NFT: Have a pizza stone and peel now how do I make pizza?

convential oven.

Couple of "tips" we've learned:

~Always roll out the dough thinner than what you'd think. Use flour to help stretch it out

~Don't overload with toppings, makes it harder to cook

~Cheese goes on last, helps "trap" the toppings by having them stick together

~Oven should be as hot as humanly possible

~put a little drizzle of olive oil around the crust

come from using premium flour and using yeast from a jar, not a packet or strip. I use King Arthur flour, but any premium brand should work well. I've heard Caputo bread flour is awesome, but I've never tried it.

Also, if your water quality is poor (too hard or soft), the dough won't turn out well.

The key is to let the dough rise, the punch it down, let it rise a few minutes, then form onto the pizza stone. I oil the stone before spreading the dough, and then I drizzle oil on the top before seasoning the pizza with whatever toppings. I put the oven to 525 degrees for 10 minutes and check after 8 minutes to make sure nothing is burning.

I used a recipe from Mario Batali to make the dough, and it's worked great. Basically flour, a little sugar and salt, oil, and yeast.

Question is, to what level do you want to "make pizza". Do you want traditional thin crust or Neapolitan? Do you want a quick rise dough or a long cold ferment?

Anyway- what you will need is easy, if your stone is good (I am not too sure about it bc I have only used cast iron, which I love) and peel (you will need both wood and metal- so get whichever is missing) you are good to go.

Recipes- that goes back to my original set of questions. Are you looking for a pie with 20 toppings or a traditional margarita pie?

will help the pizza slide on it and slide off.

We started making pizza on our grill which can get pretty hot (700+). Instead of having it slide off the peel onto the stone, we just dropped the dough on the stone before putting any toppings on, then quickly added toppings. Much easier IMO.

I'm looking to start out simply. basic cheese pizza with a thin crust - neapolitan or traditional thin crust.

You want to make sure that stone is really, really, really hot too.

In comment 13435926 FatMan in Charlotte said:

Quote:

come from using premium flour and using yeast from a jar, not a packet or strip. I use King Arthur flour, but any premium brand should work well. I've heard Caputo bread flour is awesome, but I've never tried it. Also, if your water quality is poor (too hard or soft), the dough won't turn out well. The key is to let the dough rise, the punch it down, let it rise a few minutes, then form onto the pizza stone. I oil the stone before spreading the dough, and then I drizzle oil on the top before seasoning the pizza with whatever toppings. I put the oven to 525 degrees for 10 minutes and check after 8 minutes to make sure nothing is burning. I used a recipe from Mario Batali to make the dough, and it's worked great. Basically flour, a little sugar and salt, oil, and yeast.

I got Caputo 00 flour as a gift. It makes better crust, but you need a machine to knead the dough (and I did 1/2 1/2 with AP flour). I do it all by hand (no kitchenaid thing in my arsenal), and it took 4x longer to get a windowpane dough (about 1.25 hours of kneading). It tastes better and has a better texture though.

it's pretty good. I also use corn meal and flour for the peel.
Pizza Dough Recipe - ( New Window )

and use the KitchenMaid.

I don't even know how I'd knead the dough without it!

etc.

I would recommend the Neapolitan crust, its amazing when you get it right. But its much harder to perfect - I attempted my 6th recipe last night and will be leaving the dough in the fridge until Sat/Sun for a nice yeasty flavor.

Here is what you need:

Amazon Caputo 00 Flour- 6 lbs for like 13$ is a solid deal, it makes the world of diff.

Fresh Basil

Italian tomatoes (if San marzanos are not available its not the end of the world)

Fresh Mozz preferably still in the brine, you want soft mozz not the harder rubbery type, melting points differ.

Metal and Wooden Peel (wood to launch, prevents sticking- metal to maneuver and take out the pie) and your stone ...youre basically there and can definitely do withouth the second peel but its preferred - launching a pizza is hard and you dont want to over flour which most do, flour burns and pizza doesnt get good contact on the stone.

You will also need a food scale when baking.

Use this recipe its easier to manage then most (makes like 8 10-12 inch pies so cut in half as an initial test):

1000g Caputo 00 Flour
620g Good water
30g Sea Salt
3g Yeast


Mix salt and water until salt is dissolved, mix in 20% of flour until you have a slurry, then 20% more, then yeast, continue with the flour mixing by hand for about 30 seconds each time. When its a crumbly mess of wet batter and dry flour, dump it on the counter and just keep making folding it like a piece of paper and push down...when iut feels really wet, and it well, use that area to pick up the dry flour. Keep doing this for a full 10 min, sometimes more. Youre done when the dough is tackey to the touch, like 80% smooth, and resists when you poke it.


Let it sit 1 hour covered with a wet rag. Portion into 250-280g balls. and roll them up tight (youtube this, its important) put on a cookie sheet or tupperware and cover tight with plastic wrap and/ or lid.

In 1-3 days (up to 5) take it out for at least 4-5 hours prior to cooking. Preheat oven to max 550 hopefully with the stone on the bottom.

Take a dough, it will be SUPER LIGHT like a fragile balloon. in a bowl of flour dip it on both sides, gently poke and prod the middle with both hands, the goal is to get all that air inside to the edge NO ROLLERS just keep working it, never touch the crust - you can look up different techniques but it doesnt matter if its ugly, not round it just matters that you get it to about 10 inches so the middle is almost transparent and the crust is nice and thick - leave an inch of crust.

Top the pizza with minimal toppings, light sauce (Fresh tomatoes milled or hand blended with some basil and salt) a few leaves of basil and a handful at most of mozz.

