First time pizza; sourdough kenji tavern

[xBOBxSAGETx]

Hey everyone!  Spent my childhood in Pilsen, moved to Richton Park and went to high school in New Lenox.  I am now living in Southern Oregon.

I have been playing around with sourdough for the past couple months and got comfortable with making doughs so I decided to dip my toes into pizza making.  Safe to say, even with my first try being a disaster, it's safe to say I caught the bug and it's all I can think about.  

My biggest issue is that I can not launch a pizza to save my life but I also don't have a pizza peel.  I did not cure the pizza dough, well because I've seen my favorite pizzas launched without curing the dough and to be completely honest I wanted to challenge.  

Here's the dough recipe I used.  

Ingredients:

• 240g bread flour 
• 7.5g salt
• 7.5g sugar
• 30g olive oil
• 150g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 90g water

I autolysed for 20 minutes, divided the dough in half and put into an oil 16oz deli container for a cold ferment for 5 days 

I rolled my dough to 14" roughly and placed it on parchment paper (I thought I was so smart) and dressed my pizza.  I used store bought sweet Italian sausage dosed it with some fennel and called it a day.  

For cheese I used whole milk, low moisture cheese.  Since I am not a pizza making aficionado, I absolutely overdosed the pizza with cheese.  

I placed the pizza onto an inverted sheet pan, into an oven that preheated for 60 minutes ar 500°F. 

The pizza took about 13 minutes to obtain the color I wanted.  But unfortunately the bottom of the pizza did not crisp up at all.  I cut the pizza and just placed the slices into a hot skillet to crisp up and finish.  All things said, I was not really into the taste of the dough.  There was no real sourdough flavor, it just more so reminded me of a beggars pizza style dough vs a more traditional tavern.  Maybe it's because I super overdid the cheese (on accident) and it just didn't get to bake the way it was supposed to. 

In there a way to calculate the amount of cheese to apply by the pizza size?  

Anyways, any input and help is greatly appreciated.  I felt that i was so close but so far away.  

[Garvey]

Launch from a cookie sheet and assemble your pizza on foil or parchment paper.

[PizzaGarage]

There are calculators on the web, just google. For a 14, start with 6oz for light to 7-7.5 for medium levels of cheese up to 9 for heavy.  I think your cheese looks good maybe a tad to heavy.

I would invest in a pizza stone for your oven ( as thick as possible- most are 1/4 to 1/2 inch- get thicker if you can) and invest in a peal either wood ( cheaper) to a composite ( more expensive) so you at least have the basic tools you need. Cooking on a sheet pan won't get the crispy crust you maybe be looking for, a stone with get you there...

[xBOBxSAGETx]

Hey yall.  Updated my recipe to the recipe to Tripping BillyZ recipe but honestly I'm just not into the whole waiting 72hrs for dough so I think I found a way around it with a poolish and sourdough. 

Today was buffalo chicken pizza.  I know not traditional style but honestly it's my favorite. 

Let me break it down

Ingredients:

• Flour: 725g (100%)
• Cornmeal: 25g (3.33%)
• Salt: 10g (1%)
• Sugar: 10g (1%)
• Water: 370g (51%)
• Olive Oil: 60g (8%)
• Sourdough Starter (100% hydration: Ripe): 14.5g (2%)
• Instant Dried Yeast (for the poolish): 0.05g (a pinch)

Poolish:

• Flour: 145g (20% of total flour)
• Water: 145g (20% of total water)
• Yeast: 0.05g (a pinch)
• Sourdough Starter (ripe): 14.5g

Final Dough:

• Remaining Flour: 580g
• Remaining Water: 225g
• Cornmeal: 25g
• Salt: 10g
• Sugar: 10g
• Olive Oil: 60g

