Food Homemade pizza

As some of you know, I love making homemade pizza. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it too. A couple years ago, I started off by making the basic pizza dough recipe from Joy of Cooking. Now, I've progressed to the point that I use my own calculations, using baker's percentages, to make pizza dough. When I'm feeling really lazy, though, I use this calculator to help: Lehmann Pizza Dough Calculator

Last night I made up a batch of dough that I thought was going to be a little too hydrated over what I usually like, but by the time it rose it was fine:

852 grams bread flour
528 g water
6g active dry yeast
21g fine sea salt
17g oil
17g sugar

The best dough I've had so far is a double batch (do not make this unless you know your mixer has 12 cups of flour power or more):
1344 g bread flour
806 g water
8 g active dry yeast
27 g salt
27 g oil
14 g sugar

My usual method is:
--Proof the yeast in 110-115 degree water with the sugar
--While the yeast is proofing, measure out the dry ingredients, stir half of them together with the paddle attachment on the mixer
--Add the water/yeast/sugar mixer to the half of the flour in the mixer, combine until it looks like pancake batter
--Add the oil
--Add the rest of the flour and stir to combine well with the paddle
--Let rest for 10 minutes (autolyse)
--Change the paddle for the dough hook and knead for 10 minutes or until the dough passes the windowpane test
--Move the dough into an oiled container and let rise until doubled (usually 1.25 hours in my new house, so I preheat the oven at the same time)
--Shape into pizzas
--Bake at the highest temperature my oven will allow me to attain

I bake on a stone with parchment as I found using cornmeal to be too messy; I pull the parchment out from under the pizza after the bottom of the crust has set, roughly 5 minutes. It typically takes about 10 minutes for a single pizza to bake. I have an Emile Henry stone that I am growing quite attached to. I like that when the weather improves, I'll be able to do pizza on the grill with it, as it withstand very high heats.

I took some pictures of last night's results that I'll post later.

I also have some other pizza methods and recipes to share that I've tried or want to try. The recipes range from beginner on up, and totally lazy to very active. My go-to pizza resource is J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, of Serious Eats' Food Lab, as he thoroughly tests his methods and uses actual food science (and sometimes more advanced concepts, such as thermodynamics) to explain WHY it works: Serious Eats: J. Kenji López-Alt's Profile

He posted a tutorial on Reddit last week for a no-knead, no stretch recipe for pan pizza that is about as basic as it gets:
View: http://imgur.com/a/QTtv8


Taking it to the next level, there's Three Doughs to Know: The Pizza Lab: Three Doughs to Know | Slice Pizza Blog

And if I have time this week, I'm going to take it to the next level with Peter Reinhart (of Bread Baker's Apprentice fame): Learn How To Make Pizza With Peter Reinhart: Perfect Pizza at Home

My favorite tip: The Pizza Lab: Which Rack Should I Put My Stone On? | Slice Pizza Blog

Do you bake pizza at home? Share your favorite recipes, tips, and pictures!

 

I do quick and easy, but sometimes we make proper pizzas when we want something spectacular.

My quick lunch pizza is a whole wheat pocketless pita for a crust, some pizza sauce out of a squirt bottle, a few chopped veggies (varies between mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, asparagus, and spinach), and some mozza cheese on top. Bake at 375F for about 12 minutes.

If I'm particularly hungry, I'll make two.

 

That's what got me started. Then I got my KitchenAid stand mixer. I use it more for pizza dough these days than anything else. Usually, if I'm going to go to the effort of making dough (which really isn't much if you have a scale), I make enough so that we can have it twice within a week. We'll have pizza the night of and then I'll put the dough in the fridge and use it in a few days for something else like a calzone. Pizza dough can stay in the fridge for up to a week AND it improves in flavor! It can also be frozen. When we do that, I'll parcel out doughballs into oiled quart bags, then when I'm ready to make pizza, I defrost in the fridge before doing a final rise on the counter just before I want to prep the pizza. Coming from the fridge, the final rise usually takes about 2 hours, sometimes a little more.
--- merged: Jan 28, 2013 at 7:09 PM ---
Pictures (excuse the crummy phone camera):

 

It probably would've been darker except for the fact that our oven turns off if you turn it just a smidge past the mark that says 500 but the oven cycle light stays on. So I thought it was on, but when I went back to check half an hour later, it wasn't. Usually I like to preheat for an hour or more.

 

As it happens, I've had pizza thrice today. Twice homemade.

 

Great article from Slice on vegan pizzas that look flat-out delicious: The Pizza Lab: How To Make Vegan Pizzas That Really Work | Slice Pizza Blog

 

Making pizza again tonight. Mmm, looking forward to it!

 

Tonight I'm thinking pesto, onion, kalamata olives, and feta.

 

I really should have taken pictures. Letting the stone heat up for an hour beforehand resulted in a much darker, crispier underside. Really, last night's pizza was ideal for a home rental oven. I think I'm getting pretty close to pizza perfection. The next step for me is the long, cold ferment. The problem for us with the cold ferment is that we usually want pizza RIGHT NOW and so dough does not often last beyond the day it is made, even if I make a double-batch with the intent of setting a couple of dough balls aside. Three days is a long time to wait.

Why cold ferment? See here: The Pizza Lab: How Long Should I Let My Dough Cold Ferment? | Slice Pizza Blog

 

I need to get better about planning ahead so I can cold-ferment. We did pizza on NYE for friends and again last Saturday. I've got quite the system down now for it. Having a nice stone and a peel helps considerably! I think we're doing pizza again this weekend, so I can plan ahead and try the cold ferment like I've wanted to.