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[giotto]

Danes Dad:

I've worked with Pendleton high gluten quite a bit. It was introduced to me via Tony Gemignani, who produces a soft American type crust. I ended up with the same thing. Typically, chewiness is a matter of how you handle the crust, and something that can definitely be delivered with a lower protein flour.

Here's an example: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,524.msg31502.html#msg31502

[footballyears]

Has anyone tried the basic dough recipe  from the CPK website?  IMO, it makes a very good dough.  Easy to make and a great taste.

Makes dough for two 9-inch pizzas

Basic Pizza Dough:
1 teaspoon yeast
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon warm water
(105-110 degrees F)
1 ½ cups bread flour or all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

Honey-Wheat Pizza Dough:
1 teaspoon yeast
½ cup plus 1 teaspoon warm water
(105-110 degrees F)
1 cup bread flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
5 teaspoons clover honey
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

Note:
The mixing and handling of the two types of dough are essentially identical except that the honey-wheat tends to rise more slowly.

To make the dough:
1. Dissolve the yeast in the water and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes. Be sure that the water is not hot; temperatures of 120° F and above will kill the yeast and the dough will not rise.

2. If using an upright electric mixer, such as a KitchenAid, use the mixing paddle attachment because the batch size is too small for the dough hook to be effective. Combine all other ingredients (except one teaspoon of olive oil) and combine them with the dissolved yeast in the mixing bowl. (Do not pour the salt directly into the yeast water because this would kill some of the yeast.) Allow these 2 ingredients to mix gradually; use the lowest 2 speeds to mix the dough. Mix for 2 to 3 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Over mixing will produce tough, rubbery dough, and friction will cause dough to rise too fast.

3. If mixing by hand, place the dry ingredients in a 4 to 6-quart mixing bowl; make a well in the middle and pour the liquids (reserving a teaspoon of olive oil). Use a wooden spoon to combine the ingredients. Once initial mixing is done, you can lightly oil your hands and begin kneading the dough; knead for 5 minutes. When done, the dough should be slightly tacky (that is, it should be barely beyond sticking to your hands).

4. Lightly oil the dough ball and the interior of a 1 quart glass bowl. Place the dough ball in the bowl and seal the bowl with clear food wrap; seal air tight. Set aside at room temperature (70-80° F) to rise until double in size; about 1 ½ to 2 hours.

5. Note: The dough could be used at this point, but it will not be that wonderful, chewy, flavorful dough that it will become later. Punch down the dough, re-form a nice round ball and return it to the same bowl; cover again with clear food wrap. Place the bowl in the refrigerator overnight covered airtight.

6. About 2 hours before you are ready to assemble your pizza, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Use a sharp knife to divide the dough into 2 equal portions (or 4 equal portions if making appetizer-sized pizza or if smaller 6-inch pizzas are desired).

7. Roll the smaller dough into round balls on a smooth, clean surface; be sure to seal any holes by pinching or rolling.

8. Place the newly formed dough balls in a glass casserole dish, spaced far apart for each to double in size. Seal the top of the dish air-tight with clear food wrap. Set aside at room temperature until the dough balls have doubled in size (about 2 hours). They should be smooth and puffy.

To stretch and form the dough for pizza:
1. Sprinkle a medium dusting of flour over a 12x12-inch clean, smooth surface. Use a metal spatula or dough scraper to carefully remove a dough ball from the glass casserole dish, being very careful to preserve its round shape. Flour the dough liberally. Place the floured dough on the floured smooth surface.

2. Use your hand or rolling pin to press the dough down forming a flat circle about 1/2-inch thick. Pinch the dough between your fingers all around the edge of the circle, forming a lip or rim that rises about 1/4-inch above the center surface of the dough. You may continue this outward stretching motion of the hands until you have reached a 9-inch diameter pizza dough.

To dress the pizza:
1. Lightly sprinkle cornmeal, semolina or flour over the surface of a wooden pizza peel. Arrange the stretched dough over the floured peel surface. Work quickly to dress the pizza so that the dough won’t become soggy or sticky from the sauces and toppings.

2. When you are ready to transfer the pizza to the pizza stone in the preheated oven, grasp the handle of the peel and execute a very small test jerk to verify that the pizza will come easily off the peel. If the dough doesn’t move freely, carefully lift the edges of the dough and try to rotate it by hand. Extreme cases may require that you toss more flour under the dough edges.

