How Many Kinds or Styles of Pizza do YOU Typically Make?

[petef]

How many different styles of pizza do you typically make?
What's unique about each one? Pics always welcome here!

I'm baking pizza at home since about 1990.
I currently make 3 styles of pizza:

1.) Rectangular Pan Style Pizza that has a light airy bottom crisp crust and a bright pizza sauce that is added on after the cheese. I use a poolish dough recipe and a 1 hour rise in the pan before par baking the crust in the pan and adding the toppings. This is always baked in my kitchen gas oven.

2.) Thin Crust Tomato Pie with mozzarella cheese and a bright tomato sauce. I use a hand mixed & kneaded dough recipe that includes a 24 hour cold ferment and 4 hours rest at room temperature. Cheese on first and topped with splashes of tomato sauce.

3.) NY Style Pizza with mozzarella cheese and a bright tomato sauce. I use the same dough as #2 above except that it's a thicker pizza capable of handling extra toppings such as sausage & mushrooms.

Those are my basic styles with variations in baking techniques on #2 and #3 depending upon whether I'm baking in my GE kitchen gas oven or in my custom made Weber Genesis gas grill Pizza oven.

---pete---

[TXCraig1]

You have almost a 20 year head start on me. I'm still trying to figure out my first one.

[petef]

You have almost a 20 year head start on me. I'm still trying to figure out my first one.

LOL. I think you have it figured out pretty good. You have some of the best looking pizza pics on this forum.

I may have many years of experience, but it wasn't until just the past year or so that I progressed to the point where I enjoy my own home baked pizza more than most professionally baked pies.

Once I feel I've mastered my current 3 styles of pizza I plan to expand onto some other styles.

---pete---

[norma427]

Pete,

Your three styles of pizzas look delicious! 

I have experimented with so many styles that I am not sure which one I like best.    I am also lucky to have a friend like Steve, where I can experiment in his WFO.

I like Pizzarium style, NY style, Greek style, Sicilian style, Reinhart and many others.

Norma

[Bill/SFNM]

Although the Neapolitan-style is where my heart lives, I have been extending the use of natural starters into other styles - even if the results might be less than traditional. NY, American, Chicago deep dish, and Sicilian all get worked into the rotation.

[Chicago Bob]

Dang Pete,
You make pizza just the way I like it. A 'lil heavy on the sauce an a good amount of cheese. Your pic's make me reeel hungry!

I do Chicago thin & deep dish. Cracker and just recently started tinkering with NY in prep. of a LBE I'm building.

[cwood]

I'd like to see some pics of that modified Weber!

[Chicago Bob]

I'd like to see some pics of that modified Weber!

It's in a different thread.

[PowerWagonPete]

My smokey grill pizza, which is sort of a mish-mash of a couple different styles, primarily American, is number one.  Clones of Papa Dino's of southcentral PA, a Trenton tomato pie derivative, are number two.  Deep dish Sicilian is number three but I'd like to get ahold of some of those blue steel pans before I make another one of those.  Every once and awhile I'll throw a pan pizza together as well.

For a midnight snack, I might fry up some soda-leavened flatbread pizza on the stovetop.  If I need to use up some old bread, I'll make pizza out of that as well.

In the future, I'd like to try a lightweight pastry crust-type pizza and a Pizza Hut Thin 'N' Crispy clone.  

[petef]

Dang Pete,
You make pizza just the way I like it. A 'lil heavy on the sauce an a good amount of cheese. Your pic's make me reeel hungry!

One recent thing I found when making sausage & mushroom pizza is a need for more sauce than a plain cheese pie. I start off by adding the cheese topped with splashes of sauce. I bake it to the point where the cheese is bubbling, then I add the S&M with a few more splashes of sauce. This method keeps the S&M from getting lost in the cheese and likewise the sauce does not get overpowered by the S&M.

---pete---

[petef]

I'd like to see some pics of that modified Weber!

Here's my custom Weber Genesis Pizza Oven...
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,19861.0.html

---pete---

[Gregg]

Having lived in the Chicago area my whole life, it's no surprise that my tastes are partial to the styles most often found around here. Here are some examples of pizza that I've made recently .....

My favorite is thin crust. I like a sauce with a touch of sweetness and use a 1:1 ratio of mozzarella and provolone cheese, along with Italian sausage with plenty of fennel. Party cut, of course.

I'm a big fan of deep dish as well. For a 12 inch pizza, I use one pound of cheese, one pound of sausage and two cups of sauce. It's baked in a stoneware pan that I've owned for at least twenty years.

