Author Topic: Shakeys pizza & some tips (Read 58864 times)

007bond-jb · « **on:** May 04, 2005, 11:49:14 AM »

I grew up on pizza & still love it @ almost 50. during my high school days (early 70s) we would hang out at our local Shakeys. I had 4 buddies who worked there 1 later became a assistant manager almost every night & we would get 1 of our buddies to make us a super custom pizza: double cheese & wall to wall toppings. The good old days! I asked the 1 who was mang. about the sauce & skins. He said Shakeys would send pre-mixed spice pacs to add with food service canned tomatoes the dough flour was pre-mixed too. I have been making pizzas ever since they closed Shakeys in the 80s. I live in the deep south we have 2 local pizza joints that have New York style pizza 1 has a wood burning oven. I have been reading you'alls forums & have a few tips, 1st flour measuring if you use a measuring cup do not pack or tap the cup you will add up to 1/3 more flour, this mistake will cause your dough to be hard to roll out, either sift or fluf up the flour with a fork. I also read some of you are looking for the brand of pepperoni that some famous pizza joints use, Sams club has food service brand of Hormel pepperoni that says on the 5lb pac " for high temperature ovens" It dosen't burn at at less than 600deg. I don't know if this is the stuff your lookin for or not. I use it exclusively it just fine. I taught my 11 year old how to make pizzas, the other day she rolled out a skin so thin it was semi transparent (she likes thin crusts) Hey lets wheel & deal I want some Vienna beef hot dogs they don't sell em here. We have a local grocery store who sells King Athur high gluten bread flour in 5lb bags, If anyone is interested in swaping dogs for flour I have a UPS account & would send you a shipping cooler & a pre paid UPS shipping lable. You would have to bring it to a UPS store. we can match $ for $ a bag of flour is about $4.50 plus tax I will ship to you at my cost (having a UPS account means I get a big discount on shipping) post a reply with a link to your email if anyone is interested. Thanks & happy pizza!!! .........Bond-- James Bond

Jim Thykeson · « **Reply #1 on:** June 09, 2005, 08:13:22 PM »

Shakeys was the best pizza I've ever had. I remember when the Hunt brothers bought the chain and proceeded to take it to ground. I'm looking for someone who remembers the exact ingrediants so the pizza can be re-birthed. The crap thats being served today is not even in the same league. There was another chain that copied Shakeys, it was called Shotgun Sams and it was virtually the same product. If you have this info. I wopuld be interested to communicate with you. Sincerely, Jim Thykeson

Pappas · « **Reply #2 on:** August 18, 2005, 08:42:47 PM »

Why don't you ask the guy who started Izzy's he was also the one behind Shakeys!

Steve · « **Reply #3 on:** October 07, 2005, 07:40:26 PM »

Somewhere on the forum someone said that Shakey's used nothing but flour, water, salt, and (I believe) oil. No leavening agents were used (i.e., no yeast, etc.) and the dough was made and used immediately.

So, tonight my wife and I did the big "handoff" with the kids... I came home from work, she left for work. Nothing was prepped for dinner and mine and the kids choices were canned soup or cereal. You get the drift.

So, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to make a "Shakey's" style pizza.

My recipe:

16 oz. high-gluten flour
6.5 oz. water
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening
1 tsp. salt

I threw all the ingredients into my food processor and "mixed" until it had the consistency of cornmeal. I dumped the "dough" onto the counter, pressed into a ball, and immediately rolled out thin (this took awhile... the dough did not want to roll out, so I had to let it rest for brief periods of time). Once it was rolled out, I placed in a greased cutter pan and par-baked for 4 minutes at 500 degrees F. After the par-bake, I added sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. The pizza was then baked for about 10 minutes longer until the crust (and bottom) was a golden brown. The pizza was allowed to cool on a wire rack.

The pizza was very good in my opinion. It did not have the yeasty or fermented taste of the DKM thin crust, but it did have a VERY crisp and cracker-like (saltine-like) texture with a clean taste. Actually, it's exactly the way I remember Shakey's pizza!

So, long story short, this one is a winner! And, from start to finish, the pizza was done in under 30 minutes!

pizzarules · « **Reply #4 on:** October 08, 2005, 09:08:35 AM »

007

Ahhh, Shakeys. Now there's trip down memory lane. I'm about your age. Did they have a player piano and show old b&w movies like ours? Were talking pre-Hut, white tiled McDonald's with the arches part of the architecture and Shoneys with drive-in.
I guess that was my first taste of pizza and I've been hooked ever since. I remember new neighbors moving in from Wichita. He had the new Hut franchise which he sold a few years later and retired. Interestinly he had a young manager working for him Sandy Bell (road a chopper as I recall). Sandy later opened a restaurant on campus, Ruby Tuesdays.
Major franchises at least serve to expose the masses. Some do a very good job. After a steady diet of there pizza, beer, hamburgers, etc., one is left to look for quality and variety. Hail to the new breed of artisans working in these mediums!