3. Once the dough is moving easily on the peel, open the oven and position the edge of the peel over the center of the stone about 2/3 from the front of the stone. Jiggle and tilt the peel to get the pizza to start sliding off. When the pizza begins to touch the stone, pull the peel quickly out from under it. Don’t attempt to move the pizza until it has begun to set (about 3 minutes). The peel can be slid under the pizza to move it or remove it.

i love pizza

lark

[Pete-zza]

Yesterday I made a Rosemary Chicken and Potato Pizza based on a recipe for that pizza in The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook by Flax and Rosenfield, the founders of CPKI. Additional details are provided at Reply 13 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,702.msg56174.html#msg56174. A typical photo of the pizza is also shown below.

Peter

[2stone]

Hi Peter,

That pizza looks good. How was it?

willard

[Pete-zza]

willard,

It was quite good although the dough formulation I used, which was poolish-based, yielded a crust and rim that was a bit too crispy for my taste, although it was flavorful. That is sometimes the effect of using a poolish or similar preferment. To soften the crust, I would have to use a lot more yeast and a higher hydration, along the lines described by JerryMac for his NY style. I did not use the CPKI dough recipe because I find it that produces a crust that is too sweet for my taste.

I have made this pizza many times before and it is a nice change of pace. When I have made it for others in the past, it was usually greeted with some skepticism. People are used to tomato-based sauces and the typical toppings like pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, etc. In my opinion, what makes this pizza is the rosemary and the sauce, which is lemony with an acid bite that goes well with the teriyaki-marinated chicken. There is a ton of garlic also, along with shallots, which work well with the rest of the toppings without overpowering them. In the past, I have also used pieces of crispy bacon on this pizza. It is not one of the recited toppings, but I found that its smokiness complemented the other flavors. The potatoes add a different texture, with a crispy exterior and a soft interior. The major drawback of the pizza, which may discourage its adoption by many, is that it is ingredients-, labor-, time-, and dirty dishes/pans/bowls-intensive. Also, it is not a cheap pizza to make. But the chardonnay, which is used in the sauce, drinks well with the pizza.

Since just about everything is prepared and cooked in advance, I can see how this type of pizza might work with your 2stone setup. Just be sure to slightly undercook the chicken so that it doesn't dry out on the pizza.

Peter

[2stone]

Hey Peter,

Your pizza really does look great.............. I am surprised at everything that went into it,
but I believe you. I am looking for special items especially ones that are unique and that
have high topping coverage. The 2stone pizza pro is being used in higher end specialty shops
where shredded cheese is common and the norm. When there is good cheese coverage it works fine.
otherwise the shredded cheese is just incinerated.

willard



 

[Pete-zza]

Recently, in order to have a pizza to submit as part of the February 2010 Monthly Challenge at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10176.msg89119.html#msg89119, I decided to make a Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza along the lines as shown and briefly described at the California Pizza Kitchen website at http://www.cpk.com/menu/pizzas/.

Since my CPKI cookbook does not contain a recipe for that pizza, I decided to do a Google search to find a suitable recipe to use. After reading through several possibilities, I decided on the recipe given at http://www.recipesecrets.net/forums/recipe-exchange/28473-california-pizza-kitchen-jamaican-jerk-chicken-pizza.html. However, in lieu of the dough recipe that was disclosed at that website, I decided to use a preferment-based dough recipe as disclosed at http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1955931. Also, I scaled up the Caribbean Sauce from the amount specified for a 10” pizza to a 12” pizza (I simply multiplied the amounts of ingredients for the 10” size by 144/100 = 1.44).

In lieu of using a dry jerk seasoning as suggested (but not specifically disclosed) in the abovereferenced myrecipes.com recipe, I decided to use a liquid jerk sauce as was recommended by one of our members (deaconvolker) at the PMQ Think Tank forum at http://www.pmq.com/tt/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6692&p=43690&hilit=#p43674. As it so happened, I was able to find the brand he mentioned, World Harbors, at my local supermarket. That product can be seen at http://www.worldharbors.com/Jerk.html. In my case, I just basted the chicken breasts with the WH jerk sauce as I was grilling them. Alternatively, I could also have marinated the chicken breasts for several minutes in the jerk sauce. That is what I might try the next time I make the pizza using that jerk sauce.

