Lehmann Pizza Pics

[Bryan S]

Thought i'd share the pics of tonights pizza, 8 day old  63% hydration dough. I stretched the dough straight from the fridge. I find it very easy to work with and I get very uniform/even thickness with cold dough verses using dough that has been at room temp for the 2-3 hrs which a lot of people reccomend. I find warm dough for me gets thin in spots, stretches, and gets out of round too easy  IMO. It has Red Pack toms, Sorreno mozz, sharp provolone, and Ezzo roni. Baked at 550 for 8 min.

[grovemonkey]

that looks real good.  I'm a sucker for pepperoni on pizza. I've never seen sharp provolone here in Japan but I'm definately going to look for that kind of cheese.  I wonder if you are adding any type of sugar/honey to your dough.  I've been using a good amount of honey nowadays and getting very nice results, I believe better than when I was using white sugar or even brown sugar. 

grove.

[Pete-zza]

Bryan S,

Very nice. How did the pizza taste?

Did you do anything special to get the dough to last 8 days?

Peter

[Bryan S]

Bryan S,

Very nice. How did the pizza taste?

Did you do anything special to get the dough to last 8 days?

Peter

Peter, grovemonkey thanks. I made the dough using the Lehmann dough calculator and just left it in the fridge (beer fridge in the garage) which is about 34-36 degrees on average. The dough tasted fine. Not as good as the pizza shop i worked in as a 15-16 year old (i think that's why i like working with cold dough) but was pretty darn good.  20 oz dough ball, cooked on a 16" screen.

[Naps]

Is there anyway you could take a pic or two of what your pie looks like under the cheese?

Thanks,

Naps

[Bryan S]

Is there anyway you could take a pic or two of what your pie looks like under the cheese?

Thanks,

Naps

Naps, Next time i make one, I'll try to remember to do that for you. 

[Naps]

Thanks Bryan.

I really can't figure it out. The crust I have has great flavor. The cheese I am using is awesome, holding up very nicely, it is just that darn dough under the cheese I cannot figure out why it is all gummie and slimy.

[grovemonkey]

Nap,

I was wondering about your pizza.  The temp seems fine but photos of your product would do wonders in giving an idea of what the final product looks like.  I use two types of set ups here at my home.  I got a g3 Ferrari device and I use a convection oven with a stone.  My stone never gets nearly as hot as my G3 which can toast my crust in a minute.  I personally like my crust on a soft side, seems to remind me of Neapolitan style pizza.

If you want crisp crust underneath you could:

Use a screen and see if that affects the bottom
Try using a stone (my convection oven doesn't seem to heat my stone up enough even after one hour though)
Thin out your toppings/sauce
Thin the crust out also.  a thin crust with lots of sauce will be hard to make crispy without a hot stone underneath.
Try a lower hydration of dough

You could also parbake the crust but I've never done that.


grove
 

[Naps]

Grove,

I will definately post a pic tonight. I have a coupl eof doughs in the fridge, and one I am going to try with a straight warm rise today.

I have tried to make a less hydrated dough, and I got the same result.

I am using a pizza stone, and am seeing good results on the bottom of the crust and the outer edges. When I say good, I mean decent for my first few pies ever!

It will be hopefully easier to explain when I put up a pic. The dough underneath the cheese justs seems to be slimy or of a gummy consistency.

Maybe you are right and I am putting too much sauce, but it doesn't look like it to me.

Thanks for your comments.


Naps

[humpty99]

Grove,

I will definately post a pic tonight. I have a coupl eof doughs in the fridge, and one I am going to try with a straight warm rise today.

I have tried to make a less hydrated dough, and I got the same result.

I am using a pizza stone, and am seeing good results on the bottom of the crust and the outer edges. When I say good, I mean decent for my first few pies ever!

It will be hopefully easier to explain when I put up a pic. The dough underneath the cheese justs seems to be slimy or of a gummy consistency.

Maybe you are right and I am putting too much sauce, but it doesn't look like it to me.

Thanks for your comments.


Naps

Try putting the crust in for a few minutes by itself.  I have recently started doing this with good results. Especially if your dough is fairly wet, its a hell of a lot easier to get off the peel with no toppings on it. 

[Bryan S]

Here's some pics of a 8 day old, no oil or sugar dough. I had made one of the dough balls at 5 days old which was good but the 8 day old i made tonight was awsome. Wife said it was so good and my best one ever. I have to agree with her it was really good. What stood out about this one beside a real nice flavor in the crust was a super thin, very crisp layer on the bottom of the pizza, which melted right away. I heard the crispy layer while slicing it with the pizza cutter. Cooked at 550 on a screen for 8 min. Topped with sauce made from crushed Red Packs, Sorrento Mozz, and Ezzo Roni.

For 2 - 20 oz balls.
Flour (100%) 24.56 oz
Water (62%) 15.22 oz
IDY (0.33%) 0.76 tsp.
Salt (2%) 2.5 tsp.

[Pete-zza]

Bryan,

Another nice job. Your pizzas are along the lines of the classic NY style pizzas that were made by the masters years ago, except they didn't let their doughs go out to 8 days .

I'm not a fan of using a rolling pin but I meant to suggest earlier in this thread that you might try rolling out a skin to say, 12", and then stretch it out the rest of the way by hand. That is what Tom Lehmann often recommends to workers who are learning how to slap out skins but experience uneven thicknesses or thin spots. Commercial sheeters are often used the same way. I haven't tried the method myself but may give it a try sometime to see what effect the rolling action has on expelling gases from the dough.

Peter

[DWChun]

Wonderful looking pies, Bryan. I wish I could get Ezzo roni without hassle. I have to look into pizza screens as your results are fantastic.


DW

[Trinity]

Oh,,, That looks so good... trin drool... : ):::

[Bryan S]

Bryan,

Another nice job. Your pizzas are along the lines of the classic NY style pizzas that were made by the masters years ago, except they didn't let their doughs go out to 8 days .

I'm not a fan of using a rolling pin but I meant to suggest earlier in this thread that you might try rolling out a skin to say, 12", and then stretch it out the rest of the way by hand. That is what Tom Lehmann often recommends to workers who are learning how to slap out skins but experience uneven thicknesses or thin spots. Commercial sheeters are often used the same way. I haven't tried the method myself but may give it a try sometime to see what effect the rolling action has on expelling gases from the dough.

Peter

Peter, Master Me? No way. When i used to work in a pizza shop almost 30 years ago now, i could hold my own cranking out pies. But you know it's kind of like the riding a bike thing, you never forget. The only time i ever got thick and/or thin spots in the dough was the 2 times when i used dough that was sitting out for the 2-3 hr to come up to room temp thing, but i never used warm dough so that's probably why i don't like working with it. I myself find it much easier to use the dough straight from the fridge, like I did back in the day. I'll have to say that my pies are very consistant these days no matter the recipe. I'm also very happy with cooking the pies at 550 on a screen on the middle rack of my oven. The thing that stood out the most about the 8 day old no oil,sugar dough was the crust. It was the star attraction of that pizza. The thin super crispy layer i mentioned reminded me of Rice Crispies, that's what it sounded like i was cutting when cutting the pie in to slices. It was a ultra thins crisp that just melted in your mouth. I'm hoping to be able to duplicate that again on my next 8 day old dough. I did not have that crispy layer on the 5 day old dough.
EDIT: (missed a word)