Thanks, guys!

[Jackson]

Today I made my first successful pizza. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. My attempts had been hit or miss (read: disasters) until I found your forum.

I used Pete-zza's thin, AP flour variation on Randy's American Style dough. I mixed the dough late Thursday night for use this afternoon.

The cheese was Bakers & Chefs/Stella shredded low moisture part skim mozzarella. Not haute cuisine, but tasty.

For sauce I put my own spin on Pete's Pappa John's sauce clone. A full 28 oz can of Cento all purpose crushed tomatoes was my base. I used Pete's recipe as a framework, adding his ingredients a little at a time and tasting as I went until the sauce seemed 'right'. I wound up using about half the oregano, maybe 60% of the basil, half the garlic powder, all the salt, a teaspoon or two of the oil and probably a third of the sugar. The result was very tasty once cooked, even though straight from the can the Cento tomatoes seemed a little bitter.

I used a 16" screen with the expanded metal construction and baked the pizza on the bottom rack at 550F for 12 minutes. I think my oven might be lying though, the rim doesn't seem to brown as much as I'd like.

For an occasional American style pizza, I personally wouldn't hesitate to use Cento again in lieu of the elusive Escalon and Stanislaus offerings. I'm still looking for them though

Thanks for all the help!

[norma427]

Today I made my first successful pizza. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. My attempts had been hit or miss (read: disasters) until I found your forum.

I used Pete-zza's thin, AP flour variation on Randy's American Style dough. I mixed the dough late Thursday night for use this afternoon.

The cheese was Bakers & Chefs/Stella shredded low moisture part skim mozzarella. Not haute cuisine, but tasty.

For sauce I put my own spin on Pete's Pappa John's sauce clone. A full 28 oz can of Cento all purpose crushed tomatoes was my base. I used Pete's recipe as a framework, adding his ingredients a little at a time and tasting as I went until the sauce seemed 'right'. I wound up using about half the oregano, maybe 60% of the basil, half the garlic powder, all the salt, a teaspoon or two of the oil and probably a third of the sugar. The result was very tasty once cooked, even though straight from the can the Cento tomatoes seemed a little bitter.

I used a 16" screen with the expanded metal construction and baked the pizza on the bottom rack at 550F for 12 minutes. I think my oven might be lying though, the rim doesn't seem to brown as much as I'd like.

For an occasional American style pizza, I personally wouldn't hesitate to use Cento again in lieu of the elusive Escalon and Stanislaus offerings. I'm still looking for them though

Thanks for all the help!

Jackson,

Welcome to the forum and it’s great to hear you made your first successful pizza!   

Norma

[Jackson]

Thanks, Norma!

I'm kind of ashamed to say I didn't understand how important accurate measuring was until recently, when I bought my scale. Absolute night and day difference in my results.

I also can't tell you how surprised I was by the gluten that can develop in lowly all purpose flour during a slow refrigerated ferment. Live and learn.

[norma427]

Thanks, Norma!

I'm kind of ashamed to say I didn't understand how important accurate measuring was until recently, when I bought my scale. Absolute night and day difference in my results.

I also can't tell you how surprised I was by the gluten that can develop in lowly all purpose flour during a slow refrigerated ferment. Live and learn.

Jackson,

No need to feel embarrassed that you didn’t understand the importance of accurate measuring.  I also didn’t understand the importance of accurate measuring until I found this forum.  I even opened a small farmers market pizza stand making pizza and didn’t even have a digital scale.  I learned fast I would need a digital scale to make decent pizza.    I had so many problems with my dough, that I was embarrassed and didn’t understand why things were happening until I also learned a digital scale was important and learned dough management. 

You are already learning a lot about gluten formation.    Keep up the good work and let us know how your pies turn out.

I also lived and learned and still am learning.

Norma