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Pizzaguys - The definitive "Making pizza at home" thread (1 Viewer)

Dont have an ooni, but have the walmart knock off.

A while back I started making crusts from scratch and then par-baking them in my regular oven first.

We like to load our pizzas up and I was finding that the mass of pizza was just too much for the stone and it would cool it too much. Also in order to keep the back from burning I was rotating it like crazy and obviously letting too much heat escape.

How long and what temp do you use to parbake the crust?
 
Dont have an ooni, but have the walmart knock off.

A while back I started making crusts from scratch and then par-baking them in my regular oven first.

We like to load our pizzas up and I was finding that the mass of pizza was just too much for the stone and it would cool it too much. Also in order to keep the back from burning I was rotating it like crazy and obviously letting too much heat escape.

How long and what temp do you use to parbake the crust?
400 degrees. Probably about 3 minutes per side. Honestly not positive, kind of a feel thing at this point. Depends on how thick we are doing it.

I have become a fan of a sweeter whole wheat crust and that i do longer for sure.
 
Been on quite a kick these days. Routinely have friends over and do a pizza fest. Here's how I am rolling these days.

Make 3 types of dough a couple days before hand. Neopolitan dough (enough for four 12 inch pies), Detroit style (enough for 1 large and 1 small - I have two sizes of the Lloyd pans), NY style dough (enough for two ~16 inch pies). Cold ferment all of these, anywhere from 1-4 days. Three days seems optimal.

Sometimes 3 types of sauce, more generally just two. A cooked down flavorful for the Detroit. And then mostly just a good can of whole peeled tomatoes - Bianco DiNapoli are my favorite, strained, pulsed with immersion blender with just salt.

Take out Detroit doughs at 11 AM or so let them come to room temp for a few hours. Oil up the pans, put those doughs in their pan around 2:00. Push them to edges little bit a few times over the next couple hours. Take out other doughs at 4:00. Fire up oven to highest temp with pizza steel. Let it heat up for 2 hours. Turn on Ooni at 5:15, let that thing get roaring for 30-45 minutes.

6:00 start the cooking fest. Put both Detroits in on top of pizza steel, let them cook 15-25 minutes. Bust out a couple Neapolitan in that time. So come 6:30 or so, will have 2 Detroits and 2 or 3 Neopolitan. Will shape the NY and put that in the oven soon after - let that guy cook for 15-20 minutes. Make the last Neapolitan in the Ooni at same time. And finally if we are still hungry, will shape that last NY and try and muscle our way through it.
 
Considering becoming a pizza guy. Is there a consensus on a model of Ooni to get? We don't have gas at our house but I can use a propane tank. I was looking at the Koda 12.
 
Considering becoming a pizza guy. Is there a consensus on a model of Ooni to get? We don't have gas at our house but I can use a propane tank. I was looking at the Koda 12.

I don't think there's a consensus. There are a couple good articles at Serious Eats comparing the different Oonis and giving some pros and cons. Gas is probably easiest to set up and get going, and there's no ash so maybe a bit easier to break down and stow away. Some people want that wood fired taste but I'm not sure there's much difference. Its not like you're smoking a brisket in there. I have the pellet version and it took some time to figure out how to get it hot and keep it hot, but I've got it down pretty well now. I get it out 4-5 times a year but if we're pressed for time I'll just use the oven. If I could do it again I'd probably go with propane but mine was a surprise gift from my wife so I'm sticking with the pellets for now.
 
I have a wood solo stove I finally tried out it came out ok I could only get it up to like 350-400 but it was like 15 degrees out and I mainly only had small smoking chunks of wood
Will try again in warmer weather and bigger wood
 
Considering becoming a pizza guy. Is there a consensus on a model of Ooni to get? We don't have gas at our house but I can use a propane tank. I was looking at the Koda 12.
If I was rebuying I would get the Koda 16, followed by the Koda 12. I have the Karu 12, and while it is incredible, I only use the gas now, and having the dedicated gas oven like the Koda would be better. I would opt for the 16 slightly over the 12 just to be able to make slightly larger pies. The small size of the 12 almost negates that want though
 
nothing to add here right now, but i’ve been finding in italy that common pizza combos are sausage and potato, also würstel (think hot dog) and french fries.
3 local joints have this combo. also, corn as a pizza topping is not taboo here.
 
