Baker's Pride model P22S

[scott123]

Kerry, my NY style recipe is engineered to produce successful results in a typical home oven with a special stone (steel or high talc soapstone) and a special flour (bromated).  It will fail miserably without the right oven setup.  Just about anyone can make it, but you can't walk into Bed, Bath and Beyond and buy a baking stone and then swing by your supermarket for King Arthur's bread flour.  Even with the correct stone and flour, there's still a considerable learning curve.  It takes a lot of practice to be able to launch pizza off a peel and even more practice to be able to stretch pizza to the thinness that my recipe requires.  It also takes some trial and error to dial in appropriate yeast quantities, as everyone's environmental variables are a bit different, so the yeast quantity that works for one person won't work for another.

If you told me, "hey, I'm throwing a pizza party next month, throw me a recipe" or, better yet, "I'm throwing a pizza party two months from now,"  then I think you could use my technique, but, for Friday, not a chance.  With this much time, I think it's wiser to go with one of the easier/more forgiving recipes, such as Peter's Papa Jon's clone. Larger thickness factor, higher oil, longer baked American style pizzas aren't quite as wonderful as NY, imo, but they're good for a crowd and can be mastered in a shorter amount of time.

This being said, when you're ready, and have the necessary equipment and the necessary time to invest, here's my current recipe:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13827.0.html

[Bobino414]

Kerry
Although the thermostat on my oven goes to 700 degrees, the manufacturer told me I should get about 650.  The thermostats on this type of oven are notoriously inaccurate and have been referred to as "wishostats."

Scott and you are both correct to be concerned about the insulation which is poor and the wiring.  I have taken the back of the oven off and can see that the wiring nut caps have lost their round shape.javascript:void(0);  The oven has been in the mid 800s many times but most of my baking this past year max temp is 750.  No sparks or fires yet.  So I agree with you Scott about not recommending this mod unless the conditions are ideal and one is comfortable with the rewiring.  My prior post was just to let Kerry know that it is possible and isn't this site about pushing the limits.

Balanced heat is a must so using a steel plate at 900 degrees and hoping to balance it with a blazing hot upper electric element(which I guess is in the 1400 degree range) but 2.5-3 inches away is not likely.

Sorry for the delay in responding but my notes are handwritten and it took a few hours to find the recipe(#437).  The flour was Kyrol, hydration 65%, less than 1% sugar, less than 1% oil, IDY .25%, fermentation room temp 8 hrs then into the fridge for 2 days, bake temp 840, bake time 45 seconds.  The bottom was completely charred while the top was mostly charred.  TAMPA Dave wouldn't eat it, he has such high standards !!

Scott, there was no additional stone just the 1/2" Cordierite on the floor of each level.

Bob

[scott123]

Thanks, Bob, I really appreciate you taking the time to dig up the recipe and answer my questions. Less than 1% sugar is not a lot, but, combined with the sugar in the malted flour, the sugar from the 2 days of enzyme activity and the elevated protein in the flour, the dough you were making had a lot of browning potential. At this point, I'm not really sure how to draw a direct correlation between your dough and an unmalted zero sugar, faster fermented Neapolitan dough, but I still think the odds are good that leoparding can be achieved in 90 seconds.  This is all currently a bit moot, though, as it sounds like Kerry isn't interested in buying the oven and risking potential damage from pushing it to Neapolitan temps.

Hopefully someone will come along at some point that owns an oven along these lines who is willing to push the envelope so we can really put the Neapolitan bake to the test. If someone could consistently get Neapolitan bake times without frying the wiring, that would be a very cost effective way to reproduce the effects of a WFO.

[kerrymarcy]

Scott,
I'm sure your right about me putting out a thin crust and launching the pizza.  Up until the time I joined this forum, I was rolling my thins.  I understand that some doughs can be rolled, but the integrity of most doughs would be jeopardized.  I'm really having a blast at stretching my doughs and have experienced quite a bit of success doing so thanks to this forum's posting links to You Tube videos.  Stretching the dough is almost as fun as eating the damn thing!  But you right, I'm a rookie to stretching and launching but with practice, who knows, I might join a traveling circus!  I have several stones that my wife has purchased over the years, but don't really know what brands they are except for the Pampered Chef stone.  I'm definitely going to look into getting the stone you recommended and some time after the Holidays, get me that steel plate.  Thanks Scott for the link to your world-famous NY'er.  I will be trying this as soon as I get the balls!  

Bobina,
I wish you all the luck in the world!  Its pretty awesome that we can talk about modifying ovens like you would a car!  Keep in touch because I still haven't given up totally.  I want to let it incubate for a bit.

Thanks all,
Kerry