New York Style pizza pictures

[Arthur]

Finally I had a few moments to share some pizza making pictures....these were taken a few weeks ago, but had a few minutes to post them....enjoy!

[Arthur]

during the rest peroid of mixing 5/5/5

[Arthur]

after mixing....

enough dough for about 2 16" pies (my stone is 15 1/2 round).

[Arthur]

picture not good, but can see the size of 1 pie's worth of dough BEFORE rising 24+ hours in fridge

[Arthur]

pizza dough after rising

1 in bag, 1 in tin (only have 1 tin   )

wine...getting ready to go!

[Arthur]

I put a circle on my peel to so that I don't go bigger than my stone (15.5 inches).  Redpack sauce and fresh mozz balls from trader joes.

Now that's a peel!   Size DOES matter  

[Arthur]

And the result....

BTW, the fresh mozz - as others have mentioned result in a watery base when cooked and pretty much ruins the crust  

[Steve]

Sure looks delicious! Thanks for the pictures!  

[Pierre]

Arthur, really a very good looking pizza! Looks like you won't be ordering out much either anymore.....

Pierre

[Arthur]

Thank you for the complement.

In my never ending quest for the "best" pizza....I have several issues with my pizza:

1) my pizza dough is still a little too thick - I'm comparing it to the "elite" pizza doughs of New York.  My pizza dough tastes a little bagel-like.  I want it thinner and less doughy.  Should I try less yeast?

2) I like the redpack best so far and I'll probably stick with that since it's easy to find and easy to make - still not New York pizza sauce, but I haven't found anything close.  And with Steve's attempts with 7/11, I'm out of ideas.

3) I love the taste of fresh mozz, but it ruins the crust.  The shredded I get always tastes like I have too much cheese on my pizza.  I know that the "real" NY places uses Grande mozz, but you can't get that in small packages     I did go to a place in NY recently (Nicks) where they had rectangular pieces of (what looked like) fresh mozz.  It looked like it had been dried out enough to put on the dough without ruining it.  Also, they put it on BEFORE the sauce.   Any info on this kind of cheese and/or technique?

[Glutenboy]

Arthur --

The pizza sure looked good!  Anyway, here are my tips as far as getting a thinner crust and using fresh cheese.

1) Before the first rise the dough should be moist and slightly sticky.  (Actually this varies from flour to flour as I have discovered the hard way.)  The bottom line is, a moister dough will have more stretchability after your 24 hour refrigerator rise.  You may have to botch some experiments before perfecting the formula.  Stretchability is the key, and you won't get it until after a nice long rest in the fridge.  Give it an hour to warm up on the counter before you use it.

2) Fresh Mozz. -- If the water content of the cheese is higher, reduce the water content of the sauce.  How?  After you cook the tomatoes as you like them, if the sauce is still too thin but you don't want to change the flavor with further cooking to thicken it...  Use a collander!!! (did I spell that right?)  Let some of the thin part run out, and stir it till it's a bit thicker.  Make sure the sauce or tomatoes are no warmer than room temp.  When spreading on the pizza --  Warm sauce = soggy crust.  I may be telling you stuff you already know, but I hope I helped.

                                      -- Glutenboy

[Pierre]

Arthur, when I use fresh mozzarella (the kind that is sold as a ball and packaged in a salt bry) I have found this technique as suitable:

place the mozzarella ball in a clean kitchen towel in the center and then twist the ends closed. Squeeze the towel and mozz ball between both your hands, eventually the excess water (whey) will be released out of the mozzarella. Squeeze untill you think no more water is there. I've done this a few times and it works quite well.

give it a try and let me know if it worked for you....

Pierre

[Pierre]

Arthur, how much yeast are you using in your recipe? Or have you posted it somewhere here?

I have mentioned in several postings that only a minimal amount of yeast is necessary. In my last test I used just 1,5 ml of yeast (ca. 1/4 teaspoon) for 250 grams of flour.

Bagles taste yeasty or doughy because they are scolded in hot water before they are baked. The yeast is for the large part killed off and the bagles do not rise anymore or just minimaly in the oven. That's why they are so chewy...

try to go to the extreme one time with your recipe and lower the yeast content like I had tried. You will then know if that helps.

Pierre

for more info see this thread:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=389

[Arthur]

Thank you.  I really do appreciate everyone's comments.  Let me respond....

To Glutenboy: 1) my dough IS moist and sticky before the first rise and I do like the way it comes out after rising.  It's stretchable and doesn't really bounce back.
2) yes...good point.  I'm not sure if thicker sauce will account for the amount of water with the fresh mozz, but you never know.

To  Pierre:
I'm definitely going to try this.  I love fresh mozz over "regular" low-moisture shredded, so this would be excellent if it works....sounds like it should.  I'll give it a try next time.

As for the yeast, in looking at this thread:
http://www.pizzamaking.com/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=389

it looks like this recipe suggests a 52% flour/water ratio.  I currently have a 61% ratio which seems to work out in terms of texture.  As for yeast, I use about 3/4 teaspoon for about 21 oz flour....which if the internets metric conversion is correct exactly equals your 1.5 ml of yeast for 250 grams of flour.

Sorry I didn't mention this before, but with my dough, I think it has the right amount of yeast for rising and it feels right before and after rising and I can shape it really well and really thin, but during baking it seems to rise a little more than I want.  Any other suggestions???  I will probably try a little less yeast, but somehow I don't really want my dough to rise that much while baking.

[DKM]

Looks real good to me and I think I would try a thicker sauce.

DKM