Godfather's Thick Crust Clone - Old or New will do...

[Pete-zza]

what does the evaporated milk do to the crust??

Shaun,

For a discussion of the effects of milk on dough/crust, see the PMQ Think Tank thread at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=407&hilit=#p2027. See, also, Tom Lehmann's PMQTT post at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=407&hilit=#p21490.

Peter

[Jet_deck]

Jet,

... So, we will have to take a different approach....

Peter

Thanks Peter I will report back.

[gtsum2]

Thanks for the info Peter!

[Jet_deck]

I followed the instructions for the PH pan pizza nearly explicitely with the exception of the 10 minute knead time for the KA mixer.  I just couldn't put the dough through 10 minutes in the Bosch.  When it came time to roll out the dough to the 12" dia. (3/4" thick) which was suggested for the proof in the 14" pan, I came out short on dough. Volume of 12" dia., 3/4" thick is 84.78 cu/in.  I got carried away with the rolling pin and had my dough out to 14" diameter (3/8" thick).  Voulume of 14" dia., 3/8" thick is 57.69 cu/in.  I put it in the warm garage for 2 hours where it proofed nearly 50%  It is resting in the fridge since 11:00 pm last nite.  I will bake it off sometime today.

>> Not that there is anything wrong, just reporting<<<

[Pete-zza]

Jet,

The 3/4" height is with respect to about 37 ounces of dough. The dough formulation I posted is for 27 ounces of dough. So, its behavior in the pan during proofing may be somewhat different.

Peter

[Jet_deck]

1)  Before proof
2)  After proof
3) Baked
4)  Crumb
5)  Underside

[Jet_deck]

Baked at 500* in 14" aluminum "pizza" pan on a stone.  14 minutes, then 5 minutes on broil. 10 oz. cheese, 50/50 Muenster/brick Mozz.  Double sauced with a doctored 6-n-1 concoction.  I just happen to have some Jimmy Dean sausage ready for some protein.

The dough did have a good alcoholish smell after the 24 hour fridgerator proof.  The crust was a perfect golden brown, but was not crunchy or fried tasting.  Which is exactly like the GF pizza slices I reported about above.  I feel that the crust benefitted most (with the evaporated milk) in the taste department.  It had a good earthy taste and wasn't bland tasting.

"This is probably the best pizza you have made" reported the warden.  And it was.  It was stellar. The kids had huge eyes when they saw it come out of the oven.  It would shame most any pan style pizza that I have ever eaten.

Thanks Peter.

[Pete-zza]

Jet,

I was worried for a moment when you first posted the photos without comment. I thought that perhaps the pizza looked good but wasn't good. It reminded me of the Fernando Lamas line made famous many years ago on Saturday Night Live: "It is better to look good than to feel good." I actually found one of the Billy Crystal Fernando Lamas parodies at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZl3gGV4H6c. To borrow a phrase from Fernando, I thought your pizza looked "Mahvelous, absolutely mahvelous".

By any chance, did you weigh the unbaked and baked pizza? And are you going to stop while you are ahead or do you want to move more in the direction of a Godfather's pizza?

Peter

[Jet_deck]

Thanks.  I'll be on pizza hiatus for a week or so, but I think i would like to cook it again first before changing anything.  I would like to see it proof at "room" temp then straight to the oven.  To see if the dough could be made at noon and cooked at 7:00 for a 'in a few hours dough'

>> Didn't get any weights, barely got pictures<<

[Pete-zza]

Jet,

Based on where the yeast is postioned in the pecking order of ingredients at http://vegan.fm/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Ingredient-Statement.pdf, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the dough at Godfather's is made and used the same day. However, with punchdowns during fermentation, it is still possible that they can use the dough the next day, either with a room temperature fermentation or a cold fermentation. Knowing how Godfather's actually does it could provide some useful clues.

Peter

EDIT (1/14/17): For a replacement link for the above inoperative vegan.fm link, see http://veganfm.nextmp.net/2010/09/godfathers-pizza-is-not-vegan/

[gtsum2]

lovely looking pizza!  Godfathers was my fav growing up in the Midwest and it looks like you nailed it!  I am going to attempt one now after seeing yours.  Great job and glad you liked it!

[Jet_deck]

I'm not sure about nailing it, but thanks.  I hope you get to try this soon to see if it is similar to what you remember.

[vaylen]

I don't typically necro a topic this old, but I feel I must.  I worked at Godfather's Pizza in the 80's while in High School and I am pretty familiar with their practices.  Since I'm sure the experiment recreating their pies went as far as it could with the information at hand, I can provide the following details.

1. Their dough was made using giant powder packs with added water in an extremely large mixing bowl with a metal hook attachment. It was made for that day only and was never refrigerated.
2. Their sauce came in very large cans that were mixed with the spices from a spice envelope about the size of an 8x11 mailing envelope in a mixing bowl smaller than the dough mixer, but larger than a kitchen mixer. The spices were almost all Oregano and Basil, so you got that part correct. The sauce came out pretty spicy. I delivered for Domino's in college and their sauce was WAY less spicy than Godfather's.
3. Their cheese came already grated and I was told it was low sodium mozzarella. I'm sure that was because we used so much more of it than everyone else that if it wasn't low on salt, our pizzas would be too salty to eat.
4. That huge amount of cheese would form a glue over the ingredients under it. The meat and veggies down below didn't fry in oil on top of the cheese as much as they steamed under the cheese. Pepperoni would therefore still be tender and not fried to a hard crisp.  You knew you did it right if there were lots of brown spots on the pale yellow cheese from stuff cooking down below it.
5. Their oven was 450-500 degree conveyer metal mesh oven that baked the pies for 15 minutes.  Once they came out they were immediately moved out of the steel pan so they didn't get soggy. Unless we were slammed, we would let it rest for a minute before cutting so the cuts didn't re-seal by that cheese (it was like glue in a way)
6. The quality of their sausage crumbles was outstanding. Sausage slices don't cut it. The only other chain I found to have that quality of sausage was Numero Uno in the late 80's/early 90's.

