Need Input-Cloning local pizzeria.

[wucactus1]

I have been browsing this site for months, slowly becoming obsessed with the process of make and perfecting New York Style pizza in an unmodified home oven...and while doing so I have been frequently(too frequently) tasting all the local pizza Lexington, Ky has to offer in hopes of finding a favorite...a place I can latch on too and drag my girlfriend too multiple times a week and i have found that place and it is Goodfella's Pizzeria in downtown Lexington, Ky.  This place is a slice out of New York.  They serve up only 12 and 22" pizza's with a by the slice option for 3 dollars a slice(1/8 22") and to supplement your enormous slice they offer 2' breadsticks for $1.50...and after enjoying these slice almost as much as making pizza at home I have assigned myself a personal challenge to successfully duplicate the Goodfella's pizza in my home oven...

Gathered Info on Goodfella's Dough:
-Ingredients-
Locally Milled Hi-Gluten Flour
IDY
Honey
Olive Oil
Bottled Water
They have Cans of Escalon 6n1 and Bonta Pizza Sauce in the back
Sauce tends to be kinda salty
Grande Whole Milk Diced
Cold fermented dough-roughly 24h
-Logistics-
Hobart mixer
Baker's Pride Deck Oven set at 550 most of the time...Sometimes 500 and sometimes 600(depends on how many drunken people are buying slices at 2 in the morning)
Bake Times:6-10 minutes, but when they are being brutally slammed(20-40 person line) pizza may take up to twenty minutes in the oven
When they toss the dough It spreads to over two feet quickly(alot of salt and oil?) and then comes back to 22".
*Im missing the dough ball weight for their 12 and 22'' so an accurate thickness factor is not attainable but from pictures it is smaller that .1 but not by much.

Home Logistics
Hand mixed/kneaded dough
mixed for 2 minutes
20-30 minute autolyse
folded 5 times-5min rest-5times-5min rest and if need repeated a third time(similar to Tran's quick NY recipe method)
balled and stored for 24-30 hours
I can obtain all the ingredients they use one way or another...I have to order the cheese and sauce for some source(distributor/pennmac) so I have just been using extra cups of marinara from their shop or this other pizzeria that shares distributors with them(Pazzos Pizza and Pub).  As for the cheese...I have been buying whole foods mozz. and shredding/dicing it myself to get the similar texture, but it is not as "rubbery" as the grande they use.
I have a pampered chef 14" stone and my oven gets to 550...Now I have a formula that in my opinion is just off...barely but everyone who has had says its there...but the hydration percentage I am using seems too high for a new york style pizza.

Formula: 2 13" Pizzas
100% Local Hi-Gluten
63% Bottled Water(same that they use)
1.37g IDY
9g salt
7g oil
8g Honey

I preheat oven for 1-1.2 hours at 550 with the stone on the lowest rack and the average bake times is on the higher end of 9-11 minutes...this results with decent char and a fair example of a clone, but imho it is not as "soft" as their crust...I dont know maybe we are our worst critics...Idont have any photos of my pizza's but I do have some photos I have pulled from sources of Goodfella's Pizza and perhaps some of you can look at these various photos and be able to decipher whether or not I am on the right track

Thanks and love the site
David

[wucactus1]

One More Pic

[Essen1]

Wucactus1,

I'd start with the basic Lehmann dough formulation which can be found here...

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,576.0.html

...and take it from there. And don't hesitate to ask if you need help.

Good luck.

[chickenparm]

Sounds like you're doing real well.
I never had that pizza and heard mixed reviews about it.As long as it does the job for you and you can make it at home,go for it.

Also,is there a Sbarro's in Lexington? In the mall maybe?

The reason I ask,there is a Sbarro's in the mall near where I live in BG,KY and the pizza is very close to NY style,and its very good there.

Im originally from NY and the Sbarros was never good there...but out here its one of the better ones Ive had to satisfy that NY pie craving.If you havent had it,give it a shot.Be sure to order a fresh pie,the slices left out are too much money and may have sat out too long.Cheaper to get the 10 dollar special X large pie.

Sorry for changing the subject too much.I will try Goodfellas next time I get to visit Lex.
 

[wucactus1]

I have messed with the Lehman recipe and probably have made about 10 or so pizza's using the calculator and messing around with the figures starting at 58% and working my way up to 63% where I have settled with this formulation, this one being the best, which I think is odd being that throughout this forum many people suggesting that 58-60 is the best...odd, huh.  As far as S'barro we have one on campus...but with around 5 pizzeria's within walking distance I am reluctant to try the pizza, seems low quality, but maybe next time im in the student center I will give it a whirl...chickenparm have you had pazzos, or mellow mushroom here in lex before?  After a full complete success with goodfella's im going to attempt pazzos and then mellow(they are pretty similar, but distinct diffrences)...so any info on those now would be appreciated as well...Im making some dough this week...and ill post some pictures as soon as I can,but any further info on anything would be appreciated!