The third member of the Chicago-style trinity is the stuffed variety. This small (6-inch) stuffed spinach pizza is one that I don't make nearly often enough and when eating one, always find myself wondering why.

I'm not sure how to classify the last one, but the crust is made using tipo "00" flour with fresh mozzarella and a very basic tomato sauce. Cooked at the highest temperature my electric oven offers (550 degrees) for about 7 minutes on a preheated Lodge cast iron pizza pan.

* original post edited to add inline pictures in place of links *

[Chicago Bob]

Hey Gregg,
Welcome to the forum. Very nice photography on your pics and the pizza's all look fantastic. Would you mind sharing your DD dough recipe...it looks awesome.     thanks!

[petef]

Gregg, your pizza & photography look great! I never ate Chicago Deep Dish pizza, so that's one I may try to master one day. Your thincrust pie looks like a masterpiece!

Does anyone know a place in central NJ that makes a descent Chicago Deep Dish pizza?
I need a reference point before attempting to make my own.

Welcome to the forum!

---pete---

[Chicago Bob]

Gregg, your pizza & photography look great! I never ate Chicago Deep Dish pizza, so that's one I may try to master one day. Your thincrust pie looks like a masterpiece!

Does anyone know a place in central NJ that makes a descent Chicago Deep Dish pizza?
I need a reference point before attempting to make my own.

Welcome to the forum!

---pete---

+1 on the thin crust also. I'd like to try your dough recipe for that one Gregg.

[Gregg]

Bob and Pete, thank you for your kind words. As requested, here is the recipe for deep dish.

flour 100%
water 49%
yeast 2%
salt 2%
sugar 3.4%
milk 24%

I use King Arthur all-purpose flour and always knead the dough by hand. The sugar is added to the yeast/water mixture to help feed it. After proofing, add the flour, salt and milk, stir to combine. If the dough is too sticky while kneading, add very small amounts of flour as needed. Six to seven minutes is sufficient kneading time, followed by an hour's rise in a covered bowl. The crust is par-baked for 5 minutes at 450 degrees on the lowest rack of my electric oven, taken out, allowed to cool for 5-10 minutes, then assembled with Italian sausage, sliced cheese (I like whole milk mozzarella) and sauce, in that order. Return to oven middle rack and bake for a further 20-25 minutes. You'll see the cheese bubbling a little bit and the crust turning a pleasant golden color. After removing from the oven, allow the pizza to rest for about five minutes before cutting.

Most deep dish recipes call for grated Parmesan to be sprinkled on top of the sauce before baking, but I leave it out (personal preference). I've been very pleased with this recipe and love this 12-inch diameter, 2-inch deep stoneware baking pan that was purchased in Evanston, IL many years ago. I'll post the thin crust recipe after crunching the numbers in the dough calculator.

* original post edited to add picture instead of link *

[Chicago Bob]

Thanks so much Gregg, looking forward to your thin crust recipe too. Did you mean 14% milk on your DD recipe?
That is a very nice pan you have there..I've seen one of those a long time ago and it obviously cooks your pies extremely well.

[Gregg]

Bob, 24% is the correct amount of milk. The thickness factor is 0.13 and I should mention that the crust isn't as "bready" as found in the famous pizza establishments such as Gino's East or Lou Malnati's, as I've tailored it to my own tastes. The recipe for the thin crust dough is as follows ...

flour 100%
water 71%
yeast 2.9%
salt 1%
sugar 1.5%
shortening 2.6%
malted milk powder 3%
TF=0.1

I like to experiment with different flour blends and favor using a 1:1 ratio by weight of bread flour and cake flour for this recipe. For a softer crust, bake in a lightly oiled pan @ 425° for 15-17 minutes. If you want crisper crust, bake directly on a preheated stone at 450° for 9-11 minutes.

Bon Appétit!

[Chicago Bob]

Gregg, your DD pie looks really good and it is on my list. I just want to be clear that you are working with a 73% HR ? And on your thin crust you use 71%. No rush here Gregg but I am hoping sometime you will post your dough making procedure. Your hydration ratio's are something very new to me and I'm quite interested.  Thanks.   

Bob

[petef]

Bob and Pete, thank you for your kind words. As requested, here is the recipe for deep dish.

flour 100%
water 49%
yeast 2%
salt 2%
sugar 3.4%
milk 24%

Thanks Gregg. Now I have some motivation to make my first pie ever using baker's percentages. I bought the scale (KD-8000) a few months ago but still never used it to make my dough. I've been hand kneading my dough and using Cups & Tablespoons measures for over 20 years.

For my first Deep Dish pizza, should I use my 9" diameter cast iron frying pan or my black non-stick 9" diameter cake pan? 

---pete---