Steve · « **Reply #5 on:** October 09, 2005, 09:52:04 AM »

Made two more "Shakey's" style pizzas last night. Same recipe and technique as above. Once again, the crust was crisp, crackery, and flakey.

Snowman · « **Reply #6 on:** October 09, 2005, 11:35:45 AM »

Quote from: Steve on October 07, 2005, 07:40:26 PM

I threw all the ingredients into my food processor and "mixed" until it had the consistency of cornmeal. I dumped the "dough" onto the counter, pressed into a ball, and immediately rolled out thin (this took awhile... the dough did not want to roll out, so I had to let it rest for brief periods of time).

I'm having problems with this "cornmeal" consistency. I think you're also the one that posted a pic of Lehman's crackery crust which looked NOTHING like when I made it. I got an honest "dough" and it looked like you got something resembling a graham cracker crust look (out of the mixer, not out of the oven). Is it the food processor that's doing it or what?

Did it not want to roll out because it was fresh and very elastic or would it "break"?

Steeb · « **Reply #7 on:** October 09, 2005, 12:36:44 PM »

They look great, Steve! What rack did you bake them on?

Steve · « **Reply #8 on:** October 09, 2005, 02:12:21 PM »

I'm using a food processor fitted with the steel cutting blade.

Here's what I do.

1. Put the bowl fitted with the blade on my scale and tare.

2. Add 16 ounces (1 pound) flour, and tare.

3. Add 6.5 ounces of water (by weight).

4. Add 1 Tbsp vegetable shortening.

5. Add 1 tsp. salt.

6. Put bowl (with ingredients) on base of food processor.

7. Pulse a few times to get everything mixed.

8. Run processor for about 30-60 seconds until everything is incorporated and the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal.

9. Remove blade.

10. Dump contents onto clean countertop.

11. Squeeze "cornmeal" mixture into a ball and knead until it is a nice uniform (round) shape.

12. Press into a disc, then start rolling. Get it to about 12" and then let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Continue rolling (dust with flour if it sticks to your pin) until it's bigger than your cutter pan (I use a 16" pan which is perfect for this amount of dough).

13. Once the dough is approximately 18", rub and brush off the raw flour with the palm of your hand (both sides).

14. Place dough into greased cutter pan.

15. Dock thoroughly.

16. Use rolling pin to trim off excess dough (that's why it's called a "cutter" pan!)

17. Par-bake at 500 degrees F. on the second from bottom rack for 4 minutes.

18. Remove pan, use fork to pop any large air bubbles and gently press the air out.

19. Add sauce, shredded cheese, toppings.

20. Bake on the same rack until the crust is golden brown.

21. Remove from oven, slide pizza out of pan and onto wire cooling rack. Let cool for several minutes.

22. Slide pizza from cooling rack onto serving pan, cut, and enjoy!

rogerthat · « **Reply #9 on:** October 09, 2005, 06:17:12 PM »

;)Shakey's -Pizza is ALIVE and WEll. Shakey was in world war II where he developed Malaria which gave him the Shakes.....thus the Name Shakey's.....he just move to the Philippines in the early 1980's and is the biggest pizza chain there now.....I Just ate a Shakey's pizza there about 6 months ago...exactly the same as in the '70's but really the sauce is more Grease than sauce....JUST LIKE MAZZIO's.....you know the industry practice is to brush on Bacon Grease ....ON TOP ....to melt the cheese faster.....YUCK>..makes me eat more frozen pizza.....Cholesterol City...
Shotgun Sams had real sauce.....and corn meal on the bottom...how ever the business was left the the son and daugther in the late '70's and the remodled and remodeled and run the business in to the ground.
Cyrstal's is still open however in Dallas Texas....as one resteraunt was bought from the francise..and is newly remodeled/;
Me pesonally ...Mazzios is a grease pie

Y-TOWN · « **Reply #10 on:** October 09, 2005, 07:23:50 PM »

Quote from: Steve on October 09, 2005, 02:12:21 PM

13. Once the dough is approximately 18", rub and brush off the raw flour with the palm of your hand (both sides).

Wax paper over the dough to be rolled works well in the place of excess flour

Lydia · « **Reply #11 on:** October 12, 2005, 07:37:39 AM »

Steve?

I have been getting crust that seem to have a "gummie" like texture were the sauce meets the dough. You pics look justs how mine turned out.

Did yours have that funny texture too?

