Pizza at home: Baking Steel

Tags

baking steel, basil, bread, fior di latte, margherita, mozzarella, pizza, pizza stone, romana, the potted kitchen garden, thyme

Disclaimer: To bake great pizza in a home oven requires a bit of experimentation for best results for your oven. Every home oven is different. This is what I have worked out for my home oven and my style of pizza. Your oven will be different. What works best for my oven may not work best for your oven or for your style of pizza.

In the last pizza post, I documented baking pizzas in a home oven using the Lodge Cast Iron Pizza Stone.  In my home oven, even the relatively thin cast iron pizza stone created greater oven spring and better leopard spotting on my pizzas.  This time I take it a step further and begin experimenting with A36 steel.  Steel has a slightly higher heat transfer rate than cast iron and a 1/2 inch thick piece of steel will hold considerably more heat than the relatively thin cast iron of the Lodge Cast Iron Pizza Stone.

I placed a 1/2 inch Baking Steel approximately 8 centimeters from the top broiler of my oven, on top of a terra cotta paving tile.

Oven setup for 1/2 inch Baking Steel, located approximately 8 cm below electric broiler element.

My current go to pizza dough recipe is the Basic Country Bread recipe from Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread: just flour, water, salt, and leaven (from wild sourdough culture) at around 78% hydration (I suppose that would be about 80% total hydration if you account for the leaven which is at 100% hydration). I typically fold the dough once after 30 minutes, then divide the dough into 280g portions and place each portion in a separate container and place in the fridge to ferment. I typically bake with the dough anywhere from a 1-4 day fermentation.

Tartine Bread: simplified recipe notes (I add an additional 80g of water with the salt.)

I decided I to bake two pizzas and set up my mise en place.

The oven was set to high and preheated for at least one hour. Just before baking a pizza, I set the oven to broil and let the upper element heat to glowing before stretching the dough.

After shaping, I waited 30 minutes before stretching the first dough ball.  I have consistently found the dough to be more relaxed after about 45 minutes after shaping and much easier to stretch.  I need to remember to time the shaping to a minimum of 45 minutes prior to stretching and baking the first pizza.

One day sourdough ferment.

After stretching the dough, I made the first pizza and launched it onto the Baking Steel.

Pizza Romana: Tomato sauce, fior di latte, red onion, capers, anchovie, Kalamata olive, fresh thyme.

I removed the pizza when the first spots on the cornicione were just turned black: 3 minutes, 26 seconds. The pizza was removed to a cooling rack for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust before plating and slicing.

Pizza Romana upskirt

Even after less than 4 minutes, the crust was browned evenly and the cornicione was beautifully soft and airy.

After letting the oven temperature recover, I once again switched the oven to broil and prepped the next pizza.

Pizza Margherita: Uncooked tomato sauce, fior di latte, fresh basil

I removed the pizza from the oven when the first dark spots on the crust turned dark black: 4 minutes, 42 seconds. The pizza was removed to a wire rack to cool for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust.

Pizza Margherita upskirt

The cornicione was sufficiently cooked and reasonably light and airy. Bear in mind this was just a one day sourdough ferment. Later pizzas should have better development and leopard spotting, especially after 3-4 days.

Pizza Margherita cornicione

Note:  As with a proper woodfired oven, the pizzas need to be turned at least once during baking for even cooking.  I did not turn these pizzas, hence the uneven cooking.

I still do not have a non-contact infra-red thermometer, so was unable to check the temperature of the stone just prior to launching the pizza. I hope to buy one soon…

I was very happy with how these two pizzas turned out, even after just a one day sourdough ferment. Today’s pizza on the Baking Steel seems to have already outperformed the Lodge Cast Iron pizza stone. I look forward to baking more pizzas over the next several days.

Cast Iron Pizza Stone

Tags

cast iron, cast iron pizza stone, italian, pizza, pizza stone, sourdough

Disclaimer: To bake great pizza in a home oven requires a bit of experimentation for best results for your oven. Every home oven is different. This is what I have worked out for my home oven and my style of pizza. Your oven will be different. What works best for my oven may not work best for your oven or for your style of pizza.

My go to setup for baking pizzas in my home oven – an old, hacked together Fisher & Paykel electric with the broiler in the main compartment, which came with our rented house – consists of two stacked Middle Earth Natural Clay Pavers: Plain Paver – 330X330X42MM(PDF). The stack of tiles is set up in the oven so that the top surface of the tiles is about 12 cm from the broiler element.

