I make pizza from scratch by calling Domino’s.
1,2 and 3 are all strong possiblities, especially number 1. I just ran out anyway, but I’d had that bottle a long time.
I’ll have to try again this weekend and see how it shapes up - thanks for the advice!
Danger! Danger!!!
Gas ovens often have an exhaust for the oven pointing over the range top. This CAN prebake dough left out to rise (not in a bowl) or overheat it if it’s in a bowl.
Electric would be fine.
I personally like the idea of boiling water, and putting in the (cold) oven in a dish alongside my dough, or shaped loaves.
The Butler household has begun making our own breads, we’re not relying on it for things like sandwich loaf, nor for bulky rolls, but it’s VERY nice to come home to fresh bread that’s been baked. We mix using our Kitchen-aid mixer (best wedding gift ever), and shape by hand. For flavor we’ve begun to keep a sponge in our refrigerator all the time, and replensish it periodically, or when we use it. (A sponge is a loose, wet, mixture of yeast and flour, which is allowed to sit in the refrigerator overnight, or longer. It’s also called a “preferment”. This gives the benefit of having the flavors that come from LONG fermentations present in all of our bread, even the “quick loaf” ones we make.)
Great bread is an art, but it’s been a whole ton of fun practicing! Now if I can figure out how to get HUGE holes in our breads, and those artisan bakery type crusts, we’d be all set. I started with a bread machine, and my interest (and effort) grew from there. It’s a whole lot cheaper than the bakery, and can be very stress relieving.
I recently went on a Fraternity retreat, and the young guys (I’m 34) were stunned at the idea of making fresh bread, sitting around the campfire. They certainly enjoyed the results. Mixed in a small cooler, kneeded on top of a cooler, risen in the cooler, and cooked in foil packets (homemade pigs in a blanket, I added keilbasa to the middle), and a dutch oven near the fire. Someday I’ll get more advanced with my wilderness baking, but that was a good start.
butler, a couple of things I’ve found for helping along the artisanal, crispy crust:
- always use high gluten bread flour. And they even sell just wheat gluten if you want to add some to your dough for even more crunchyness
- brush the top of your loaf with at least water before baking it. Other options are milk, corn starch mixed with a little water, or egg-whites. All help crisp up and darken the crust
- bread should be baked in a relatively humid environment, so I always leave a little pan of water in the oven while the bread is baking to help keep the humidity levels up.
And the weird thing is, Domino’s makes pizza from scratch by calling Domino’s, too! <cue Twilight Zone theme>
I’m married to **Improvisor ** and the man *does * know how to make a good pizza…it is his obsession. Just last night as I was falling asleep he was talking wildly about lining our entire oven with terra cotta tiles. My response was the typical :dubious:.
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Would you give my wife a call? I have similar issues.
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His advice above is GREAT. Though I knew most of these things, I finally put them together over the weekend, and finally baked a “bakery loaf” of bread. I was surprised to read this (been away from the board for a few days), as it was certainly the key to our success. Where were you years ago while I was trying to piece all of these things together???
I’ve been using bread flour, and often add in the Vital Wheat Gluten, but hadn’t had much difference between this and AP, as long as I kneeded them long enough.
The steam issue is key here I think. I recently started putting a cast Iron pan into the stove, on the bottom, and putting water in it just prior to, at the beginning, and 2-3 minutes into cooking, just to get things all “steamy!” This is in addition to misting the interior with a spray bottle, along with misting the top of the loaves.
I also finally started cutting proper slashes on top, and doing so just as they were on their way into the oven… wonderful color difference between the slashes and the rest of the crust, great cheweyness, and crunch…
More salt than you think you need is also a key, I’ve found that more salt is leading to those nice big pockets of air inside the loaf… you know the ones… my wife loves them! I suspect this is due to a longer rise time, and less vigorous “punching down.” The additional salt also seems to improve flavor.
Thanks for the hints all!
To the OP, are you practicing all this great wisdom that’s been imparted to us all?
-Butler
He may not be, but I certainly did last night.
I bought some terra cotta tiles to use as pizza stones, since I couldn’t find stone tiles and wasn’t going to drop $45. They didn’t fit side-by-each in the oven, so I was about ready to give up when my six-year-old son (the genius!) suggested that I use both racks and make a personal pizza on each one. I will get my friend with the tile saw to cut them to fit someday.
