[Request] Your pizza crust recipe

C

ChewSpitt

Banned
I'm mainly interested in New York style, but feel free to share a chicago style recipe.

I've been making my own pizza for the last couple of months and I can't seem to get the crust to perfection.

The taste is fine, but the real problem I'm running into is the crust is dry and not chewy and it's not bubbly like New York should be.

This is what I do:
1 - package of dry yeast
1 - teaspoon of honey
3/4 - Cup of warm water
A pinch of salt

I mix all of these together and let sit until the yeast rises to the 1 1/2 cup mark on my measuring cup.

While that's rising I put these ingredients in a bowl:
1 to 2 tablespoons - honey
1 tablespoon - brown sugar
1 teaspoon - of salt
1 1/4 cup - bread flour
1/2 cup - all purpose flour
2 tablespoons - olive oil

Once the yeast is done rising (around 10 - 15) I'll pour it into the bowl with the other ingredients. Once the dough gets that sticky consistency, I'll then start to kneed it for about 10 minutes using all purpose flour on my table so the dough doesn't stick.

At this point I'll either stretch the dough out and start with the toppings or let the dough rise for an hour. I've tried it both ways and haven't really noticed a difference between the two methods.

After adding the toppings I cook it at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. I've been reading that this maybe where my problem lies. Some say I should go much much hotter and less cook time.

Here's a pic of my first pizza before and after

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I've gotten a bit better at shaping my pizza since then, but no matter what I try I keep getting that boring dry crust.

Any suggestions?
 
I think you should simplify your recipe, then it will be easier to adjust to your liking

Use one kind of sugar, one kind of flour, etc, and once you have it down that way, you can add other things (a little corn meal/semolina is nice for crispness)

My suggestion re: your question is that you should use less flour and go with a stickier/wetter dough. It's a little harder to do by hand, but usually a dried out crust is due to too much flour, which a lot of people end up adding because the dough is sticky when they try to work it.

Edit: it's also prudent to mix the dough ingredients a little bit, and then let it rest for 10-15m so the flour can absorb the water before you start really mixing it.
 
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I've read about the semolina, I'll give that a try. I just made two batches tonight and the doughs were a little more stickier than I usually make it. Fun part was I made two batches before I noticed the flour had beetles in it.

Extra protein yum
 
What niga said is basically correct. The last part he mentioned is called "autolysing" and is to allow the flour to absorb the water better to enable a stronger gluten development (chewiness) during kneeding.

In my pizza doughs I aim for a 70% hydration which is a wet dough without being difficult to manage. Hydration is the ratio of water to flour, so a 70% hydration dough is 700g of water for every 1000g of flour. The flour portion is always classified as the "100%" figure so you calculate back from there, and always weigh it.

Also, buy a good quality digital scale and learn to weigh all your ingredients, it will help you design a consistent recipe, weigh everything including the water. Learn the metric system (grams) and do everything in that, its much more reliable counting in base 10 for working out hydrations and shit.

A basic recipe for one of my pizza doughs (makes 2x 12" pizzas).

500g Bread Flour (strong flour, whatever ... just not plain or cake flour)
14g Dried Yeast
10g Salt
350g Water

In a mixing bowl by hand, use your finger tips to rough all the ingredients together into a coarse mess. Allow the dough to sit for at least 1/2 hour to autolyse. Turn everything out onto a bench and kneed until smooth, or until your arms fall off. If you have a good mixer with a dough hook, mix for about 10 minutes.

Let proof until double, knock back, halve, ball, let relax for 10 minutes, then roll out, relax for 10 minutes, top and bake on your ovens highest setting (250C or better) until golden to your preference. Don't over top, don't use too many fatty meats, don't use too much cheese. The magic of a good pizza is using as little topping as possible while still putting a piece in every mouthful.

A more advanced dough based on the one above:
400g Strong Bread Flour (bread flour etc)
100g Semolina Flour
14g Dried Yeast (or 40g fresh compressed yeast preferably)
320g Water
30g good quality extra virgin olive oil (or vegetable shortening)
10g Salt

Coarse mix and autolyse for 30 minutes. Do a final mix and kneed until smooth and elastic, only this time put in an oiled bowl, covered with cling wrap in the fridge for at least 24 hours, its best to make it the evening 2 days before you plan on making the pizza, which is going to be like 36 hours in the fridge. This is called retarding the dough, and is designed to improve the flavour.

Take the dough out of the fridge about 6 hours before you plan to use it to come up to room temperature. Keep an eye on it, when it has doubled knock it back, keep knocking it back until it is time to roll out and top. Portion, ball, relax, roll, relax, top and back as in previous instructions.

