Pizza

[chainsawxecutioner]

Whenever I make homemade pizza, it's never nearly as good as "pizzeria style" pizza. The crust is usually white as a ghost and doesn't taste all that great, and the cheese and all the toppings fall apart and makes a bigger mess than sloppy joes. Does anyone here know how to make homemade pizza just like "pizzeria style" pizza using an ordinary oven?

[Andy M.]

Hard to say without knowing your recipe or process.

Do you use a pizza stone?

What temperature is your oven set to?

[Alix]

MJ...quick...help needed! Pizza man to the rescue!

[MJ]

Originally Posted by Alix

MJ...quick...help needed! Pizza man to the rescue!

Hi Alix!

Ingredients
2 Packages yeast (This equals 1/2 oz. or 4 and 1/2 tsp.)
2 teaspoons sugar
4 cups of flour or more
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil (if available use, Extra Virgin)
1 and 1/2 cups of warm water

Directions
1. Put yeast and sugar in a cup. Add 1/2 cup of water. The water should be
between 100 and 110 degrees. Mix well. Wait about 5 minutes for the yeast and
sugar to activate.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, olive oil, 1 cup of warm water
and the yeast mixture. Mix this with a fork to get all the liquid
absorbed by the flour.
3. Place a handful of flour on a pastry board or mixing surface. Dust your hands
and spread out the flour. Empty the contents of the bowl on to the flour.
4. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the texture is smooth and uniform.
If the dough seems a little sticky, add a little more flour. One method to
knead, is to lean on the dough with the palm of
your hand. Press the dough to the mixing surface. Fold the dough and repeat.
5. Place the dough in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Place bowl in draft
free area and cover with a damp cloth.
6. Let the dough rise for about an hour. Punch down the dough and wait about 45
minutes. Your dough is now ready.
7. Cut the dough in half (for 2 pizzas) or quarter (for 4 thin pizzas).
8. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll out on a floured pastry board until
the dough is the desired shape. Keep using flour, so the dough
won't stick.
9. Dust a cookie sheet with corn meal. (Oil will work ok, but the dough will be
greasy.) Use a spatula and slide the dough onto the cookie sheet.
10. If you have a peel, assemble pizza on a peel dusted
with corn meal. Or assemble the pizza on a floured board and slide the peel
underneath when finished! Then use the peel to place the pizza on the
pre-heated pizza stone. (This is the absolute best way to make pizza! When you
use a a cookie sheet or pizza stone pre-heat the oven for at least 50 minutes to
an hour at 500 degrees to cook your pizza)
11. The more you make dough the easier it will become. Don't get discouraged if
it seems difficult the first time. You will surprise yourself at how easy it
becomes the second time.
12. Actually, the hardest part of making dough is the clean up!

I cook at 550*. Make Sure you preheat your oven and use a stone!

[aruzinsky]

Not that this answers your question, but have you ever tried French bread pizza? It is relatively easy to make and pretty good in my opinion.

[WayneT]

Originally Posted by chainsawxecutioner

Does anyone here know how to make homemade pizza just like "pizzeria style" pizza using an ordinary oven?

This is an excellent pizza recipe posted in the Bread section Perfect Pizza Dough Oops! That's my recipe, maybe I am biased, but I promise you will not be disappointed.

[scott123]

The two biggest questions of all are:

1. Where do you live?
2. What are the qualities of the pizza you are trying to emulate?

A person living in Chicago will have a totally different idea of 'pizzeria style' pizza than a New Yorker, a Nebraskan or a Neopolitan.

If you're trying to recreate a deep dish pie, a clone of Dominoes or authentic Neopolitan wood oven pizza, I can't help you. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a thin crust, New York, Vulcan oven type of product, then I'm your man.

After years of studying the way in which my local New York/New Jersey pizzerias operate, I've gathered a few guidelines for making NY style pizza at home.

1. Lean dough - low fat
2. High protein flour - the dough won't be extensible/stretch thinly enough with all purpose flour
3. Mozzerella/Parm/Maybe Romano. No other cheese is involved.
4. A Vulcan style oven - Stone hearth/ceiling/sides with stainless steel hinged doors that ranges in temperature from 550 to 750 degrees. With the right configuration of fire bricks, the features of this type of oven can be achieved in a home oven.

These first five things I can say with absolute certainty. The following lists methods that I'm relatively sure about but not 100%:

1. Straight dough method - fresh cake yeast, flour, water all go into the hobart mixer - no hydrating/proofing of dry yeast.
2. Long cool rise - the dough is refrigerated (retarded) until it's used, giving it a very different flavor than the traditional 80 degree proofed home baked bread.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to New York Vulcan Oven style pizza. Each of the first five guidelines deserves it own page or even pages of elaboration. If you're up for the challenge, I'm here to help. Making homemade bread is a thrill, but pizza, done right, is pure ecstacy. I'm salivating just thinking about it.