May 2012 Monthly Challenge: Your Signature Pizza

[Bill/SFNM]

This month you are challenged to present your signature pizza. Let's see the one pizza that you consider represents your very best pizza making skills.

 
   

[aeneas1]

a few from my pizza joint:

[Pete-zza]

Robert,

Good to see you back. I hope that all is going well at Cafe Reyes at Point Reyes Station.

Peter

[aeneas1]

Robert,

Good to see you back. I hope that all is going well at Cafe Reyes at Point Reyes Station.

Peter

thanks peter - yes, all is going well at my cafe, can't believe i'm heading into my fifth year serving pizzas, time absolutely flies by. still plenty of room for improvement, always a challenge, but a wonderful item to prepare and serve, especially considering i'm able to take advantage of the many locally produced items in my neck of the woods.

[TXCraig1]

Bill, a little clarification please. Are you looking for the pie that best displays our pizzamaking skills or the pie we consider our signature pie? For me anyway, it would not be the same pie.

[Bill/SFNM]

Bill, a little clarification please. Are you looking for the pie that best displays our pizzamaking skills or the pie we consider our signature pie? For me anyway, it would not be the same pie.

Good question. As with all of these challenges, feel free to interpret any way you want. I'm curious about both of your pizzas.

To me "signature" includes elements of pride, innovation, and excellence. More pride should accrue to something difficult to accomplish. Excellence in pizza is directly related to enjoyment. But whose enjoyment - yours or the other people who are eating it. Take this challenge any way you want. I think my entry will be the pizza I most enjoy eating, the one that I will make just before the world ends later this year.

[Bill/SFNM]

By the way, I think Robert's pizzas shown above fit the qualifications perfectly: pride, innovation, and excellence!

[TXCraig1]

By the way, I think Robert's pizzas shown above fit the qualifications perfectly: pride, innovation, and excellence!

Absolutely. Robert - what all is on the pepperoni pie?

[JimmyG]

This is certainly not my prettiest pizza, but it is a formula that I am particularly proud of, combining my NYer and Sicilian roots into a Sicilia/NY-pizza hybrid. The dough formula is 65% AP and 35% semolina (100% total), 70% hydration, 2.3% salt, and 2.5% sourdough stater. The cheese is a blend of young pecorino and fresh mozz. The sauce is uncooked, containing 28oz of canned cherry tomatoes, 1 bottle cap of Marsala, 1 grated garlic clove, chili flakes, and dried Etna oregano.

[TXCraig1]

That pie looks awesome Jimmy. I love the perfectly even thinness.

[JimmyG]

Thanks Craig. 

[aeneas1]

That pie looks awesome Jimmy. I love the perfectly even thinness.

+ 1, well done!

Absolutely. Robert - what all is on the pepperoni pie?

san marzano, fresh mozz, roasted garlic, crimini mushrooms, lightly topped with shaved grana padano...

[aeneas1]

By the way, I think Robert's pizzas shown above fit the qualifications perfectly: pride, innovation, and excellence!

ha ha, very kind of you sir! 4+ years and it's still a daily challenge, gotta love it! i still marvel at the way our leavened dough balls react to even moderate fluctuations in weather condition, once they are staged near our oven and ready for use. a light fog rolls in, filling the air with moisture and coolness, a sunny afternoon without a cloud in the sky, what a difference!

[TXCraig1]

san marzano, fresh mozz, roasted garlic, crimini mushrooms, lightly topped with shaved grana padano...

Beautiful. Thank you.

[johnnydoubleu]

Jimmy, I was planning on putting together a very similar dough for testing in a gas deck soon. Looks awesome. That 100% durum pie I did was really quite something but it was extra chewy. Sounds like you struck a nice middle ground ratio wise.

[JimmyG]

Johnny U²,
Thanks John. I guess this is kind of my sweet spot using both durum and KAAP. Kind of the perfect mix where I am able to keep the dough light but yet able to retain the durum flavor that I love so much. I have not made a traditional sfincione with this mix in while, but I'm feeling it is long past due. One of the main reason I started working with durum doughs was to obtain the same taste and textures in the dough as I found in Sicily and this recipe comes really close. Although I do up the hydration by 2% for the sfincione to maintain the light texture.

[TXCraig1]

The one pizza that I would probably have to call my signature pie is my MWT (Mushroom and White Truffle): mozzarella di bufala, sliced raw cremini mushrooms, parmigiano-reggiano, black pepper, and white truffle oil drizzled on post-bake.

So many of my regular pies are inspired by or flat out copies of pies I’ve had in restaurants. This one, however is not only one of my all-time favorites, it is also original.  

[Bill/SFNM]

it is also original.  

Hey, not so fast. I claim prior art:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5719.msg48475.html#msg48475

That is very, very close to infringing on my signature white "Pizza Lolita". That is going to be my submission this month!

Nice looking pie!

[TXCraig1]

Hey, not so fast. I claim prior art:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5719.msg48475.html#msg48475

That is very, very close to infringing on my signature white "Pizza Lolita". That is going to be my submission this month!

Nice looking pie!

Hummm.... I wasn't a member in 2007 and this is the first time I've looked at that post, but I see two very different yet equally delicious pies - cooked vs. raw mushrooms (and lots more of them); no garlic, shallots, or fontina on mine, salt on yours, pepper on mine.

They might not give me a patent, but I don't see an infringement. 

CL

[TXCraig1]

Despite the similarities, I bet the two taste very different.