And finally, if you want a really tasty pizza dough, make a 100% hydration (50/50 water/flour) sourdough starter, make sure its a couple of weeks old and well developed, then using the above recipe do the following:

100g Sourdough Starter (refreshed and active)
350g Strong Bread Flour (bread flour etc)
100g Semolina Flour
14g Dried Yeast (or 40g fresh compressed yeast preferably)
270g Water
30g good quality extra virgin olive oil (or vegetable shortening)
10g Salt

And follow the same instructions as the previous recipe including the autolyse and retarding.

That should be enough information to get you on your way to pizza nirvana. Seriously though, if you are slightly interested in yeast baking, get a decent digital scale and go metric, weigh everything including liquids and write recipes down, from here its easy to modify and improve reliably.

Oh for the record, I have been making pizzas for almost 20 years since soon after leaving high school and starting in a local boutique pizzeria. Even after quitting I kept making pizza doughs at home, if there is one thing I know how to cook it's pizza.
 
Thanks again for the advice Kiint.

I tried a wetter dough last night and wrote down every ingredient. I also switched the all purpose flour out with a 1/2 cup of semolina. I definitely noticed a crispier crust. Still need to invest in a digital scale though.

The dough was so sticky I almost gave up kneading it. But I noticed a few things with a wet dough

1) forming the dough to the pan was 10x easier
2) the crust tasted much less doughy.

I'm still having a problem with cooking it though. Every time I get a huge bubble underneath the middle of the pizza so it doesn't cook correctly. Any advice there? I cook it for about 6 minutes at 500 degrees. I usually end up stabbing the bubble at the 3 minute mark.
 
opsayo said:
chewspitt is sad and lonely and very overweight

he is angry LOL
Click to expand...

coming from one of the biggest half-wit fagots on this forum, that statement holds tremendous weight.

back on topic, one of my colleagues at work said that he used honey instead of sugar to feed the yeast and got good results. thus far i have been too lazy to make my own dough and instead, get a killer one from a cheese store near by.
 
Tic said:
back on topic, one of my colleagues at work said that he used honey instead of sugar to feed the yeast and got good results. thus far i have been too lazy to make my own dough and instead, get a killer one from a cheese store near by.
Click to expand...

Honey is my main sugar. I'm backing off of the brown sugar a bit since I tasted it too much in my last crust.
 
Tic said:
one of my colleagues at work said that he used honey instead of sugar to feed the yeast and got good results.
Click to expand...

Honey is nowhere near a suitable nutrition for yeast (but is better than refined sugar), the one thing I have found that yeast cum buckets over is "Rapadura Sugar" which is dehydrated sugar cane juice, it is near nutritionally complete for yeast from a mineral and vitamin basis. Its harder to find, but I haven't found a thing that works better. Its awesome stuff in coffee and tea as well with a toffee type flavour profile.
 
Kiint said:
Honey is nowhere near a suitable nutrition for yeast (but is better than refined sugar), the one thing I have found that yeast cum buckets over is "Rapadura Sugar" which is dehydrated sugar cane juice, it is near nutritionally complete for yeast from a mineral and vitamin basis. Its harder to find, but I haven't found a thing that works better. Its awesome stuff in coffee and tea as well with a toffee type flavour profile.
Click to expand...

Any tips on the bubble I'm getting?
 
Tic said:
coming from one of the biggest half-wit fagots on this forum, that statement holds tremendous weight.

back on topic, one of my colleagues at work said that he used honey instead of sugar to feed the yeast and got good results. thus far i have been too lazy to make my own dough and instead, get a killer one from a cheese store near by.
Click to expand...

i owned u @ tribez and chewspitt is overweight and depressed
 
opsayo, I'm not even bothered by you anymore after seeing your photo...I just feel sorry for you. Seriously dude i'm sorry you're a scrawny little asian man-boy.

Fuck I would have ended it all by now if I was you. You're much stronger than me that's for sure.
 
ChewSpitt said:
opsayo, I'm not even bothered by you anymore after seeing your photo...I just feel sorry for you. Seriously dude i'm sorry you're a scrawny little asian man-boy.

Fuck I would have ended it all by now if I was you. You're much stronger than me that's for sure.
Click to expand...

link his picture - I could use a good laugh.

I find it also funny that this random no name thinks hes better than a 6 x OGL CHAMPION at the tribes. :member:
 
It's been some time since I worked in a kitchen, but I would cut out the all purpose flour and use only bread flour. Cook @ 550 for ~6 minutes.
 
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