I'm also wondering about this Breville Pizzaiolo, but it's $800. Seems pretty foolproof and could be used year-round in Michigan.

 
I'm also wondering about this Breville Pizzaiolo, but it's $800. Seems pretty foolproof and could be used year-round in Michigan.

I use my Ooni year round here in the twin cities. In the super cold months use it in my garage with the propane. Definitely don't get blackout drunk after a night of making many pies for friends and forget to turn the oven off before you go to bed though

But yea, that Breville is pretty sick
 
Considering becoming a pizza guy. Is there a consensus on a model of Ooni to get? We don't have gas at our house but I can use a propane tank. I was looking at the Koda 12.
If I was rebuying I would get the Koda 16, followed by the Koda 12. I have the Karu 12, and while it is incredible, I only use the gas now, and having the dedicated gas oven like the Koda would be better. I would opt for the 16 slightly over the 12 just to be able to make slightly larger pies. The small size of the 12 almost negates that want though
I have a Koda 16 and generally only make 12 inch pies. I’m not the most skilled person in the world at getting the pizza in the oven so I like having extra space to work with.
 
Been on quite a kick these days. Routinely have friends over and do a pizza fest. Here's how I am rolling these days.

Make 3 types of dough a couple days before hand. Neopolitan dough (enough for four 12 inch pies), Detroit style (enough for 1 large and 1 small - I have two sizes of the Lloyd pans), NY style dough (enough for two ~16 inch pies). Cold ferment all of these, anywhere from 1-4 days. Three days seems optimal.

Sometimes 3 types of sauce, more generally just two. A cooked down flavorful for the Detroit. And then mostly just a good can of whole peeled tomatoes - Bianco DiNapoli are my favorite, strained, pulsed with immersion blender with just salt.

Take out Detroit doughs at 11 AM or so let them come to room temp for a few hours. Oil up the pans, put those doughs in their pan around 2:00. Push them to edges little bit a few times over the next couple hours. Take out other doughs at 4:00. Fire up oven to highest temp with pizza steel. Let it heat up for 2 hours. Turn on Ooni at 5:15, let that thing get roaring for 30-45 minutes.

6:00 start the cooking fest. Put both Detroits in on top of pizza steel, let them cook 15-25 minutes. Bust out a couple Neapolitan in that time. So come 6:30 or so, will have 2 Detroits and 2 or 3 Neopolitan. Will shape the NY and put that in the oven soon after - let that guy cook for 15-20 minutes. Make the last Neapolitan in the Ooni at same time. And finally if we are still hungry, will shape that last NY and try and muscle our way through it.
Sounds very time consuming
-But I bet the pizzas are delicious
 
Been on quite a kick these days. Routinely have friends over and do a pizza fest. Here's how I am rolling these days.

Make 3 types of dough a couple days before hand. Neopolitan dough (enough for four 12 inch pies), Detroit style (enough for 1 large and 1 small - I have two sizes of the Lloyd pans), NY style dough (enough for two ~16 inch pies). Cold ferment all of these, anywhere from 1-4 days. Three days seems optimal.

Sometimes 3 types of sauce, more generally just two. A cooked down flavorful for the Detroit. And then mostly just a good can of whole peeled tomatoes - Bianco DiNapoli are my favorite, strained, pulsed with immersion blender with just salt.

Take out Detroit doughs at 11 AM or so let them come to room temp for a few hours. Oil up the pans, put those doughs in their pan around 2:00. Push them to edges little bit a few times over the next couple hours. Take out other doughs at 4:00. Fire up oven to highest temp with pizza steel. Let it heat up for 2 hours. Turn on Ooni at 5:15, let that thing get roaring for 30-45 minutes.

6:00 start the cooking fest. Put both Detroits in on top of pizza steel, let them cook 15-25 minutes. Bust out a couple Neapolitan in that time. So come 6:30 or so, will have 2 Detroits and 2 or 3 Neopolitan. Will shape the NY and put that in the oven soon after - let that guy cook for 15-20 minutes. Make the last Neapolitan in the Ooni at same time. And finally if we are still hungry, will shape that last NY and try and muscle our way through it.
Sounds very time consuming
-But I bet the pizzas are delicious
Wow - that sure is a lot of work! I could probably only handle something like that once a year.
 
Anyone willing to post their dough recipes? My preferred pizza is a thin crust with good char on the bottom.
 
