Steel Plate Attempt

[scott123]

Paul, if the quickly toughening crumb is something you'd like to avoid, I highly suggest going with a flour other than KASL or Caputo 00.  The KASL is renowned for tough crumbs, and, while the Caputo produces tender crumbs with quick sub 90 second bakes, it can get tough with longer bakes.

[parallei]

Scott - Like many here, I've mucked around with various types/blends of flours over the past few years. My favorite doughs and pies (round ones anyway) are made with a blend of KASL/Caputo 00, a stater, no oil, no sugar and done for about 3 min on my 2Stone at 750i-sh (too cold outside for that!).  That will be my next try with the steel.  We'll see how it goes......   Maybe I'll chuck in a bit of honey........

Not 'till next week though, right now it is back to the kitchen preparing for tomorrow evening.  A roast stuffed pork loin will be the main event.  Stuffing has pancetta, cremini, porcini, onion, rosemary and fresh bread crumbs.  The porcini are dried and reconstituted, and the liquid from that process is used to moisten the stuffing.  I like it! Also good in stuffed turkey breast.

Have good Holidays Scott,

Paul

[parallei]

Gave the steel plate another try tonight.  One of the better "in the home oven" pies I've made.  Nothing special:

Flour - 100% (KABF)
Water - 64%
IDY - 0.5%
Salt - 2.0%
Olive Oil - 2.5%
Sugar - 1.5%

Dissolve salt and sugar in water.  Add flour and IDY.  Stir together with Danish Dough Whisk. Let rest 5 min.  Add oil, squish in with hands.  Let rest 5 min.  Minimal kneading (five or six slap on the counter type kneads, one or two regular with the heel of the hand kneads).  Into the fridge bulk for 18 hours.  Out of the fridge for one hour, divide and gently re-ball.  Back to the fridge for two hours, then out of the fridge for two hours.  Oven preheated to 550F for 75 min with steel plate about 4-inches below broiler (electric).  4:30 min bake with broiler on for about 2:00 min.

[buceriasdon]

Paul, Those look just great, I'm sure they tasted great also. Have a great year.
Don

[scott123]

Paul, I'm a little late here, but there's definitely something special about those pizzas.

[parallei]

Thanks for nice comments Don and Scott.

This style of pie has been turning out better for me lately (though I need to try some different toppings!).  Actually Scott, I think they are getting better because of three things.  These include two items that you've always been a proponent of; the steel plate and minimal kneading prior to the cold fermentation. The third is John's (fazzari's) bulk then gentle re-ball late in the game.  I do think this produces a superior crumb and a more tender pie, at least for me.

Still liking the KABF though!  

As an aside, the other week I visited a mill north of Denver and purchased 50 lbs. of their Boulder Organic Hi-Gluten flour.  I haven't tried it yet.  Chris (WestCounrty) ended up with 10 lbs of it and say's it acts pretty much like KASL.

[hockman4357]

I have been contemplating giving a 16" x 16" x 1/2" A36 steel plate a try.  Still haven't decided for sure whether I want to go with the steel plate of a 1" cordierite kiln shelf (same size).  My local steel outlet just offered to cut me a piece of steel and to let me try cooking the pizza on it.  He said that if it worked out, he would accept a pizza for payment.  If not, he said to just bring it back without a charge.  No doubt an admirable offer, but I don't trust my expertise at this time since I am very new to this art.

My Jenn Air oven heats up to 550 degrees.  Is my understanding correct that you preheat the oven with the steel plate located on the top rack closest to the broiler for about an hour, slip the pizza on letting it cook for a couple of minutes and then turn on broiler for approximately 3-4 minutes to finish it up.  Turning on the broiler turns off the bake function, but my assumption is that the plate is so hot that the pizza continues to cook.

Am I wrapping my brain aroung this correctly?

[scott123]

Hockman, that's pretty much the right idea.  You might be able to go with the second rack from the top if your broiler is strong enough- and, ideally, you should shoot for 2 minutes without the broiler and 2 minutes with, for a total bake time of 4 minutes.

It's also a good idea to pre-heat the oven to 525.  If you pre-heat it to the top temp, the broiler might not stay on for long, since that, too, is usually controlled by the 550 thermostat.

An infrared thermometer helps, but isn't absolutely essential.

It'll take a few attempts to dial in the right temperature for the plate.