They came up with a pie while I was there called the 7 cheese pie. It had Mozzarella,Provolone,Cheddar,Parmesan, and I think Colby, Asiago and Fortina. It also had a very thin crust on top of the main pie (on top of the sauce and meats and veggies) which was pinched over the lower crust to seal it, and on top of that went a little bit of more sauce and the seven cheese. It was absolutely to die for.

I personally felt during my time there and since that their pizzas were more about the 1. cheese, 2. meat quality and 3. sauce spice than their crust. The crust didn't taste fried like Pizza Hut nor burnt on the bottom like Roundtable. They didn't make it too thick. Deep dish does not equal thick crust. That would be a sicilian pizza.  I am game for any future attempts at re-creating a classic Godfather's pizza. I honestly never thought about the milk powder in their crust mix. That's interesting.

[slimchefrecipes]

SSG,

Using the expanded dough calculating tool at http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html, I have presented below a pan-style dough formulation for your considereation.

To be clear, the dough formulation presented below is not intended to be a clone of the Godfather's dough, which you indicated did not meet with your satisfaction during your last visit to one of the Godfather's stores. Rather, it is a version of the Pizza Hut pan style dough as described at http://www.pizzamaking.com/panpizza.php but modified to try to emulate the form factor (dough weight/pizza size) of a 14" original Godfather's pizza dough.

There are similarities between the modified PH dough and a Godfather's original dough, but there are also differences. For example, the PH clone pan dough includes dry non-fat milk. The Godfather's dough does not. Also, there appears to be more salt in the Godfather's dough and less sugar (in the form of regular sugar and corn syrup solids) than in the PH clone pan dough (which includes only regular sugar). There is no reason why the PH clone pan dough cannot be modified to get it closer to the Godfather's dough if you later decide that you would like to move closer to the Godfather's dough. The Godfather's original dough also includes partially-hydrogenated soybean oil, which appears to be in a spray form so that it can be incorporated with the rest of the dough ingredients (other than the water) to form the dry pizza mix that apparently is used in the Godfather stores to make the pizza dough. You could use a hard fat like shortening as an alternative to the liquid oil (soybean) used in the PH clone pan dough. In terms of the yeast, I believe that Godfather's uses IDY in their dough rather than the ADY that is used in the PH clone pan dough. There is no reason why you can't substitute the IDY for the ADY. Finally, the Godfather's dough uses a bromated flour. I do not know whether it is bread flour or high-gluten flour (I tried to find out from General Mills but they would not tell me because that information is proprietary), but if possible you might want to use a bromated version of whatever form of flour you decide to use. To refresh your memory on what goes into the Godfather's original dough, see the document at http://vegan.fm/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Ingredient-Statement.pdf.

Here is the dough formulation I came up with:

Bread Flour* (100%): Water (55.555%): ADY (1.18518%): Salt (0.875%): Vegetable (Soybean) Oil (4.27199%): Sugar (1.875%): Carnation's Dry Non-Fat Milk (2.35155%): Total (166.11372%):

460.8 g  |  16.25 oz | 1.02 lbs 256 g  |  9.03 oz | 0.56 lbs 5.46 g | 0.19 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.44 tsp | 0.48 tbsp 4.03 g | 0.14 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.72 tsp | 0.24 tbsp 19.69 g | 0.69 oz | 0.04 lbs | 4.33 tsp | 1.44 tbsp 8.64 g | 0.3 oz | 0.02 lbs | 2.17 tsp | 0.72 tbsp 10.84 g | 0.38 oz | 0.02 lbs | 7.54 tsp | 2.51 tbsp 765.45 g | 27 oz | 1.69 lbs | TF = N/A

Note: No bowl residue compensation; if a baker's grade form of dry non-fat milk is used, use 2 3/4 t.
*Preferably bromated

For preparation instructions, I suggest that you follow the instructions given with the PH recipe referenced above. I might add that the Godfather's dough appears to contain a lot of yeast. That suggests a same-day (possibly few-hours) dough rather than an overnight cold fermentation. If you know whether Godfather's uses a same-day dough, that information should be useful in the event you decide to modify the PH dough to also be a same-day dough.

If you have any questions before proceeding, let me know.

Peter

EDIT (12/29/15): For the most recent Godfather's ingredients list, see http://www.godfathers.com/sites/default/files/13-nutrinfo-brochure-web-lr.pdf

EDIT (1/14/17): For a replacement link for the above inoperative vegan.fm link, see http://veganfm.nextmp.net/2010/09/godfathers-pizza-is-not-vegan/

I know this is a dated article but this is such great information. I used the data on this site to make a Godfather's style pizza this weekend. I modified it slightly. It was a big hit with the family. I posted to my blog https://slimchefrecipes.com/recipe/godfathers-pizza-recipe/ with recipe instructions.