The past number of years, in late December/early January, I set forth a number of goals I plan to work towards achieving in my life – business, financial, personal etc. A year ago, I added a culinary goal, and achieved it just as the year was ending.
For 2022, my culinary goal was to master making my own pizza dough, as I’d been using store bought dough for well over ten years. While the results were very good, I decided it was time to learn to do it myself, and learn to do it well.
Part of my education process on dough making led me to this video on how to make NY style pizza, by [FONT="]Vito Iacopelli[/FONT], most certainly a non-New Yorker:
https://youtu.be/R8V0WYS-f7I
I loved the way his pizza turned out, and was intrigued by the fact that he used two kinds of flour; Italian “00” and fine semolina – the result, he promised would be “nice and crunchy”. So, after watching the video a number of times, plus copying and pasting the recipe a commenter was kind enough to notate, I set about making the dough as described. The dough ingredients were mixed, then kneaded by hand – no mixer was involved. Once into a ball, it was put into a bowl covered to rise for 30 minutes, then went into a covered container lined with a thin coating of olive oil into the fridge for an overnight cold rise.
I didn’t capture pictures of the dough being made or even of the doughball ready to work, but in watching Vito form his dough into a round, I decided to try his method of creating the rim around his crust, AND forming it by hand ON a well floured deck without even picking it up.
The dough formed from a 8 inch round to a 14 inch round in less than 2 minutes of hand stretching on the deck:
Using this method was a game changer for me, as in the past, my pizzas while round from hand stretching, were uneven in terms of thickness. I will be doing this moving FW, as the pie was not only perfectly round, the thickness was even throughout.
Dough onto the Super Peel and ready to sauce:
Sauced:
A dusting of parmesan:
Now cheese and oregano:
I added pepperoni, but skipped that pic. Into the Blackstone Oven - heated to a stone temp of about 550, which is about 125 degrees cooler than I'm used to:
Getting close:
Right out of the oven:
Added fresh basil:
Then sliced:
Plated:
Thickness-wise, it certainly looked and behaved like NY pizza. The semolina definitely added the promised “crunch” Vito promised. Most importantly, the dough was delicious, with a complex flavor and character that can only be attained through a long cold ferment.
I have a number of pizza doughs I’m planning on working on: New Haven, Roman Style, Detroit, and American style. More to follow as the year progresses!
For 2022, my culinary goal was to master making my own pizza dough, as I’d been using store bought dough for well over ten years. While the results were very good, I decided it was time to learn to do it myself, and learn to do it well.
Part of my education process on dough making led me to this video on how to make NY style pizza, by [FONT="]Vito Iacopelli[/FONT], most certainly a non-New Yorker:
https://youtu.be/R8V0WYS-f7I
I loved the way his pizza turned out, and was intrigued by the fact that he used two kinds of flour; Italian “00” and fine semolina – the result, he promised would be “nice and crunchy”. So, after watching the video a number of times, plus copying and pasting the recipe a commenter was kind enough to notate, I set about making the dough as described. The dough ingredients were mixed, then kneaded by hand – no mixer was involved. Once into a ball, it was put into a bowl covered to rise for 30 minutes, then went into a covered container lined with a thin coating of olive oil into the fridge for an overnight cold rise.
I didn’t capture pictures of the dough being made or even of the doughball ready to work, but in watching Vito form his dough into a round, I decided to try his method of creating the rim around his crust, AND forming it by hand ON a well floured deck without even picking it up.
The dough formed from a 8 inch round to a 14 inch round in less than 2 minutes of hand stretching on the deck:
Using this method was a game changer for me, as in the past, my pizzas while round from hand stretching, were uneven in terms of thickness. I will be doing this moving FW, as the pie was not only perfectly round, the thickness was even throughout.
Dough onto the Super Peel and ready to sauce:
Sauced:
A dusting of parmesan:
Now cheese and oregano:
I added pepperoni, but skipped that pic. Into the Blackstone Oven - heated to a stone temp of about 550, which is about 125 degrees cooler than I'm used to:
Getting close:
Right out of the oven:
Added fresh basil:
Then sliced:
Plated:
Thickness-wise, it certainly looked and behaved like NY pizza. The semolina definitely added the promised “crunch” Vito promised. Most importantly, the dough was delicious, with a complex flavor and character that can only be attained through a long cold ferment.
I have a number of pizza doughs I’m planning on working on: New Haven, Roman Style, Detroit, and American style. More to follow as the year progresses!
