As I talked about in the menu template post at our house Saturday night is pizza night. I really love to make and eat pizza. You might have caught onto that if you follow me on Twitter.
My first pizza didn't turn out looking like this or tasting as good as this one did. It's been a journey and one I hope will go on for some time. That first one was pretty good though, I mean melty cheese on dough is melty cheese on dough.
I started making pizza because I grew up eating homemade pizza every Saturday night, thanks Mom and Dad, and I'm a sucker for tradition. Originally I was making the same dough my Dad always did but I thought I was fancy so I used a stand mixer instead of a food processor. It was delicious. It was easy. I could have just kept doing that and called it a day, but I had to start tinkering.
The first thing I remember changing was baking on a pizza stone instead of in a pan. Then I probably started messing with temperatures, which resulted in cracking two, yes two, pizza stones. This year I got a baking steel and am currently messing with moving the steel up and down in the oven and trying different temperature and time combos.
Changing up toppings came next although we get back to basic pepperoni around here pretty often. Some other combos I enjoy are sausage and roasted peppers, sautéd mushrooms and greens, salami and mushrooms, grilled summer squash and the classic margherita.
Lately what I've been playing with is hydration levels of the dough. I think 70% was a little too . . well wet. Lately I have been making 65% dough which is about 500g flour and 325g water. The picture above was a 65% dough and it was dang tasty. Tonight's pizza is 65% but instead of making the dough the day we eat pizza I made it about 48 hours in advance and let it sit in the fridge to slow rise / ferment. The thought is the crust will have a more complex flavor to it but we will see.
Some days I think I should just stop making pizza and order delivery or stop messing with the method or recipe and make the same thing every week because it's pretty good pizza already. But this isn't about making "the perfect pizza" to chisel in stone. Instead it's about learning new techniques, experimenting with different ingredients and having fun. After all food is supposed to be fun and for me there's nothing more fun than sharing delicious food with family and friends.
My first pizza didn't turn out looking like this or tasting as good as this one did. It's been a journey and one I hope will go on for some time. That first one was pretty good though, I mean melty cheese on dough is melty cheese on dough.
I started making pizza because I grew up eating homemade pizza every Saturday night, thanks Mom and Dad, and I'm a sucker for tradition. Originally I was making the same dough my Dad always did but I thought I was fancy so I used a stand mixer instead of a food processor. It was delicious. It was easy. I could have just kept doing that and called it a day, but I had to start tinkering.
The first thing I remember changing was baking on a pizza stone instead of in a pan. Then I probably started messing with temperatures, which resulted in cracking two, yes two, pizza stones. This year I got a baking steel and am currently messing with moving the steel up and down in the oven and trying different temperature and time combos.
Changing up toppings came next although we get back to basic pepperoni around here pretty often. Some other combos I enjoy are sausage and roasted peppers, sautéd mushrooms and greens, salami and mushrooms, grilled summer squash and the classic margherita.
Lately what I've been playing with is hydration levels of the dough. I think 70% was a little too . . well wet. Lately I have been making 65% dough which is about 500g flour and 325g water. The picture above was a 65% dough and it was dang tasty. Tonight's pizza is 65% but instead of making the dough the day we eat pizza I made it about 48 hours in advance and let it sit in the fridge to slow rise / ferment. The thought is the crust will have a more complex flavor to it but we will see.
Some days I think I should just stop making pizza and order delivery or stop messing with the method or recipe and make the same thing every week because it's pretty good pizza already. But this isn't about making "the perfect pizza" to chisel in stone. Instead it's about learning new techniques, experimenting with different ingredients and having fun. After all food is supposed to be fun and for me there's nothing more fun than sharing delicious food with family and friends.
Comments