Food Blog:
Cook In.
Eat Out.
Miss Tenacity.
New Mexico.
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Monday, January 19
Last night I made pizza again for the first time since Thanksgiving. I have figured out through trial & reading that HIGH temp is the key to pizza.
So I throw into the bread machine the recipe for pizza dough:
2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 package yeast
7/8 cup warm water (not hot)
80 minutes later, the dough is ready to play with. At this point the oven is turned on & all the way up, or even before the dough is ready. It needs about a half hour (yes!) to really warm up to the best temperature. The pizza stone is in the oven while it is preheating. Because of this, after 30 minutes, the inside temp of the oven is about 525 degrees. With a bigger stone I might be able to push it to 550. Somehow the stone absorbs and radiates heat so that you can push your over a little bit beyond what it is "supposed" to max out at. (Professional pizza restaurants with a huge pizza oven cook their pizzas at about 700-750 degrees for 2 minutes. Mine takes 5-6 minutes, still far shorter than the typical home time of 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees.)
This hot and fast baking method does amazing things to the crust. It gets crispy on the bottom, chewy throughout, and nicely browned.
Now, you play with the dough, kneading it a little and slowly stretching it out to its baking size, which is about 12" for medium crust, or 14" for thin. Once it is both stretched thin & strong from the kneading, you get it onto the peel, which is dusted with semolina. The grains act as little ball bearings, allowing you to shove the pizza fully loaded onto the baking stone, and then get it back off again when it is done.
Once on the peel, you put on your toppings. Your oven should be completely ready at this point, so work fast with the toppings to make sure the dough doesn't get soggy. To further prevent sogginess, lightly coat the surface of the dough with olive oil. This is a barrier that will keep the wet ingredients from seeping, to an extent.
Then, the food toppings. Tomato sauce (see next post), pepperoni, and mozz cheese in my case.
Off the peel with a slight jerk of the wrist and onto the stone, and then time it for 5 minutes. After 5 the cheese will be lightly browned and you could stop, or you can go for a more toasty dark brown cheese, about 6 minutes.
Zip the peel under the finished pizza and let it sit on the counter for a couple of minutes, then cut and enjoy.
Time posted: 13:08 [permalink]
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CONTACT ME: tenacity -at- gmail.com
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