Quest for the Perfect Pizza
Quest for the Perfect Pizza
I began my quest for the perfect home baked pizza in 1990. After several failed attempts that produced burnt crust or gooey centers, I was certain that I would never be able to produce a great pie at home. Fortunately I was set on the right path towards pizza nirvana. While on vacation in a northern California coast town, my wife and I stumbled onto a quaint little family run pizza joint. The pizza was fantastic with great crust and creative toppings. I asked the owner what the trick was to producing such a masterpiece. He answered with the standard "If I tell you I'll have to kill you". After downing another bottle of wine and sharing with him my challenges in pizza making, He invited me back to his kitchen. "Heat" he explained, "was the key to a successful pie". His oven was fired up over 600 degrees. The type of heat was important too. I left his kitchen with a list of things that I needed to get in order to produce a decent pizza in my own kitchen.
When I returned home I purchased a large, thick, rectangular pizza stone for my oven. I also picked up a good wooden pizza piel along with other specialty tools. It wasn't long until I was turning out great pizza in my own kitchen. Pizza partys became a weekly event. I experimented with several different dough and sauce recipes until I was happy with the results. For years I was content with the pizza that I was able to turn out. Friends and family were happy too. However, my passion was about to lead me down a new path.
Several years ago I had introduced a good friend to the art of pizza making. Like me, he was soon on a quest of his own. Growing up in New York, he wanted to recreate the perfect New York style pie that he remembered as a kid. The pizza that I was creating had a definite California flare with a thicker crust while the pie that my friend was striving for was thin and chewy. Achieving the perfect east coast style pizza was not an easy task. The most common factor in producing such a pie was the oven. Again, the heat was the key. Most authentic pizzerias were using a brick oven that was fired by wood or coal. We found that all of our favorite pizzas from all over the country came from a brick oven. We both decided that we would build a brick oven of our own some day. We researched many different styles and oven designs. We even checked out the oven at Lombardi's, Americas first pizzaeria, while traveling to New York together .
My opportunity to build my oven finally came during the construction of our new home in 2004. I designed my back yard to include an outdoor kitchen, equipped with a comercial size wood fired brick oven. My oven is based on an old world Italian design that is shaped like an igloo. The inside of the oven is approximately six feet deep by four feet wide. I have included a pictorial history of the construction process on this site. I finished the oven with decretive stone, hand distressed wooden tembers, travertine tiles and a copper roof. I couldn't be happier with the results.
This oven gets HOT! Well over a thousand degrees. Pizzas are done in less then three minutes. It's like an old world microwave. The oven is not just for cooking pizza. It produces a moist heat that is perfect for baking artisan breads and roasting juicy meats. I baked the most delectable turkey for Thanksgiving this past year. I also use it as a slow smoker too, producing fantastic ribs and brisket. Yes, it also produces the "perfect home baked pizza"!
Hi!
Are there any TFL bakers with experience with retarded bulk fermentation at temperatures greater than a typical refrigerator's. I have a separate basement area where temperatures range from 58 to 60 degrees.
My confusion stems from the many baguette recipes that call for primary (bulk) fermentation times in the 2 to 3 hour range. At the same time, when discussing fermentation in general, most writers call for the longest possible fermentation times in order to maximize flavor. Logically, I have a problem believing that it can be both, assuming that flavor is my primary objective.
Back in 2002, I had the pleasure of touring the great French boulanger Lionel Poilne's Belgravia shop in London. All their baking was done in a sub-basement two levels beneath the shop. Basement temperatures a constant 55 degrees. Unfortunately, as I was just getting into baguette baking at that time, I did not ask question about fermentation times.
QUESTIONS:
- At lower temperatures, e.g. 58 - 60 degrees, when would you turn and fold.
- After the dough has doubled, has anyone frozen the dough, and with what results.
- Would proofing at these low temperatures improve upon the loaf's flavor.
- Etc.
Any thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated.