[james456]

I have messed with the Lehman recipe and probably have made about 10 or so pizza's using the calculator and messing around with the figures starting at 58% and working my way up to 63% where I have settled with this formulation, this one being the best, which I think is odd being that throughout this forum many people suggesting that 58-60 is the best...odd, huh.  As far as S'barro we have one on campus...but with around 5 pizzeria's within walking distance I am reluctant to try the pizza, seems low quality, but maybe next time im in the student center I will give it a whirl...chickenparm have you had pazzos, or mellow mushroom here in lex before?  After a full complete success with goodfella's im going to attempt pazzos and then mellow(they are pretty similar, but distinct diffrences)...so any info on those now would be appreciated as well...Im making some dough this week...and ill post some pictures as soon as I can,but any further info on anything would be appreciated!

Which formulation are you referring too? I'd like to try out your latest recipe, can you post it here? 

[chickenparm]

As far as S'barro we have one on campus...but with around 5 pizzeria's within walking distance I am reluctant to try the pizza, seems low quality, but maybe next time im in the student center I will give it a whirl...chickenparm have you had pazzos, or mellow mushroom here in lex before? 

After a full complete success with goodfella's im going to attempt pazzos and then mellow(they are pretty similar, but distinct diffrences)...so any info on those now would be appreciated as well...Im making some dough this week...and ill post some pictures as soon as I can,but any further info on anything would be appreciated!

I have no eaten at any of those places before.I have visited Lex but never stayed long enough to try the food there.Would love to experience them someday.

The sbarro's may be ack if its made by kids on a school campus.The place in the mall near us,we have the same guys there all the time.Its usually pretty good.Ive had way better,but the sbarros here is way better than the other chains like Doms,PH,PJ's and etc.
It can depend on where you live and who makes the pies,etc.

I look forward to your new pizzas and experiments.Keep up the great work.
 

[wucactus1]

Formula: 2 13" Pizzas
100% Local Hi-Gluten
63% Bottled Water(same that they use)
1.37g IDY
9g salt
7g oil
8g Honey

This formula makes 2 12/13" pizzas
Try it out and post pictures, I would love to see how your pies turn out in your ovens as compared to mine!

I think since I got paid this week(Im such a broke college student) Im going to open up and order some grande cheese, the 6n1 and bonta sauces...Is there any other place/website besides pennmac.com that anyone could recommend?

I just bought some molasses this weekend, so I may begin my trials at mellow mushroom and pazzo's as well.  I have never used molasses but this is undoubtedly their secret ingredient for achieving that odd tan/brown color...As for the extreme puffyness that is attributed to mellow mushroom, I have no idea.  At first I thought it was there ovens giving it the crazy spring, but I bought a medium dough ball from them(3 dollars) and made one in my oven and it turned out just as sprung.  Could this be caused by an extreme high level of yeast,

Comments and Insight is as always much appreciated!
Thanks
David

[scott123]

David, how much do the flour and water weigh?

[wucactus1]

Im sorry...i forgot to put the weights of the most important ingredients...Flour=456g and Water=287g...these maybe slightly rounded but all in all really doesnt make that big of a difference in the grand scheme of things...I will be making dturn outough either tomorrow or wednesday...depending on if I go rockclimbing between class and work tomorrow...but all of you should try out this recipe, i am curious to see how they out....any one have any input on whether or not im missing something judging by the picture i posted?
Thanks
David

[wucactus1]

So I made two pizza's from the formula I gave before except this time I used molasses instead of honey and BF instead of HG.  I choose molasses to try and get the darker color attributed to Mellow Mush, but nothing happened my crust was no darker than with previous pizzas...Should I not dissolve the molasses in water and instead incorporate it in the knead?  One other note...one of my pizzas came out extremely airy, soft and bready(I like this!!!) and the second pizza was completely different...It had a smaller rim and oven spring was noticeably different...Now both pizza doughs came from the same batch, but when taken out of the frig(only 20 minutes at most before bake) the second one sat on top of the stove longer than the first airy dough(to try and get it to room temp faster).  Both pizzas were good but why was there such a difference in texture and why is mellow mushrooms dough eluding me so?

Thanks
David