HOMEMADE PIZZA - Winter 2024 (Jan-Mar) Dish of the Quarter

I’ll have to light a fire under my pizzaiolo’s buttlet to get going :wink:

1 Like

Or just pinch his buttlet a bit. :grin:

1 Like

Tonight’s dinner was another attempt at a NY Style pizza for Sunshine. I’m getting closer, but not there… yet. I think I may need to move my rack up one notch in my oven. I also coated the outer crust with a garlic powder and olive oil mixture, which looks and tasted better. All in all, a nice (rustic) pizza and a nice dinner.

13 Likes

Actually, from the look of your crust, I am guessing that your dough is too wet for a true NY-style pizza. NY-style doughs are typically 55-60% hydration, which gives you a sturdy, bread-like outer crust that remains flexible and foldable under toppings. It also makes it much more feasible to stretch the dough to the 18"+ size required for an NYC street slice (not that you are probably making an 18" pizza at home, but the hydration level still holds for smaller pies). Here’s a good starting point from the Pizzamaking.com forum that rings in at 56.25% hydration: https://www.pizzamaking.com/newyorkstyle.php

And here’s their collection of NY-style recipes from around the forum: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=11860.0 Many of those developed by forum members go higher than 60% hydration, but not by much (62-63% usually). I would argue that a 63% hydration dough is no longer a true NY-style, but rather an NY/Neopolitan hybrid. If you want to experiment with these, I’d suggest starting with one of the NAPICS or AIB recipes and tweaking from there.

4 Likes

This 16" screen is as large as I can fit in my home oven. I wish I could make an 18" pizza, but that would require purchasing a specialty oven.

Yes, I think the dough was a little on the wetter side. I’ll play with a lower hydration on the next pizza.

Thanks for the links… My pizza making skill are still a “work in progress”, but I’m learning.

2 Likes

I make that one like once a month. Love the Pizza Hut deep dish crust vibe

1 Like

Aren’t we all! That’s what I love about this forum - I learn something new every day :slight_smile:

5 Likes

My original goal, first on CH, and now here, was to become a better home cook. I keep trying to improve, love to try new recipes. Since I’m a former teacher, I like to help my friends improve.

One tells me he learned from me to read over a recipe to make sure he has all the ingredients +mise-en-place.
To not get impatient, just do one step at a time.

Another friend loves Marcella Hazan’s recipe for roasted chicken, breast side down first. So simple and delicious. Also Ina’s roasted shrimp with great cocktail sauce.

1 Like

Made it. Used your heating/temp tips and it came out well! I liked it. Given the shape and prep, we had both soft dough and crunchy dough. It was very practically useful for the one who doesn’t like tomato sauce. He dipped his “monkey bread pizza” into TJ’s garlic sauce. Others in the family were meh - said it reminded them of deep dish, which they don’t like. A do not repeat, therefore, and also, as @linguafood said in another post, just get a new family already.

2 Likes

Linking the vid in case anyone is curious to make. Fwiw, as soon as I cut all my dough into the melted butter, it got all stuck on itself again, and I had to tear it up with my fingers to get the butter and toppings distributed. So my tip is to cut some chunks and mix, repeat.

3 Likes

This reminded me of a pizza monkey bread recipe I’ve seen made in a bundt pan instead of a springform. That recipe uses canned biscuits, think I’ll give it a shot with pizza dough instead.

4 Likes



You got me curious, because I’m not very good at judging by appearance. It’s actually at 98% hydration (as per the written instructions - in the video itself he’s just winging it). I am not good at handling very wet doughs - much better at sub-70%.


If you do decide to get a steel or stone, 2 things I recommend. One is, form and top the pizza on parchment paper, then when you go to slide it onto the steel/stone, just transfer it on the parchment itself. A lot easier to avoid the mishaps like Adam showed in that video (near the end when he tried to get the pizza onto the steel, he had some trouble with it), and the parchment won’t interfere with the cooking/heat transfer processes. The other thing is, I need to preheat a lot earlier using pizza stones than when I was just cooking using my holey pizza pans. Until the stone or steel gets up to temp, which takes quite a bit longer than the oven itself getting to temp, they act like heat sinks and you end up with an undercooked bottom.

3 Likes

I didn’t look at the written instructions, but yeah, at 98% you don’t have pizza dough, you have flour soup. :slight_smile: Even focaccia is usually in the 85-95% range. In the video his dough is definitely drier than 98%, but still too wet (IMO) for the type of pizza most of us can make in a home oven.

ETA: I see the written instructions call for 118g of water and 120g of flour to start, which is where you got the 98% number. However, after the “autolyse” step, he says “add more flour.” Not very exact, but definitely dries things out! What he’s doing here is not an autolyse, though - a true autolyse is performed by mixing flour and water only and allowing them to hang out before adding yeast, salt, oil or anything else. You get better gluten formation that way, which is also a very important aspect of working with high hydration dough.

2 Likes



A couple tablespoons each butter/AP flour, make a loose roux, cup to 1.25 cup of whole milk, couple big pinches of salt, dash of white pepper, microplaned garlic cloves (2, 3, 6?) or (if I have some on hand) a tablespoon of roasted garlic, and a handful of microplaned parm once the sauce is thickened. Oregano on top after it’s spread on the dough.

3 Likes

And it’s a good idea to trim the parchment around the pizza, lest it catch fire when you turn on the broiler. Ask me how I know.

6 Likes

One Thanksgiving I put the green bean casserole under the broiler for a couple of seconds to crisp up the onions, and a BIL told me they were on fire a couple of minutes later. I worked for a couple of days making that dish from total scratch (crappy small kitchen) , and the only family takeaway was that I lit the green bean casserole on fire. A different BIL razzes me about it every holiday. i’ll get him back one of these days… he’s lucky I love him

4 Likes

Who you calling a ho???
Just kidding.
I for one will order a jalapeno and pineapple pizza, with or without pepperoni, but no bacon or ham. But I don’t always. And when I make pizza, it’s usually a pomodoro sauce with mozzarella, parmesan, and various other ingredients. I love a good garlicky pomodoro sauce. Basil is in the sauce, so it doesn’t burn up on the pie

Some pinched of nutmeg can be also nice for a white pizza sauce

5 Likes

I knew someone who ordered a pineapple pizza (no meat no cheese) to take to someone’s house.

I said: “where’s the fun in that?”

2 Likes

I made a cheese pizza with a NY style crust for dinner today. I used the dough calculator from Richard Eaglespoon’s comprehensive (and opinionated) NY pizza guide:

I made two dough balls for thin 12” pies 3 days ago and fermented in the fridge. Eaglespoon’s dough recipe is quite similar in ratios/hydration to the Lehmann NY style dough that can be found on pizzamaking.com here:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/lehmann-nystyle.php

I used canned pizza sauce rather than crushed tomatoes because I had some in the freezer, and for cheese Galbani low moisture mozzarella and some Parmigiano Reggiano. I had a parchment paper underneath because it makes things easier. I preheated my oven to 550F for about an hour (I keep a baking steel in there all the time). The pizza took about 6 minutes on the steel, with one turn about halfway through.

20 Likes