Second pizza – much better than the first.

[Grizz]

I made my second pizza tonight, same batch of dough as the first . . .  (http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7470.0.html )

but this one came out a lot better.  I baked this one in the oven at 550 º because I couldn’t get the Webber up past 450 º.  The top hits my raised grill and lets too much heat out

I set the dough out for two hours before I formed the shell.  I still had difficulty getting the shell to stay at 12” because it kept shrinking down.  After several attempts of stretching it out (I just re-turned, didn’t re-ball), I put it on the peel.  I topped this with 4 oz of Precious mozzarella, a half cup of fresh mushrooms that were then sautéed in EVOO with ¼ cup of thinly sliced yellow onion, separated into rings, ¼ cup of sliced black olives and 2 cloves of finely minced garlic.  By the time I had finished with the toppings, it had shrunk down to 10” by 8”. 

An hour ahead of time, with the pizza stone on the middle rack, I preheated my oven to 550 º.  Within 13 minutes it had reached 550 º.  I know the preheating is to heat up the oven walls and stone, but is the one hour preheat for less efficient ovens or is should I still continue with one hour, being 47 minutes at 550 º?

I placed it in the oven, set a chair in front and watched it bake (do I need counseling?)  After three minutes, I rotated it 180º.  At six minutes, the cheese was bubbling nicely and the crust was a light golden brown.  I turned the broiler on for one minute and browned the crust up a bit, then removed the pie and placed it on a cooling rack.

The rim was golden brown, well formed  The cheese was melted with just a little browning.  Nothing burned on top and the veggies didn’t make the pizza soggy. 

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc141/ECRody/Cooked.jpg

The rim was about 1” tall and the crust about 1/8”.  The rim had bubbles up to ½”, but most were ¼” and smaller. 

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc141/ECRody/SideCrust.jpg

The bottom had just started to get some blackened areas among the brown. 

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc141/ECRody/BottomCrust.jpg

The outside of the crust was light and almost crispy.  It was chewy and light, not heavy at all.  There was no doughy or yeasty taste.   My wife said it reminded her of focaccia.  The sauce was very good.  I used the same sauce on my first pizza and I thought that there was too much of a tomato paste taste.  This time it tasted great.  I think probably the difference in taste in the same sauce was that this time, the sauce had time to cook on the pizza.

Overall, both my wife and I liked this better than the pizza at our favorite local pizza parlor.  Her favorite pizza was from the Pizza Joint in Hayward, CA, but unfortunately, it burned down a few years age, taking an old Wurlitzer organ. with al the moving instruments, with it.  A real shame.  What she describes sounded like a Roman, crispy style pizza, with no rim and just a crush tomato sauce.  That is my next challenge since she can no longer get her favorite.

A couple more pizzas like this and I might be able to move off the “Newbie” board.

[jeff v]

Nice looking pizza Grizz! It's exciting when one gets better from your last try huh?

Regarding your oven-You should experiment...if you dare. I've baked on stones in different ovens, and have tried to give it less preheat time with varying degrees of success. I'm not an expert in this area, but it seems that a thick stone can absorb more heat and therefor needs more of a preheat despite what the ovens preheat timer says. Times when I've rushed it I have noticed later pizzas comes out better so take that for what you will.

Jeff

[Pete-zza]

Grizz,

I think you did a terrific job. The pizza looks great.

As far as the oven temperature is concerned, I try to be consistent with my stone preheat time. I pretty much use an hour preheat time. The oven temperature I use depends on the type of pizza I am making.

Can you tell us what the recipe formulation was for the most recent pizza and what fermentation time you used? Maybe that will provide some clues as to why you are experiencing shrinking of the dough. Some shrinkage is normal, but it sounds like you may be getting more shrinkage than normal.

Peter

[Grizz]

Jeff,

I think I better get a consistently good pizza before I experiment with the oven temp.  Besides, I’ve been freezing my butt off so it will help heat up the house. 

Peter,

This was the second ball of the batch of dough I made for the first pizza, so it is the same problem with shrinking with the same batch of dough.

For 2 - 12” X 0.089” shells.
Flour:         KAB flour (100%)12.25 oz./12 ¼ oz/347.29g
Water:         625/7 5/8 oz /216.17g (62.%) at 68º
Yeast:         Red Star Quick Rise Yeast: 375 tsp/3/8 tsp/1.05g (0.30%)
Salt:         Diamond Crystal Kosher salt: 1.25 tsp./3.5g, (1.01%)
AUTOLYSE:      20 min. 

I fermented it in a 40º refrigerator.  After four days, it had risen to the top of a three cup container and popped the top off so I put it in a Pam sprayed Ziplock bag.  After a total of 5 days, 6 ½ hours, I put it on the counter in a 71 º room for two hours.

For the next batch, I recalculated the formula for a little larger ball of dough, using the pizza size calculator.  I will also increase the water to 64% and will cut the yeast to 19%, since it rose so much in the refrigerator.  This is what I plan to use:


For 2 – 12” X .10” shells
Flour:         KAB flour (100%) 387.91g/13.68 oz
Water:         248.27 g/8.76 oz (64%) at 76º
Yeast:         Red Star Quick Rise Yeast (0.19%) 0.25 tsp (Tad)/ 0.75 g/0.03 oz
Salt:         Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (1.01%) 1.25 tsp./3.5g, (1.01%)
Sugar:         None
Oil:         None
Total         162.20%   640.85 g    22.61 oz    1.41 lbs
Single Ball:             320.43 g    11.30 oz

Thanks,

Chuck