When I am ready to bake pizzas, I turn the oven on to bake and set it to the highest heat setting and let the oven pre-heat for about 1 hour before baking. Then, just before I start to stretch my dough, I switch the oven to broil (my oven will not allow both bake and broil to be on at the same time) and wait for the broiler element to turn red. Then, I stretch the dough, place on a wooden peel, add toppings, and launch the pizza directly onto the stone.

My current go to pizza dough recipe is the Basic Country Bread recipe from Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread: just flour, water, salt, and leaven (from wild sourdough culture) at around 78% hydration (I suppose that would be about 80% total hydration if you account for the leaven which is at 100% hydration). I typically fold the dough once after 30 minutes, then bulk ferment in the fridge for 24 hours. After 24 hours, I divide the dough into 280g portions and place each portion in a separate container and place back in the fridge to ferment. I bake with the dough anywhere from a 2-4 day fermentation.

Tartine Bread: simplified recipe notes (I add an additional 80g of water with the salt.)

With the terracotta stones, bake times are typically between 7-8 minutes. There is enough heat in the oven that I can get decent puff on the cornicione, but there is very little to no char on the crust.

This is a problem. Char means flavour and crispness. We want a bit of char.

Enter the Lodge Pro-Logic P14P3 Cast Iron Pizza Pan.

I added the Lodge cast iron pizza pan to the stack of terracotta tiles in my oven. The terracotta tiles will add thermal mass, as the Lodge cast iron is only about 3mm thick. Cast iron has a higher heat transfer rate than stone, so it should provide better oven spring on the cornicione and better char on the crust.

Warning: The oven racks in my home oven are stout enough to handle the weight of the terracotta and cast iron. Not all home oven racks are as stout, but should be able to support the weight of, say, a 10kg turkey?

I turned the oven to bake and set to the highest temperature for one hour. Home oven temperatures are notoriously inaccurate. I always use an oven thermometer. My oven thermometer typically indicates a max of about 300C. This time, I used a thermocouple to test the accuracy of my oven thermometer. The thermocouple registered a maximum air temperature of 310C near the surface of the cast iron. That means my in oven thermometer is reasonably accurate.

I do not have a non-contact infrared thermometer (anyone have one I could borrow?), so I was not able to measure the surface temperature of the cast iron. In the meantime, I will have to go with air temps. Hmm… I may have a k-type surface probe somewhere. I’ll have to look for it.

These pizzas were made with Tartine Basic Country Bread recipe at 78% hydration with a two day cold ferment. I took the 280g portions out of the fridge one hour before baking and shaped the dough balls about 30 minutes before stretching. The oven was pre-heated for one hour at the maximum bake setting and maxed out at around 310C. I switched the oven to broil and waited about 3 minutes for the broiler element to glow before I started stretching the dough.

The first pizza was a pizza Margherita with crushed tomatoes (drained), fresh mozzarella (squeezed to remove excess moisture), and fresh basil and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

The pizza was pulled from the oven when the first bits of the crust just turned black. The cook time for this pizza was 4 minutes 42 seconds. The pizza was placed on a cooling rack for two minutes before plating and cutting to preserve crispness of the crust.

An upskirt photo of the first pizza. Look at that char. There is better char with the cast iron than just the pizza stone. I was not able to get any colour on my pizza stones.

Oven spring was not too bad (could be better!) and I did not get much leopard spotting at all. It will be interesting to see if I can get leopard spotting as the dough continues to ferment. The crust was just slightly crisp and the crumb was open and moist. Delicious!

I turned the oven back to bake and let the oven warm up for about 15 minutes or so to get back up to 300C.

Onto the second pizza of the night: Pizza Margherita. What can I say? I like pizza Margherita. 🙂

The pizza was pulled from the oven when the first bits of the crust just turned black. The cook time for this pizza was 5 minutes 20 seconds. The pizza was placed on a cooling rack for two minutes before plating and cutting to preserve crispness of the crust.

An upskirt photo of the second pizza. Again, char was better with the cast iron than with just the terracotta stone.

I did not take a picture of the cornicione on the second pizza – too busy eating!

The pizza turned out pretty good. More testing tonight with 3 day ferment dough…

Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by anyone or any company for this post. All equipment and food product was purchased by me at full retail cost.

Pizza! Pizza!

Tags

baking, brussels sprouts, champagne ham, fior di latte, garlic, italian, parmigiano-reggiano, pizza, pizza stone, sourdough, taleggio

Ham & Cheese: Crushed Tomatoes, Champagne Ham, Fior Di Latte, Taleggio

Brussels Sprouts & Sopressata: Fior Di Latte, Brussels Sprouts, Sopressata, Garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Hello Pizza, My Old Friend!

