Author Topic: Pizza Night! (Read 1702 times)

jeffereynelson · « **on:** March 14, 2011, 11:30:11 PM »

So I feel like thanks to this site my pizzas have gotten amazingly better. So I thank all of you for that. I've been reading and working for over a year a now using this site.
The big difference in my pizzas though was getting my friend to cut the lock of his oven and cooking on the cleaning cycle.
I also got a bag of caputo a couple weeks ago and love it! It seems to work great in the oven at the high temperatures.

60% Hydration
2.5% Salt
Aprox .1% IDY

Cook time on these pizzas were 65 seconds. I am still having a little trouble with bottom charring getting where I want, bottom seems to be a bit hotter then the top, or maybe I could even have baked it for a couple seconds shorter. We are using fresh mozz that just comes in a two pack from Sams Club. Also I don't use San Marzano tomatoes because I can't get my hands on them anywhere close to where I live in Idaho.

Any tips for better pizzas are always appreciated!

ponzu · « **Reply #1 on:** March 14, 2011, 11:39:39 PM »

That looks great. I am so jealous of your cleaning cycle fix. I chopped the lock off my oven the day after we moved into our new house but the oven is smarter than me and always shuts the cleaning cycle off the moment the door is opened.

In terms of the bottom/top heat disparty I know Varasano mentions putting pans on the stone to absorb heat if the stone temp gets too hot just prior to baking. (you must figure out what your ideal stone temp is by trial and error.) He also foils the stone until the end of the bake.

Was there any gum layer on that cornicione? tough to see from the photo.

Anyway awesome looking pie.

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #2 on:** March 14, 2011, 11:44:30 PM »

Very nice work JN! The bottom and crumb looks magnificent.

I think you lucked out!

Try to do it again soon.

Chau

jeffereynelson · « **Reply #3 on:** March 14, 2011, 11:56:59 PM »

Ponzu- I'm sure you tried it but just in case, did you push the button in the triggers the light going on and off? I know this helps on some ovens, my friends it isn't necessary. And yes there was a slight gum layer on the pizza.

Chau- Thanks for the compliments, I just read your slice interview a bit ago and you make some great amazing pizzas. Any tips for me from the pics?

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #4 on:** March 15, 2011, 12:53:07 AM »

Honestly JN, I much prefer your oven baked NP than my own. I should be getting tips from you. If you don't mind, please detail the mixing/kneading method and fermentation protocol for myself and others. Was there anything you didn't like about the pie or want to improve? TBH, I have and continue to experiment with so many flours and techniques (I just can't help myself

) that I am sort of a jack of all trades and a master of none. NP style is still very new to me and I do not even consider myself competent with the style. I'm still working at it, but from what I see.....I like....especially your crumb shot. If it was soft and moist and not dry I wouldn't change too much about the process.

IMO, baking in the home oven is the hardest thing to do well. Soooo a big giant kudos to all the home oven bakers that make amazing looking pies. It's awesome to see more and more folks attempting the NP home oven bake.

Chau

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 15, 2011, 08:57:48 AM »

Jeff,

Your pie looks really good. The bottom may be a little too charred, but I bet it tasted great. I have had some great pies that were "too charred." I'd take a little too much char over no char any day. All that being said, I wouldn't call the char on that pie a problem.

I'm a little surprised you could even get that much char in 65 seconds unless your stone is really hot. Do you know what the stone tempeerature is?

Craig

forzaroma · « **Reply #6 on:** March 15, 2011, 09:12:00 AM »

I want to do this with my home oven. Thing is when I turn on cleaning cycle it wont start until I locl the oven door with a lever. wondering if this is just some sort of sensor. How long did you keep the cleaning cycle on before you threw the pie in? Where does the heat come from during cleaning cycle ie bottom or from broiler as im tryingt o find right place to put stone.

jeffereynelson · « **Reply #7 on:** March 15, 2011, 12:37:36 PM »

Chau- I feel bad because I don't really know my exact methods. I have a KA I use and I used no autolyse period. I don't have a specific amount of kneading time. I do it by look and feel. It approx 5-6 minutes I'd say. I also stop the process many times to take the dough of the hook and put the dough at the bottom of the bowl because I feel like it's doing nothing just going in circles on the dough hook. I also feel like it heats the dough up a lot which I don't like. For fermentation I've also been messing with this a lot lately because I've been using different amounts of IDY. This one way a 2 hour bulk rise, then I divided and put into the fridge. It went in the fridge for about 18 hours, then I pulled it out to come to room temp for 1.5 hours. The dough was actually still cold, so I wish I would have done like 2. Hope that helps, if even just a little.

Craig-I don't have a infrared thermometer yet so I don't really know. We aren't actually using a stone, we are using firebrick in the oven. So that could by why it is getting so hot.

