How do I get big puffy edges on my pizza ?

[canadianbacon]

Hi all,

I love having a pizza that is not overly thick in the middle ( the dough ) but I love the way the pizza joints get the dough to really puff up on the edges of the pizza to make that border all the way around.

The only way I get that at home is to fake it, - I go around the pizza and turn the edge over on itself to make the dough thicker, and then will put my sauce and topping on, etc then back it.

I have never ever experience either - the huge bubbles sometimes seen in the pizza places,
that really shows the oven and the heat from their pizza stone, I guess that's the yeast really blowing up causing the air bubbles.... never got that at home, and I think this may be the secret also on how they get the nice bubbled edges which I love.

btw, I do not have a pizza stone at the present time

Any help appreciated  

Mark

[Steve]

Try the NY style pizza recipe from the main site.

The trick to getting a thin center which tapers up to a thick, bready, "puffy" outer crust is to stretch the dough by hand... do not use a rolling pin or press the dough.

[Steve]

Whoops... I see that you don't have a pizza stone, you'll need one to make the NY style recipe. Do you have a pizza screen?

[canadianbacon]

Hi Steve

as a matter of fact, I DO have a pizza screen, it's buried out in a box in my shed, but I do have one, - may even had 2 of 'em.  I bought them about 10 years ago, and used them maybe once... never really knew what they were for - ur I mean I know they were for pizza, but didn't know the advantages of them.  I bought a big pizza tray with holes in it, but I don't find it makes any better of a pizza than my regular pizza tray that has no holes.

anyway thanks for the tip Steve.

I really want to make a dough tonight and put it in the oven for 24 hours like I've seen now on the forum, - never knew that this was the way to do it.

I do recall that many pizza joints around my area will have a huge bucket of dough .... when you go in and order, the guy lifts off a sheet, like an oversized dish towel, he takes a dough cutter and slices off a big chunk then proceeds to make the pizza.....

I am now wondering if they make those huge tubs of dough the day before, and let them sit in their fridges overnight -- probabally so eh Steve ?

I am now thinking they make dough each day, for the next day's use kind of thing... so they are always a day ahead and the dough is better that way ... never knew that secret but I guess that's how it's done.

anyway lots to learn  

Mark

[Randy G]

How does one get a soft outer edge? Mine always come out too crisp for my taste. Should I use a deep dish pan instead to keep it away from too much direct heat? Of should I coat it with an oil or something?

[canadianbacon]

I get a perfect edge all the time, it's done like a soft loaf of bread on the outside and
soft and chewy on the inside, and I don't do anything but put it on my pizza stone
at 500 degrees F for about 10 mins max.

That's it that's all.

By the way, I notice I got an email saying there was a reply to this thread, is this
a new feature ? .... it ROCKS !

Mark

[Randy G]

Is this total cooking time, or par-baking it? I usually do a 3 step cook 1) par bake crust, 2) add sauce and veggies (bell peppers and onion), then 3) add cheese and seasoned ground beef.

I don't have a cooking stone (yet) and use a pizza pan.  Would the soft edge still be possible for me? The reason I do the veggie cooking step is to cook the bell peppers, which I find never got cooked with 10 min.

[canadianbacon]

Hi Randy,

all I can say is ... GET A PIZZA Stone !  

it will blow you away !

The pizza stone sucks in amazing amounts of heat, and when you put your pizza down
that heat sears the pizza in a way, as a steak does when it first hits the grill.... a pizza
in a pan just doesn't do this, because the pan acts as a protective coating, an armour if you will and the pizza isn't shocked with that high heat right away as with a pizza stone.

To answer your question however, - yes, I'm talking TOTAL time.  If my pizza is not that
big, 8 minutes and it's DONE, completey ! ... 10 mins with a big one... but I do have the oven at 500 degrees F, and have it like that for maybe 20 mins before I put the pizza in.

I use a peel, make the pizza on it, and then slide the pizza onto it.

You will indeed get a great outer edge.  - if your edges are dried out, I would up the amount of oil in your recipe, or just make sure your recipe is not overworked.

One thing many do is overwork their dough, and what this does - is make it too dry.....
so right from the start the dough is drier than it should be and this results in a dough that isn't as chewy and the outer edge is dry.  My pizza crusts are out of this world ( I love soft chewy crusts ) .

anyway pick yourself up a  pizza stone.

Oh.... also - the longer a pizza is in the oven , it will dry out also, - as it takes longer to bake
it also dries out more.... something we don't always think about.

I am a pastry chef, so I'm not just blabbing, although I do blab :-)

Mark

[Randy G]

Thanks, I can see understand how the stone would work. I'm gonna try to get one soon.

Now the one thing that confuses me is the doughwork. Am I reading you right to only mix up the stuff minimally, until it is finally "mixed"? Some of the sites I read want you to be kneading dough for at least 20 minutes!

[Pete-zza]

Randy G.,

Welcome.

I think you will find that the amount of kneading will depend on the dough recipe you decide to use.  For example, a classic Neapolitan pizza dough recipe, such as used in Naples, uses a low protein flour called "00".  Since it has so little protein (about 7.4 percent) compared with other flours like all-purpose, bread and high-gluten flours, the classic recipe calls for 20 to 30 minutes of kneading in a stand mixer.  Apparently the long knead time is to develop the gluten in the flour so that the final dough ball will be smooth and elastic.   For most other flours, with their much higher gluten content, there should be no real need to knead for such a long time.  The test I use to determine when a dough has been kneaded enough--whether I knead the dough using a stand mixer, a food processor, or by hand--is to see if the kneaded dough passes the so-called "windowpane" or "gluten window" test.  For this test, take a small piece of the dough, about the size of a walnut, and flatten and stretch it out a few inches in several directions (not just one).  If the dough doesn't  break, and it is possible to see light through the translucent stretched-out dough, the dough has passed the test.  If the dough doesn't pass the test, then you will most likely have to knead the dough a bit longer.  You may have to do this a few times, but I personally think this is the best test, rather than dealing with all the possible variations in ingredients, machines and times that can affect the dough and its character.  After a while, you will get the process down pat.  

As you read the postings on this site you will see a lot of other tricks that will help you, like how and when to combine and mix ingredients together, whether you should refrigerate the dough, baking techniques, and so forth.

Peter

[canadianbacon]

Hi Randy,

I wrote back a nice long response last night but didn't realize I was not logged in,
clicked on send and then I lost what I had written  

To clarify what I wrote last night, - you can work a dough for 20 mins if you wish, but if you use something like a Kitchen Aid machine as I do, what you do in 20 mins can be done in 5 or less.  However I like to run my Kitchen Aid mixer for about 10 minutes when doing my dough, I use the dough hook and it really works well.

On overworking the dough, what I should have said was - many people think that if they are working a dough for 10 mins they need to be constantly adding in flour during that time, and that's just plain wrong.  When I'm doing dough I can have my mixer running for 3 or 4 minutes without adding any flour at all.  

So I guess I should have said was this, - work the dough really well, but don't overwork it  - meaning don't over do the amount of flour you put into the dough.

Sorry for the confusion.  

Ok now I'm going to select all and copy this to memory before hitting "Post" in case I lose it doesn't post ..... if it doesn't and you click "back" on your browser to get back to the posting page becomes empty and all your text is deleted.... so make sure you are logged in properly before clicking that post button