Author Topic: My Giordano's Style Pizza's (with pics) (Read 96434 times)

Aldo · « **Reply #160 on:** November 03, 2009, 01:34:10 AM »

Jeez -- you people are a tough crowd! No, you can't get rid of me with names, and I've shared what I will. I do apologize, but here's a picture of a piece of pizza I baked. Keep up the good work, you guys, you're right to fight "trolls" -- I saw a guy post something like "hlep, I need to get a grea recipe, I'm opening a pizza place in a week" or something like that. No, that's "troll." I do very much appreciate your candor. You are clearly a crowd I respect, and hopfully in time I'll earn yours. Mangia!

mrmojo1 · « **Reply #161 on:** November 05, 2009, 01:51:55 AM »

here's last fridays attempt! my pan is the worst, its like 14 inch with a 2 inch lip. so i made a big big pie. with a high back crust! used like 15% smolina, was delicious. i have a long way to go, but it was very good. leftovers were equally awesome.

mrmojo1 · « **Reply #162 on:** November 05, 2009, 01:55:29 AM »

one more...still too saucy for some, but i likka the sauce!

Aldo · « **Reply #163 on:** November 06, 2009, 01:08:00 AM »

Hey, Mr. Mojo 1, I notice you're using an aluminum pan. If you're interested in the steel deal, there's a store in Chicago called Krasny & Co. where I picked up my pans. I've used both and prefer steel. I don't know if you've tried steel, but I find that a half hour at 450 for a 14 inch stuffed yields a good, light to golden brown crust. They're not as tall an edge as the ones you're using, but maybe you prefer yours. Well, if you're interested, you can Google "Krasney & Co." and there's a Yelp link and other entries with their contact info. Tell 'em you want steel stuffed pizza pans, and I bet they'll ship.

BTB · « **Reply #164 on:** November 06, 2009, 06:44:02 AM »

Good looking pizza, Mr. Mojo. I sense it could have been cooked a tad more, but maybe that's the shiny pan. At 450 degrees F and on a lower shelf, I would think about 45 minutes time would be right, but you'll need to watch it carefully. For such a large stuffed, maybe even lower the temperature to 425 or 435. My 9" deep dish pizza normally takes almost a half hour at 450 to 475. I always order the stuffed pizza with extra sauce on top, too, so I'd like the amount of sauce you put on.

Bed, Bath & Beyond stores, which I think are everywhere, has some great darker 9" and 14" pans (think they're good Chicago Metallic) that you can easily run out and get. The shiny pan you used does not help with coloring, but it still looked very good. My favorite, however, is getting nonperforated pans with PSTK from Pizzatools.com.

mrmojo1 · « **Reply #165 on:** November 06, 2009, 11:44:58 AM »

Excellent advice guys!! thank you very much. i do want a new pan, that aluminum pan is really crappy! yeah, i have to put foil on top part way through becuase the crust is browning on top too fast, compared to the rest. i totally agree it could have used some more time!! and i should lower the rack more.....good points!! thanks gang. I will look into those pan recommendations and i plan on making a purchase. i will let you knwo what i get. thanks again!!!

buenokid · « **Reply #166 on:** November 08, 2009, 11:16:11 PM »

I made pizza this past weekend as well. I made the dough a couple hours before. I've been wondering what SPECIFIC advantages I get by doing a cold fermentation with ADY or IDY.

My recipe is a modified one that came from buzz I believe. I made it bigger and have made small adjustments for my personal tastes.

One problem I continually run into is having enough dough to work with. I suppose this can be easily fixed by adding more flour, haha? I have used about 13% oil but recently have been experimenting to see how I like more oil in the dough.

Some pictures of what I made.

mrmojo1 · « **Reply #167 on:** November 11, 2009, 01:05:54 PM »

Looks yummy!! nice golden color on the crust! cheese and sauce look delicious!! great job!!

Mad_Ernie · « **Reply #168 on:** November 11, 2009, 01:14:08 PM »

I echo mrmojo1's comments. Nice pics!

buenokid · « **Reply #169 on:** November 13, 2009, 04:53:50 PM »

This was kind of lost in my post perhaps but...

What is the benefit of a cold fermentation over a few hours of rise time?

How much of a difference does this aspect make?

