Pizza - recipes, equipment, tips & techniques

Do you have a go-to dough recipe you can share?

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I do when I get whole pies. The slices I take as is.

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I have just been buying Trader Joes or Whole Foods.
@ebethsdad can probably help you out if you want to DIY the dough

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What style of pizza do you want to make? Neapolitan, New York, Detroit, neo-Neapolitan…?
Will you baking it in a pizza oven or a regular oven? I will gladly share the recipes I use, as well as recommend several cookbooks.

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Thinking Neopolitan. I am getting an Ooni pizza oven next month and want to practice making some dough :slight_smile:

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Okay here is J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s recipe for Neapolitan dough, Basic Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe. It is a high hydration, 65%, lean dough. You should get 00 flour to make it. Amazon sells it, as does Epicurus Gourmet.
Here is Mike Fitzick’s recipe from the Roccbox website, Neapolitan Pizza Dough by Mike Fitzick | Gozney.
For books I recommend; “The Elements of Pizza” by Ken Forkish, “The Pizza Bible” by Tony Gemignani, and “American Pie” by Peter Reinhart.
As you will see the dough recipes are fairly simple so you might want to wait until you get your Ooni until you make them. Neapolitan pizzas are cooked at a very high temperature (900 degrees) for a very short time so you won’t get much practice in your oven. That said I would highly recommend making a New York style dough, Basic New York-Style Pizza Dough Recipe, just so you can play around with shaping, saucing et al - unless of course you are already an accomplished pizzaiola. God knows I threw away many attempts until I got the technique down. @CiaoBob picked it up much faster than I did.
Ingredient recs for Neapolitan pizza - great mozzarella is the first element. The Milk Bar in Glendale carries fresh Gioia cheese. Either that or pick up some when you go to Epicurus for your flour and your San Marzano tomatoes. Have fun with it!
A note to @robert - I know this is more Home Cooking than pizza slices, but there isn’t much going on with the lockdown in effect. If you want to split it off no problem.

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Thank you .

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There are two kinds of 00 flour, bread and pasta. You want the bread version for pizza. Caputo 00 bread flour is fairly common at supermarkets these days.

https://www.safeway.com/shop/product-details.960155399.html

Ideal hydration varies with the flour.

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I received a package from Ooni today. Big box with a carrying case, 12 inch wooden peel and cleaning brush. The actual pizza oven I ordered in November doesn’t come until March. I’m expecting April or May.

Bookmarking this page to come back for pizza dough recipes.

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Which Ooni did you order. I’ve been eyeballing one for several months but haven’t pulled the trigger yet.

Ooni Koda 12. I have a pellet smoker so was considering the other version but decided to stick with the Koda 12. We have a propane tank and might take this set up on camping trips in the future.

I considered the 16 but decided not to splurge. I figure most of these pizzas will be individual pizzas or small neopolitans anyway. When we do pizza night I imagine we’re making a bunch regardless of the size.

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I bet you can make great pizza with just things you have in your house right now. Forget all the 00 type flour whatever. For some pizza purists, it matters but for me at home…anything goes.

Likewise, the oven isn’t a big deal either. As long as your home oven can get to 475 you’re in good shape. I’d only get the Ooni if I was constantly cooking for parties.

Do you need a pizza stone? Not really, it helps but its not super necessary. I’ve eaten great pies baked on sheet trays. I personally use the underside of my 10 inch Lodge cast iron…works fine and I get a nice crisp up and leopard undercarriage.

My favorite at home pizza dough recipe is:
Any type flour
64% hydration
2% salt
5% sugar
5% whole wheat flour: it really adds an element of bready graham crackeryness that I find really pleasant in contrast to an acidic sauce.
.5% instant dry yeast

Mix using warm water and refrigerate overnight. Shape next day, let rest for at least 3 hours then it should be ready.

oil in dough is optional: it reduces gluten strength so you’ll end up with a softer crust.

I really like the American pizzeria style pizza…think Papa John’s. Sweet n doughy. My recipe is somewhere in between American pizzeria and neo-new york.

The huge crust in the pic is just matter of personal preference. That’s how I shape my pizza at home.

A pizza opinion, take with grain of salt:
Everybody and their moms seems to be taken with American-neopolitan style pies. I really just don’t dig it. I mean cmon, its droopy and the fresh mozz leaks liquid all over and contracts and becomes a rubber steak a minute out the oven. The crust is burnt. ITS BURNT OKAY? Shoutout Che Fico wya this is just how we do things. NO MAN ITS BURNT.
And if you want to make this style of pizza, then by all means get an Ooni that will take you up to 800F and above. Get that 00 Caputo and mix using distilled water. Splurge on some imported bufala mozzarella, just barely crush some Cento San Marzanos and sun dried hand pressed certified salty sea salt and single origin evoo. Go all out, get some basil watered by the tears of virgins. Do it up.

I’m telling you I use Trader Joe’s canned plum tomatoes, low moisture mozz, regular bread flour and my pizza is the shit. The one thing I will splurge on however is the 24 month raw milk parm from whole foods. That cheese is FIRE.

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Oh and also, you don’t need a pizza peel. I use a stiff cardboard box.

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I think Kirkland’s Reggiano is as good as or better than Trader Joe’s. Can’t beat the price. Same goes for their Pecorino Romano.

My wife likes this recipe, which uses AP flour. Freezes well.

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Beautifully said .

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Those look pretty nice.
Here are two of mine; one Neapolitan, and one New York,



It depends on what you enjoy.

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Also, Parmigiano-Reggiano is by law always made from raw milk.

Those pies look awesome. How did you cook those pies? What brand of pepperoni is that?

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I get the pepperoni from Epicurus. The also have a knockout low moisture, full-fat mozzarella that runs rings around everything else I have dried - along with excellent buffalo mozzarella, and fior de latte for the Neapolitan pies. They also carry delicious San Marzano tomatoes for an excellent price. @dreas experience notwithstanding I find the taste difference between standard canned tomatoes and San Marzano’s to be quite substantial.
I cooked the pies in the Roccbox; around five minutes at 600 degrees for the New York pie, and 90 seconds at 900 for the Neapolitan. Full disclosure, at the beginning I had numerous attempts fail. Its an art to get the dough thin enough without having it break. @CiaoBob picked it up much quicker than I did.

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Just another data point for you since you are getting an Ooni. CraigTX’s Neapolitan Dough from the pizzamaking forum is pretty wonderful.

The thread I linked is useful in and of itself because it is choc full of useful information for learning to make dough in general.

His recipe is a sourdough one but I think he also offers ADY and IDY formulations as well.

I really like geeking out on this stuff but if you dont feel like reading pages and pages of the thread Kenji is always a superhero as @ebethsdad pointed out already.

Good luck and we better see some pics!

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