weekend pizza - new techniques attempted [pics]

[PizzaSuperFreak]

first let me say that despite the pics and some undesired aspects, this pizza turned out absolutely mouth-wateringly delicious!

i ditched my kitchenaid stand mixer and used my ninja blender http://www.ninjakitchen.com/NinjaMasterPrepProSystem.shtml?tabID=detailsCont per this post from kenji from serious eats http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/new-york-style-pizza.html. he actually suggests using a food processor, but they're basically the same.

i really think the amazing taste from this pizza comes primarily from the whole milk mozz by polly-o. what an amazing melting and tasting cheese for pizza! just like those really good nyc-style places that i could only (previously) get that flavor from.

my crust turned out decent, a little pull and chew, fairly light and some voids. although i know mainly why it wasn't as airy as i would have liked. one is i did it on my grill but didn't give the unglazed quarry tiles enough time to get up to temp (was around 475-500 only). the reason i didn't let it get too hot was that i was trying to regulate the temp between the surface and the 'oven' itself. last time i let the tiles get too hot and the bottom got burned and the top was uncooked.

due to these factors, it probably took 10 minutes to cook this pie as the surface and air temp were somewhere around 450-500. way too low for what i desired. i like to look for around 700 but until i can perfect the surface to air temp, i might have to stick to these lower temps.

the other thing i did wrong was (don't laugh) i used AP flour. yes, i know, but i was feeling a bit lazy and didn't want to go buy my usual KABF.

the other tasty aspect is my raw sauce made very simply of Cento crushed tomatoes with a little kosher salt, dried oregano, powdered garlic and crushed red pepper. not a big deal, but i really do like the taste of Cento.

i do sauce my pizzas on the heavy side, and it was interesting that i could see the sauce actually simmering under this cheese. something i hadn't remembered seeing before.

well, next time i hope to have a faster cook and get some (nice) charring and more rise. but until then your thoughts are appreciated!

[dmcavanagh]

Looks good to me. I've tried several mozzarellas, and I really don't see much difference between any of them, Polly-O being no exception. The fact that you used a high heat grill probably accounted as much for the great flavor as the cheese did. No crime using ap flour either.

[PizzaSuperFreak]

Looks good to me. I've tried several mozzarellas, and I really don't see much difference between any of them, Polly-O being no exception. The fact that you used a high heat grill probably accounted as much for the great flavor as the cheese did. No crime using ap flour either.

thanks. yeah. the beauty of the thing really was using that ninja food processor. it has multiple blades (3 i think) that run vertically up the thing and it really made a smooth ball of dough in like 20 seconds or less. seemed much more of a 'conditioned' dough than when i normally mess around with my kitchenaid, using an autolyse period of 20 minutes, followed by about 5-10 minutes of dough-hook kneading. so much simpler and with possibly better results.

my only other 'complaint' is that, while i did retard the rise over 24 hours and let it proof for 2 hours at room temp before i used it, the dough was too gooey - so soft that i could barely reel it in to have it fit back on my peel.

i would've liked a bit more of a spring back when shaping the dough.

[PizzaSuperFreak]

Looks good to me. I've tried several mozzarellas, and I really don't see much difference between any of them, Polly-O being no exception.

also, i have some Sorrento whole milk mozz i'm going to try next and see what i think. perhaps there's little difference. who knows. i just can't remember my pizzas tasting that good before.

[PizzaSuperFreak]

here's my grill setup.

i put 2 layers of foil underneath the two layers of unglazed quarry tiles.