Do you make your own pizza crusts? Are you happy with your creations?
If so, I need your help!
When we were in Auckland last month, we spent several nights enjoying the thin crust pizza at a little restaurant right downstairs in the building where we were staying. It was described as European style pizza. Minimal crust, minimal toppings. Wonderful tastes all around.
I was home writing yesterday, and somewhere in the middle of an edit decided that I would make another attempt to produce a thin pizza crust.
At the end of the afternoon I checked a couple of recipes, decided that their ingredient list was similar to the dough I used to make. So without much hesitation, I mixed up the yeast, flour, and water, kneaded until smooth, and set it aside while we got some toppings together and the oven heated to blast furnace, or as close as our regular home oven gets to that.
The next problem I ran into was a failure of my conceptual plan. I had a little blog of dough, and began to flatten and spread it by hand into a thin, vaguely round or oblong shape. It was going okay until I thought ahead. How in the heck do you spread some toppings, even minimal toppings, onto a very thin crust and then manage to transfer the whole thing to a blazing hot pizza stone that’s been in the oven in high heat for 30 minutes? No way.
So at that point I had to come up with an alternative. The only thing I could think of was to dig out a couple of old pizza pans that were stuck in a corner downstairs, wash them off, sprinke with a good layer of corn meal to keep the dough from sticking, and try again at shaping the crust by hand. The pan would serve as the vehicle for the crust, but it meant the crust couldn’t go directly onto the hot stone.
A necessary compromise.
So in went the test pizza. Toppings included just a simple tomato sauce, mushrooms, sliced olives, and anchovies, then a light layer of cheese.
In the oven for a total of about 10 minutes.
It came out looking and smelling good. I thought it was a success.
But then came the problem. The crust was thin, but nothing close to what we had in Auckland. And, unfortunately, the crust wasn’t yummy. Actually, it didn’t taste good. In fact, it didn’t taste much at all. It was relatively thin, and it had gotten crisp. But it failed when hitting the taste buds.
With that Auckland pizza, you would look for little bits of broken crust and pop them into your mouth as a treat. With this pizza, you put up with the crust as a way to get the toppings into your mouth, not as a good taste on its own. A very different experience.
So…what’s the trick to a thin and great tasting pizza crust? There don’t seem to be too many variables on the taste front. The choice of flour, perhaps? I used a mix of white and wheat flour. Maybe a mistake. Does a thin crust require white flour alone? Or maybe it needs a little something sweet in it? A touch of honey, perhaps? If you let it sit in the refrigerator overnight, will that improve the taste?
I just went back and reread Ernest Murphy’s classic “Pizza Essay,” first posted here back in 2005.
Perhaps I should have done this before last night’s experiment.
Here’s one of Murphy’s hints:
In all these pizzas, I first of all roll or pat out the dough and paint the entire surface, right to the edge, with olive oil before anything else goes on. The oil is essential to the flavor, color and texture of the crust and also keeps wet ingredients from soaking it. I apply oil with a brush or the back of a tablespoon.
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Ian,
Here is an ingenious device which I use to transfer pizza as well as artisan breads to my baking stone.
http://www.superpeel.com
Here is the recipe I use for pizza dough. It is a synthesis of recipes by Peter Reinhart and Tony Gemignani.
56 grams sourdough starter (optional)
280 grams filtered water
16 grams EVOO
397 grams Italian ‘OO” flour (available at Whole Foods)
56 grams whole wheat flour
12 grams raw wheat germ
9 grams diastatic malt powder (essential for home made pizza)
10 grams sugar
9 grams sea salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
Add all ingredients to a stand mixer or bread machine (on dough cycle) in the order listed.
Alternatively, mix and knead by hand.
When dough has come together, form into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl, cover, and refrigerate over night or up to 3 days (again, essential). Take out 2 hours before you plan to bake and divide into 2-4 pieces. Cover and let rest. Just before you plan to bake, form the disks. Top with your favorite ingredients, bake at the hottest setting in your oven for 6-7 minutes.
