Gjelina information

[thezaman]

are there any threads on Gjelina pizza dough here in pm.com. i have heard their pizza is really good.

[jsaras]

It's a three-day dough made with a preferment.  At one time Norma's go-to dough was a Lehmann dough made with a preferment.  The JerryMac Dough formulation is an east to follow introduction to working with preferments.

[thezaman]

 thanks, i will look for those threads. last time i was visiting new york i stopped at paulie gees and he raved about their pizza especially the dough.

[dineomite]

The last few years we've stopped in LA on our way to Hawai'i. We've either gone to Gjelina or their takeout window next door called GTA. I'm actually very struck by their toppings combinations. The dough reminds me a lot of the crust at Harvest Pizzeria in Columbus.

[thezaman]

thanks, for that information. i have had harvest pizza and loved their crust. do you know anything about the harvest crust?

[Chicago Bob]

The last few years we've stopped in LA on our way to Hawai'i.

Is that a jet setters typo? 

[norma427]

Larry,

I really don't know anything about Gjelina's pizzas.  This is one article that says the dough for the pizzas uses a pre-ferment and the dough takes three days. 

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/12/food/la-fo-gjelina-travis-lett-20110512

Two articles from Slice/Seriouseats. 

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2013/02/venice-ca-on-gjelina-and-the-rise-of-cheffy-pizza.html

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/07/daily-slice-gtas-squash-blossom-pizza-los-angeles.html

Norma

[TXCraig1]

The pictures and writing in this article, http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2013/02/venice-ca-on-gjelina-and-the-rise-of-cheffy-pizza.html, make me think the dough is very heavily fermented. The author writes "The staff at Gjelina obviously cares because there's always a robust, bready tang in the crust to mitigate the swaths—not spots—of char. There's flavor to burn here, literally."

There are clearly a lot of big bubbles in the dough when they stretch it. It looks like someone intentionally scrapped off a lot of the black bubbles on the pie in the 4th picture. You can see the weakness of the gluten and pretty much complete lack of structure in the crumb shot.

[jkb]

That video is another example that you just can't get good labor in a pizza place.  They don't want to learn their job or work hard.

[TXCraig1]

That video is another example that you just can't get good labor in a pizza place.  They don't want to learn their job or work hard.

I was in a Blaze Pizza a few days ago, and I was really blown away by how slow and lackadaisical EVERY employee was. There was literally no give-a-s&^t to be found in that restaurant. That being said, the pizza was better than I expected.

[jsaras]

I was in a Blaze Pizza a few days ago, and I was really blown away by how slow and lackadaisical EVERY employee was. There was literally no give-a-s&^t to be found in that restaurant. That being said, the pizza was better than I expected.

There are at least two statements in that paragraph that I never thought I'd ever hear from Craig

[mitchjg]

There are at least two statements in that paragraph that I never thought I'd ever hear from Craig

Well, you don't know what he expected.  Whatever you thought, maybe the bar was at an even lower height than that.

[jsaras]

I can't believe that Craig ever stepped foot into Blaze or that he liked it on any level.  Clearly, his account has been hacked

[jsaras]

Gjelina's published dough formulation is:

Flour - 100% (53% Bread Flour + 47% Caputo 00 Flour)
Water - 77%
Salt - 4.2% (not a misprint on my part)
CY - 0.85%, (185g dough ball weight specified for 10-12 inch pizza)

Mix flour, water, and yeast for 3 minutes.  Rest 15 minutes.  Add salt and mix 5-7 minutes.  Fold dough mass and coat with oil.  RT fermentation 3 hours.  Punch down and fold dough mass again.  CF 1-2.5 days.  Divide and ball 1.5-3 hours before using.

[Essen1]

Gjelina's published dough formulation is:

Flour - 100% (53% Bread Flour + 47% Caputo 00 Flour)
Water - 77%
Salt - 4.2% (not a misprint on my part)
CY - 0.85%, (185g dough ball weight specified for 10-12 inch pizza)

Mix flour, water, and yeast for 3 minutes.  Rest 15 minutes.  Add salt and mix 5-7 minutes.  Fold dough mass and coat with oil.  RT fermentation 3 hours.  Punch down and fold dough mass again.  CF 1-2.5 days.  Divide and ball 1.5-3 hours before using.

Jonas,

Not at all questioning what you posted but in your opinion, given the flour combo, do you think it can hold that much water without turning out like a soup? Especially with Caputo?

Caputo is not known to be able to hold a lot of water and the company itself places their flour in the 55%-57% (Chef's flour). Even their "Americana 00" is listed at only 60%-62%.

http://caputoflour.com/sales-pos-products-specs/

When looking at the video, there's no way those skins are 77% hydration and being handled at the fast pace that obviously the kitchen operates under at Gjelina.

[Gianni5]

I was being sarcastic.  You've commented before that you can't get good help.  The guys in the video are kicking ass.  The world needs more Mexicans.

It's weird how sarcasm just doesn't come off in writing sometimes. I was jealous that all they're employees looked well trained, happy and seemed to be kicking a lot of ass like you said.  I'd be thrilled if my restaurant looked like that all the time