Tags

baking, basil, extra virgin olive oil, fior di latte, italian, pizza, pizza stone, sourdough

It’s been a while since I last made pizza, as I put my sourdough starter into deep freeze in January. It’s been a long time. Too long.

I mixed up a batch of pizza dough this morning. I usually let the dough cold ferment for at least three days before I make a pizza, but it’s been so long I couldn’t wait…

Pizza Margherita: Chopped tomato, Fior Di Latte, Basil, and a Well Deserved Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Sourdough Pizza: Two Day Fermentation

Tags

aubergine, blue cheese, cold ferment, fennel, italian, mushroom, pizza, pizza stone, sourdough

Testing sourdough pizza with 2 day bulk fermentation…

Pizza al Finocchio, Funghi e Formaggio Erborinatio (Pizza with Fennel, Mushroom, and Blue Cheese)

Pizza alle Melanzana (Pizza with Roasted Eggplant)

36 Hour Sourdough Pizza

Tags

aubergine, basil, cheese, cold ferment, fior di latte, grana padano, italian, kalamata olives, pizza, pizza stone, red onion, sourdough, tartine basic country sourdough, thyme

I pulled out the sourdough retarding in the refrigerator and divided it into three 260g portions. I folded and shaped the dough balls and let them rest while the oven warmed and I prepped the toppings.

When the oven came to temperature I switched the oven from bake to broil and made the first pie.

One portion was a bit smaller than the others, so I made a bambino pizza with Kalamata olives, red onion, fresh thyme, and freshly grated Grana Padano.

The next pie was topped with a bit of fior di latte, roasted melanzana, and freshly grated Grana Panano.

The last pie was topped with fior di latte, Kalamata olives, red onion, fresh thyme, freshly grated Grana Padano, and basil.

These pies cooked in about 6-7 minutes. I had some of the best oven spring I’ve ever had out of this dough. Next time I’ll mix the dough and probably give it four turns over two hours at room temperature, then bung it in the refrigerator for two to three days before using.

Sourdough Adventures: Sourdough Pizza

Tags

basil, cold ferment, fior di latte, italian, pizza, pizza stone, scamorza, sourdough, tartine basic country sourdough

I have pizza withdrawal. I have not made pizza since I started making sourdough bread.

I drove to the farmer’s market at La Cigale and picked up fresh basil and some fantastic fior di latte and scamorza made locally by Italian Cheeses.

My first try making sourdough pizza dough…

I made a 2kg batch of sourdough, same as I do for my Tartine Basic Country Bread. After bulk fermentation was complete, I shaped 400g portions of dough into balls and let them bench rest for 40 minutes, whilst the oven came to temperature and I prepared the toppings.

I reserved enough dough to make two more pizzas and stored it in the fridge for a longer, cold ferment. I would normally have let the whole batch ferment for two or three days, but I really wanted to make some pizza the same day, purely for testing purposes…

The cornicione had good flavour. I may have to play around a bit to get the bulk fermentation timing right. The dough balls had good extensibility, but lacked some elasticity, perhaps due to too short a bulk fermentation or too long a bench rest. The dough may have benefited from a second shaping and bench rest to make up for a short bulk fermentation.

The cornicione showed decent oven spring, but I need to work out proper temps and timing with my oven, cooking on a terracotta paving stone. The electric home oven I currently use does not hold a high temperature very well. I may need to move the stones to a lower position in the oven. It is also difficult to get the stone to a high enough temperature to get much colour on the bottom of the crust.

The oven is set at the highest temperature setting and allowed to warm up for 1 hour. Just before I start to stretch a dough ball, I switch the oven to broil. These pizzas were in the oven for between 6-8 minutes.

I may make a couple more pizzas tonight to see how the dough handles after a 36 hour fermentation.

For my next batch, I may turn the dough every 1/2 hour for the first two hours, then store the dough in the fridge for 1-5 days.

It’s All About The Pizza

Tags

italian, mexican pizza, morgan, mushroom, pizza, pizza stone, sopresso nanno

I bought one of those posh pizza stones at a kitchen store. It didn’t last long.

So I did a little search for a suitable replacement and found Middle Earth Tiles.

Only one way to find out if this stone was going to work. So, I got to work slicing mushrooms…

Whilst I slaved over a hot stove, Morgan helped choose some good cooking music.

How about Sopresso Nanno to go with those mushrooms?

A classic Napoletana pizza.

Mexican pizza