I am afraid however, that in the absence of a wood fired 900 degree oven, it is just not possible to duplicate neapolitan pizza at home. Good luck
EcoQue ECO-71008 Wood Fired Pizza Oven and Smoker with Cover, only $1600!!!! (supplies are limited, act now, all sales are final)
Dude, now I’m hungry for pizza at 7:30 am. ????????
I pick up the phone and make a call.
For a terrific homemade pizza sauce here is one my wife created:
http://www.mylilikoikitchen.com/2014/09/20/homemade-pizza-sauce/
Another strategy is to stretch the dough on a piece of parchment paper or a metal pizza pan then bake it with no toppings for about three or four minutes to “set” the crust so the toppings don’t soak in. Parchment paper, trimmed round with enough edge to pick up, really eases my pizza handling jitters. You can slide the paper and pizza on and off your stone with ease.
I don’t think there’s any way to duplicate a truly great pizza at home oven temperatures. But you can make much better pizza than you’ll find at the chains.
You can find lots of really good ideas on SeriousEats.com including hacks to turn your outdoor grill into a pizza oven that will reach the high temps needed for professional-level pizza. We live in a condo, but if we were in a house we would definitely do this! Even in a home oven, it sounds like the Baking Steel does a better job than a stone.
Larry makes the dough and I’m in charge of topping and baking. He uses the New York dough recipe from Peter Reinhard’s American Pie.
A few tips:
High hydration (dough is more wet)
Extended cold fermentation (we do 3-4 days in the refrigerator). This allows time for the complex flavors to develop.
To avoid problems transferring the pizza to the hot stone, I start it on a pizza pan. After 5-6 minutes I use the peel to take it off the pan and put it directly on the stone to finish (another 5-6 minutes).
Don’t overdo the toppings or it will wind up soggy. I’m sometimes guilty of this and wind up regretting it.
Hope this helps. As a New Yorker, I consider good pizza a necessity, not a luxury!
Ian, you need a wooden pizza paddle sprinkled liberally with cornmeal to slide it onto the hot pizza stone. instead of parchment paper use the paddle:
Homemade Thin Crust Pizza
Makes two 10-inch pizzas
For the dough:
3/4 cups (6 ounces) lukewarm water
1 teaspoon active-dry or instant yeast
2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
For the toppings:
For the base, classic red sauce or a white sauce, a thin spread of ricotta cheese, or a simple brush of olive oil
For toppings, sauteed onions, red peppers, mushrooms, cooked sausage, or bacon
For cheese, one or a combination of the following: mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, fontina, romano, and asiago
Set the oven to 500°F or as hot as it will go and let it heat for at least a half an hour before making the pizza. If you have a pizza stone, put it in the lower-middle part of the oven now.
Combine the water and yeast in a mixing bowl, and stir to dissolve the yeast. The mixture should look like thin miso soup. Add the flour and salt to the bowl and mix until you’ve formed a shaggy dough.
Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface along with any loose flour still in the bowl. Knead until all the flour is incorporated, and the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. The dough should still feel moist and slightly tacky. If it’s sticking to your hands and counter-top like bubble gum, work in more flour one tablespoon at a time until it is smooth.
If you have time at this point, you can let the dough rise until you need it or until doubled in bulk (about an hour and a half). After rising, you can use the dough or refrigerate it for up to three days.
Cover the dough with the upside-down mixing bowl or a clean kitchen towel while you prepare the pizza toppings.
When ready to make the pizza, tear off two pieces of parchment paper roughly 12-inches wide. Divide the dough in two with a bench scraper. Working with one piece of the dough at a time, form it into a large disk with your hands and lay it on the parchment paper.
Work from the middle of the dough outwards, using the heel of your hand to gently press and stretch the dough until it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick or less. For an extra-thin crust, roll it with a rolling pin. If the dough starts to shrink back, let it rest for five minutes and then continue rolling.
The dough will stick to the parchment paper, making it easier for you to roll out, and the pizza is baked while still on the parchment. As it cooks, the dough will release from the parchment, and you can slide the paper out midway through cooking.
Spoon a few tablespoons of sauce into the center of the pizza and use the back of a spoon to spread it out to the edges. Pile on all of your toppings.
