Reverse Engineering DiFara's Pizzas

[Wilsonwilsonn]

Wilson, good work.  When reverse engineering a pizza or any food you want to use as close of a formula as the real deal you are copying but how much difference in this case would the type of flour make?  What if you used 100% high gluten for example but you used the same tomatoes and cheese and baked it the same?

I think it would make a big difference! If you just used high gluten flour you would have different characteristics compared to blended 00 flour i.e  different dough, different texture, chew & fermentation etc. Not to say that's good or bad but if your trying to reverse engineer a pizza I guess you want to be as accurate as possible. Unless you want to make something similar & experiment & put your own stamp on it.

Give it a whirl & see how it turns out!?

[LeviCampbell]

This is what I used. Mixed it into one batch, divided into two balls and into a bag in the fridge. 24 hours in the fridge.

Let it come to room temp for 2 hours if not a touch more.

My oven only goes to 520 but will sometimes sit at 475 once it goes over for a long period.

I tried the oven on broil to really preheat the steel but after it hit 550 and going back to bake it only maintained 480-500, if that. As if it gets tired lol. Preheat for almost two hours.

When I launch it, door opens, it loses a lot of heat and I wasn’t able to cook at 500+. That’s why it was too long and a bit dry as I have a good gauge on time at 500+ but it was hovering around 475.

It was light on cheese to be honest. Blend of brick Mozzarella and fresh mozzarella.

Tried my hand at this recipe and had some great results!

2 day cold ferment, took out 3 hours before bake.  7 minutes on the baking steel at 500 (preheated for 1.5 hours with broiler on for the last ten before launch).  Then flipped the broiler back on for the last 3 minutes.

Sauce was Scalfani tomatoes, little salt, and a few basil leaves that I left sit overnight in the fridge.

Whole milk low-moisture mozz pinched on, margherita pepperoni cut thick, and then shredded some parm on top after using scissors to cut the basil

Great taste!  Can't wait to have the leftovers tomorrow 

[jvp123]

Tried my hand at this recipe and had some great results!

2 day cold ferment, took out 3 hours before bake.  7 minutes on the baking steel at 500 (preheated for 1.5 hours with broiler on for the last ten before launch).  Then flipped the broiler back on for the last 3 minutes.

Sauce was Scalfani tomatoes, little salt, and a few basil leaves that I left sit overnight in the fridge.

Whole milk low-moisture mozz pinched on, margherita pepperoni cut thick, and then shredded some parm on top after using scissors to cut the basil

Great taste!  Can't wait to have the leftovers tomorrow 

Very nice! 

[PizzaEater101]

Here is my attempt at Di Fara. Because I never had Di Fara before I’d say this inspired by but not an actual reverse engineered version.  I went by what people said here but because I never tried it I can’t input based on experience.   I can’t tell if it taste like the real thing.  With that said I loved the way it taste.   The dough seemed very wet and hard to handle so when I launched it one side got out of shape and didn’t stay round.  Baked it on my LBE about a 650 Stone temp and maybe 625 air temp.  I think it took about 4 minutes to bake. 

[PizzaEater101]

I may add that because there are so many theories on how he makes the pizza and then there are fact. Fact that he uses 75% 00 flour and 25% High Gluten.  I think I read that here that someone confirmed that.  With that said I used 70% Power Flour and 30% 00.  This is almost the opposite of what he uses but for what it’s worth it was good.  Next time I’ll do 75% 00 and 25% High Gluten.

Some theorize the sauce is uncooked, some day cooked, and some say cooked and fresh tomato added to the cooked sauce or canned whole tomato added. I make a good pasta sauce so when I made meatballs last week I made pasta sauce to cook meatballs in so I took 3/4 cup of pasta sauce out after it simmered 20 minutes.  Then today I added 3/4 cup Mutti brand to the 3/4 cup pasta sauce and used that as my pizza sauce.  Used Joseph Farms WMLM mozz.  Sliced it in the grater.  Put some fresh mozzarella.  Freshly grated pecorino romano.  Swiss brand pepperoni and sliced cooked Italian sausage.  Put olive oil on it and then launched it.  Planned on making a 15 inch but the dough was so wet it was hard to handle and it stretched out to 16.  Fine because the bigger the pizza the better.  I try to limit pizzas to 14 or even 12 when I experiment then when I get it down I make 18 inch pizzas.  This time I thought I’d do 15 instead of 14 but it ended up 16 minus the deformation on one side.

[RHawthorne]

Probably the longest 'behind the scenes' video I've seen of the pizza making process at DiFara. Not necessarily a lot of detailed information on specific brands or recipes given, but a good view of their processes and a nice up-close look at the pizzas pre-bake. What's always struck me the most of what can be seen of their pizzas is that the crust itself looks somewhat unremarkable. It looks fine, but it looks very flat to me, despite the fact that  a lot of people seem to think that it's the closest thing to Italian pizza. I've seen lots of pizzas, and while the pizzas at DiFara look very appealing, they don't look like any Italian pizza I've ever seen. Maybe they're close to the tonda Romana style where the actual crust is concerned, but apart from that, I see no resemblance at all. Furthermore, I can't say I've ever heard anyone go into any great depth in describing the quality of the crust; all people ever seem to talk about is the toppings. Another thing that strikes me is that (unless my slight color blindness is leading me astray), I've always detected a slight golden hue to the crust of their pizzas. I've been suspecting for some time now that they might be using some proportion of durum flour, but I'm probably way off on that one because nobody else has ever mentioned it and I've never seen any visual confirmation of that. Anyway, I think this video is well worth watching.