- Blaine

loowaters · « **Reply #170 on:** November 13, 2009, 09:13:24 PM »

Quote from: buenokid on November 13, 2009, 04:53:50 PM

This was kind of lost in my post perhaps but...

What is the benefit of a cold fermentation over a few hours of rise time?

How much of a difference does this aspect make?

- Blaine

With the richness of the dough (use of oil), not too much. However, you may want to adjust your yeast amounts depending on how you will proof it.

Loo

Oklahawg · « **Reply #171 on:** January 18, 2010, 08:47:53 PM »

Loved this thread so much (google is your friend) that I had to register and post.

Thanks for the insights. Thought I'd toss an item or two out there for discussion:

1. Salt and Sugar have to be listed as separate ingredients because they impact nutrition. Things like garlic powder or onion powder do not, so they can be listed as generic "spices". I add a bit of garlic powder to my doughs to help mask the yeast flavor and add some depth.
2. Lots of attention to weight ratios. I am wondering about type of flour. Couldn't a variety of flours create a variety of tastes? Seems logical. Semonlina? Unbleached? Etc. Maybe that's covered early, and everyone is dedicated to KA AP, or similar.
3. The crusts from Giordano's have a richer hue than some of the clone attempts. Indicates its cooked differently, or has different ingredients. My gut instinct tells me that Giordano's has a better oven, where the temperatures are more consistent and capable of hotter temps. I've seen recipes calling for 500 degrees for 50 minutes for clone pizzas.
4. The richer hue could be a coating of butter or "not extra virgin" olive oil that is spread on the pan before cooking. Would a pan coating have to be included in the recipe? Probably not, even if it would add calories, etc., if used as an ingredient. The only caveat there is "food allergies" and what would have to be listed by Giordanos.
5. I think pan thickness/alloy contributes to the hue/texture of the dough. Might be totally wrong. What about pre-heating the pan? Or, keeping it cool so the dough doesn't begin baking until the entire pizza cooks?

Thoughts from the vets?

Thanks for the words here. I am also impressed by how friendly and cordial everyone is. Looks like a nice place to explore for other pizza interests.

dicepackage · « **Reply #172 on:** January 19, 2010, 12:58:21 AM »

Since this pizza is supposed to be cooked on the middle rack using a pizza stone I was wondering if there would be any effect caused by having another pizza cooking on the bottom rack. I am planning on cooking two thin crust pies on the bottom rack and a Giordano's clone on the middle rack. Should the thin crust pizzas effect the way the Giordano's one cooks since it is on a stone? I really don't care how the NY pies come out but it is important that the Giordano's turns out well. I am also wondering if anyone could shed any light on the effects of a second stone on the bottom rack.

BTB · « **Reply #173 on:** January 19, 2010, 08:39:44 AM »

Quote from: Oklahawg on January 18, 2010, 08:47:53 PM

Loved this thread so much (google is your friend) that I had to register and post.

Thanks for the insights. Thought I'd toss an item or two out there for discussion:

1. Salt and Sugar have to be listed as separate ingredients because they impact nutrition. Things like garlic powder or onion powder do not, so they can be listed as generic "spices". I add a bit of garlic powder to my doughs to help mask the yeast flavor and add some depth.
2. Lots of attention to weight ratios. I am wondering about type of flour. Couldn't a variety of flours create a variety of tastes? Seems logical. Semonlina? Unbleached? Etc. Maybe that's covered early, and everyone is dedicated to KA AP, or similar.
3. The crusts from Giordano's have a richer hue than some of the clone attempts. Indicates its cooked differently, or has different ingredients. My gut instinct tells me that Giordano's has a better oven, where the temperatures are more consistent and capable of hotter temps. I've seen recipes calling for 500 degrees for 50 minutes for clone pizzas.
4. The richer hue could be a coating of butter or "not extra virgin" olive oil that is spread on the pan before cooking. Would a pan coating have to be included in the recipe? Probably not, even if it would add calories, etc., if used as an ingredient. The only caveat there is "food allergies" and what would have to be listed by Giordanos.
5. I think pan thickness/alloy contributes to the hue/texture of the dough. Might be totally wrong. What about pre-heating the pan? Or, keeping it cool so the dough doesn't begin baking until the entire pizza cooks?