Using a bread peel or the backside of a baking sheet, slide your pizza (still on the parchment) onto the baking stone in the oven. If you don’t have a baking stone, bake the pizza right on the baking sheet.
Bake for about 5 minutes and then rotate the pizza, removing the parchment from under the pizza as you do so. Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes until the crust is golden-brown and the cheese looks toasty.
Remove the pizza from oven and let it cool on a wire rack. Repeat with shaping, topping, and baking second pizza.
Let both pizzas cool for about five minutes before slicing and serving.
Probably need the yoga mat chemical.
Well, I have a very quick and good no-knead pizza crust recipe and I happened to make it tonight!
This recipe makes two crusts. You cook both to the halfway point. Then you can take one out, put it in a ziploc bag and freeze it for another day. Put your toppings on the second one and cook that one the rest of the way for dinner that night.
The crust is quick and easy, tasty, and vegan (a plus in my book). For toppings she starts with pizza sauce and some hummus, which might sound odd but is delicious! Then loads it up with whatever.
Do watch the short video and you’ll see how she makes it right on the pizza pan (on top of some parchment paper for easy cutting and clean up). And then the recipe is written out too:
http://www.cookingwithplants.com/recipe/no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe/
This woman’s recipes are really easy and tasty. I’m a big fan.
I agree with Nanette regarding Serious Eats and its recipes – in particular, their New York and Neapolitan style pizza recipes are great.
Although it requires some planning, the dough will taste much better if you let it ferment for a couple of days. See Nanette’s recommendations and more details at Serious Eats.
I’ve been making pizzas for more than 20 years but the biggest and best change for me was switching from a pizza stone to a Lodge Cast Iron Pizza pan http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Logic-Cast-Iron-14-Inch-Pizza/dp/B0000E2V3X/ This cut my total cooking time down to 8 or 9 minutes – including all preheating – and produced a better crust than did the stone. Although the baking steel *might* produce better results, the Lodge pan is significantly cheaper and ships for free from Amazon.
Just preheat the cast iron pan on your stove top for 4 minutes, put the flattened dough on the pan, quickly top with ingredients and cook for 2 minutes. You really have to work quickly as the pan gets very hot and you can easily overcook the bottom of the crust. Then transfer the pan and pizza to a pre-heated broiler and broil for 2-3 minutes. Remove the pizza and serve. The bottom of the crust should be slightly charred while the top crust should show some leopard spotting.
I suspect that there are many paths to a perfect pizza, which will depend, in any case, on how one has been imprinted earlier in life. So experimentation is probably good, along with having an idea of what you want to end up with.
For us, it is New York style pizza–which is to say, the bread part. Unfortunately, in this country, pizza has become a topping thing. Whatever. The idea is to have it your way.
Having been imprinted with one style, we want our pizzas to come out with a chewy cornicione, that is, the fat edge all around. Since for us, pizza is the crust, and we have fun with different toppings, there will be no rolling pin to flatten the pizza. There will be no whole-wheat in the dough. Just not our style, unless we’re experimenting, which is also fun to do and seldom a total loss.
So, to get where we want to go, I start with Peter Reinhard’s NY pizza recipe. I like to use a stand mixer, so everything goes in there. I weigh the ingredients with a cheap Chinese digital scale, reserving quite a bit of flour so that I can end up with a wettish dough. At first, I couldn’t handle wet doughs, but with practice, it’s ok, and the results are better whether for bread or for pizza.
Using Reinhard’s quantities and instant yeast (though it doesn’t matter), and mixing 4 minutes, rest 5, mix 3, it all goes into a plastic container with the top of the dough covered with plastic rap so it can rise. Into the fridge for 2 or 3 days, though a couple of days more would be ok. Oh, before I forget, no yoga mats for us. For home baking, optionally, malted barley flour, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp, works fine. Yeasts are said to love the stuff. If you have it, great, if not, no problem.
Also, I use King Arthur bread flour. 00 is good if you have a fresh source, for a Neopolitan crust. Locally milled flour would be better. But heck, we get a pizza that satisfies us with King Arthur, which has a fast enough turnover in the store so that it’s fresh enough.
