Recipe for Disaster or The Worst Pizza Ever

[BigJohnT]

I've got this thread all printed out and am ready for another try tonight. If it turns out nice I'll post some pics of the pies tomorrow when I make them. I can't wait...  ;D

JT

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Be kind and gentle with your dough.  Treat it as if it were a friend.  Abuse it and it will become your enemy.

[BigJohnT]

BLSH,

Time for me to leave the dark side with pizza dough  ;D

JT

[BigJohnT]

Ok, Houston we are making progress here. Last nights pizza was the best I ever made. I'm closer than I've ever been to making a good pizza. My wife and MIL loved it. I feel there is some room for improvement in the dough making process and enlightenment on my end.  ;D

After letting the dough sit on the counter a couple of hours I gently rolled the dough out of the bowl onto a floured counter top and split it into two pieces then gently rolled the pieces into a ball then let them rest for a couple of hours.



Then I tried as gently as possible to form the pizza crust... The second one came out better, I guess it was from all the experience I had on the first one.

First One


Second One


After cooking them I determined by empirical evidence that the rear of my oven on bake is hotter than the front when set to 500F.

My Pizza


The Wife's and MIL's Pizza


Mine was a bit more chewy than the other one for some reason... Any clues on what might have caused this? I think I had to work mine a bit more as I developed a technique for spreading the dough out. As you can see the first one came out kinda square and the second one came out round like a pizza!

Thanks for all your help
John

[squirtthecat]

Looks good enough for breakfast!

Maybe you need to install a couple of your fan kits in the kitchen oven..   ;D

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Looking real good there , BigJohn!  I'd say you basically got it.

As far as the chewier goes, that could be a lot of things, from handling/shaping to baking.We can forget dough differences since they were from the same batch and shaped very close in time to each other.  Shaping can have an influence - rough it up and it will tend to develop more gluten and be chewier as a result.  Also thickness - if yours was a bit thicker, then it will be slightly less baked in the core and that will likely leave you a bit chewier.  Finally, baking, did you bake them for the same length of time or was it eye the crust/top for doneness and pull when it was done as you judged visually?  If the latter I would guess yours was baked first?

[BigJohnT]

Yes it was by eye ball and lift up the crust and look at the bottom... and gee wiz your good yes mine was baked first... How did you tell? So should I set a timer and go by that?

Thanks
John

[BuyLowSellHigh]

No, don't set a timer - eyeball works better.  But, as first yours likely saw a higher initial temp and baked quicker.  That means the crust gets done faster leaving the interior a bit less done than the second pizza to get the same degree of browning on the crust.  So you get crust done, and a chewier center on the first one. Depending on what you want, there are multiple solutions -for crisper crust next time try 475 °F and allow a bit more baking time. Second, allow a recovery reheat between the first and 2nd - maybe 15 minutes and the they should be close to the same.

edit -
I meant to include this earlier.  Since you're using KA flour you might try a batch with their all purpose flour.  KA tends to run about 1% higher in protein than other major brands, which means they develop gluten more easily.  The AP is already at 11.7%, where Gold Medal AP (bleached) runs about 10.5% and the GM bread flour runs 12.1%.  For the size "pies" you're making I think the KA AP would do a good job, be easier to handle, and be a little less chewy.

A second after thought is, as you get more comfortable handling dough and shaping, to up the water content.  If you want to try that do it in small amounts, like 10 grams (~1Tbl) at a time.  That will boost your hydration level about 2.5 percentage points, which will leave your dough more extensible vs. elastic (that's the ever present tradeoff -extensibility vs. elasticity).  It will stretch more easily (that can be a bit of a challenge if taken to an extreme), but will give more oven spring when put in the oven (more open. less dense and chewy interior).  If you want to try that I would suggest making two batches of dough and exactly the same pizza  side-by-side changing nothing but the water amount and compare.

[deb415611]

John,

Those look great!!

Deb

[BigJohnT]

BLSH,

Thanks for all the tips and help. You have given me a lot to chew on (pun intended) and look forward to understanding this beast a lot better.

Deb,

Thanks, I hope to be up to your standards one day for pizza. I have fun making it and trying to find the correct procedures and mixtures to give me the pie I (and the wife and MIL) really like.

John