Thoughts from the vets?

Thanks for the words here. I am also impressed by how friendly and cordial everyone is. Looks like a nice place to explore for other pizza interests.

Oklahawg, welcome to the site. Any Oklahoma connection? You'll find many good tips, thoughts and advice here. Salt also impacts taste for me. I used to make dough without it, but found that the crusts were much more tastier with salt in it. I like the idea of adding a little garlic or onion powder into the crust ingredients. Semolina, corn, rice and other flours have been added in some recipes and is reported on in other postings. We all have our different favorites for white flour. Mine is KA for AP and GM's Better for Bread for various uses. But there are many other good ones out there and discussed in many posts.

Regarding Giordano's methods, I think you can learn a lot from my pictures and comments in the report on them in the Pizzeria and Restaurant review section at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8361.msg72200.html#msg72200 . You can see their oven, pans, etc. For instance, they spread unsalted butter in the pan before putting the dough in. And they told me that their ovens were around 450 degrees F. Good luck and please share your successes and thoughts with us.

Dicepackage, many bake multiple pizzas in different ways. When I have a deep dish and a thin crust to make for friends and family at one setting, I first put in the deep dish first on the bottom rack, Then 10 to 20 minutes later, depending on size of the deep dish pizza, I move it to the lower middle rack and put the thin crust (on a cutter pan) on the bottom or next to the bottom rack level. I don't use a pizza stone anymore, but many do. You'll have to go through some trial and error to see what's best for you. Hopefully others will have some thoughts for you on the pizza stone question.
--BTB

Chicago Rules!!! · « **Reply #174 on:** February 11, 2011, 01:31:37 AM »

Bump,

Just saying hey to all my fellow pizza nuts. Keep on rockin out those wicked awesome pizza's.

seperdicho · « **Reply #175 on:** February 14, 2011, 01:36:42 PM »

Hi-I JUST got back form Chicago late last night and had my first Giordano's stuffed crust pizza.
First thing I did this morning was get online to find a recipe. I fell on this thread. Please somebody, give me the most recent version that I can make at home soon. (or tell me where I can get it) THanks.

Boston BBQ-za · « **Reply #176 on:** April 18, 2011, 08:28:05 PM »

Reporting back on my latest deep dish:
I've read through pieces of this thread several times and have attempted the deep dish, each time, not taking stellar notes to be able to duplicate it so well if needed. This time was my 4th attempt and generally speaking, I (along with our guests) were pretty happy with the results. I have a 15.5 inner diameter (17'' outer diameter) pstk pan. I used the recipe in reply 11 and multiplied it by a factor of 3 given the size of my pan (no science behind the factor except the previous time I multiplied by 2.6 and it wasn't enough dough). I know technically you can't just multiple to scale up (especially with regard to yeast amounts), but I didn't have the time
First, the recipe:
19.2oz KA AP flour
1.2tsp salt, 1.2 tsp sugar, 1.9 tsp IDY (note I took the 2.5tsp of ADY and converted to IDY)
Mixed dry ingredients then added:
27tsp canola oil (crisco) (converted to 128g)
266g water
Mixed for 2 minutes (dough came together very easy). Actually, for the last 20 sec or so, I think the dough was mixed enough and I wonder if I could've just stopped there to get more of a 'buiscuty' texture
Let rise for 6 hrs at room temp then punched down.
30 min later, transferred dough to sheet to roll out by hand. After about 20 min when dough was a good size, I transferred it to my pan that was very lightly oil with regular olive oil.
Once I got the dough to fit the pan, I added low moisture part skim motz, about 5 links of crumbled just barely cooked sausage, sauce (carton of Pomi chopped tomatoes with 1/2 tsp dry basil, 2T red wine vinegar, 2 cloves crushed garlic and pepper). And topped with pepperoni (boiled for 4 min then blanched).
Cooked pizza for 27 min at 450 deg. on 2nd to bottom shelf on unglazed quarry tiles.
sprinkled some parm cheese on top. very light layer.
Results and comments:
- Good browning and crisp crust. If anything, maybe I would've pulled it a minute earlier
-crust was not as greasy as other posts suggested. Note that I made this before using regular olive oil and this was much less greasy tasting. I'm guessing the canola vs the olive oil made a big difference
- I read that people put raw sausage in the pie and it will cook through in the time it takes to cook the pizza. I didn't do this because 1. we had guests and I didn't want to risk raw sausage in the pizza. 2. i wanted to cook out some of the fat. I'm glad I did this, but would be interested in reading more/trying raw sausage at some point.
- crust was good, but I would've preferred a little more salt to come through. Will up salt to 1.5tsp next time. I usually use mortons kosher salt, but this time used mortons regular table salt
- I wouldn't add oil to the sides of the pan as it makes it very tough for the dough to stick up on the sides of the pan.
-this is the first time I've used Pomi tomatoes for a sauce and I would use them again. everyone liked the consistency (and I like the fact that I didn't have to crush or do anything with them prior to using). I tried to keep the sauce simple since its a fairly rich pie and I didn't wan't much complexity in a sauce. I used all the sauce made.