Again, it’s what works for you, and you can get closer and closer to your ideal as you make more and more pizzas. If at first you don’t succeed, try again. If at first you succeed, definitely try again. Maybe even make notes each time at first. What did you do differently? Was it an improvement, or not? I still like fiddling, so I still make notes.
Ok, back to the dough. After, say, 3 days in the fridge, the dough has risen somewhat, not much, but it’s encouraging to see that it has, because that means that the fermentation is probably ok.
I take it out, divide it into four cottage cheese containers, again with the plastic wrap on top of each dough lump (Nanette taught me to do this). Three go in the freezer, one in the fridge until needed, perhaps later that day.
Several hours before its date with the oven, we take it out of the fridge and onto the counter. When to take it out will depend on the ambient temperature, so in Kaaawa you’ll be taking it out before we will in Honolulu. It will warm up and rise, so loosen the cover. Rising is good. If it doesn’t rise, fix it next time. At least you’ll have a good flatbread this time.
Sprinkle flour on your surface of choice and on the top of the flour lump. Take it out carefully. Flatten just a bit with fingers and put more flour, because it’s about to be handled, and especially if you’ve become used to the wet-style, it will need that flour.
I stretch it in the air, holding it so that I preserve the rim. But let me backspace here for a moment.
We have a pizza stone in the oven and one we can put in the toaster oven. We’re only two people, so why heat up the main oven, which takes a while to heat the stone? Oh, stainless steel would no doubt be better, but big deal. We have our stones. We can’t simulate a real pizza oven either in temperature or in oven construction. Stainless steel would be only an increment anyway, and at great expense. Wouldn’t it be better to spend that money on, say, anchovies?
And we did the wooden peel / cornmeal thing for quite some time. Currently, Nanette has a stainless steel round peel that works very well for us with this method and has many other uses. The wooden peel works, but the stainless steel peel is so much easier to handle and makes Nanette’s pan/stone method possible.
Ok, back to the dough. I forgot to mention that before taking it out of the cottage cheese container, I prepare a 12″ pizza pan by spreading a small puddle of olive oil all over it in circular motions. Ok, so my pan is waiting.
I am not good enough at stretching dough to do it all in the air. But at least I can see to it that it doesn’t get too thin. Holes can be troublesome because the topping leaks through. So after a bit of playing around, I put the now oblong-shaped dough onto the pan and finish stretching by lifting, pulling and holding-in-place (because the dough likes to pull back). Eventually, I win, and the dough is stretched out almost to the edges and with that fat edge intact that will become the cornicione. If it’s not so fat in places, oh, well, next time will be better.
Then over to Nanette. My work is done. She has prepared the topping ingredients and sets about creating a work of art. My job was to prepare the canvas.
The oven has been heating long enough that the stone is at temperature. She puts it in the oven 5-6 minutes still in the pan. Then out it comes. Using the peel, the now manageable crust is slid off the pan and onto the stone for about 5-6 minutes. It has to be watched. The New York style we’ve been imprinted with requires a bit of char, but obviously, the thing mustn’t be incinerated. For some toppings, she might add something before the second insertion, or at another time.
Then out of the oven, back onto the pan, to rest about 1 minute. I prefer to cut the pizza with pizza scissors, that’s just a personal preference. If the topping has a couple of eggs on it, an Australian favorite apparently, we might just cut the pizza in half and eat it Italian style with knife and fork. Hey, it all works.
It’s also a cooperative cooking thing for us. Sure, Nanette could make a great dough, probably better than I can. But we get to make this pizza together, each with our own parts, and each doing what we are best at. I love her inventive and healthy pizza toppings. Check out the pics on her tweets at @FreeRangeNan .
I have tried no-knead pizza, from Jim Lahey’s book. It works, but since I am preparing the dough in a stand mixer anyway, why not just it do its job? If I did not knead, it would probably work anyway, since the dough will be spending 2-4 days in the fridge.
There are many paths to the perfect pizza. I don’t disagree with others who do it differently.
When I bought my cuisinart years ago they had very easy pizza dough recipe that was tasty. Try going on their website for it, I didn’t write it down.