Best to all, and a very Happy Thanksgiving, Neil
Several months ago my husband and I went to ZaZu's, a local, wine-country restaurant, to try one of their wood-fired stove pizzas. This road-house style restaurant which features local, sustainable food is our favorite place to eat out. Unfortunately it's pretty pricey so we only go their for special occasions. We ordered a chanterelle mushroom, Laura Chenel goat cheese, truffle oil pizza garnished with pea shoots that was paired with three half-glasses of local pinots. The whole meal was delicious. Since Friday nights are usually pizza nights here and the chanterelles are currently so abundant and lovely looking, I thought I'd try to re-create that pizza. Unfortunately, my attempt was pretty successful. We're now totally hooked on those pricey chanterelles.
For the crust I used two 6-1/2 oz. balls of Classic French Bread from Peter Reinhart's latest book. Any pizza dough that you like would work just fine.
After shaping each pizza, I brushed it with some White Truffle Oil that I purchased from Costco (I think it was about $20 for a bottle). Just in case anyone wants to argue that this product isn't real truffle oil :-) let me just say that whatever it is, it is absolutely delicious!
I sauted 8 ounces of sliced chanterelles in a little bit of the truffle oil and used half on each pizza.
I topped each with 2 ounces of Laura Chenel Chabis goat cheese.
I baked each pizza on a well-preheated stone (550) for about 9 minutes. I drizzled each finished pizza with a little more truffle oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt.
Pea shoots would have been a great garnish, but alas I didn't plan far enough in advance to produce them. I served the pizza with a simple salad of watercress and tomatoes from our garden dressed with an herb-shallot vinaigrette.
--Pamela
I set out to make what has become my standard 25% wholewheat rustic Italian loaf (blogged here) and discovered, well into weighing and mixing the dough, that I had run out of white flour. I had only 150 gm and the recipe called for 300 gm. But I did have plenty of wholewheat. And it was too late to stop and go get more. So I just made up the missing mass with wholewheat flour. Nothing ventured ...
The final formula was thus about 350 gm of biga at 75%, 150 gm white flour, 25 gm whole rye flour and 350 gm wholewheat flour, at a final hydration of 62.5%. So it was effectively about 40% wholewheat.
I generally knead this bread for about 6 minutes, and started doing so, and it came together just fine despite the extra wholewheat. But about 4 minutes into the kneading, the dough suddenly became quite sticky again. I don't remember that ever happening before, so I wondered, is that something that happens with high percentages of wholewheat?
Anyway, I allowed the dough to rise at room temperature for three hours then put it into the fridge overnight. Next morning I shaped a boule and put that back into the fridge for 8 hours. I brought it out while the oven was heating and baked at 220 degrees C for 10 minutes with a pan of water, then removed the water and baked for another 30 minutes at 200.
It came out far better than I expected.
I tried for the fan shaped cuts I've seen elsewhere, and they worked out well except that I think the loaf was probably underproofed, given the explosion.
The crumb was light and open and soft, and the crust not too thick, and good and chewy.
You can see that the crumb is denser near the top crust (bottom as the loaf proved) which along with the explosive opening of the crust makes me think it either needed to warm up more before going in the oven or else was just underproofed.
Anyway, overall I was very pleased and may now consider making loaves with a higher percentage of wholewheat in future.
Jeremy
Hi from Montreal, I've been calling baking shops around the city looking for diastatic malt flour. The only
thing close I've come to is Malt flour. How would I know if it's diastatic or non. This is for a panttone recipe.
Thanks for your help, Roberto
i was telling my niece about this website and she started telling me about a bread being cooked on tv and was waondering what sort of bread it might be. she said it look premitive cause the would take this bread dough (that looked similar to pita bread) and they would put it down in this stone pot sorta thing and slap it to the side of the pot and then after awhile they would slap it to the other side and it would stick to the sides. she cant remember if the pot was in the ground or what.
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