Author Topic: JT's WFO pies (Read 23827 times)

Pete-zza · « **Reply #120 on:** July 13, 2011, 05:32:53 PM »

Kelly,

The thread I referenced goes back to 2005. You can see a more recent effort at www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,12547.msg119948.html#msg119948.

Peter

norma427 · « **Reply #121 on:** July 13, 2011, 06:22:16 PM »

Quote from: Jackie Tran on July 13, 2011, 12:32:26 AM

Now who saids a NY pie can't be baked in the WFO?

Chau,

Your NY style pies baked in your WFO, sure turned out great.

Nice job!

You always keep me smiling with your experiments and the different kind of pies you make.

In my opinion, I think almost any kind of flour or formula can be used successfully in a WFO. I tried Better for Bread flour in Peter Reinhart’s Neo-Neaplitan Classic dough for a bake in Steve’s WFO. The formula I used is at Reply 20 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13037.msg127555.html#msg127555 and the pictures of the pie is at Reply 9 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13037.msg127491.html#msg127491

Norma

dellavecchia · « **Reply #122 on:** July 13, 2011, 08:41:11 PM »

Outstanding Chau! I love the NY pies - did you pull the coals?

John

JConk007 · « **Reply #123 on:** July 13, 2011, 09:25:58 PM »

chau, nice I did NY very often in the wfo. I am now focused on the NP same cheese and suace for both? or NY style sauce as well?
John

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #124 on:** July 13, 2011, 11:57:00 PM »

Peter and Norma. I knew it could be done but hadn't seen too much talk of it since I've been here. I didn't think it would be hard or anything like that, maybe just requires a bit of adjustment to the heat. My comment was more or less a rhetorical one.

Thanks Norma for the compliment. Those NY'ers started out as a final attempt at reverse engineering my own first Perfect Pizza. I posted about it here....at reply #175
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10826.160.html

It has been sometime since I've made pizza with 100% HG flour and even longer since I've tried to use my old methods, but the results were excellent. Look to the last few crumb shots. That for the record, is really the ideal crumb for me. I really did like the texture and look of the crumb on these NP pies posted above as well.

Kelly - thanks as well. The only limiting factor for me making a 16"+ pie is the lack of a 16" peel. My biggest peel is 14" at most so I could probably make a 14" pizza for you. I hope that will satisfied your appetite!

I will also look around the house for some stiff cardboard and may fashion a make shift 16" peel for this challenge. Stay tuned.

John - Thanks. I did pull most of the coals and left a small cresent pile of coals. You would laugh if you saw the pic. I'll try to find it in a bit.

JConk - Thank you. I use to make 2 sauces for the the different styles, but have switched to just a fresh sauce for both styles now. No spices other than a bit of sugar and salt for balance. The the NP pies above, I used a mix of bufala and the cambro cheese. For the NY'ers or even my hybrid pies, I use a combination of fresh mozz and preshredded block mozz. I also top both with a bit of grated parm for added flavor.

Thanks guys and gal. It was a fun little experiment and the pies turned out great. The NY'ers take a LONG time to cook (or at least it feels long in the wfo), close to 4-5 minutes and close to 1 minute of doming to get the top color darker.

Chau

chickenparm · « **Reply #125 on:** July 14, 2011, 10:44:32 PM »

Wow,those just keep coming out incredible! Superb work as always!

I also like your approach to the simple sauce recipe...Im about there myself,I just maybe add a little salt and sugar if needed to my sauce.It does depend on what brand or products I use to make a sauce.

I am still stuck wanting to use a very little garlic powder at times to mix it in.Yet,if I don't,I can use that on top of the pie,along with some Oregano to sprinkle if desired.Just a hard habit to break away from.

I bought a few cans of 35 oz Cento Italian style peeled tomatoes with basil.2 of the cans did not taste the best,but the 3rd can was a hit.

I pureed the tomatoes up and all it needed was maybe a little salt and tiny bit of sugar.It was super good by itself.Heck I dont even think it really needed any sugar since it got sweeter when cooked.

