Author Topic: A quality N.Y. Pizza = Patience + Practice (Read 3749 times)

RetroRayGun · « **on:** August 03, 2010, 06:11:37 PM »

For all the newbies out there. Stick with it and keep trying!!!
As you can see you WILL be handsomely rewarded in due time.

After a hiatus of a few years, and lack of a KitchenAid, I got back into pizza making in May of '09 (on bottom). With the passage of time and regular effort, this is how today's pizza came out. The absolute BEST...so far (on top).

"I'd like to thank everyone on this forum for their willingness to share personal insight & pizza crafting information. It is an art! " - Chris

DannyG · « **Reply #1 on:** August 04, 2010, 10:56:38 AM »

Great looking pie! Share your recipe?

RetroRayGun · « **Reply #2 on:** August 04, 2010, 06:21:59 PM »

I made a 14" thin New York style pizza based on a 63% hydration Lehmann Dough recipe with KASL flour. The dough was made using my KitchenAid mixer. It was then allowed to rest for an hour at room temperature, and then refrigerated for 40 hours in the refrigerator.

On the day of pizza making I take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest for about an hour. I prep the sauce and other dressings while I wait for the oven and stone to reach 550 degrees F.

The homemade pizza sauce is still a work in progress, so I use a "cheater sauce" for quick batches of 14" dough. It is comprised of:

7 Tbs Prego Traditional
3 Tbs H2O
1/4 tsp Penzeys Pizza Seasoning
1/4 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp sugar
3/8 tsp black pepper

Being a transplant from Massachusetts I like a "New England" cheese blend (all shredded). Which is a personal preference ratio of 1:1/2:1/8

50% Low Fat Shredded Mozzarella (Kroger)
+50% "Wet" Mozzarella (California Gold)
= 1
+ 1/2 Sharp White Cheddar (Cabots)
+ 1/8 Smoked Provolone

When the dough is rested and ready to go I shape the dough into a 14” round pie with a 1/2" rim. After the pie is properly shaped I apply all of the sauce, and then sprinkle on a liberal amount 3/8-1/4 tsp of Penzeys Turkish Oregano flakes. The pizza pictured above is a half pep & cheese, so I load the pepperoni onto one side of the sauced pizza then I sprinkle a thin coat of shredded cheese. Sometimes I use cheese slices to get thicker segments with a better melt, but I found the secret to well cooked “shredded” cheese is to finely dust the sauce with some shredded cheese, and then make loosely packed shredded cheese lumps about an inch across and spread them around the pizza to give them enough room to melt into each other and coat the pizza (the mounds slow the melting time of the cheese preventing cheese “burn” and oil deposits.)

I toss the pizza into the pre-heated oven on a pizza stone for about 8-10 minutes. When the pizza looks about done and has a nice crispy bottom I take it out and let it rest for about 3-4 minutes before slicing.

I hope that some of this will be useful to you. - Chris

CraigSnedeker · « **Reply #3 on:** August 06, 2010, 04:03:50 PM »

That looks GOOOD!

Want

RetroRayGun · « **Reply #4 on:** August 06, 2010, 06:45:44 PM »

Thanks Craig,

I'm going to be making two more batches of dough tonight, so I'll probably be posting a sauce recipe with pizza pics on Sunday.

c0mpl3x · « **Reply #5 on:** August 06, 2010, 10:31:29 PM »

i also did the same tonight. work was extraordinarily slow, so i came home and made my own pizza.

24oz of dough on a 14" screen with sauce, swiss/cheddar cheese and some ham mushrooms and onions

cooked at 550 until i heard a 'POP tinkle tinkle' and found that my stone cracked in the oven, salvaged the pizza before it fell through the oven rack

RetroRayGun · « **Reply #6 on:** August 06, 2010, 10:44:16 PM »

LOL.... that happened to my stone on the same day I made mine (right down the center)....CREEPPY!!!!!!!

Beautiful pizza, how'd it taste?

c0mpl3x · « **Reply #7 on:** August 07, 2010, 03:10:33 AM »

tasted great but the crust wasn't brown on the bottom. but it was almost burnt otherwise. lowest rack in the oven, convection fan on too....

RetroRayGun · « **Reply #8 on:** August 08, 2010, 05:49:06 PM »

Well, today I made a pie with a modified dough. I used bread flour and more yeast to change it up a little. The pizza came out a little thick and bready, but crisp with some flavor. The flour used was 350g of KASL with 245g of KA Bread flour with a .91% ADY and 63% hydration. The next batch I think I will 1/2 the bread flour amount and up the KASL to nearly it's regular recipe level while maintaining the same percentage of everything else.

The other dough ball is still fermenting in the fridge and will be at 48+ hours tomorrow, we'll see how that goes.

The sauce made was 2 - 12oz cans of 6in1 watered down a little and the seasoning mixture listed in "November's#2 Sauce" (look it up - really good!)

The cheese ratio was modified with a little more "wet" mozzarella and smoked prov for a nuttier taste. As you can see in the pics it was a lot runnier, but good!

Tomorrow's another pizza day with the latest dough recipe, wish me luck. - Chris

Pete-zza · « **Reply #9 on:** August 08, 2010, 06:16:35 PM »

Chris,

That's another great looking pizza. As a New England transplant trying to recreate your memories of the pizzas back East, were you a fan of the Papa Gino's style by any chance? The PG pizzas are not called NY style but seem to have some of the NY style characteristics.

