Author Topic: grandma pizza (Read 23096 times)

scott r · « **on:** November 01, 2006, 08:51:58 PM »

I just was noticing the lack of info we have here on this wonderful style of pizza that is so popular around the NY area. I first encountered this pizza a few years ago while visiting some friends on Long Island, and I have to say it left a great impression. I made a few pies this weekend, but didn't take any pics, so I did a little research on the web and found this excellent article that does a great job of covering what this style is all about.

http://www.pmq.com/mag/2004march_april/secretrecipe.shtml

This weekend I made mine with the Tom Lehmann Sicilian pizza dough recipe that calls for 5% oil. The texture was too cake like from all the oil and was not what I would consider an authentic grandma pizza dough. I am going to work up my own recipe the next time. Does anyone out there have any info on grandma pizza? If so, I would love to hear about it.

EDIT (1/25/13): Since the link to the above article is no longer operative, see the Wayback Machine link to the same article at http://web.archive.org/web/20120120012709/http://www.pmq.com/mag/2004march_april/secretrecipe.shtml

DNA Dan · « **Reply #1 on:** November 01, 2006, 09:31:26 PM »

In my family we have the exact same pizza style. Ironically, my last name is also Bruno. I don't think I am related to the person in the article, but hey, you never know.

Traditionally, my father would make this with anchovies and no sauce. (Aka white pizza) A good hit of red pepper and parmesan makes for a delicious treat! It comes out very close to a toasted Foccacia or very similar to a Deep Dish Chicago. I guess what separates this from the bunch is that it's a fairly light dough. It tastes more like a bread, less like a pizza crust. The olive oil is key to this style and it gives the crispy crust a very earthy flavor.

A few days before family holidays my father would make several "sheets" of this pizza. When family would come over he would whip out a few sections, cut them into little squares ~2" x 2" and toast them. It further gave the pizza a toasted texture on all sides. It was typically served with other dishes of olives, salted cod fish, pickled artichokes, all the typical carpachios and cold italian dishes. It was typically an appetizer snack food and not really a main dish.

Ahhh the love of being Italian....

oh I forgot to add, this is WEST COAST dago style...

Harv · « **Reply #2 on:** November 02, 2006, 07:58:55 AM »

I first had Grandma's style pizza about 5 years ago on Long Island. It quickly became my favorite, supplanting my long held love of classic pepperoni pizza. The pizza shown below (the same one as seen in my avatar) is a Grandma's style I made this summer. It is round as opposed the usual square shape (I don't like stretching squares

). It is topped with mozzarella, moderately zesty red sauce (6in1crushed plus spices), garlic, onion, fresh basil strips, my dry pizza blend of oregano, basil etc. and typically a drizzle of olive oil, but I did not add it to this pie. The areas of garlicky white, combined with occasional pools of sauce make an incredible flavor profile. I have made this for pizza parties and it is often the favorite. I encourage everyone on this board to give it a try. You will not be disappointed.

Buffalo · « **Reply #3 on:** November 02, 2006, 08:35:22 AM »

Good Morning Harv;

I have NEVER seen a crust look better than yours! Did it taste as good as it looks? If willing, would you share the dough recipe? Thanks.......
Buffalo

Harv · « **Reply #4 on:** November 02, 2006, 05:44:38 PM »

It was a fine pizza. I'll give you the recipe to the best of my knowledge but I don't think it is that significant in the end result. I used Ceresota AP flour about 4 cups, 1.5 tsp salt, 1 tsp yeast, and water to about 60% hydration(guessing). Hand kneaded for about 10 minutes after a 15 min rest in which 75% of the flour was hydrated and the remaining 25% worked in during kneading. This was allowed to rest for 24h in the fridge and taken out three hours before cooking. But the biggest difference is in the oven. I had coals across the back and down both sides of the oven. These coals really contributed to the oven spring and the wonderful browning of the crust. I'm in the infancy of learning my oven so I am still experimenting just about every time I fire it.

Buffalo · « **Reply #5 on:** November 02, 2006, 06:32:39 PM »

Harv;

Thanks for the recipe and oven info. It is evident that your coal oven is doing an excellent job and is taking pizza making to the "next" level. Buffalo

Harv · « **Reply #6 on:** November 03, 2006, 03:24:07 AM »

Just to clarify, my oven is just a wood burning oven.

pizza king · « **Reply #7 on:** November 06, 2006, 09:34:20 PM »

I love that you guys brought up grandma...I lived on LI for four yrs and its the most popular kind of pizza there.. but each place makes it different... the original which I think there is actually a link in here some where for it is Umbertos in New Hyde Park which uses the fresh Mozz and Plum tomato sauce and garlic. Most place tasted pretty similar to there. There was another place that I though had the best but it was kind of different it was more like a Marinara slice which, Which is a Silcilian this was a place Ancona Pizzeria in Valley stream. Ancona's had a thick Silcilian with Oridinary Mozz they would pour the plum garlic sauce right on top... they would do a over night freeze on all the Silcilian doughs ...and I have to say MMmmMMMMmmm...while there are serveral others that had there own variations on it.. There is another pizza i would love to see people try on here ...no one has mentioned it ... It is baked Ziti pizza only one place made it good that was La Piazza in Bellmore( 2 locations don't remember where the second one was) ...They were the only place I ever saw that would make a half slice pie they would ball up one side of the pie to make it so the all the fixings would not spill and they would have more fresh slices this way... One of the other places i frequented a lot..they new my name i went there so much was two brothers in levittown. they had a good baked ziti slice but they let it sit there all day so i only had once straight from the oven and it was real good...

