These are some damn fine looking pies JD! What type/brand of cheese are you using on your plain cheese pies? I'm really liking the color of the finished bake on the cheese.
Thanks Stavs. I just use Sysco Arrezzio whole milk mozz that I get from a local pizzeria.
There are a few things I do to ensure good color:
1) Amount of cheese: I use 250 grams for my 18" pizza. If you do the math, that's about 1 gram per square inch of pizza.
2) Amount & thickness of sauce: I use just about 7 volumetric oz of sauce. Again, if you do the math it's 0.0275oz per square inch ( <-- nerd alert ). The sauce should be thinner than you think. Think the consistency of heavy cream, it should spread pretty easily.
3) Shred: The thicker the shred, the more orange/white contrast you should see.
4) Length of cheese boil: When cheese first starts to boil it has very large bubbles. After a couple minutes the bubbles get smaller and in higher numbers. In my opinion the smaller the bubbles the more oiling off the cheese has done which means it gets that greasy-orange color.
Of course, all this is just my opinion and your results may vary.