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #126 on:** July 14, 2011, 11:55:55 PM »

Thanks as always Bill for the words of encouragement. I totally agree about the garlic. For awhile I was still putting in a crush clove of garlic to my warmed tomatoes for the flavor. I have done it with and without and it's good either way. I don't think there is anything wrong with adding the garlic or spices either. I may go back to spices once in awhile to see if I still enjoy it. I really wasn't trying to move in the direction of simple sauce, but it just happend that way.

One day I made both sauces, and just couldn't get my spiced sauce tasting right while the simple sauce was fabulous. I asked myself why I was creating more work for a sauce that isn't as good. I couldn't come up with a good reason so I made the switch.

As far as the centos go, I think there are a number of fans on the forum. I found a BIG can of Bountiful Harvest peeled tomatoes the other day in bulk for under $4. Thought I would give them a try and to my surprise they were quite good with a bit of salt and sugar. By themselves, they are not as sweet as others BUT for under $4, I couldn't complain. Any decent can tomatoes mixed with some fresh ones make a killer sauce.

I also concur about adding too much sugar. Or making sauce the day before and refrigerating. It seems to get sweeter the next day. It's interesting how the more sauce I make and eat, I can really taste the balance in the sauce now. I never was able to before. When I was new here, I would read about adding just salt and sugar to a sauce and that made no sense to me at all. It completely went over my head. Fortunately, now I understand.

John - sorry I can't find the picture of the pie with the small pile of coals. Next time I'll take a pic.

Kelly - I found some things around the house and was able to make a 16" peel. I also realized that I have several 16" pizza screens that I can build pies on and load them into the wfo. I can remove the screens halfway through the bake.

Don't know when I can bake again, but will try the 16" pie next time.

Chau

chickenparm · « **Reply #127 on:** July 15, 2011, 12:28:12 AM »

Chau,
Whats the largest pie you can fit into your new Oven?

Even if you have to launch with a screen first,would be nice to see what fits.

ponzu · « **Reply #128 on:** July 15, 2011, 01:31:46 AM »

Quote from: Jackie Tran on July 06, 2011, 07:37:34 AM

Thx Craig, I'll keep that in mind.

Thx Alexi. Good to hear from you. Have you been baking lately? I'm not there yet and still working on it. Glad to be making progress here and there.

Chau

Chau,

I'm still baking 1-2 times weekly. Pies keep on improving but I'm not sure the progress is worth posting on the Sputnik thread as there have not been any quantum changes in technique recently. Maybe I'll post some pics tonight.

Your pies on the other hand are constantly changing. And always for the better from the looks of them. I agree that that last crumb looks absolutely perfect.

AZ

NY pizzastriver · « **Reply #129 on:** July 15, 2011, 08:17:50 AM »

Quote from: pizzablogger on July 13, 2011, 05:11:28 PM

You are dialing in your WFO very quickly indeed...not necessarily an easy thing, but because it's you I am not surprised either.

That's exactly it, right there, as you can really see vast improvement from post 1 until now.

Someone link the formula, Jackie, on the more recent pies. Just curious to see something. Thanks!

Also man, nice oven Jackie! I'm not around much so last I saw you had a toaster oven and some Pillsbury dough, man you have come some way!

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #130 on:** July 17, 2011, 11:21:10 PM »

Thanks NYPS. I'm always changing up routines and methods depending what I'm currently learning and wanting to test out.

The last recipe and methods I posted are in this thread in reply #18 (page 1) and reply#28 (pg2).

NYPS, you'll have to refresh my memory as I don't recall posting about a toaster oven and Pillsbury dough but that would make for an interesting challenge. Make a pizza from scratch using the home toaster oven.

Chau

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #131 on:** July 25, 2011, 11:51:40 PM »

Tonight's bake in the WFO was rather comical. Everything that could go wrong, just about went wrong.