Anyone willing to post their dough recipes? My preferred pizza is a thin crust with good char on the bottom.

Yes. So, my son was in high school during Covid, he found this and he and my wife made pizza dough and it was so good that we've stuck with this for last 5 years or so. Bobby Flay pizza dough. And none of us are fans of Bobby Flay.
 
Anyone willing to post their dough recipes? My preferred pizza is a thin crust with good char on the bottom.
From the first post in the thread

Neopolitan dough recipe:


FBG approved.

@Wingnut Finally tried the dough recipe you posted to start this thread last night. Awesome! So simple and so much easier to work with than the stuff from the pizza shop. Great flavor too. I let it ferment for 72 hours. Thanks!
 
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Just back from the grocery store, where I bought a basil plant, mozzarella log, hot Italian sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, Roma tomatoes, San Marzano tomatoes, black olives, and 00 flour. I'll make the dough tomorrow night, then try out the indoor oven on SB Sunday.
 
The Breville arrived and I couldn't wait, plus my son's girlfriend is leaving just after the SB starts. She's celiac, so I started with 2 gluten-free crusts for her. They're totally acceptable, my wife was really impressed at the crust. They're weird - I followed some instructions to bake naked for 90s, remove and top, then bake another 90s. Seemed to work perfectly.

Then I moved on to 3 normal crusts: margherita, supreme, and meat. I'm not good at shaping the dough - they were oblong and smaller than expected. However, the dough was incredible. I learned a few things (need to speed up on topping after placing on the peel) and need to watch some videos on dough shaping. The wife loved the pizza, so did I - complete success even if there's room for improvement.

I have 5 more crusts that only sat for 1 day in the fridge. I might make some more right before the game... or I might just stick with queso and make the rest Monday or Tuesday.
 
Day 2: I made 4 of the 5 remaining crusts and started 3 more since some family will be in town later this week. I might make another batch tomorrow when I find out how many will be here. I jacked one of today's up - overloaded it with ingredients and that helped weigh it down to stick on the peel... then I tried to push it off the peel and dumped some toppings in the back and scrunched up the crust. I tried to get the ingredients out but ended up with a little mushroom fire in the back. Anyway, all 4 I made turned out great. 3 were pretty round (though one of those was the scrunched one). I ran out of homemade sauce and used some store-bought we had... it was worse, so I'll continue to make sauce, though I need to use an immersion blender next time to get the san marzanos to be less glumpy.
 
On pizza doughs, I don't think the ingredients matter that much outside of hydration %, but the timing for each step and technique seems to make a difference. In particular, using a long cold ferment (ie. leave the dough in the fridge for 3 - 4 days) seems to matter and how you handle the dough when you first start to shape it can make or break it. I played around with 00 flour and bread flour etc and didn't notice much of a difference. I'm using plain old AP flour and 62% hydration for my pizzas that cook in the 650-700F range.
 
Things are coming along smoothly here with the Breville Pizzaiolo. Some family is in town and we had an 8-pizza night and a 6-pizza night. I still had one stick to the peel on both nights, though the pizza turned out fine in both cases. I'm not sure if the problem is the amount of cornmeal, using cornmeal instead of semolina, the speed from dough-on-peel to launch, the weight of the toppings, the moisture content of the dough... but since the fails haven't been catastrophic, I'm not too worried about it. Wife and I have a pretty good system down of putting the dough on the peel on a kitchen island and both of us throwing ingredients on there as quickly as possible. I'm running about 50% on remembering olive oil, though.

I can't say I have any complaints about the oven to this point. I move it to the range to cook with the hood running - I don't know if that's necessary, but it works well with the flow of the kitchen anyway.

I've had better luck with stretching dough since I stopped touching it so much - I use a scraper to get it out of the container, then press out a ~7" circle, then steering wheel it to 10-12".

I've only tried two weird pizzas so far - one was peach/feta/balsamic/arugula, and it was just kind of pale and boring. I did put a little ginger paste on the crust, might increase that a bit and try again. I also made a nutella/marshmallow, but the marshmallows burned. Still very good, but I think the better approach would be to cook the pizza with nutella only for 1 minute, take it out and add marshmallows, then pop it back in for a minute... or maybe even just cook it completely with only nutella and add the mallows after it's out.

Next thing to try will be breakfast pizza with sauteed garlic butter for sauce.
 

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