Eureka! I even made my very first batch ever of yeast bread using Farmwoman’s recipe. I made my own cheese mix of mozzarella, jack, and a little cheddar, and the kids got either pepperoni or plain cheese. I had artichoke hearts on mine, and it was fabulous! The dough made enough for four little pizzas, so I cooked up the extra one and stuck it in the freezer. Homemade frozen pizza, how 'bout that?
Good thread.
Sorry for the late response here everyone, and thanks for answering my questions. All of the information recieved has or will be put to use.
I’m not sure if I can use this since I’ll more than likely be using the burners to make pizza sauce and saute vegetables for the pizza. Wouldn’t that make the stovetop too warm? And even with just the oven being on, wouldn’t the stovetop be hot enough to bake the dough just a tad? Well…I suppose I could put the dough on something lie…oh say, an empty cereal box.
Oooooh, that sounds awesome. Do you have any links that tell me how to cook bread over a campfire for future reference? That would be a great trick to pull out of my bag the next time I go camping with someone.
Yes I am…alright, the picture there might make the crust look several times bigger than it should be, but it was of a good size. I should have rolled the dough a little bit better, sure, but it was still a kickass pizza. Yes, this pizza kicked ass and took names. Then it kicked ass and took phone numbers. Then it compiled those names and phone numbers into a phone book and sold them back to the people who’s asses it kicked under the threat of another ass kicking.
It kicked their asses again anyways.
And the white pizza I made for my roomate and I following that one was even better. All thanks to the responses I received in this thread. I’m thinking that next time I want to make a pan pizza with dough from scratch, but I’m not sure if I’ll get around to that for a week or a month since there’s no telling when I’ll be able to afford a pizza pan. Plus, I need to give my body a little time to bounce back from consuming untold amounts of fantastic pizza, sticky rice with mango, beer, and ice cream. Yeah, I enjoyed my Labor Day weekend
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Not a lot to add to this delicious thread. One thing everyone skims over is a cautionary note about a key ingredient in the dough. Do NOT substitute any other oil for the olive oil in these dough recipes. Olive oil is what gives the crust its crustiness.
Unfortunately, it was something that I just made up on the spot, so no links. I had passed by the King Arthur flour store (factory store) on the way up to the camping trip, and decided to make the bread with some of the ingredients I had purchased when I arrived at the campsite. I had bought a 25# bag of flour when I was there, and (2) 5# bags of bread flour. I used one bag of bread flour, and picked up a packet of yeast with the grocery shopping for my evening.
I went about making the bread in the usual manner: Mix ingredients, let rise, punch down, and form into the shapes/pans I wanted, and let rise again.
For the dutch oven, I simply greased the inside of the oven, inserted dough, and let it rise. When it was near to the size I wanted, I put it near the side of the fire, supported by some flat solid stones. I rotated the oven 1/4 turn every 3-4 minutes or so. It took about 45 minutes to cook fully.
For the “Pigs in a blanket” I simply flattened out a bit of dough, inserted a kielbasa dog, then wrapped it in some greased foil, leaving an airspace around the dough about 2x the size of the dough wrapped dog. I let it rise for about 45 minutes, and put it on a small propane grill, turning about 20 minutes into the cooking. I cooked them on a medium heat setting. When they “thumped” when tapped on the outside, I proclaimed them to be done.
You can also take dough and wrap it around a stick (peel the bark back, and use a green <fresh> stick), then prop it near the fire. Turn periodically, and when it’s brown enough, it’s done.
My suggestion to you would be to make a LOT of dough, and just experiment all day! If you burn one, or it’s not done enough, adjust your methods, and you’ll find your own combinations!
That pizza looks great, it looks like you’re well on your way towards catching the bug that is bread making! Remember, Pizza is just flat bread with toppings!
-Butler
Thanks a lot for the recipe and tips Butler. I look forward to next time I camp at one of the local springs.
Alright, so I decided to skip buying a pizza pan for now and go straight towards making my dough utilizing all of the advice given here. I’ve succsesfully made two pizzas from absolute scratch since last responding to this thread…well alright, the cheese is premade, but other than that… I wanted to make seasoned dough, and so I chopped up some sundried tomatoes and basil and cast it into the dough mixture, along with some dried herbs. You guys were right, dough making is a very nice way to spend time if you’re confident that everything is going to come out alright. The feeling of dough kneading between your fingers is real nice.