As I was getting up to temps, my IR thermometer was going out. The laser was getting dimmer and shooting off to the side. I gave it a few small taps and then the laser quit working altogether. Apparently I knocked it out of alignment tapping it.

And then the fun began. The wind started picking up blowing my umbrella shade around. The tool stand crashed behind me as I was stretching a doughball. I picked up the stand and tools and turned it sideways only to have it crash again shortly after. My heavy insulated door fell over off the edge of the counter...

I managed to get out a couple of NP pies that were pretty decent.

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #132 on:** July 25, 2011, 11:57:39 PM »

The star of the show was tonight's last NY pie, but it didn't come without more mishaps.

Well I let the fire burn down a bit for the NY'ers and again I couldn't tell what temps I was working with b/c my IR thermometer was out of comission.

I didn't have the fire hot enough for the bake, and made the mistake of turning the first one too soon. Anyway a small hole became bigger and bigger. It still ate well but not what I was aiming for.

Here's the pie. I was shooting for a Totonno's style pie after a request from Pizzablogger for me to make one. The good news is that my home made 16" peel worked out very well.

Chau

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #133 on:** July 26, 2011, 12:01:59 AM »

Since the fire wasn't hot enough, I decided to move all the coals to the left side and bake on the right side which the coals had been previously sitting on. I also loaded on another log and let it burn a bit while I opened up the 2nd skin.

As I was walking back and forth the wind blew a damn ember or something in my friggen eye!

Okay it wasn't a hot ember BUT my right eye was burning like crazy. Tearing with one eye open, I proceeding to make my 2nd NY pie. Needless to say I got a very satisfactory bake from it.
I even made a video for you NY pie lovers.

Chau

chickenparm · « **Reply #134 on:** July 26, 2011, 12:12:20 AM »

Dang Chau! You feeling Lucky yet?

Kidding aside,the pizzas still look great.You and I both know when we decide not to try,when we dont film or take pics,we are gonna make the best pizzas ever.Its going to happen when there is no camera,or no one is watching or there to witness it.

Hope your eye is OK now and thanks for sharing.

ponzu · « **Reply #135 on:** July 26, 2011, 12:46:22 AM »

Dude,

That pizza sounds so crunchy and delicious.

What was the dough weight for 16 " ? was that baked at 700 for 3 minutes I'm guessing?

AZ

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #136 on:** July 26, 2011, 01:13:41 AM »

Thanks Bill, my eye is OK. I think it was just a speck of sand or dirt blowing around.

Ponzu, it was crunchy and delicious like when Dom cuts one of his pies hot from the oven. Bake time was 5 minutes on this one. Dough weight is 426 gm and just the right amount of crust and thickness factor.

Chau

norma427 · « **Reply #137 on:** July 26, 2011, 06:35:00 AM »

Chau,

Sorry to hear about all your problems. You NY style pizza sure looks delicious!

Norma

pizzablogger · « **Reply #138 on:** July 26, 2011, 07:34:13 AM »

Sounds like a challenging set of circumstances.

You'll soon be at a point where you'll know where the oven is at without an IR gun, so maybe better it has gone kaput to force you to rely on what the oven is telling you sooner than later.

Thanks for the Totonno's pie Chau! I'm expecting a slice at my door via overnight mail, right?

The sound of you cutting that last pie is driving me crazy....that sounds spot on when the cutter rolls through it. I think if you can get that style of 16" NY pie consistently finished at closer to 4 mins, you'll really be in clover, but 5 mins is a good time for that style as well. That pie just looks and sounds very authentic...I could be somewhere in Brooklyn or Manhattan when I watch that video clip and hear that pizza being sliced on the video! Makes me want to take the 3 hour drive up North right now.

Excellent stuff.......keep em coming! --K

RobynB · « **Reply #139 on:** July 26, 2011, 12:44:30 PM »

Beautiful, they look incredibly tasty! Grace under adversity and all that. Your experience is one of the reasons we're going through all we're doing. There are a few things I never wanted to do outside in windy weather, and making pizza is one of them

That second one - fig and ?