Been making pizza about 7 years. Not an expert, but took me time to find my "pizza".
There's basically 2 ways to make a pizza. You have some guys fermenting the dough for days and others making a quick-dough.
Now we can either preferment, or ferment the pizza itself.
I feel this is the best place to start, and this was similar to the first dough I made for a year.
USE YOUR HANDS AT ALL STEPS, THAT'S THE FUN!
24 hr Bigga
Bigga/Preferment
Need to work out a schedule, takes bit of planning. So, 24-48 hrs before you want to eat pizza, you need to build a bigga. Then 12 hours after that you build a dough, then put in fridge 12-24 hours to eat.
My typical schedule is bigga before bed, when I wake up make the dough. Into the fridge for a day or two for dinner.
Each stage takes me 15mins, so if first time making a dough maybe 30 mins?
140g H2O that is comfortable to the touch (if you're place is cold, slightly warm water so it feels nice...if you're place is too hot, slightly cool water)
250g Flour (AP is fine, blends is where it's at)
.2g yeast (1/5th of 1/4th tsp...)
1)Fill a medium bowl with water, add yeast and gently stir to dissolve.
2) Add the flour and pinch/stretch till it is mixed together. Don't have to mix a lot, just get it homogeneous/incorporated. (30secs-1minute?)
(1:21 to see mixing by hand)
3)Let sit at room temp/cooler part of house for 12-14 hours. Once roughly tripled, smells like heaven, gassy/bubbly. We can now build our dough.
Dough
250g Flour
160g H2O (comfy to touch)
13g sea salt (or fine salt) (no iodine is better IME)
1) Get a bigger bowl. Add your flour, add your water, add your salt. Mix by hand till kinda a shaggy cohesive thing. Add your bigga from step 1 and mix these two together. Once it's cohesive and incorporated, STOP.
2) Cover with plastic wrap, let rest on counter for 20 mins.
3) Move to a lightly floured surface, and form a tight ball.
4) Place dough ball seam side down in an oiled bowl/plate. Cover with cling wrap (I use glad rounds, doubles for tiny grows).
5) Counter rest 45 mins.
6) Lightly flatten, then cut into 3 equal pieces.
7) Form 3 pizza balls, cover and let rest for 2 hours on counter for baking. Or, place back in fridge up to 24 hrs (been years, maybe you can get 48).
Sauce/Cheese
1 Can of San Marzano tomatoes
7g salt
dash of vinegar if needed
1) food process till it's just cohesive don't make too liquidy, unless your weird.
2) taste and add vinegar if that's what ya need.
Cheese is a very touchy subject. One thing that for certain is that per-shredded cheese would make any Itallian grandma cry. It's full of cellulose or wood.
Water buffalo is baller status, expensive, but worth it.
Next best is buratta, still fucking amazing.
Find your best mozz you can, I like a semi-moist, experiment with cheeses this is where the real fun is!
Baking/Shaping (all done at 550 with my oven, gotta use your peepers if at lower setting, or read about broiling pizza whole time)
You'll want to preheat your oven to the highest temperature possible, 1-2 hour before you bake, mine maxes at 550F. The longer you can preheat the better!
Use a pizza stone... If not you can use a pizza tray/baking sheet or cast iron. You want the cooking tray to preheat with the oven.
Baking from fridge
I always come from the fridge; Your balls are ready when full of air.
https://bakerbettie....oofed-dough.jpg
1) So oven is preheated 2 hours before I bake, after 1 hour of preheating balls come out of fridge. Counter is cleaned, and lightly floured and balls shaped. (pizza skin)
pizza skins then relax for about 20-30mins on the counter. Gotta find your own rhythm and preference, in the dough relaxation.
I'll make my sauce at this point while the skins are chilling.
2) Move skin to lightly floured peel or wood cutting board (semolina/corn meal really help here). The thinner the thickness the better.
3) Sauce the pie, making sure to leave an edge for your crust! Less is more, and better to have more in the center then near your crust (cornice).
4) Before you go to oven see if the pizza with the heaviness of sauce is free of your cuttingboard/peel.
if stuck; try and throw flour under the stuck part, or put a bit of flour near stuck part and blow it under pizza.
5) Throw that pie on your preheated stone/tray.
6) Remove after 5 mins if at 550; should show brown spotting.
7) If you need more sauce add now. ( i add a splash more of sauce, a small circle of oil, some real fresh crushed red pepper, and maybe oregano/parsley, etc.)
8) Cheese that bitch up!
9) Basil that bitch up
10) Meats if you're into that, veggies go on top and make sure to coat them in thin oil so they don't burn. (artichokes that are already soaked in oil are amazing)
11) Bake at 550F for about 3-4 mins, start browning a bit more, cheese starts to stretch
12) Broil till your desired cheese/browness.
The closer to burnt you can get without burning the better!
13) Remove with peel/cutting board. Let cool, then cut.
14) Enjoy!
If you guys need clarification, or more advanced better doughs let me know!
Edited by rockyfungus, 12 December 2020 - 02:46 PM.
