So I have started trying to make bar pies with the goal of doing something in the realm of Star Tavern, Kinchley's and so on. I will say first that I am playing at a disadvantage, as I have never had the real deal before. Just judging from videos and pictures, I think I have a rough idea of what they are going for - essentially the flavors of a NY style with a thinner and crispier crust, and just a lighter/less filling version.
So far I have tried the recipe in the Elements of Pizza, and the Serious Eats recipe (
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/04/crispy-bar-style-pizza-star-tavern-recipe.html with the baker's %s here
https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=12769.msg665373#msg665373).
Below are some pics of what I did last night.
Here are some questions (in
bold) and notes that I hope folks can help me with:
- I have been using a springform pan (I assume it is aluminum) that I spread some oil on before adding the dough. I expect this is not ideal, but I wasn't ready to spring (I made a pun) for another pan just yet. I wanted the round shape though.
- The dough always seems to snap back. I have seen suggestions from Nickyr of using a glass to press out the dough, and I tried pinching it into the corners, but it usually snaps back.
I think I saw that spreading some crisco on the edges will hold the dough in place? Is this correct?- I rolled out the last dough of the evening last night more aggressively and I think that helped with the texture and crisp.
-
My stone is getting black from the oil. Is this supposed to happen? I put some oil in the pan and bake for 5 min in the pan before moving it straight to the stone.
- Even if I roll out the dough to the edge, it still seems to want to create a very slightly puffed crust. Funny enough - one of my attempts was on a screen, as I saw that Kinchley's does this. I guess the only difference from my regular NY style is that I used a rolling pin. The pie still came out like a NY pie (using the recipe from TEOP).
It seems like this style is supposed to have a uniformly thin crust - correct? If so - any thoughts on what I might try to adjust?- My cheese melt definitely does not look correct. I wonder if I am not using enough, but I don't get the impression that the bar pies are supposed to be "cheese heavy". Happy to be corrected here.
- I used some Don Pepino's last night with some water to thin it out.
I suspect that I need to be using something even thinner, and maybe this will help with the cheese appearance (based on the teachings of Hammetjr)?- I remember seeing somewhere that Walter said that using your regular NY dough recipe will get you close, so I am thinking of trying that as well. Plus there is a formulation I have seen here that calls for semolina as well, which I will try at some point as well. I am less concerned with mimicking one of these places, and am ok with getting something that tastes good and is "inspired by" those sorts of places.
- The dough was way overproofed last night, but I saw a post from a while back that said that overproofed dough makes good bar pies, so I just went with it. You will see in the pics that it bubbled even though I tried docking it with a fork. Maybe I need one of those professional rolling dockers.
A lot to take in here, I know. I appreciate any help folks can give.
The Broz