Y-TOWN · « **Reply #12 on:** October 12, 2005, 07:45:51 AM »

I made my first cracker crust pizza last night. The crust was really hard and not crackery or flakey. I think mine was to thick - I'm going to try again making it much thinner. I had a hard time getting the pie to brown. I think I'll cook it closer to the bottom of the oven next time too.

007bond-jb · « **Reply #13 on:** October 12, 2005, 08:14:23 AM »

Welcome pizzarules yes our Shakeys had a player piano & black & white movies. I ordered the Arches greatest hits from Amazon a few months ago. Steves rite on with that recipe I tried it after getting it from an ex-Shackeys employe some months ago with the same results. Good work Steve! I now add garlic powder & oregano to the dough cause I like it that way

Steve · « **Reply #14 on:** October 12, 2005, 08:33:46 AM »

If you don't like that "gummy" layer, place sliced cheese on the dough first, then the sauce.

elsegundo · « **Reply #15 on:** October 21, 2005, 05:36:09 PM »

Steve
I took your recipe, adding an ounce more water, processed the ingredients with a food processor, sheeted the dough with my Kitchenaid pasta attachment gave it a book fold and baked at 495 for 10 minutes. I was surprised I got large bubbles like I like without any yeast. Quite a revelation! The result was a cracker dough but not very brown. Great texture, not much taste. I suspect we need a little sugar, non-fat dry milk or whey.

Ironically, I believe Shakey's uses yeast. They admit to the Crisco. BTW we really have a variation on pie dough, especially if you switch the water and Crisco proportions.

Thanks for teaching us a lesson about yeast and pizza.

doeboy · « **Reply #16 on:** January 26, 2006, 07:20:15 PM »

Quote from: Steve on October 07, 2005, 07:40:26 PM

Somewhere on the forum someone said that Shakey's used nothing but flour, water, salt, and (I believe) oil. No leavening agents were used (i.e., no yeast, etc.) and the dough was made and used immediately.

So, tonight my wife and I did the big "handoff" with the kids... I came home from work, she left for work. Nothing was prepped for dinner and mine and the kids choices were canned soup or cereal. You get the drift.

So, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to make a "Shakey's" style pizza.

My recipe:

16 oz. high-gluten flour
6.5 oz. water
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening
1 tsp. salt

I threw all the ingredients into my food processor and "mixed" until it had the consistency of cornmeal. I dumped the "dough" onto the counter, pressed into a ball, and immediately rolled out thin (this took awhile... the dough did not want to roll out, so I had to let it rest for brief periods of time). Once it was rolled out, I placed in a greased cutter pan and par-baked for 4 minutes at 500 degrees F. After the par-bake, I added sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. The pizza was then baked for about 10 minutes longer until the crust (and bottom) was a golden brown. The pizza was allowed to cool on a wire rack.

The pizza was very good in my opinion. It did not have the yeasty or fermented taste of the DKM thin crust, but it did have a VERY crisp and cracker-like (saltine-like) texture with a clean taste. Actually, it's exactly the way I remember Shakey's pizza!

So, long story short, this one is a winner! And, from start to finish, the pizza was done in under 30 minutes!

Shakeys does use yeast in there crust and i think they use a little semolina also, check it out you can call heres the info-
Shakeys Pizza Restaurant
14300 Petrovitsky Rd
Renton, WA 98058
425-277-0227

elsegundo · « **Reply #17 on:** January 26, 2006, 08:57:54 PM »

From Doeboy

"Shakeys does use yeast in their crust and I think they use a little semolina also, check it out you can call heres the info-"

Did the manager say Shakey's uses yeast? Did he reveal any other ingredients? Sorry to be a little dense about this.

If you have his name, I would be glad to give him a call. You can send it to me off-line.

Thanks

Perk · « **Reply #18 on:** January 28, 2006, 03:44:41 PM »

I tried doing the shakey's no yeast crust last night since I thought I like some pizza but didn't have any dough made.
Well I can say I totally TANKED the crust!!
I don't have a scale or a food processor so it just isn't ment to be!

I ended up being Micheal Jordon and tossing a 3 foot jumper straight into the trash can.
Now that was a beauty!! The arc was perfect! and the swish sound with a plunk at the end was almost perfection!

duckjob · « **Reply #19 on:** February 17, 2006, 02:53:05 AM »

I made the shakey's thin crust last night, unfortunately my camera battery was dead, so no pics. It came out surprisingly well. It did not taste as good as the DKM recipe with yeast, but it still tasted great, and I didn't have to wait 24 hours. Previous posts mentioned that the crust almost has a saltine cracker taste, and I experienced the same thing.

Perk, just an aside, do you have a stand mixer? If you do you can use either the paddle(preferabley) or the hook to make this dough, you just have to let it go long enough until it has that wet cornmeal consistency, this is how I make all of my low hydration thin crust pies.