I've included a few picts below. In general, I was pretty happy with this and would do it again. Of course, if people have any tweaks or suggestions for me to consider, I'm open to incorporating into the next round. Perhaps I'd try the malnati's next, but the thought of reading through the entire thread to figure out what I'm going to do is daunting!!

BTB · « **Reply #177 on:** April 19, 2011, 08:11:56 AM »

The pizza looked absolutely delicious, Boston B, but from the pictures I couldn't see a layer of dough on top of the ingredients as stuffed pizza like Giordano's style is supposed to have. Maybe its just hard to tell from the photos. But your procedure description doesn't mention that 2nd dough skin layer either. Was this intended to be a "stuffed" pizza in the Giordano's style? All the ingredients are apparent on top of the sauce in you photos. Usually only the sauce is apparent on the top of a stuffed pizza like Giordano's.

All the classic stuffed Chicago deep dish pizzerias use uncooked quality sausage, but I realize some are reluctant but generally because of inexperience with it. Note the picture of a stuffed pizza from Giordano's website below. Just the sauce is seen on top and not all the "toppings" and other added ingredients which are under the sauce and under the 2nd dough skin layer. Maybe you didn't intend to make a Giordano's style pizza.

--BTB

Pete-zza · « **Reply #178 on:** April 19, 2011, 10:04:54 AM »

BTB,

If you go back to Reply 11 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5674.msg48130.html#msg48130, which recites the recipe that Boston BBQ-za used, you will note that it is one of buzz's early dough recipes, which he deemed to make a Giordano's-like pizza. I don't believe that you were on the forum at the time but there was some discussion and differences of opinion on whether all Giordano's stores used the second (top) layer. See, for example, buzz's post at Reply 39 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1478.msg28129/topicseen.html#msg28129.

Peter

BTB · « **Reply #179 on:** April 19, 2011, 11:08:48 AM »

No, Peter, I can't recall I've seen all those old postings and am incredibly surprised that there was ever a doubt or question in regard the second dough layer. It is "stuffed" pizza because . . . . it is "stuffed" between two layers of dough, both top and bottom. And in this particular thread, at least lately, it seems most or all had presumed such, but you never know I guess. Buzz is a good guy, but must have had one of those "senior moments" back then (I have many, too). But Buzz likes their thin crust more so than their stuffed pizza and I just wonder if he wasn't talking about that back then.

As I and others have shown in other postings, here's a photo that I took at Giordano's a year or two ago showing the second (top) layer of dough as they put it on before the tomato sauce (notice the holes that are made in the top crust to allow for heat/steam to exhaust). This is the same as the "stuffed" pizza made at their very first restaurant on California Ave. in Chicago that I first visited "umpteen" years ago. Great pizza and I'm "hankering" for some more.

But to set the record straight, ALL the classic "stuffed" deep dish pizzerias that came out of Chicago (i.e., Giordano's, Edwardo's, Nancy's, Bacino's, and many others whose name I can't recall at the moment) had two layers of dough skin into or between which all the cheese and other "toppings" were put -- with the tomato sauce placed on top of the second dough layer. "There ain't no 2 ways about it." Some of this was slightly varied, of course, depending on different kinds of pizza pies that were ordered.

Now regular kind of deep dish pizza is . . . a different story. Giordano's did not and does not make such style pizza.

--BTB