Help — Top of rim comes out white, while everything else is properly browned

[Shanksworthy]

I guess crispy isn't an absolute requirement for me, as long as it's chewy, tasty, and thoroughly cooked. But it would be a bonus to see some natural browning, as it would be an indicator that my dough is healthy.🙂

We'll see if my IDY reduction will do the trick. I've had a new batch in the fridge for the past 48 hrs, using .2% IDY which is 2/3 my usual amount. The dough is now approx 1.5x its original size, vs the 3x size increase it would normally exhibit by this time. So, er... I guess this is how it's supposed to be? I'll bake it tomorrow and will post the results.

[TXCraig1]

What an interesting product! Feels like a bit of a cheat in a way though. 🙂

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=57336.0

[Shanksworthy]

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=57336.0

Oh, you weren't kidding! LOL do you have a video of yourself making blowtorch pizza? That would get a lot of YouTube views. It sure came out looking great too.

[Jackitup]

They are VERY popular in the sous vide crowd!!!

Craig, did they come down in price from when they first came out or were they always $75??

[Shanksworthy]

They are VERY popular in the sous vide crowd!!!

Craig, did they come down in price from when they first came out or were they always $75??

Haha, yeah I can picture that. When my cousin got into sous vide, we went a little nuts and tried sous vide'ing every damned thing in the fridge, and it was delicious! If I can't sous-vide a pizza, then maybe this is the next best thing.👍

[Shanksworthy]

Today I baked one with only .2% IDY instead of .3%. The dough more-than doubled in the fridge, but did not quite reach the 3x (or more) size that it would normally have grown to at .3% IDY. It was still pretty slack after leaving it at room temp for 4 hrs though, so I might try reducing hydration a couple %. The end result after baking was improved, but still not perfect. By the time I remembered to snap a pic, it was mostly eaten. 😁 But the 2 remaining slices are representative. What do you guys think... does that look ok, or is there room for improvement?

[BeanAnimal]

Looks okay to me

[amolapizza]

Normally there is always place for improvement..

That said, your pizza looks pretty good to me!

[TXCraig1]

They are VERY popular in the sous vide crowd!!!

Craig, did they come down in price from when they first came out or were they always $75??

I think that's what I paid.

[BeanAnimal]

They are VERY popular in the sous vide crowd!!!

Craig, did they come down in price from when they first came out or were they always $75??

IMHO they are really not well made and tend to not last very long.  We do a good bit of sous-vide and I am not really a fan of the torch (with or without the fixture) - can't explain exactly why. I prefer to sear on super hot cast iron with some clarified butter.  Note - that I have certainly used a torch in odd situation to cook hot dogs, quickly fry bologna, toast bread, caramelize cheese on an undercooked delivery pizza, make s'mores, etc.   But mostly I use it to light the weber and solder copper pipes

[Shanksworthy]

Ok so here's an interesting article I found, written by Kenji, that takes a controlled scientific approach to testing out various cold-fermentation durations. https://www.seriouseats.com/the-pizza-lab-how-long-should-i-let-my-dough-cold-ferment

In a nutshell, he bulk-ferments his dough in the fridge, and bakes some of it each day. On day 1, he notes that the rim is a "uniform brown", which he characterizes as being less desirable or interesting than the contrast of colours you get after longer fermentations. On day 3, you can clearly see in his photos that the dough is much more pale in spots, with charred spots wherever there are bubbles. His day-3 dough looks very similar in color to my latest! While he doesn't seem to have made the correlation between the pallor of his dough and the amount of time that yeast has had to consume more of the sugars, at least this is a good indication that I'm in the ballpark for 3-day fermentation period.

Going forward, I think I'll stick with .2% IDY, I'll try increasing oil slightly to 1.5% (after all, I'm baking it in my kitchen oven, not a pizza oven), and I'll also reduce water to maybe 68.5% in hopes of making the dough less slack and easier to handle.

Thanks all for weighing in and getting me thinking in the right direction!

[peetzabone]

To clarify my post for people who were wondering why I changed what was apparently working: the reason I moved my bake to the top rack instead of the middle, was mainly because I got a new steel slab that was much thicker than the old one, and I was worried that the bottom would cook faster than the top. So I figured that moving it up and away from the bottom element would slow that a bit, and give the top a chance to cook at the same rate. I was mostly right, but I do seem to need to hit it with the broiler in order for the toppings to keep up with the base.

Shank- Something for you to consider:

Like you I got a massive steel plate for making pizza. It's 1/2" and after preheating for 90 minutes retains heat really well for multiple pizza bakes. I use the steel on the bottom rack and about 4" above that I place the second rack with a thick, standard cordierite stone on it. The radiant heat from the top stone helps start cooking the top while the steel does it trick w/ direct heat from the bottom of the crust up.  At the 3 minute mark I rotate the bottom pizza up to the top stone to finish for another 3.5 minutes. I put a new pizza on the bottom steel and then lather/rinse/ repeat.

I would use the steel then finish under a hot broiler but because I do so many pizzas (usually 7-10) that I'm worried that if I go broiler only my steel will lose too much heat.

Why do I do so many pizzas? I have trained my family and friends that they "get to make their own". It would make more sense for me to make 3 16" pies instead of 8 8" pies but I don't think I can convince them to "share". They love topping their own stuff.

I'm *pretty* happy with results this way. Might help you too if you want more flexibility.

[Shanksworthy]

Shank- Something for you to consider:

Like you I got a massive steel plate for making pizza. It's 1/2" and after preheating for 90 minutes retains heat really well for multiple pizza bakes. I use the steel on the bottom rack and about 4" above that I place the second rack with a thick, standard cordierite stone on it. The radiant heat from the top stone helps start cooking the top while the steel does it trick w/ direct heat from the bottom of the crust up.  At the 3 minute mark I rotate the bottom pizza up to the top stone to finish for another 3.5 minutes. I put a new pizza on the bottom steel and then lather/rinse/ repeat.

I would use the steel then finish under a hot broiler but because I do so many pizzas (usually 7-10) that I'm worried that if I go broiler only my steel will lose too much heat.

Why do I do so many pizzas? I have trained my family and friends that they "get to make their own". It would make more sense for me to make 3 16" pies instead of 8 8" pies but I don't think I can convince them to "share". They love topping their own stuff.

I'm *pretty* happy with results this way. Might help you too if you want more flexibility.

Sounds like an excellent workflow. I've also enlisted my family and friends as guinea pigs in my pizza experiments, although I'm really still just getting the basics down. But I have an extra steel slab, a 3/16" thick one that I just replaced with the 3/8" one, and I suppose I could try using it in a similar manner — although since it's only 14", a great deal of my 16" pizza would be hanging over the edge. But maybe that's not such a big deal once the crust has already baked enough to have some rigidity.

Do you find when baking on the bottom rack, that the bottom gets a little TOO blackened sometimes? Because for me, even though I only preheat for 60 mins on the top rack and my steel is 1/8" thinner than yours, my crust becomes adequately singed after 5-mins. So I worry that any more heat would be too much.