FYI, I used the Mixed Mass Percentage Calculator at http://tools.foodsim.com/ to calculate the protein content of your flour blend. It is 13.5824%.

Peter

RetroRayGun · « **Reply #10 on:** August 08, 2010, 06:26:49 PM »

Actually Peter, I was never a big fan of PG's.

I was raised in Worcester County, in a small town called Ayer. There were a few small ma & pa joints around town and neighboring cities that were transplants from NY and had the "AWESOMEST" (Mass. slang as you know) flat, floppy, huge slices of heaven. I'm heading back East in October and I have a few spots on my itinerary to look up when I get there.

This last batch was an attempt at changing the thickness factor a little while trying to get more flavor, way too thick for NY if you ask me. Flavor B+

Thanks for being here, your help is what I spend a majority of my time reading on the forum! : )

Chris

Pete-zza · « **Reply #11 on:** August 08, 2010, 06:36:41 PM »

Quote from: RetroRayGun on August 08, 2010, 06:26:49 PM

Thanks for being here, your help is what I spend a majority of my time reading on the forum! : )

Chris,

Thanks for the compliment. There is a highly addictive aspect of knowledge about pizza that makes it difficult for people to let go once they get caught up in it. Sometimes I feel like I am contributing to the delinquency of minors.

Peter

RetroRayGun · « **Reply #12 on:** August 08, 2010, 06:42:46 PM »

Truth be told Peter, you and everyone else on here are "Pizza Pimps!" (in the nicest meaning of the phrase of course.) - LOL

Fueling a never ending search for the elusive "perfect pizza."

As a matter of fact this site is one of the main reasons I decided to change careers mid-life and go to culinary school to learn baking and cooking.

Let's hope I'll learn something new to "bring to the table."

Chris

mikel33 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 09, 2010, 03:14:12 PM »

Those pizzas look GREAT! Is there any easy way to convert those percentages to measurments? Also, what would happen if the dough did not rest in the refridgerator? My dad used to work in a pizzaria, and they never proofed overnight in the fridge, they just let it rise a few times and baked. Is there a way to get a crust like that without the wait? Thanks!

jever4321 · « **Reply #14 on:** August 09, 2010, 09:43:49 PM »

My god those pies look awesome. I need more practice...

RetroRayGun · « **Reply #15 on:** August 09, 2010, 10:29:53 PM »

Today's combo of pepperoni, italian sausage, sauteed mushrooms, & black olives. This was the 48 hr dough sibling from yesterday's pie. It was a more flavorful and softer dough, a pleasure to work with, but... as per the discussion between Pete and myself not a crunchy, airy NY style crust at all.

Hi mikel33,
As far as percentages to measurements, just use the Pizza Forum's Dough Calculator in combination with the dough recipe of your choice to "tweak" your recipe.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html

In regards to the dough process, there are differences in proofing for home vs. a commercial establishment. What comes into play is the amount of time you are willing to wait to bake, flour recipe, and other factors... one main factor for me is my elevation, I currently live in Albuquerque, NM at an elevation of 5,312 feet+/-. So I have to take that, and dough hydration into account along with my baking time.

I hope this is of some help to you. Best regards - Chris

norma427 · « **Reply #16 on:** August 10, 2010, 06:32:34 AM »

Chris,

That is a great looking pizza.

Your choice of topping sound delicious, too.

Norma

mikel33 · « **Reply #17 on:** August 10, 2010, 10:45:41 AM »

Quote from: RetroRayGun on August 09, 2010, 10:29:53 PM

Hi mikel33,
As far as percentages to measurements, just use the Pizza Forum's Dough Calculator in combination with the dough recipe of your choice to "tweak" your recipe.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html

In regards to the dough process, there are differences in proofing for home vs. a commercial establishment. What comes into play is the amount of time you are willing to wait to bake, flour recipe, and other factors... one main factor for me is my elevation, I currently live in Albuquerque, NM at an elevation of 5,312 feet+/-. So I have to take that, and dough hydration into account along with my baking time.

I hope this is of some help to you. Best regards - Chris

I'm just having a problem understanding how a pizzaria doesn't have to proof overnight in a fridge, but we do.. it's all the same ingredients right? When I want to make pizza, it need it THEN!! haha. Some of the best pizzas i've had have come from a rising for just a few hours in a drawer, then baked. That's all I want to do, but it seems from reading on these forums, that to get a pizzaria style pizza, we have to wait for days.

scott123 · « **Reply #18 on:** August 10, 2010, 11:00:44 AM »

Mikel33, it's well documented that cold overnight fermentation produces better tasting crusts. It is a detour from the traditional NY pizzeria process, but, since it's such a marked improvement in flavor, just about every home baker that knows what they're doing incorporates it.

If you love pizzeria pizza the way it is, though, and wish to create a perfect replica at home, then you should do whatever they do- and in most cases, it's a same day dough.

scott123 · « **Reply #19 on:** August 10, 2010, 11:03:53 AM »

Chris, nice looking pies. You seem to have the ability to stretch dough into flawlessly perfect circles- a talent that you don't run across much.

Quote from: RetroRayGun on August 09, 2010, 10:29:53 PM

It was a more flavorful and softer dough, a pleasure to work with, but... as per the discussion between Pete and myself not a crunchy, airy NY style crust at all.

I'm curious, are you looking for a puffier crust?