Lastly, if your oven can accommodate a larger plate, get it- even if it's just 16.5 x 16.5.  Ultimately, you're going to want to make 16" pizzas and launching a 16" pizza on a 16" plate is very difficult. The bigger the better.  As long as the oven door closes, you're fine.

[hockman4357]

Well, I am going to pick up my steel plate today or Monday.  The largest plate that will fit in my oven is 16" x 16" so I had to settle for that size.  If the steel is dirty or has some scaling, what should I do to clean it.  I was thinking that maybe sanding it would be the way to go, but I wasn't sure what grade of sandpaper to use.  Also, is there anything that I need to do to season it after it is clean prior to cooking my first pizza on it?

One more thing, is there a particular New York pizza recipe that you have found that works especially well with this method of cooking?  I am anxious to get started!

A special thanks goes out to scott123 for steering me in the right direction!

[parallei]

hockman,

When i got mine, I just gave it a few good scrubs with dish soap and hot water 'till a no more crap seemed to be coming off it onto a white paper towel. The into the oven to dry.  No sandpaper was needed, was pretty smooth.  I haven't seasoned mine, but then it is pretty dry here in Denver.  Mine just sits in the oven between uses.  I wash it before use (just hot water and a brush), dry it mostly off, and back into the oven while it is preheating.  Others may do different.....

I thought the dough and method I posted above in Reply #22 worked well.  You could give it a try.

[scott123]

Hockman, like Paul said, it should be pretty smooth and shouldn't require seasoning. If it does turn out to be a bit crusty, then sand it with a coarse grit to pull off the crusty bits, then a fine grit to smooth out the lines from the coarse sanding. I do the same when cheese gets stuck on my soapstone- coarse sanding, then fine, then a damp paper towel to take off the dust. If I don't spill any cheese, then it's just a damp paper towel between bakes.

Paul's recipe is similar to mine, except I use bromated flour 

[parallei]

Norma and Chau's recent posts concerning NY style pies inspire me to keep trying with the steel plate.  These were pretty tasty.........

KABF again.  Scott, I actually spent the better part of a morning cursing around to every type/ethnic grocery store I could think of and no luck trying to track down a bromated flour here in Denver.

[norma427]

Paul,

Your NY style pies look fantastic!  Your crumb also looks very tender and open.

Nice job!

Norma

[buceriasdon]

Wow Paul, That's unbromated? Outstanding!
Don

[dellavecchia]

Paul - Outstanding. Good 'ol KABF - I used it in high percentages for some sicilian stuff recently and it always performs beautifully when you need higher protein.

John

[chickenparm]

Excellent pies! I got hungry looking at those!
 

[parallei]

Thanks folks. 

I think the combination on minimal kneading and fazzari's late in the game balling is the ticket, for me, for now.

Best

[hockman4357]

Gave the steel plate another try tonight.  One of the better "in the home oven" pies I've made.  Nothing special:

Flour - 100% (KABF)
Water - 64%
IDY - 0.5%
Salt - 2.0%
Olive Oil - 2.5%
Sugar - 1.5%

Dissolve salt and sugar in water.  Add flour and IDY.  Stir together with Danish Dough Whisk. Let rest 5 min.  Add oil, squish in with hands.  Let rest 5 min.  Minimal kneading (five or six slap on the counter type kneads, one or two regular with the heel of the hand kneads).  Into the fridge bulk for 18 hours.  Out of the fridge for one hour, divide and gently re-ball.  Back to the fridge for two hours, then out of the fridge for two hours.  Oven preheated to 550F for 75 min with steel plate about 4-inches below broiler (electric).  4:30 min bake with broiler on for about 2:00 min.

This may well be a stupid question, but how do I convert this recipe into simple weights and/or volumes?  I want to give it a try this weekend.  Man, the pizza that you are making looks amazing!!!

[parallei]

hockman4357,

The easiest way to do it yourself is to use the Expanded Dough Calculator Tool here:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html

But first read:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5025.msg42542.html#msg42542

Post if questions.......

Thickness Factor (TF) used was 0.08....

[Pete-zza]

Paul,

For hockman4357 to be able to use the expanded dough calculating tool to make pizzas like yours, he will have to know either the dough ball weight or a thickness factor and pizza size. I did not see that information specified in the post where you set forth the baker's percents. 

Peter