Anyone have a favorite? Also, a good resource for pizza-making supplies? As always, thank you in advance for your assistance.
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I have the Lodge cast iron one. Like it a lot. -
If you are going to make a high temp pizza, try to find an Italian "00" flour, (Amazon). It doesn't burn as easily as other flours at high temps. Otherwise I have always used King Arthur Flour - either AP or their Bread Flour depending on my mood. I buy a 1 lb block of Safer instant yeast from Amazon and store it in an airtight container in the freezer. Some pizza dough recipes call for olive oil which you can get locally. The other ingredient is water...
Sauce is a tough subject. Some swear one technique is best while the next person swears by another technique. And there are long discussions online about what tomatoes to use. I look for what has the least amount of ingredients - preferably tomatoes and tomato juice only, but good luck finding that.
I like the KA flour above because it's not bleached or bromated. I believe that the EU does not allow flour to be bromated because it has been linked to cancer in animals. (Look at the label to see if it contains potassium bromate.)
Pizza Therapy is a good resource on making pizza.
Using a baking stone or baking steel will improve your crust and I prefer a steel.
I need to get Forkish's pizza book. Reinhardt's book, American Pie, is good, and also an enjoyable read.
I currently use Kenji's processor recipe for dough.
Specific questions? Just ask...Comment
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Thanks Ron. I've used quality APF with good results, but prefer the 00 as well, and always unbleached. I recently got into Forkish's books and really enjoy how he breaks things down to simple terms and easy recipes. I've been making some pretty good doughs lately because of it!! Busted our stone this AM and want to replace with steel. Ken says Stoughton Steel and I just bought one from them. Man, who knew homemade pizza could be so good!!!
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Not sure about a steel pizza pan but we’ve got a pizza steel from Baking Steel that we really like.
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I am a big fan of the Lodge Baking Pan. It is 14" and it fits into my LBGE. The handles are great too!
You can also sear the heck out of steak, scallops and all kinds of things.Comment
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If you're looking to make a Detroit style of pizza these steel pans are nice (I have a couple of them): https://www.detroitstylepizza.com/pr...-pizza-pans-2/Comment
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I have a Detroit from the site as Histrix posted above for my Detroit pizzas. I also use Chicago Metallic for my Chicago deep dish. All dang dang good!
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I went to a local steel supplier and had them cut a 17"x16"x3/8" plate of A36 steel plate for $35, and sand blasted for $10. Had I done it over I would have done 1/4" plate, the thing is heavy.Last edited by Missin44; June 3, 2019, 08:54 AM.Comment
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Pardon my ignorance. What is the difference between a baking steel and regular steel plate?
why not just get one cut like Missin44
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I seasoned mine the same as a cast iron pan. When I got it home I did lightly wash and place in a warm oven to dry, then seasoned.
Last edited by Missin44; June 3, 2019, 09:45 PM.Comment
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I use the stone (cordite I believe)floor of my Italia Pizza oven. For Detroit, folded corner blue steel automotive parts trays (I turned a wrench in a previous life). Chicago I use some blue steel heavy walled cake rounds. Never used a baking steel. I feel the stones are superior as they pull moisture away from the crust as it cooks, or at least I have tricked myself into thinking they do.Comment
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If you're are interested in making a good dough, get a kitchen scale to weight all dough ingredients, including the water. Then learn to make your dough using Bakers %, once you do this you no longer measure by volume, you measure by weight which is much more accurate. The problem in measuring by volume is mostly with the flour, depending on how its dipped, scooped or spooned into a measuring cup, that cup of flour's weigh can vary relatively widely, baking is chemistry so the more accurate you are the t. This goes for any dough recipe. In Bakers % your flour is always given a 100% value and everything else is a percentage of that. Example for a dough where you want a 60% hydration you would use water measured at 60% of whatever your flour weighs, 10 oz flour would need 6 oz water (by weight). Salt might be 2% or .2 oz, yeast might be .5% or .05 oz. Using this method also makes it very easy to scale a dough recipe from say 16" pie to as 10" pie.Originally posted by CaptainMike View Post
The kitchen scale will do more for you pizza/bread making than anything else.
I make a lot of pizza and this gives me perfect consistency from pie to pie.Last edited by Missin44; June 3, 2019, 11:26 PM.Comment
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At the restaurant, we use plain steel pans on the rare occasion when we make pan pizza. For regular, traditional pizza, we use expanded aluminum liners. That works for them, but at home , we use ceramic, cast iron, and steel. All work well, but your technique must be adjusted slightly to take into account the thermal properties of each material. This applies more to pan pizza than traditional, as pre-heating a cast iron(for example) deep dish pan makes the pizza difficult to work with. So, one builds the pizza in the pan, and then bakes. It will take longer to cook because the cast iron takes longer to come to heat. Thinner steel pans are faster, due to a lesser amount of thermal mass compared to cast iron or ceramic. I love to use my cast iron skillets to make pan pizza. Same goes with ceramic, but I can use a simple carbon steel pan, adjust the cook temps and duration, and I get killer pan pizza every time. You see?
In other words, it's the cook, not necessarily the gear.
Having said that, Missin44 is correct in his statement of weighing your ingredients for your dough. For pan pizza, I've used many great flours(Wheat Montana, King Arthur, etc.) and don't overthink it. Some on this forum made a believer of this old chef to the wisdom of 00 flour for high temp pizzas. It does help. I don't make those too often, but 00 is a must when I max temp my kamado...lol.
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