First Attempt at Lehmann Dough - The Results w/ Photos

[Nick Danger]

My first batch of Lehmann dough spent about 36 hours in the refrigerator, then another 4 hours on the counter. It was easy to stretch the dough into a 12" pie, which was a surprise for me. The other recipe I'd tried was always snapping back when I stretched it, even when spending the same amount of time on the counter first. This dough handled well, without being sticky and without tearing.

I'm very pleased with the results for my first attempt. Next time, I'm going to try a full three days in the refrigerator to get more flavor. The other recipe I was using had sugar and more yeast, and was a bit more flavorful. This crust was still very tasty, but I suspect the extra day or so will make a big difference in developing flavor.

Here are a few pictures. How do they look to you experienced pizza makers?

[jsaras]

Looks terrific IMO and it beats the pants off my early pizzas.  A straight cheese pizza is one of the most difficult to pull off.  Your stretching looks pretty darn decent, but as you gain experience you’ll be surprised what a difference it makes in the finished product.  If you’re after more flavor you could try increasing the salt to 2%.  I don’t know what cheese you’re using or pizza sauce, but those are important components as well.

[The Dough Doctor]

Looks like a winner to me!
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[amolapizza]

Looks great!

[foreplease]

Nice work, Nick. Welcome to the forum.

[Iamtheguynoodles]

That looks awesome. Looks like it came from a pizzaria. Did you cook this on a screen? What temp?

[Pete-zza]

Nick Danger,

I assume that the recipe you used is the one posted at https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=61306.msg611798#msg611798. Is that so?

Tom's basic NY style dough recipe is a solid choice for the NY style. In fact, it was originally developed for professionals and featured in the Recipe Bank of the PMQ website. In your case, you can play around with the recipe to improve your results. For example, I used a thickness factor of 0.105, which was purely out of ignorance at the time, but many people prefer a value of around 0.085. Actually, I personally prefer the larger value, and I believe that others do so also, for a home setting. Some professionals also use a thickness factor close to 0.10, as I discovered in a pizzeria that I visited some time ago in NYC.

I also came up with a Roadmap of versions of Tom's recipe that I came up with as part of my early learning experience, starting back in about 2005. That Roadmap is at https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=1453.msg13193#msg13193.

Good work, and keep plugging away .

Peter

[Nick Danger]

That looks awesome. Looks like it came from a pizzaria. Did you cook this on a screen? What temp?

Thank you! I'm proud of my first attempt.

I cooked it on a Old Stone Oven pizza stone. I preheated the oven at 500 degrees for an hour, and then turned on the broiler for 10 minutes before I put in the pizza and turned the oven back to 500 degrees. I also had the oven rack set as high as possible. It took about 8 minutes total, and I turned it halfway through.

Nick

[Nick Danger]

I assume that the recipe you used is the one posted at https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=61306.msg611798#msg611798. Is that so?

Yes, it's the one you posted in 2005 for Pizzzzagirl: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=2223.msg19563#msg19563

I also came up with a Roadmap of versions of Tom's recipe that I came up with as part of my early learning experience, starting back in about 2005. That Roadmap is at https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=1453.msg13193#msg13193.

Thank you. That's a wonderfully overwhelming amount of information that I look forward to exploring. Is there a variation you recommend I try next if I'm going for a 12-13" New York style pie? I can play with the thickness factor. Anything else you'd suggest I tweak in the original recipe I've been using? Should I add some sugar?

Nick

[Pete-zza]

Yes, it's the one you posted in 2005 for Pizzzzagirl: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=2223.msg19563#msg19563

Thank you. That's a wonderfully overwhelming amount of information that I look forward to exploring. Is there a variation you recommend I try next if I'm going for a 12-13" New York style pie? I can play with the thickness factor. Anything else you'd suggest I tweak in the original recipe I've been using? Should I add some sugar?

Nick

Nick,

Since you had such good results with your first stab at the Lehmann recipe, I think you should stick with the recipe a few times in order to see if you can get consistent results. That will also improve your dough and pizza making skills. When you feel comfortable with what you are doing, then it would be fine to see if you can improve your results even further. But, even then, I would change only one variable at a time, otherwise you will have a hard time knowing what did what to your dough and pizza. In this vein, some of the more common features of the New York style include the type of flour and the thickness factor. In my experience and also what I have seen on the forum, the best flours to use are bread flour and high gluten flour. Both will work very well but you may find that you prefer one flour over the other. As for the thickness factor, a range of about 0.08-0.085 is quite common but you might prefer other values. In my own case, I liked a value of about 0.10.

As for the sugar, if you would like to make a dough that is to be cold fermented for more than two or three days, you can--and maybe should--add some sugar to the recipe. A value of about 2% sugar is a quite common value. The sugar insures that the yeast is adequately fed over the entire fermentation period and, if there are residual sugars left in the dough at the time of baking, those sugars can contribute to final crust coloration.

At some point, to do a deeper dive, you might also take a look at this thread on the NY style of pizza:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=51924.msg522030#msg522030

God luck and continued good success.

Peter

[Quebert]

looks fantastic, I made Lehmann dough today, when I bake my pie tomorrow I HOPE it comes out looking even close to as good as yours.  The bottom looks perfect.