Instructions:
1. Make the Poolish (12-16 hours before making the dough):
• In a bowl, mix 145g of flour, 145g of water, and a pinch (0.05g) of yeast.
• Cover the bowl and let it ferment at room temperature overnight.
2. Mix the Dough:
• In a large bowl, combine the remaining 580g of flour, 25g cornmeal, 10g salt, and 10g sugar.
• Add 14.5g ripe sourdough, 225g of water, and 60g of olive oil.
• Mix everything together until just combined—do not need knead just let the dough come together thoroughly.
3. Autolysis:
• After mixing, let the dough rest (autolyze) for 20 minutes.
4. Bulk Fermentation:
• After the autolysis, lightly mix the dough again to ensure everything is homogeneous.
• Cover the dough and let it ferment at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight. 
5. Ball the Dough:
• After the bulk fermentation, divide the dough into 4 balls around 300g
• Shape the dough into tight balls, cover them, and let them rest for 2hrs at room temperature.
7. Roll:
 • After fermenting, roll the dough out to a 14" diameter.
8.Bake at 500°F

[xBOBxSAGETx]

Quick anecdote.  I am not digging the cured dough everyone's on right now.  It really dehydrates the dough and it kinda just taste like frozen pizza crust and takes away a lot of the flavor.  I've been going back and forth with AP flour and high gluten bread flour from Shepard Grain here in Oregon and I'm not digging the bread flour for this style.  AP Flour is giving me the best flavor.  It seems I'm getting a buttery and almost beer like flavor from the poolish and touch of sourdough.  

[xBOBxSAGETx]

There are calculators on the web, just google. For a 14, start with 6oz for light to 7-7.5 for medium levels of cheese up to 9 for heavy.  I think your cheese looks good maybe a tad to heavy.

I would invest in a pizza stone for your oven ( as thick as possible- most are 1/4 to 1/2 inch- get thicker if you can) and invest in a peal either wood ( cheaper) to a composite ( more expensive) so you at least have the basic tools you need. Cooking on a sheet pan won't get the crispy crust you maybe be looking for, a stone with get you there...

I grabbed a 3/8" 16" pizza steel from vevor.  Definitely changed the game.  Right now I'm using a pizza screen for 8 minutes, pull it off and put it on the steel directly for 4-5 minutes and it's perfect.  I'm grabbing a peel next.  

[xBOBxSAGETx]

Today's Sunday pie. 
-sausage 
-mushroom 
-onion
-green peppers 

I rolled the dough out to about 15.5" then braided back the crust to 14".  I wasn't feeling how charred the edges were getting when I just used a flat edge.  

8 minutes on the pizza screen
4 minutes directly on the pizza steel

This is definitely going to be my go-to move from now on.  

[Garvey]

Quick anecdote.  I am not digging the cured dough everyone's on right now.  It really dehydrates the dough and it kinda just taste like frozen pizza crust and takes away a lot of the flavor.  I've been going back and forth with AP flour and high gluten bread flour from Shepard Grain here in Oregon and I'm not digging the bread flour for this style.  AP Flour is giving me the best flavor.  It seems I'm getting a buttery and almost beer like flavor from the poolish and touch of sourdough. 

Yeah, Pat's in Lincoln Park was one of the first to do this for many decades before Instagram Pizza (Kim's Uncle) took over.  I love Kenji and this style has earned a place in the pantheon of Chicago thin, but it's pretty fringe for the home chef.  Few of us have the fridge space to make this a thing.

I'm also a fan of AP overall.  It's always my go-to for recipe development.  

[xBOBxSAGETx]

Yeah, Pat's in Lincoln Park was one of the first to do this for many decades before Instagram Pizza (Kim's Uncle) took over.  I love Kenji and this style has earned a place in the pantheon of Chicago thin, but it's pretty fringe for the home chef.  Few of us have the fridge space to make this a thing.

I'm also a fan of AP overall.  It's always my go-to for recipe development. 

Yep, both give me a crispy crust throughout but it just doesn't carry the oil as well IMO.  The AP seems to "fry" a little bit and I can see the oil come through in the crust where the bread flour doesn't do that at all, so really it's been a texture thing for me. 

I compared the 24 cold ferment with the poolish and sourdough came out indistinguishable in flavor/texture but next time I'm definitely going to bulk ferment the entire time and ball up two hours from bake time.  No upset stomach or bloating from nearly wolfing down an entire 14" pizza to myself. 

But honestly me staring at dough balls in the fridge just leads me to eating more pizza throughout the week so I'm trying to save me from myself lol