w ratings and home oven temperatures

[starman83]

Hi all,

I've been doing a ton of research on flours and their w strength and extensibility and I finally feel like I can ask informed questions on this site.

For starters I was using entirely the wrong type of flour. 72 hour ferment with caputo pizzeria ended up like chewing gum!

I reached out to allinsons customer service and they told me w ratings are not used tgis side of the pond and they use strength and extensibility to describe flour behavior.

In leo spizzeris youtube video he explains the difference between stagione gold and stagione superior, the latter having the lower w rating, which would roughly translate to alinsons strong bread flour.

He goes on to say that stagione superior is more suited to instant balling and cold fermentation for 24 to 48 hours (depending on yeast content re txcraig's yeast conversion chart)

I am going for a Joe's pizza style new yorker, im just wondering if my home oven of 240c plus steel will give me the oven spring I need or should I get a stronger flour, and go for a room temp bulk, then 30 or so hour balled cf?

Many thanks

Joe

[TXCraig1]

Focusing on things like W will not help you make better pizza and will likely do just the opposite. On the list of things that really matter, you'd need the Hubble space telescope to see it.

Get a decent bread-type flour (12.5-13.5% protein) and make pizza. Practice and the resulting experience is the ticket to great pizza - not flour. Your biggest challenge is going to be the 240C oven. It's just not hot enough for NY pizza.

[starman83]

Thanks for the reply Craig,

I really put the cart before the horse there lol. I'll look into a better oven maybe a breville electric pizza oven. It's good to know my technique wasn't as bad as I thought !

Thanks again

Joe

[Hanglow]

Yeah have a look at pizza ovens

On the flour, alinsons has added enzymes that  i found don't do too well with long ferments, at least at room temp, I've not tried it with a CF.  It's good for quick same day doughs though. You could try waitrose or sainsbos for their Canadian bread flour, it is very strong and doesn't have added enzymes iirc.

[starman83]

Thanks hanglow!

Good to know about those enzymes, I'll go down to sainsbury and have a look at their flour, might not have the Canadian as its not the biggest outlet but I'll do a little more research to be sure.

Joe

[Davydd]

I made an experiment today. I have a 2 door gas oven range with a maximum 550 deg. temperature setting. The upper oven is just one rack. I put in a 1/8" steel and heated the oven to the max. I was surprised the steel got to 630 degrees after 1 hour.

I had four 100% Semolina flour dough balls of 220 grams that I made by mistake but kept them for experimenting and froze them. I took it out of the freezer a day ago in the morning and put it in the refrigerator then overnight i put it on the counter at room temperature knowing I would make the pizza about lunch time.

It stretched OK to a 10" pie. I made a pizza with dressing of sauce, cheese, onion and some dime size pepperoni and baked it for 7 minutes which was a bit too long. 5-6 minutes would have done. Semolina was practically a cracker crust. OK, it was a cracker. This is the result. The back side charred. I didn't see that.

[paris401]

i stopped using my oven, as it gets to 500/510degrees- now i use my weber bbq- i put two brinks on the grates, my stone on top, preheat, and the temp gets up to 700F.... i usually lower it a bit to the mid 600's- works pretty well...

[nickyr]

Thanks for the reply Craig,

I really put the cart before the horse there lol. I'll look into a better oven maybe a breville electric pizza oven. It's good to know my technique wasn't as bad as I thought !

Thanks again

Joe

If replacing your home oven is an option, consider that. The breville is expensive, hotter than you need, and very tiny. NY pies should be big! Home ovens that hit 500-550 Fahrenheit are easy to come by in America and work great for New York style.

[Davydd]

Breville has another counter top electric pizza oven much cheaper that gets to over 600 degrees. I modified mine with a steel instead of a stone to coax out more heat. It is only $179. The steel is a 12.5" diameter, 1/4" thick that fits perfectly from 222Steel that I got off Etsy.