Very lightly flour the peel, pull the pizza on, adjust the pie but stretching it to the best circle you can. Launch the pie by gently but sharply shaking the peel. Close the door and wait for at least 5 min before checking. Your oven shouldnt require you to turn the pie, if you do have hot spots, spin the pie for the last 3 min of cooking.

If you want to get fancy, after you get the desired doneness on the pie you can put your oven on broil to get the top nice and browned, and if you have a blow torch, torch your crust for a nice leopard char on the outside.

let it rest on a cookie sheet for a few minutes and enjoy!

to "grease the skids" for the pie to slide off onto the stone.

- stone in oven as soon as you turn it on and let it get to pre-set temp (450˚ or hotter) and wait five more minutes to ensure the stone will cook the dough crusty

- v. light coating of olive oil on the dough before the sauce, cheese, toppings etc.; I use my fingers to spread it thinly

- lotta learning on a thread I started (2/12/2016, I think: "Let's Talk Friday Night Pizza", or some such)

- make sure you leave plenty of time for the dough to rise on its own before working it; in these temps, where it's not cold enough outside for house heating to be on, it takes quite some time

because there are only certain ways you're supposed to make pizza. I considered not posting at all, but as an owner of a pizza place and having worked tirelessly to create what my family considers the almost perfect pizza, I feel obliged to share on BBI.

You will get good advice on here, but one that doesn't often come up is to chill your dough overnight (or maybe a little longer) before using. This allows the fermentation process to happen from the yeast without the rising, and will give better flavor than using fresh dough.

No need to go crazy making it a sourdough though. Just let it sit in a very cold fridge overnight to get some flavor. Be careful though - too long and the dough will start to come apart.

Feed the yeast with a half cup of the flour, then add the rest to start mixing and kneading. After you've reached the stage where you've let it rise, punch the air of it to get rid of trapped gases and make sure the yeast gets evenly spread. Pizza dough should be a bit wetter than other kinds of dough. It will be sticky and could be tricky to work with at first. Make sure your hands are floured and the surface is as well. I would recommend using your hands and not a roller to push the dough out into a pizza shape. If you're inexperienced in this though than roller will do.

You want high heat in the oven, and you don't want a super thick dough or it may cook uneven and take longer to cook, which could burn the cheese. Not too much cheese either. It expands quite well, and too much creates grease and could break the dough or soggy it to the point where you'll need a fork to eat it and who wants that.

good stuff in here.

I have a gas grill that gets to 700+ degrees (without a stone), can I use that optionally?

My oven gets to 550, so I've read that's fine, but it might be more fun to do outside.

I'm not a big fan of the grilled pizzas - it has a different flavor, but you certainly can cook it that way.

The guys above telling you to chill the dough are giving great advice. We generally decide the day of to make pizza, so 80% of the time, we aren't making the dough ahead of time - but when we do the results are better. In the big picture, it results in more consistent dough. Making it the day of often leads to having greater variation in the consistency. Not a deal breaker though.

In comment 13435930 FatMan in Charlotte said:

Quote:

will help the pizza slide on it and slide off.

or use parchment paper

It has recipes for numerous dough and pizza types.

right after heating the stone or do you leave it on? Lid on or off?

Then turn the oven on to 550 degrees (in a convection-bake oven setting) to cook the pizza.

Thank me later....Put it on the grates of a GOOD grill (think weber genesis) and the stones inside of this get to 900-1000 degrees....I cooked 3 pizzas in it 3 weeks ago and they were incredible....this gets hotter than a standard stone on the grill
Bakerstone Grill Oven Insert - ( New Window )

I have a CharBroil infrared grill and find the crust is always done before the cheese melts and toppings are cooked. Obviously infrared cooking lacks the radiant heat. I've read that some people put pieces of metal (frying pan, tuna cans) on the top rack to help when making pizzas, but that seems janky to me.

Only other method I've tried is use the grill until crust is done, then bring it inside to finish in the oven on broil.

Any other suggestions?

The bottom will brown before the top gets cooked. You need heat from both sides.

The first time I made pizza we had friends over stove was boiling hot popped it open slid the pizza off the peel the dough stayed put the cheese and sauce slid off all over the hot stone and the bottom of the oven smoked out the house and stunk for days. We sent out for pies.

Always fun making pizza and always an adventure.

In comment 13436061 SicilianGMEN said:

Quote:

Thank me later....Put it on the grates of a GOOD grill (think weber genesis) and the stones inside of this get to 900-1000 degrees....I cooked 3 pizzas in it 3 weeks ago and they were incredible....this gets hotter than a standard stone on the grill Bakerstone Grill Oven Insert - ( New Window )

I use one of these bad boys in the oven.

In comment 13436607 Beer Man said:

Quote:

In comment 13436061 SicilianGMEN said: Quote: Thank me later....Put it on the grates of a GOOD grill (think weber genesis) and the stones inside of this get to 900-1000 degrees....I cooked 3 pizzas in it 3 weeks ago and they were incredible....this gets hotter than a standard stone on the grill Bakerstone Grill Oven Insert - ( New Window ) I use one of these bad boys in the oven.

nerd chef? If so, that's what I got.

In comment 13436613 pjcas18 said:

Quote:

In comment 13436607 Beer Man said: Quote: In comment 13436061 SicilianGMEN said: Quote: Thank me later....Put it on the grates of a GOOD grill (think weber genesis) and the stones inside of this get to 900-1000 degrees....I cooked 3 pizzas in it 3 weeks ago and they were incredible....this gets hotter than a standard stone on the grill Bakerstone Grill Oven Insert - ( New Window ) I use one of these bad boys in the oven. nerd chef? If so, that's what I got.

That would be the same