Topic: Pizza from scratch

[Malc.]

That looks fantastic Harley!

Has anyone tried to recreate the dough you find at Pizza Express?

[JerryM]

I was starting to think these quick bakes at home were an exaggeration.

Rome wasn't built in day. well pleased.

[StoneCut]

I have some questions for others and also some suggestions.

1. Pizza oven
My oven is not hot enough after all. I've been researching alternatives to a Wood oven (no room for that) and it appears that these "Pizza Makers" from Brands such as "G3 Ferrari" (Pizza Express Napoli) and "Bestron" (Alfredo) are actually pretty good. Unfortunately, however, these devices don't get as hot as they used to anymore (EU regulation "A-12" or something like that which regulates max. outside temp for ovens). An "old" Bestron Alfredo DLD 9016 (not 9017) Pizzamaker could go up to 450

[JerryM]

StoneCut,

a lot in your last post.

i think poolish is what i know as sponge. a starter of flour, water and yeast. if so then the earlier recipe i posted of minesamojito uses this method. it gets very active. on one occasion spilled out into my fridge. he leaves the sponge out at room temp for 1 day.

following earlier tonybatty suggestion i've dropped using yeast and rely only on the sourdough. i'm currently at 15% but aiming for 20%. i was only using a very small amount of yeast but have seen no disadvantage. the sourdough does work slower and suits my preference for cold ferment. i was concerned that the rise may be affected but is not the case.

what to do about an oven is quite difficult for me. i don't have deep pockets. i'm still working on my wfo as they are not as good as i want. the 2 things they offer are oven spring and smokey flavour. the downside being opportunity to use and long warm up.

the key thing i've realised is that much is achieved by getting the dough right. this needs to be priority no 1.

as for what equipment for inside then i've looked at getting lincat ~PO49X off ebay (recommended by pizzaman on this site). this is what i've seen in restaurants. i've also thought of buying scrap domestic oven for mod. it's the ability to separately control top and bottom heat that i want.

for outside use in place of wfo i've also seen much on the LBE. this is what i would probably go for. http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/06/pizza-lab-in-which-we-get-the-kettlepizza-insert-working-and-meet-its-maker.html?ref=search.

will have look through your links and add if i can.

[mr.mojorisin]

here's some pics on an earlier thread of my stuffed crust pizza

home made base, home made base sauce

lovelyjubbly. this reminds me that I aint made a pizza for eons...maybe this weekend in place of my usual ruby murray

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,7632.msg66251.html#msg66251

[Whandsy]

Well, having been making homemade hand baked bread for the last month or so, i decide it was time to have another go at good old pizza inspired by you gents. The difference this time though as opposed to previous years attempts, i now know the importance of kneading, proving, yeast and oven temp etc.

So i decided to make a thin and crispy hot n spicy pepperoni pizza tonight with the "less is more" attitude.
The dough was made from a new bread book recently purchased and was tossed through the air to stretch it after a lesson from you tube. Suprisingly with good results for a 1 st time.
I then topped it with a homemade pizza sauce along with mozzarella, pepperoni, chilli, seasonings, pecorino and some chilli oil.

Fortunately my Neff top oven appears to go to about 270* / 280* C so i knew i had half a chance of a decent result.
The only confronting issue was getting it off a cardboard "peeler" onto the pizza stone. (New purchase for that coming up, was difficult!)

The resultant pizza was in the oven for about only 4 mins or so and turned out brilliantly, am well impressed.

Pics below

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/fe179f1ea067db018832f5f8f1103e8d.jpg

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/a2d0c34659b0a95f249d86066c1a0022.jpg

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/4c4ebd94daec44a92bf554d03c8f4380.jpg

Thanks for the inspiration guys

W

[harley]

Good effort Whandsy

For me, 500f or 270c is like a threshold, anything around 450f ish just doesn't cut it.

i'm in the same boat with the peel, trying to find a 14" one but the price puts me off so I've decided to make one.

[StoneCut]

Crust looks great, Whandsy !

[Willyeckerslike]

Looks really good Whandsy.  I had a Neff oven in the UK and rated it very highly!

[Whandsy]

Cheers for the comments guys

W