[waltertore]

Probably the longest 'behind the scenes' video I've seen of the pizza making process at DiFara. Not necessarily a lot of detailed information on specific brands or recipes given, but a good view of their processes and a nice up-close look at the pizzas pre-bake. What's always struck me the most of what can be seen of their pizzas is that the crust itself looks somewhat unremarkable. It looks fine, but it looks very flat to me, despite the fact that  a lot of people seem to think that it's the closest thing to Italian pizza. I've seen lots of pizzas, and while the pizzas at DiFara look very appealing, they don't look like any Italian pizza I've ever seen. Maybe they're close to the tonda Romana style where the actual crust is concerned, but apart from that, I see no resemblance at all. Furthermore, I can't say I've ever heard anyone go into any great depth in describing the quality of the crust; all people ever seem to talk about is the toppings. Another thing that strikes me is that (unless my slight color blindness is leading me astray), I've always detected a slight golden hue to the crust of their pizzas. I've been suspecting for some time now that they might be using some proportion of durum flour, but I'm probably way off on that one because nobody else has ever mentioned it and I've never seen any visual confirmation of that. Anyway, I think this video is well worth watching.

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it.  I see they are using all ovens now and it must be fun to have locals coming back with the long lines gone.  We get a mix of tourists and locals - about 80% regulars.  It is a nice blend of new faces and old   The stones look like newer ones in the ovens. 

[NY_Mike]

This was my shot at a Di Fara's style.
Overall was very happy with how these pies turned out.
Great flavor in the dough....about a 5 minute or so bake on a stone, top rack, with a broil to get a little extra color on the crust.
It had a surprising feel in that it is crispier than it looks and didn't really get soggy as it cooled and sat.

[nyMike]

Caught this off the DiFara instagram.
Looks like they’re using Heckers AP flour.

[PizzaEater101]

Some here have said here that the sauce may be a combination of cooked and uncooked but in Instagram I asked this and the guy named Dino said it's all uncooked until it is on the pizza and cooks on the pizza.  So apparently it's fully uncooked going on the pizza, although it is strange it looks cooked. Here is a photo of my question but he answered by talking not by typing so you don’t see the answer or hear it.

[Georgev]

For what it’s worth I saw 2 boxes of valoroso pear tomato boxes on the ground in the last video posted. My guess he just stick blends them and uses them as is.

[RHawthorne]

Some here have said here that the sauce may be a combination of cooked and uncooked but in Instagram I asked this and the guy named Dino said it's all uncooked until it is on the pizza and cooks on the pizza.  So apparently it's fully uncooked going on the pizza, although it is strange it looks cooked. Here is a photo of my question but he answered by talking not by typing so you don’t see the answer or hear it.

I've also heard that they use some cooked tomatoes mixed in with canned product. Makes sense to me.

[Charlie]

Some good stuff in here. Thanks to everybody that’s shared their results. I used what I had available to me which was harvest king and Caputo blue. Cheese is Polly O. I was lucky enough to score some quality Grana Padano and fresh mozzarella.

[pvura]

So, as far as I know, their sauce (which is what i am most interested on recreating) is possibly made from one of three brands.
In many of their behind the scenes videos i have seen, there are cans of vantia tomatoes near the oven. So it could be just those stick blended or dumped through a food mill.
I have seen many videos where Dom Jr says the sauce is a combo of canned and fresh whereas in other videos, dom says it is all fresh. Not sure what to believe here.
I just DM’d Di Fara on instagram to ask about what goes into their sauce and they replied saying the sauce is just canned Mutti tomatoes which I dont know if i can trust because i see Vantia tomatoes in their kitchen all the time.
Other forum members also say that it could be Valoroso tomatoes so...

[RHawthorne]

So, as far as I know, their sauce (which is what i am most interested on recreating) is possibly made from one of three brands.
In many of their behind the scenes videos i have seen, there are cans of vantia tomatoes near the oven. So it could be just those stick blended or dumped through a food mill.
I have seen many videos where Dom Jr says the sauce is a combo of canned and fresh whereas in other videos, dom says it is all fresh. Not sure what to believe here.
I just DM’d Di Fara on instagram to ask about what goes into their sauce and they replied saying the sauce is just canned Mutti tomatoes which I dont know if i can trust because i see Vantia tomatoes in their kitchen all the time.
Other forum members also say that it could be Valoroso tomatoes so...

If they're using Mutti tomatoes, I'd really like to know what distributor they're getting them from, because that's been my favorite brand for years, and I didn't think they put their tomatoes out for the professional foodservice world.

[PizzaEater101]

I tried.  I never ate Di Fara’s but I’ve seen countless videos of Di Fara on YouTube and seen lots of Yelp pics too.  I put way too much cheese on it.  As far as taste goes I liked it.

[pvura]

Caught this off the DiFara instagram.
Looks like they’re using Heckers AP flour.

Actually a combination of caputo cuoco 00 flour and wingold h and r all purpose flour.