Thin crust super hot pizza!

I ate at a place called Via Napoli in lane cove recently, they do a super thin, soft chewy amazing crust pizza. On their flier they actually mention the temp and time for cooking that pizza. Without wasting any time I set about attempting to duplicate it.

The key is as far as I can tell 480C oven, 2min cooking time, ultra thin base, pushing the dough out by fingers rather than rolling.
For this attempt I made a dough with 65% water, 5% oil a pinch  of salt and sugar, I couldn't push the dough out by fingers so I ended up rolling it, cooking for 2 min was amazingly enough at 480C and the result was a nice soft tasty well cooked pizza! Charred base excellent flavours, by not cooking too long the tomato and mushroom topping became quite fragrant without withering and drying out!

 Cooked well!

 I think if I can push it out with fingers rather than rolling it, it might be even better!

Temperature experiment, what are those numbers?

Well my oven has a scale from 0-3.2 for temperature, I usually set it at around 1.8 for pizza, whats this temperature? Turns out its around 240Deg C. After 10 min with the heating elements off it drops to around 220Deg C. I believe 240-220 is about the right range for a thick crust pizza.

If I set the oven at 3.2, my oven thermometer maxes out at 320deg C, so the oven must be more than 320C, I can imagine this is a good temp for thin crust new york style pizza? Perhaps another round of experiments to perfect that style!

I'm going to see if I can get an infrared temp sensor so I can directly measure the temp of the stone, this should allow me to eliminate the temperature variation between multiple pizzas!

Attempt 8 Garlic pizza perfection!!!

Attempt 7 was good, but I wanted to try a really long slow rise, so this time all fermentation happens in fridge for about 30 hours.
324ml water 65%
1.5tsp salt/suger
12tsp oil
498g flour
3tsp yeast

Mix dough in machine, put it straight in fridge after kneading finished. After about 12 hours, punch down once, after another 14 hours took it out to prepare for baking. Let dough warm up.
3 Dough Balls made,
Garlic pizza 300g
Regular pizza 273g each

Oven to about 1.8 off for 5 min with nothing in it
Garlic pizza goes in and bake for 10 min
Garlic pizza was perfect. Really puffy, soft ever so slightly chewy with a crunchy base, really amazing stuff!!

Pizza that went in after garlic didn't puff as much. I suspect the pizza stone cooled too much, need to ensure stone is back up to temp for pizza so it will puff just like garlic pizza.

Idea, try coating a pizza base with oil on top(similar to garlic pizza) cook that for 5 minutes, then add toppings to it and cook for another 10 min. Try 300g - 320g dough ball for pizza too. Unfortunately my phone didn't focus properly in some photos.

Attempt 7 - Thicker crust

Same as attempt 3, but more yeast. Triple size batch
324ml water 65%

12Tsp olive oil 11%

1.5tsp salt

1.5tsp/sugar

498g bread flour

3 tsp yeast

Dough ball weight 417g

Produces a nice thick crust, cook 10 min with only sauce on it, then add all toppings plus chees, give another 7 min off, then 3 min of heat. Well cooked maybe another 3 min would be good.

Since I had leftover dough, made it again after an overnight fermentation in the fridge (of the same dough)  417g dough ball weight
Oven time
1.5 setting
10 min off
Toppings
3min  on
7min off
Lot of oven puff

Puffed in middle section like a naan bread, pretty amazing crumb, reasonably well cooked

Attempt 5

124ml water 75%
4Tsp olive oil 11%
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp/sugar
166g bread flour

1/2 tsp yeast

High hydration!  Dough rose a lot, still workable, quite stretchy now. Flour required to get it off peel at this hydration. Oven heat procedure
Preheat to 1.8
4min off
1min on
1 min off
cheese added
4min off
on till done

Lots of oven puff. Edges have oven puffed very well, but bits with topping not so puffed. Needs more time for top to cook. I think my dough needs more fermentation time, 2 hours isn't enough even though it's doubling. 

FAIL MAJOR FAIL. The thing about high hydration is it is very tricky to get the top of a thicker crust pizza to cook. I imagine if you do this as a thin crust it would work nicely in a hot oven, but my top was very doughy and uncooked!

Attempt 4

Big Batch
348ml water 70%
12Tsp olive oil 5.5%
1.5tsp salt
1.5tsp/sugar
498g bread flour

1.5 tsp yeast

Garlic pizza was pretty good, thick fluffy  very good. Pizza was soft on top and crispy on bottom. Still want more oven spring!

Attempt 3 - Quite nice

108ml water 65%
4Tsp olive oil 11%
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp/sugar
166g bread flour

1/2 tsp yeast

Good rise in the bread machine. Meased the weight of the final dough ball and it is 278g before rolling it out.

Adding this much oil makes the dough easier to roll out.

Left out on benchtop for 20 min after rolling before baking, this allowed puffing up.

Heat oven to just below 2 setting.

Drop in oven with oven off and no cheese, HEAPS of oven spring. On removal crust is soft and puffy. Taste is tender and soft. Try a bigger dough ball maybe 20% more dough would be good. The base is well done but just not quite crispy. 

Attempt 2 - Improving

Same recipe as attempt 1, adding 5.5% flour weight oil

108ml water 65%
2Tsp olive oil 5.5%
1/2tsp salt/sugar
166g bread flour

1/2 tsp yeast

Has risen more in bread machine. Start with oven on 1.8 setting, no cheese at the start. Didn't oven spring as much, rear side has oven sprung more, presumably due to cooler temp at the back of the oven. This suggests oven needs a lower temp at the start. The cooler side puff is really good, soft and tender, hot side is a bit flat and tough.

Using oil makes the end result more tender!

Attempt 1 - Tough and chewy

This is the basic recipie I'm starting with, all variations will be to this.

Basic recipe

108ml water 65%
166g bread flour
1/2tsp salt/sugar
1/2 tsp yeast

Rising in bread machine on dough cycle,and left to sit for 2 hours before baking.
Heat pizza oven to 2 setting, I believe this is around 200deg C. Topped pizza and dropped it in, good oven spring, 12 minute cooking time, ensured the heating element came on for the last 4 min. Good gluten structure, base is chewy and tough.

It Begins!

Welcome, I have taken it upon myself to create the ultimate pizza, there are many conflicting recipes on the web for what makes the best pizza, I want to find out which one actually works. Along the way I want to learn how variations to the ingredients and cooking/fermentation method affect the final pizza quality. So to begin lets start with my equipment and ingredients.

My trusty bread machine! I use this for making all my dough, it mixes then raises it.

My pizza oven! This little guy has the ability to go up to 320degrees C if I want it to. It has a pizza stone in the middle, a grill element on top, and below the stone. I would suggest getting one of these if you are serious about your pizza, it is well worth it!  On top of that, it's red, so it goes fast.

 

 Here's a shot of the oven open, as you can see it's very well used, I like to think that improves the pizza quality.











Misc equipment, digital scale is essential for accurate measurements of flour and water!

 

 

Bread flour! 12.5% protein content. I heard high protein is good, so I bought this one, I really think the protein helps create that amazing soft but slightly chewy delicious centre with a nice crusty exterior. Also protein helps hold the water, if you try high hydration with low protein your dough may become a batter. With this flour I was able to push the hydration right up to 75% of the flour weight and still have a usable dough!





So these are the basic building blocks of a great pizza. I'm interested in the base initially, I want a soft, thick fluffy base that is slightly chewy in the centre, crisp on the outside, delicious flavour and perfectly cooked. If I can produce this base, it really doesn't matter what you put on top, it will be amazing!