how to attain best results with this equipment?

[dance]

Hi! To continue from my reply in the introductions thread, my pizza stone was bought on eBay UK from seller 3-2-1-Pizza. A picture of the stone is attached.

I have a standard UK oven which only goes up to 250C/480F. It's what we in the UK call a 'fan oven' (convection oven), which means hot air is circulated around the oven by a fan. The oven also features a grill at the TOP, and it is my belief that the two can operate in tandem.

Does anyone have any tips or thoughts on what recipes I should follow or what oven settings/placements I should use for best results? If anyone wants more specific info on the oven I'd be happy to help, but I imagine it's pretty standard.

The last and first time I made pizza on the stone, lots of dough stuck to the stone because I didn't use enough cornmeal. I've got it sanded down, I think - am I right to think I shouldn't wash it in water? I hope it's okay.

Thanks!

[grovemonkey]

I have used the lehman recipe with my own success.  here is the example I put up the other day:

202 grams of 13.8 % protein content flour
127.65 grams of water (bottled) at 38C
1/2 tsp of oil (not olive)
3.55 g of salt 5/8 a tsp
1/4 tsp of yeast (IDY)or .81g

My set up was like this.  first get the basic ingrediants all mesured out.. I heat the water in the microwave and disolve the salt completely.  I then add the yeast.  After that I add 75% of the flour and mix it up nice by hand and let it sit for around 20 minutes.  I then add the oil and the rest of the flour.  I'll knead that mixture for around 8 minutes then I just cover it and put it in the refrig for a day.

when I take the pizza dough out of the refrig it is big so I actually folded it down and let it sit on the counter until it rose up again.  about 1 1/2 to 2 + hours.  If you look at my previous post, you can see the results at my website (my dog even liked the crust!)

I have a similar oven but no pizza stone and other people will give good advice on that and other recipes but I wanted to just tell you my experience. 

grove.

[dance]

Grove, thanks for your reply. Much appreciated. A couple of questions:

knead - by hand? in a machine? I only have the option of the former.
bottled water - are you serious? How about if I put it through the Brita filter?
oil - what type if not oil?

Thanks

[chiguy]

 Hi Dance,
 Seeing you have a stone and pizza peel why don't you try a N.Y. style pizza version. Under the NewYork style section you will find many recipes. The Tom Lehmann N.Y. stlye pizza thread started by Pete-zza is a good start, or Tom Lehmann roadmap to N.Y. style is also very informative. I also think it is a good idea to read the glossary on the home page. It will be important to understand Flour types and some basic terminology used here.  If you have already spent some time reading here then you are ahead of the game.  Chiguy

[grovemonkey]

I do everything thing by hand cause no mixer.  Works fine for me with one or two dough balls. 

Oil - I was using olive but now just a soybean oil I picked up in a store here in japan.  I try to work with whatever is available around here.  I was also using too much oil for the type of pizza I am trying to obtain (i think).  I cut the oil down significantly and stopped putting in any sugar. 

You can try whatever you like and your own style and taste will dictate the recipe, I think.  That seems to be a generally accepted idea on the boards.  Unless you are going for a particular style of pizza, do the Tom Lehmann recipe since I think most people have had success and it tastes good .  I'd use that as a basic recipe then start playing with cooking/mixing variables (stone/screen, heat, fermentation and rise techniques, ingredient mixing order, etc) and actual ingredient variations (types of flour, flour protein percentages, waters, yeasts, types of salt, oils, sugars, etc)

That's my newbie two cents..

Grove

[Natephish]

About your pizza stone: if you need to wash it at all, use only warm water.  I've heard of people using warm water + baking soda but I've never done so.  DO NOT use any soap or detergent on it, as the material that the stone's made out of tends to be very porous and will absorb the soapy texture and flavor.  Also, make sure it is BONE DRY before you put it in your oven.  You'll have a nicely broken stone if not.

As for your pizza sticking to it, throw some corn meal or semolina flour on your peel before you drop your dough on the peel for dressing.

[ehlaban]

Hi,

Have the same stone and oven, 250 C - 480 F, like you and
have a real problem with getting a good pizza out of it.
After 5 minutes in the oven the mozarella is cooking
so i take the pizza out.

When longer in the oven the crust gets real hard.

Will post my experiments soon but am open for sugestions