Forzaroma- We had the cleaning cycle on for 1.5 hours. The heat comes from the bottom the entire process, and the broiler unit clicks on and off during the process. We have the rack one up from the middle slot, and then the bricks are probably, i don't know 2.5 inches tall, so the pie is significantly closer to the top of the oven. I also make sure to put it in when the top unit is on or the top won't get done.

Jeff

gtsum2 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 15, 2011, 06:21:48 PM »

thats a very good looking pie there friend! Incredibly short bake time for a home oven as well..that firebrick must have been scorching hot! Nicely done

forzaroma · « **Reply #9 on:** March 15, 2011, 08:32:05 PM »

When I got home from work I wanted to test my oven on self clean cycle to see how hot I can get my stone. I turned it on and after about an hour unlocked it and used my infrared thermometer to see temp and it barely was at 600. What does cutting the lock do if I want to test the stones temp I have to open the door anyway don't I? Maybe my cleaning cycle doesn't get as hot as others?

jeffereynelson · « **Reply #10 on:** March 15, 2011, 09:17:07 PM »

Forzaroma- How did you unlock the oven during the cleaning cycle? Most ovens can only be unlocked by canceling the cleaning cycle and then waiting a while for the oven to cool down. So the point is you can open the oven up immediately without ever turning the cleaning cycle off. That way you can keep making pies and keep the heat going. Also maybe it's your stone? We also actually noticed quite a bit more heat between the 1 hour and 1.5 hour preheat. But I would imagine the brick has to be around 900 degrees in our oven, and half an hour won't make that much difference. Thats kind of a lot of things, hope that all made sense.

forzaroma · « **Reply #11 on:** March 15, 2011, 09:36:30 PM »

I just turn the latch and open immediately and check temp. I believe I
Cave a good stone. I
Have cycle on again and I'll wait fir 90 minute mark to check sgsin

jeffereynelson · « **Reply #12 on:** March 15, 2011, 10:13:32 PM »

Quote from: forzaroma on March 15, 2011, 09:36:30 PM

I just turn the latch and open immediately and check temp. I believe I
Cave a good stone. I
Have cycle on again and I'll wait fir 90 minute mark to check sgsin

What kind of oven do you have?

forzaroma · « **Reply #13 on:** March 16, 2011, 08:40:19 AM »

second attemp after around 80 minutes I got the stone up to 730 o maybe 90 mins it will get to where i need. It gets so hot in the house windows def will have to be open.

m_pizza · « **Reply #14 on:** March 18, 2011, 07:34:08 AM »

I also use the cleaning cycle but have trouble with the stone getting too hot compared to the rest of the oven.

jeffereynelson, do you open the oven to turn the pizza at any point during the 65 second bake, or do you find you loose too much heat that way by opening the door unneccesarily?

jeffereynelson · « **Reply #15 on:** March 18, 2011, 02:03:20 PM »

forzaroma- So did you try again and make a pizza? Im curious to see your results

M_Pizza- I don't actually rotate the pizza when I make it. Is your broiler unit going when you put the pizza in? What rack is your stone sitting on? And you can also try putting like a baking sheet on top of the stone before you put the pizza in to suck some heat out of the stone.

Jeff

m_pizza · « **Reply #16 on:** March 18, 2011, 04:25:07 PM »

Thanks for the information - Ill try my next one without turning it round, maybe opening the oven one less time will help the top cook better.

The top element carries on going, but its a fan assisted cleaning cycle (which I cannot modify) so the heat from the top is distributed evenly. Ive tried different racks of the oven, doesnt seem to make much difference, usually I leave it near the top element though.

So you put you put a baking sheet on your stone then the pizza straight ontop of this? Wouldnt the sheet burn under the heat of the 850-900F stone?

jeffereynelson · « **Reply #17 on:** March 18, 2011, 04:31:04 PM »

M_Pizza- My top element comes on and off just like the broiler, so if i put it in when the broiler is on it bakes evenly, if I don't the bottom will finish and the top will still be white. As far as the cookie sheet, just put it in for a second and absorb some heat then take it back out and cook on the stone. Sorry for the confusion.

forzaroma · « **Reply #18 on:** March 18, 2011, 04:32:19 PM »

Dough is made I'll be baking tomorrow

forzaroma · « **Reply #19 on:** March 21, 2011, 08:52:29 AM »

Ok made some pizzas using the oven on cleaning cycle. I got oven up to over 800 but issue was the stone was way hotter than the top of the oven so I had too much char on the bottom of the pie and not enough on the top. Taste was amazing and I did put a piece of foill on the stone to try to keep the stone cooler than top of the oven. I think what happened was I took off the foil too soon and left the oven on cleaning cycle and by the time I put my first pie in the stone got way too hot. It is way more difficult than I thought managing the heat using this method.