My home oven Neapolitan quest

[MightyPizzaOven]

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11654.msg107375.html#msg107375

Wow, I see where Brendan got his inspiration.

Please disregard my question regarding all purpose flour and DIY, it is covered in Jackie oven post.

[I Have Feet]

Wow, I see where Brendan got his inspiration.

Please disregard my question regarding all purpose flour and DIY, it is covered in Jackie oven post.

MightyPizzaOven, here is another fantastic home oven thread by someone who is no longer a member.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10024.0.html

This thread and Jackie Tran's are most definitely where I got my ideas and inspiration. I certainly owe a great debt to the info they provided. I only hope that my thread here will provide one more example of how it is definitely possible to achieve sub 2:00, Neapolitan style bakes in one's kitchen.

Also, you can see some of my 100% AP flour pizzas in my earlier thread, here: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,21734.0.html

All photos before reply #8 are 100% AP. As for using IDY, I switched to natural starter around the same time that my technique and skills started improving by leaps and bounds and so any photos of my IDY pizzas wouldn't be a good representation of what is possible. I think the flavour is incomparable, as many others will also attest to, but perhaps some day I will experiment with an IDY formula again just for fun.

Brendan

EDITED to fix incorrect link.

[pizzaneer]

Well, just for fun, what would you name this procedure, if you were to assign it a descriptive, witty and very short name?

Disclaimer: I fully understand you have built onto the efforts of others, such as Jackie Tran et al.  Every process has origins, and putting them together correctly is a skill in its own right - and one that may be shared as a build procedure and a decent recipe specialized for those conditions.  IE, we refer to the propane-powered weber kettle with stone and lots of metal work, as an "LBE".

[David Deas]

MightyPizzaOven, here is another fantastic home oven thread by someone who is no longer a member.

Toby still posts here under another handle I'm told.  Foolishpoolish or something like that.

[TXCraig1]

Toby still posts here under another handle I'm told.  Foolishpoolish or something like that.

No. He shut that name down too. If he still posts here, I don't know what he calls himself now.

[I Have Feet]

Pizzaneer,

I suppose my technique is a combination of two that others have used: the broiler method and the "oven within an oven" method. I'm not the best at coming up with catchy acronyms so maybe you could find a way to combine those two methods?

I wish I had a way of checking the temp in that top compartment. With the broiler glowing red and the cast iron radiating its heat from the bottom, it gets really, really hot in that top 3". The only gauge I have is that I can't tolerate sticking my bare hand it for more than a second, maybe two...

No time for pizza this past weekend but will try to do some more soon.

Brendan

[I Have Feet]

Mixed up some dough last night, enough for 3 pizzas this evening. A couple of differences in this dough:

- I was out of Caputo so this batch is 100% all purpose.
- Scaled back the starter from 3% to 2.5%. It is very active and I think I'm hoping to use the dough balls slightly less fermented than last time, to get a bit more browning between the char. By the way the dough balls are progressing it looks like they'll be ready after ~20h total fermentation time.

Brendan

[I Have Feet]

Wasn't completely happy with my pies last night... Crumb was nice and soft and tender and open, but I didn't get quite the char I was going for. I'm not sure why but the upskirt wasn't charring as well as it did last time. I think maybe I didn't drain as much water off the crushed tomatoes as I usually do and it made the sauce a bit wetter. The sauceless pie got quite liberal char on the bottom. Hmm...

Also, not sure if it was something to do with the dough or just me, but the dough balls seemed a bit harder to stretch out to full size.

Oh well, it is still definitely a learning process. My friend thought the pizza was amazing, and found it amusing that I just picked it apart to find all the flaws.

Bake times were ~1:50, but I think they could have done well with another 15 seconds or so. Pizzas were: Margherita; Mozz, anchovies, olives, basil; and Paulie Gee's "Cherry Jones" (no picture) (mozz, gorgonzola, dried cherries. Proscuitto and honey post bake.) The dried cherries I had weren't very moist and I was worried about them just turning hard under the broiler so I plumped them up by soaking them in a bit of red wine for a couple of hours. It was a really nice touch.

I think next time I'm going to try working out a 2 day (40 - 48h) dough formula instead of my usual 1 day. My reasons are that I'd like to see how it affects the flavour profile with the starter, I think a 20 - 24h dough ball proof will make them very easy to open, and the "window" of ideal fermentation level would be longer, so there would be more consistency from first pizza to last.

Brendan

[mkevenson]

I think the pies look GREAT!!!!!!!!!

Mark