MOZZARELLA AND PROSCUITTO PIZZA WITH BALSAMIC ONIONS
I make this one on the regular. It hits all the right notes for me with the onions, the proscuitto, and the thyme. No tomato involved but it still totally feels like pizza. Love it.
4 Likes
Tonight’s dinner was a Ham & Mozzarella Cheese Pizza. I utilized some leftover Christmas Ham (that I had frozen). The “sauce” was an Olive Oil and lemon juice emulsion (credit goes to Brian Lagerstrom - youtube). Again, I coated the outer crust with garlic olive oil, which seems to work pretty good. The under side of the crust still isn’t perfect, but I’m getting closer with each try.
Even though the bottom of the crust was not perfect, it was still really tasty and we both enjoyed our dinner. Sunshine has already claimed the leftovers for her lunch tomorrow.
12 Likes
A Couple More Questions…
My oven goes to 550°F… and my stone on the bottom rack gets to about 550 after 30 minutes, and 565 after an hour. @Mr_Happy I see you have your steel on the top rack… how come? Everything I have read says it gets hottest on the bottom rack.
And what about convection? Any advantage to using it to promote top browning? or leave it off?
Thanks guys… I am very close to doing my first one from scratch… as soon as I get my overthinking it out of the way. (c;
2 Likes
Sometimes, I use the broiler:
2 Likes
I also bake pizza with my stone or steel on the top rack. The browning is better than placing it on the bottom. On the bottom rack the top stays pretty pale while the bottom browns. And yes, sometimes I end up using the broiler if it seems like maybe things aren’t quite hot enough.
2 Likes
This “Inverted” Pizza is lovely. Like Roman-style rectangular-cut pizza.
No need to preheat a stone or steel, and comes out great in a countertop oven.
I double the potato and onion and swap rosemary for thyme.
(Thanks again to @LulusMom1 for the original referral.)
Found the recipe outside the Milk Street paywall:
4 Likes
Convection definitely helps with top browning, at least in my oven. And I also use the broiler for an added boost if necessary.
2 Likes
Still working on gluten-free pizza - my first attempt a year ago was with the Bob’s Red Mill packaged mix and it was… not fit for human consumption. Today’s was so much better!
This crust is based on the recipe in Baked to Perfection which is one of the most reliable sources I’ve found. The pizza dough recipe (pg 294) uses tapioca starch, sorghum flour, and millet flour, as well as psyllium husk for structure. I’ve made this a few times now and keep tweaking the recipe, and today’s iteration might be the one I stick with. I have instant yeast so it doesn’t require activating - I mixed all the dry stuff, added all the wet stuff, and let it roll in the KA mixer for 5-8 min. One rise in the bowl, then transferred to an oiled sheet pan and shaped, and let it sit/rise for another 30min. I added sauce and baked for 18 min at 450, then added cheese and baked for another 4 min.
8 Likes
Brian Lagerstrom (youtube) has also worked on a Gluten Free pizza (for his wife). There may be a couple of tips or tricks in the video.
2 Likes
One Last Q…
Several of you mentioned sometimes using the broiler. I am gonna do this on a stone on top shelf with convection at 500-550°F.
Now I have only used my oven’s broiler on high (for things like charred veggies), but it has six more settings from medium-high to low. Would high still be best or would it be better to tone it down a bit?
Depends on your broiler - do you have gas or electric? Mine is gas and tends to shut itself off if I use high heat with a pan on the top shelf - I think steam or grease splatter triggers the safety shutoff. If that’s not a concern, high is probably fine - just watch closely to make sure nothing burns, and adjust downward if necessary.
Mine is electric, and takes one to two minutes to heat.
I am gonna play with it tomorrow if top stone/convection doesn’t do the job… maybe on high for a minute or two.
Please join us for the February COTM nominations!
Safeway was out of their pizza dough so had to do it from scratch… intial proof (90 minutes) is happening now, and the final will be in the fridge overnight.
We’ll see how it goes tomorrow… so tonight it is soup and salad. (c;
Edit: good news is that my yeast (dated 2022) is still good!
5 Likes
Well here is my first pizza…
I’d call it a failure:
1.) Too Salty: Brian L. says one of the secrets of great pizza is to salt the top before cooking. I lightly salted the top with kosher salt… big MISTAKE.
2.) Sauce Not Sweet Enough: I thought my sauce was pretty sweet, but on the cooked pizza there wasn’t a hint of sweetness. Of course this may be due to Brian’s damn salt, but next time I will make it sweeter.
3.) Dubious Cheese: I used Tillamook whole milk low moisture moz, and while it had that beautiful, drippy, stretch I was looking for when cutting/separating pieces, the chew was really rubbery. I think I need to find another cheese.
4.) Improper Cook: In my oven… top rack convection is a no-no. The fan blows on the back top of the pizza. While convection says to me “no need for turning”, it actually accelerated the need. Cheese got done way too fast and crust was not cooked enough to be crispy anywhere, and soaked up the sauce (should I oil the top of the crust to help prevent this?). Next time stone is going on a lower rack without convection.
5.) Need to Work on My Crust a Bit: Too fat around the perimeter.
11 Likes
What recipe/formula/hydration level did you use for your crust?
1 Like
450g flour
10g yeast
15g sugar
5g salt
20g EVOO
300g water (110°)
That still looks really good, especially for a first attempt.
For point one, Nancy Silverton is the first person I can think of who popularized salting the crust, and it’s good on really high hydration doughs like hers, which is more like a Neapolitan crust, but I don’t do it 99% of the time. A lot of pizza dough recipes are already over 2% salt, so they simply don’t need additional salt.
Level of sweetness is going to come down to personal taste, but I think you might like the Chicago style sauce I used following Kenji’s recipe in the NYT. It is nicely sweet. Salt in tomato sauce is really important to balance the acidity, too, so I like to make sure it’s at 1% salt (based on weight of tomatoes), though it can be as low as .5% if using salty toppings like pepperoni.
I also love Kenji’s NY style pizza sauce on Serious Eats.
The cheese being rubbery could be from getting over-cooked, but I haven’t tried Tillamook, so perhaps it’s not great as you say. I’ve used Polly-O, Sorrento, and Galbani with no issue. And now I use whatever is sold here.
I don’t like convection when baking almost anything made from dough, but I don’t have a convection oven here so I couldn’t tell you how it fares with pizza.
Every oven is different, and most of us came to our particular oven configuration from experience, so it’s pretty normal to have to make adjustments. I’d try the same rack but no convection first, but it’s possible the bottom rack will work better for you.
5 Likes
66.6% hydration is a little high for pizza dough that is going to be baked in a home oven - you’re in Neapolitan-style territory there, where you really need to stretch it thin and bake it at 800+. I would back off to 60%ish hydration for your next attempt. This should also prevent the sauce absorption issue - it sounds like your dough was wet enough that the sauce and dough sort of melded into soup before the dough had a chance to set.
Also, did you use all 800g of dough for one 12-14" pizza? If so, you had way too much dough, especially at high hydration. Half that amount would be more than enough (I typically use 325-340g dough for a 12").
2 Likes
No… just half of it. The other half is still sitting in a proofing container in the fridge. Now wondering if I should toss it.