I didn’t notice a noticable rise when I put the dough into my microwave with a pot of boiled water for fifty minutes like I did with Publix’s dough. I found this odd, but it didn’t really seem to affect the taste or texture of the bread, so no harm done I guess. I did discover that it is a bad idea to put dough onto a paper plate while it rises. Dough sticks to paper like nothin’ else it turns out.
So everything is tasting good on this end…BUT, it’s been unnamously agreed between me, my brother, and roomate that the bread could use more taste. Even after I make the dough with herbs and seasonings and drown it in olive oil, it still tastes like it’s lacking something. So, I was thinking of maybe grating a little parmasan on the edge of the pie, and maybe sprinkle some garlic too. Then I remembered that in the “Pasta Sauce From scratch” thread that garlic develops a bad taste if it browns. Does this include garlic powder? Should I add a teaspoon of salt to the dough? What else can I add to give the breading more oomph? I accidently bought All Purpose flour instead of Bread Flour. Might this be what is holding my pizzas back from achieving greatness?
If it’s just plain “flat” tasting. It’s likely you’re not using enough salt. Not only does the salt give flavor to the bread, it slows down the yeast, which lets the fermentation last longer, and longer fermentation gives more flavor.
-Butler
(Chronic undersalter for a VERY long time)
Happy to help! It’s taken me a long time to get good at bread, but I’ve only just had a few breakthroughs that have brought me a HUGE improvement. Read, study, practice, chat, post here… It’ll come quickly enough.
-Butler
Grrr… Sorry for the 2nd post, Preview is on the right…
Chicago Style Pizza
I was hoping somebody might post a good recipe for Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza. I am a Chicagoan that has gotten lost on the west coast, and it doesn’t exist here. (They try but its an insult.) I know everybody has their personal favorites. Mine is Giordano’s or Edwardo’s. Does anybody have any experience making something similar to these?
Actually, I wasn’t using any salt for the dough. Would you reccomend I add salt to the flour, or to the sugar/yeast/water combination while it ferments? Does it matter which?
And I too am looking forward to learning about Chicago deep dish stuff
Salt is REALLY important to the dough. The recipe I use says to add the salt once the yeast & co. are bubbly and then to start adding flour. It calls for 2 teaspoons of salt; rest of the ingredients are 1 tablespoon yeast, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 cup warm water, and 2 1/2 to 3 cups flour.
Sorry - not a Chicago pizza expert - but I’ll look forward to others’ answers.
GT
For campfire bread, you can cook some quick bread up in a frypan - search for bannock recipes.
Maybe it’s not “bread” bread (by which I mean stuff that you add yeast to and knead and rise and all that), but it’s not bad. Adding some herbs, parmesan cheese, and garlic powder is even better. Or you could fruit it up with some dried cranberries and sugar. And best, you can portion it out in ziplocs for backpacking, and fry it up while making the rest of dinner for a great meal.
I always add it to the flour, and mix before adding the sugar/yeast/water.
If you add it to the “preferment” you’re just as likely to kill the yeast, or at the least slow them down too much… I also wouldn’t add it here, as I now keep a sponge (flour, water, and yeast) going in my refrigerator at all times. Simply scoop some out, and add flour, oil, and salt to get to the right consistency in the mixer.
I’m up to about tsp (teaspoon) per cup of flour for my salt ratio. For a normal batch of dough, 3C flour, 1C water, that’d be about 3tsp… but I don’t exactly measure.
For my Chicago style pizza, I make the same dough, but add more oil to the mix. I then spread it out in the bottom of a cast iron pan (greased), cover the top of the crust (except for a “lip” around the edge) with sliced cheese (munster is my favorite to use here, substitute as you like), then pile on toppings, then shredded cheese, and put dollops of sauce on top.
The crust gets thick in the pan, the ingredients are held in by the sides of the dough rising up on the pan, and boy does it taste good!!!
I suppose one could add a rolled out layer of dough on top of this to make a “stuffed” pizza… hadn’t thought of that, but I’m sure going to try it next time we make pizza!!!
-Butler