JT's WFO pies

[dellavecchia]

Chau - I would love to see you bake one of these pies in the WFO start to finish. If you ever have the inkling to video the process, I am sure there are others that would benefit as well. I know you cook them on the front end of the firing, but I would love to see it in action with hearth temps.

John

[Jackie Tran]

Great looking pies, Chau!
I need to do more NY style in the wfo!

Thanks Steve.  I have been enjoying the retoasted leftover slices as much as the fresh ones.  

Chau - I would love to see you bake one of these pies in the WFO start to finish. If you ever have the inkling to video the process, I am sure there are others that would benefit as well. I know you cook them on the front end of the firing, but I would love to see it in action with hearth temps.

John

No problem John.  I have a pizza party this weekend and will try to recruit one of guests to video the entire process.  If I have enough memory on my camera Ill try to get my signature dough opening technique as well.

In the meantime, here is the only short video I made of a recent bake. This one is a low temp caputo 00 bake.  It was baked pretty much the same way I bake the NY pies.  Oven was not fully saturated as you can see by the black dome, thus necessitating a bit more of a live fire than I usually use if the oven is hotter.  Also as I mentioned before, I have been playing around with a U shaped coal pattern with the pie in the middle.  

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjC61TODOU0&amp;sns=em" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjC61TODOU0&amp;sns=em</a>

Here is that same finished pie.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VyzN0Aiabs&amp;sns=em" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VyzN0Aiabs&amp;sns=em</a>

Chau

[jever4321]

Love the videos! That crust sounds perfectly crispy. Seriously man, everything about that pie is perfect! Awesome job.

[Jackie Tran]

Love the videos! That crust sounds perfectly crispy. Seriously man, everything about that pie is perfect! Awesome job.

Thank you Jever.  You will have to forgive me as I am going to take this opportunity to shed a bit of light for the new and old members on the topic of caputo pizzeria 00 flour and low temps.  These were done in response to the widely held belief and repeated and continued postings that caputo pizzeria 00 flour makes for a tough crust at low temps.  The truth is ... it does not.  Especially if one properly makes adjustments to the hydration of the dough and the way it is handled or the way the gluten is developed.   I have done this with same day doughs and longer fermented doughs.  100% caputo pizzeria 00 flour as well as blended with BF and HG flour.  IIRC, Dom Demarco of Di Fara's famous NY pizza also uses a blend of mostly caputo 00 flour with AT's.  
Anyways, not trying to be controversial, just tossing it out there.  

Now if you do a side by side comparison against BF making the dough to similar consistency, yes the caputo dough is slightly tougher, especially as it cools.  But it's not terribly tougher.  I would agree that caputo may indeed shine at higher temps and quicker bakes as it is designed for but it doesn't mean that it won't perform very well at lower temps as well.   These were some of my favorite pies with a great crisp rim with and a tender crumb as seen in the video, both fresh and as the pies cooled.  

Here's a video of another caputo pizzeria 00 pie baked at "low" temps of 750F.  This one is actually made with a starter (despite me saying IDY in the vid) and the dough ready in 6 hours.  The results were excellent and better than the IDY pie from above.

<a href="http://youtu.be/a0foJ8OSHOo" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://youtu.be/a0foJ8OSHOo</a>

Thanks again,
Chau

[RobynB]

Yum!   

[David Deas]

Love the videos Chau.  Pictures may not be enough anymore.  Maybe you've raised the bar to videos.

[politon]

Great vid, awesome pie Chau!

I need to get my hands on some 00 and give it a shot.

Gratzi,

--Paul

[Jackie Tran]

Thank you Robyn, David, & Politan. 

Here is a recent video of me opening up a NY style dough ball.   John, I took a video of me doing a complete bake but unfortunately I can't get it to load.  Maybe next time I will retake the video for you.  

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-IrnNKQqwY" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-IrnNKQqwY</a>

Here are a few 16" pies I made in the wfo.  These were some of my best crust ever.  Crisp undercrust and rim, very light and airy crumb.  These pies were not made with the dough in the video.  

[wheelman]

cool video Chau.  i have a hard time with stretching NY style.  that helps!
thanks
bill

[dellavecchia]

You are such a bad ass Chau. For reference, what was the hydration of that dough in the video?

John

[Jackie Tran]

Thanks Bill and John.  It is not a traditional NY opening technique.  It's just something I developed over the years.  John, the dough in that video is made with Con Agra High Power (HG) flour.  I believe the hydration is about 64% with 2% shortening.  

I finally got my internet connection fixed and attempting to upload a fairly lengthy video covering the majority of an entire bake.  I'll post it here a bit later.

[bakeshack]

Great pies as usual, Chau!  They look nice and crisp!  How long were your bake times and what's the floor temp?

Marlon

[Jackie Tran]

Thanks Marlon.  These 2 latest ones that I posted where done during a pizza party, so I was too busy to time the bakes.  The hearth temp was around 650F+ so they  probably baked right around 4m30, maybe a bit more since I like my NY pies dark. 

John, here is a video I took about 2 weeks ago.  I wanted to load the video then but we were switching internet providers and the new service was terrible for uploading.  

Anyways, this particularly bake is not a typical bake.  Here I was playing around with doing a lower temp bake and extending the time to hopefully get a crispier pie.  So I purposefully loaded this pie at a lower than normal temp, between 550F - 600F.  The bake time here was in excess of 5min.  But it does show the entire bake and the finish pizza as you had requested.  
For me a 5 minute bake is the golden delicious standard.   I also love to reheat slices as well.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pxN57gmo8k&amp;feature=youtu.be" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pxN57gmo8k&amp;feature=youtu.be</a>

Chau

[dellavecchia]

Chau - thank you very much for that. It is 7am and I need that pizza right now! I find it fascinating that the larger ovens with thicker walls retain heat so well - mine is completely cool within 8-10 hours. I can see how easy it is to cook with that retained heat. My next oven will be able to do that.

John

[JimmyG]

Great video Chau and excellent looking pie. I loved the audible "crunch" of the pie while it was being cut.

[Jackie Tran]

Chau - thank you very much for that. It is 7am and I need that pizza right now! I find it fascinating that the larger ovens with thicker walls retain heat so well - mine is completely cool within 8-10 hours. I can see how easy it is to cook with that retained heat. My next oven will be able to do that.

John

You are welcome John.   I do have an insulated door that keeps the heat in.  Without the door, my oven would probably completely cool within 12 hours or so.  With the door in place it, it may still be 600F in the the following moring depending on how cold it is outside.  In the summer, I've noticed it will still be 300F or so the 2nd morning after. 

Thanks Jimmy.  I really enjoy a crunchy slice.

Chau

[chickenparm]

Simply awesome as always! Love them pies!!
 

[Kostakis1985]

Chau,

I like the way your pizza looks, I watched your videos and noticed you have a thin marble slab you were opening the dough on could you tell me if its a big help in the pizza making process, i was thinking of getting on bc the grains on my table where I open the dough make it bunch up sometime

[Jackie Tran]

Thank you Bill and Kostakis, I appreciate it. 

Kos, the thin slab you see in the video is a glazed travertine stone tile.  You can not bake with these as there is lead in the glaze.   For dough prep, I don't see an issue, but will probably switch to a natural unglazed stone soon.

The reason I started using it was because I was making my dough by hand on our granite countertop, which I noted that my wife uses cleaners on as well.  I wasn't confident that the dough would not somehow pick up residues of the cleaner despite me wiping it down with a wet wash rag first.

I think you can probably make dough on any solid non absorbable surface since the dough will spend most of the time in the air as you are opening it.

Chau