PizzaBrasil · « **Reply #8 on:** November 07, 2006, 05:04:43 AM »

I do not know if you could call the pizza in pictures of Grandma´s pizza.
Foccacia dough with a lot of EVOO, baked in wood oven.
Good taste, too bad pictures, sorry.

Luis

Buffalo · « **Reply #9 on:** November 07, 2006, 08:11:07 AM »

PizzaBrasil;

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! If you own a business people must be lined up for blocks to get into your pizzeria.
Buffalo

Pete-zza · « **Reply #10 on:** November 07, 2006, 08:24:17 AM »

Quote from: pizza king on November 06, 2006, 09:34:20 PM

There is another pizza i would love to see people try on here ...no one has mentioned it ... It is baked Ziti pizza only one place made it good that was La Piazza in Bellmore( 2 locations don't remember where the second one was)

pizza king,

I don't want to steer this thread off too far in another direction, but you might check out this thread on ziti pie: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1856.msg16406.html#msg16406.

Peter

pizza king · « **Reply #11 on:** November 07, 2006, 09:58:56 AM »

I got to get the ADD under control huh? ...yeah those look close to grandma. They are normally thinner Sicilian's ... one half the size of the Sicilian fresh mozz on the bottom.. cheese and sauce like in the link Scott put up evenly spaced through the pizza then you put some olive oil on it and some garlic ...but you want to be pretty thin...

scott r · « **Reply #12 on:** November 07, 2006, 12:54:48 PM »

pizza king, anconas is the first place I had grandma pizza. Really great. I did not know about the freezing of the pizza... are you sure about that? At what point do they freeze it, just the dough, dough with sauce etc.?

PizzaBrasil · « **Reply #13 on:** November 08, 2006, 05:01:58 AM »

New baking day. Another batch.
Grandma´s?

itsinthesauce · « **Reply #14 on:** November 08, 2006, 09:01:45 AM »

PB, is there a recipe for the dough? I don't recall seeing it.

Thanks!

Buffalo · « **Reply #15 on:** November 08, 2006, 10:27:19 AM »

PizzaBrasil;

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE supply us with your recipes for your "grandma's pizza". I, for one, think your efforts are unmatched in your particular type of pizza making and I would love to try duplicating your results.
Buffalo

DNA Dan · « **Reply #16 on:** November 08, 2006, 03:32:46 PM »

Man that kicks ass! Perfect balance of gooeyness and singe! I would say you have that one mastered. You're showing that on a prep board I see. Are you really Wolfgang Puck? That shot was taken in a restaurant ? no?

pizza king · « **Reply #17 on:** November 08, 2006, 09:42:57 PM »

Quote from: scott r on November 07, 2006, 12:54:48 PM

pizza king, anconas is the first place I had grandma pizza. Really great. I did not know about the freezing of the pizza... are you sure about that? At what point do they freeze it, just the dough, dough with sauce etc.?

I am pretty sure that is what they. They were putting the doughs in there in trays and putting they said the freezer they may have ment the frige... just the dough ..i don't remember it was like 4 yrs ago... hahah

PizzaBrasil · « **Reply #18 on:** November 10, 2006, 06:51:48 AM »

Buffalo:

Sorry by delaying the answer, quite busy.
The recipe that I used to the focaccia dough was the one that is in the site http//forums.egullet.org under the “Report on Dan Lepard´s baking day”.
There are a lot of pictures and steps that could be good to see.
However, please permit me to write the basics following:
The original dough formulae was

350g leaven (refreshed 24 hours earlier)
150g warm bottled sparkling water
1 tsp easy blend yeast
1 tsp malt extract
1 tsp runny honey
350g '00' flour
2 tsp fine sea salt
10 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

I did not use the malt extract.
The first pair of dough pictured in a baking pan was done as indicated and baked in hot wood oven, nice holes and smooth texture.
The second focaccia had an intermediate step. A biga was made with preferment and flour and left in the counter by 12 hours, then more flour and preferment was mixed resting for more 10 hours and finally the rest of the flour and the oil were added, and the dough was to the refrigerator by 20 hours.
The toppings of the focaccias are not the ones indicated in the original recipe as the focaccia accepts a lot of variation on it.
The first one of the couple had onions, oregano and muzz (always with generous quantities of EVOO), and the second one, tomato sauce, muzz, jam, oregano and sliced tomatoes.
The last and big one had tomato sauce, chopped onions, muzz, parmesan, sliced tomatoes and oregano.
At this moment I do not remember the exact quantities of the second dough. However I could write here by searching my notes.
That I remember is that the first recipe had a barker´s percent of 62%. The second recipe (because of the use of biga) was a little dryer, with around 55%. To have a wet dough, I increased the EVOO quantity (no record on this) a lot, just to have a sticky and very extensible dough. And more EVOO was added before baking!
It was topped in two minutes, baked in one and disappear from the pan in two seconds

Even being preceded by 20 pizzas coming from the wood oven, it was the night star!

DNA Dan:

Thanks!
I am an engineer baking pizzas! Consequence, I had a lot of stuff (even made by myself or purchased) to make my life as simpler as possible (Do you figure that, an engineer thinking simple LOL)
These is a home made prep board.
The picture was taken by somebody when the pizza left the oven in a 35 pizza party that I am talking about in another thread.

Luis

Buffalo · « **Reply #19 on:** November 10, 2006, 08:28:30 AM »

PizzaBrasil;

Thank you very much for the recipe/information. I look forward to trying it very soon.
Thanks again.....
Buffalo