The Homemade Pizza Thread

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long prove yeasted dough,
You know, @Alastair70, I can't seem to make my dough stand out--extra salt, garlic powder, onion powder. Extra salt makes the dough "gooey" if I'm not mistaken.
I've tried to pay attention to pizzas I like that I buy and I don't notice a lot. Some places do excellently with making the bottom really crispy (square pizza).
Even the pizza we got from a place around here Bigalora (Welcome - Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina), which I loved, the crust was superb but not what I would call "flavorful."
 
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Out of interest, have you tried using beer as the liquid in your dough?
I like the idea. I see no reason for me not to try that in two weeks, if I don't have anyone counting on me serving it to them, that is, I might do a dark, whisky barrel stout. That would 1000ml of beer, I think.
 
Gave it another try on the ooni last night.

Thanks to Alastair for the advice about the dough. This time i used 'proper' flour, caputo pizzeria. After kneading I proved for 3 hours at RT, balled up and left for 5 hrs at RT. The dough was so much easier to work with. I used Galbani mozzarella, which is far better than the standard supermarket stuff with too much moisture. I used the pizza app. I did run into an issue though, for those who use the pizza app, is it always 100% accurate regarding weights? I was going for 5 210g balls, however the final one was only 180... I measured everything out. Not sure if its the scales or the app.

Best ones yet, however I still cant quite get that light and airy crust. Also, I noticed that I was having a bit of an issue with charring on the underside. I set the ooni on full, and gave it 30mins to warm up. Then pizza straight in, and I turn the ooni down slightly after launch. Is this the right way to go?

1636236101348(1).jpg

1636236101360.jpg
 
Gave it another try on the ooni last night.

Thanks to Alastair for the advice about the dough. This time i used 'proper' flour, caputo pizzeria. After kneading I proved for 3 hours at RT, balled up and left for 5 hrs at RT. The dough was so much easier to work with. I used Galbani mozzarella, which is far better than the standard supermarket stuff with too much moisture. I used the pizza app. I did run into an issue though, for those who use the pizza app, is it always 100% accurate regarding weights? I was going for 5 210g balls, however the final one was only 180... I measured everything out. Not sure if its the scales or the app.

Best ones yet, however I still cant quite get that light and airy crust. Also, I noticed that I was having a bit of an issue with charring on the underside. I set the ooni on full, and gave it 30mins to warm up. Then pizza straight in, and I turn the ooni down slightly after launch. Is this the right way to go?

View attachment 57203
View attachment 57204
I find that you need to crank it right up to get to temp then back off a fair bit otherwise the base does tend to cook too quickly. There's a sweet spot that takes a bit of trial and error to find. Also the pies cook much quicker at the back of the oven than the front.

Lovely pizzas by the way 👍
 
View attachment 55177
Going to make one of these with the extra dough. I get three, 453g doughs and a 225g dough from a batch and use the small one for the turnover. I knew them as "pizza turnover," originally, but most everyone knows them as a calzone. Funny that the original owner of the pizzeria I worked at was from Italy.
I'll cut one in half later today because they all look the same on the outside.
I'm very partial to a Calzone mmmmm....
 
crust two (1).jpg
crust two (2).jpg

Well, I can't do any better than that with a home kitchen oven and a pizza stone. I got a nice combo.
What new pizza makers need to know is placement of the rack in the oven--the higher you go, the faster the top cooks and the bottom stays raw.
 
I would gladly wait in a line for and buy that pizza. Very well done. Without looking back, didn't you say you were new at this?
Holy smokes, they look delicious!
Thanks for that.

Yeah I have only had a few tries. Hopefully I will really get the hang of it, I think working out the best temp/pizza position in the ooni will help.
 
I find that you need to crank it right up to get to temp then back off a fair bit otherwise the base does tend to cook too quickly. There's a sweet spot that takes a bit of trial and error to find. Also the pies cook much quicker at the back of the oven than the front.

Lovely pizzas by the way 👍
Yeah, i am wondering if I am getting a bit too close to the back of the oven.

Will just take a bit of practice
 
They're great looking pizza's, great job! The early battle for me was getting them in and out of the oven in one piece, and you've clearly cracked that one.

I used the pizza app. I did run into an issue though, for those who use the pizza app, is it always 100% accurate regarding weights? I was going for 5 210g balls, however the final one was only 180... I measured everything out. Not sure if its the scales or the app.

That's most likely natural wastage. Have a look in the app settings, I've got wastage set to 2% which seems to work for me. I'll also portion before balling, unless I'm doing a big pizza party. There's usually between 4 to 6 bases to prepare. That way if there's a bigger discrepency between a couple of the portions you can even it out before balling up.

Best ones yet, however I still cant quite get that light and airy crust. Also, I noticed that I was having a bit of an issue with charring on the underside. I set the ooni on full, and gave it 30mins to warm up. Then pizza straight in, and I turn the ooni down slightly after launch. Is this the right way to go?

The puffy crust comes from shaping and stretching, and comes with practice. The aim is to push the gas in the dough out to the rim, then stretch the base to get it thin. Check out some of the many videos on YouTube on how to do a 'Neopolitan Slap'.

The base was significantly hotter at the back on the Ooni I cooked on (a borrowed Koda-12). You had to keep turning the base, it should be evenly cooked all the way round after a couple of rotations. At this point can then 'dome' it if you want a bit more heat on the top without cooking the base further in the WFO, but I'm not sure how much of a runner that is in the Ooni, from memory there wasn't a lot of room inside.
 
At this point can then 'dome' it if you want a bit more heat on the top without cooking the base further in the WFO, but I'm not sure how much of a runner that is in the Ooni, from memory there wasn't a lot of room inside.
Can you explain what you mean by "dome it' and what the "WFO" is?
 
Can you explain what you mean by "dome it' and what the "WFO" is?
Sorry, wood fired oven. The aim is to have flames licking across the roof for a pizza cook. Doming is where you lift the pizza up towards the roof where it’s hotter, but get the base off the stone floor. It takes about 10 seconds tops but cooks through any toppings that looked a bit underdone.
 

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