Norma, Thanks, this all came about in my search for this month's challenge, baking on a steel plate in a toaster oven and never have made a bar room style pizza. The first couple I used baking powder for leavening, they were not to my taste at all. Made the switch to IDY. I wanted a different texture and not just a bread taste and not having semolina to work with went with cornmeal. The cornmeal just seems to go well in this recipe, the whole bar pizza thing. Sets it apart. I took a similar pizza to a party last Tuesday, invitation said bring an appetizer and though baked in the toaster, it disappeared before I even got a piece! Not one person firgured out what that different flavor was to the crust. When I open Pizza in Paradise hopefully next year something close will be on the menu.
Don
Don,
I had played around with trying to make a verison of an Ultra-Thin 1/16th par-baked skin that I had tried at the NY Restaurant & Pizza Expo in NY, though many posts first using yeast, then a combination of baking soda, vinegar, and milk. Although I was able to make a par-baked skin, I never could get flavor in the crust. If you want to get a laugh, you might want to look at this thread or parts of its.
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11044.msg103280.html#msg103280 It took Peter and me 410 posts to find out the taste of the crust really wasn’t what I was looking for.
I then started another thread, using milk, vinegar and baking soda and tried again.
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11427.msg104363.html#msg104363 Still with no good results in the taste of the crust.
Your method on using different techniques and trying different ways to go about achieving what you wanted in your final results is encouraging. You sure did get what you wanted in far fewer posts than I did.
Congrats, on doing the experiments and coming up with a new way of baking a pizza and also finding the ingredients that were successful.
Your cornmeal approach sounds good in getting the flavor you were seeking. You are right that the cornmeal sets your pizza apart from the rest. I like your way of baking on a steel plate. Since your experiments on a steel plate, I have tried my steel baking pan, with some good results. Thanks for your experiments.
I am sure if you open Pizza in Paradise, you will be successful from all your experiments. I really like the name for a pizza business you picked.
Norma
