot oil and my wine pepper onion sauce.
 

Cow mozz, buffalo mozz, sausages cured as above, ham and galbanino.
 

 

 
These pizzas were very crunchy (maybe crunchier pizza ever in made), cooked better than last time and above all a good mozz!
 
Some other:

Omelette with minced meat (i didn't do that)... Excellent!

 

[chiliriot]

we talk about pizza here? Here I am!

Schiacciata con lardo

Margherita

Diavola!

 

[Essegi]

I really wish i had that oven!

 

[chiliriot]

I really wish i had that oven!

I gave it built, it is easy to do, there are many guides on YouTube!

 

[JayT]

One day... I will make myself one of them.

 

[texas blues]

Have mercy!
 
Awesome wood fired pizza oven.
 
And Essi kickin' ass as usual.
 
Grazie Essi for the no meat pizza!

 

[gfinnil]

Don't have any pics of the process, but here's my Bbq Chicken Pizza recipe:
 
Dough:
2 cups AP flour
1 cup warm water
dash of garlic salt
tsp EVOO
tsp Yeast
 
Sauce:
i/2 cup chopped tomatoes
blend of Italian seasoning/garlic powder/onion powder/pepper
drizzle bbq sauce on after toppings, but before cheese
 
Toppings:
green pepper
yellow onion
jalapenos
chicken breast
 
Cheese:
mozzarella and smoked provolone
 
This is the last 2 times I made it (every Saturday night). One large for friends, one small for me

 

[Essegi]

Wow, the second one seems thick!

Btw guests for dinner, i have some fever, cooked the same, eating some too... Really couldn't taste housemade cabernet franc a friend took here (altered sense for cold...).

First an experiment:

 
Simply dough + salsiccia, luganega and salamella. That were precooked, but still poured out loads of fat... I had to remove drip fat from that cooked pizza.
Taste was strong and good from what could i undesrtood (guys ate nearly all that, and it's a feat since it's heavy like a tank).
 
Another pizza for my relatives:

half margerita, half mozz, gorgonzola, capers anchovies... I didn't cook that one and was taken out too ealy.. I cooked it again.
 
Another margherita:

Slightly too cooked.
 
That with homemade hot olives, salsiccia e salamella. mozzarella, tomato puree:

 
This as last one, but thicker and more beautiful:

 
Slice:

 
There was a guy that couldn't eat pizza, so i emulated it with piadina:

 
Another, no oven for piadina:

 
Pies!!!!
 
Panforte:

One of the best pies, speciality from Siena. I love that.
 
Second pieeee!

Piadina + chocolate/hazelnut cream

 

[Penny]

Great looking pizza's and LOVE  that oven!!

 

[JayT]

Wow Essegi!!!  Your pies get better every time.