I followed the instructions on how to make the Caribbean Sauce, prepare the chicken, and to dress the pizza as described at the myrecipes.com website. Ideally, the Caribbean Sauce should be about medium thickness. The dough recipe itself and my execution of it is described at Reply 11 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10202.msg91686.html#msg91686. After I made, baked and ate the pizza, I concluded that any number of different types of dough can be used with the recipe, including NY and American style doughs. The basic pizza dough recipe as described in the original CPKI cookbook (the recipe can also be found by an Internet search) can obviously also be used.

In dressing the pizza, which was 12” in diameter, I first brushed the skin with a bit of olive oil and then used about 5 ¾ tablespoons of the Caribbean sauce, about 6 ¾ ounces of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese (which I had grated/diced in my Cuisinart food processor), about 1 ½ cups of diced grilled chicken pieces (they were cut into ½-inch pieces), 1/3 cup of bacon pieces (about 4 slices, cooked until about 75% done), about 3 tablespoons each of diced roasted red and yellow peppers (it is important that they be as dry as possible so as to minimize water on the pizza), and about 1/3 cup of sliced white onion. This was followed by a couple tablespoons more of grated mozzarella cheese. As noted at Reply 11 referenced above, the pizza was dressed on a pre-baked crust. The final, dressed pizza was baked on a pizza stone that had been placed on the middle oven rack position of my electric oven and preheated for about an hour at about 525 degrees F. It took about seven minutes for the pizza to complete baking. Upon removal of the pizza from the oven, I sliced and sprinkled the green part of a single green onion on top of the pizza.

The photos below show the finished pizza. I found the pizza to be delicious, with a nice balance between sweet, spice, heat (spice heat), and saltiness (mainly because of the bacon). I believe that the Caribbean Sauce was the major contributor to the overall flavor profile of the pizza. The jerk sauce was also a contributor but in my opinion did not contribute the real heat that I am accustomed to as a Texan when using a habanero- based sauce or rub. Next time I make this pizza, I am quite likely to look for a hotter habanero-based jerk sauce or seasoning. Fortunately, I had some Caribbean Sauce left over, which I intend to use on reheated leftover slices of the pizza. I might also add more of the WH jerk sauce for further test purposes.

As I mentioned in Reply 11 referenced above, the crust had very nice color, both top and bottom, and was chewy at the rim and crispy from the rim to the center. From a thickness standpoint, the pizza had a thickness factor of 0.0970. The flavor of the crust was good but not exceptional despite the use of the preferment as I elaborated it. In this case, the star of the show was the toppings and the flavors they imparted to the pizza.

After I made the abovedescribed pizza, I discovered that the CPKI jerk pizza and recipe is described in a second cookbook by the same authors (Flax and Rosenfield, the founders of CPKI) as the original CPKI pizza cookbook. I am not certain, since I don’t have the second cookbook, but I believe the jerk chicken recipe may be the one described at http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/eatingout/eating_c/jamican-jerk-chicken.htm.

Peter

[Pete-zza]

And a few more photos....

Peter

[Essen1]

Peter,

awesome looking pizzas!!

I like the CPK Sicilian on a rare occasion since it's frozen. But the crust is amazingly good for a frozen pizza. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any recipe for it so far, except for the ingredients from their website.

http://frozen.cpk.com/CT-sicilian-recipe.html

[Pete-zza]

Mike,

If you strip away all of the cheeses, meats, sauce, etc., to get to the dough ingredients, I believe you end up with the following:

Wheat flour, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, and less than 2% of: soybean oil, olive oil, cornmeal, yeast, sugar, malted barley flour, salt, dextrose, soda bicarbonate and sodium aluminum phosphate.

The last two ingredients are components of a product called WRISE. That product and some of its uses are briefly described at Reply 3 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,4123.msg34497/topicseen.html#msg34497 and at Reply 47 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5762.msg49398/topicseen.html#msg49398. Margarine is a form of hydrogenated soybean oil. Malted barley flour is most likely a dry diastatic barley malt. Sodium bicarbonate is just baking soda.

I will have to pick up the CPKI thin crust Sicilian pizza sometime to see if I can discern the different components listed above.

Peter