Bar Pizza Progress - Pockmarks and No Floppiness - March 2021

As I continue to hone my craft, I'm learning that there are a few category-wide characteristics of Bar Pizza.  Those are things like: perfectly round, crisp, holds a good amount of toppings.  But, in looking at some of the other 'touchstone' pizzas out there, there's something else that seems to exist.  Pockmarks.  Look at this photo of a pizza from Colony Grill.  Pockmarks, for sure.  

As part of the class from Slowrise, they provided a cheese blend that, when combined with the right heat in the oven, leads to those pockmarks.  At least, I think it is the cheese blend - that includes cheeses that oil-off at different points that cause the pockmarks to show up. 

Some of my initial pizzas that I pulled out of the oven were showing signs of these pockmarks, but I wasn't able to reproduce them all across the top.  Until this past weekend.  I was using an away-from-home oven, set to more than 500 degrees.  And I pulled out pizzas that looked like this:

Plenty of pockmarking.  Beautiful pockmarking.

Sidenote here:  Photographing pizza in an appealing way is pretty challenging.  They say that you "eat with your eyes", right?  Well, my pizzas are seemingly good to eat, but they don't show up well here on the blog.  

Just like the last time I showed this Bar Pizza (Courtesy of guest lecturer Adam Kuban), I shared a profile view that highlighted the thin nature of this formulation.  Here's a similar profile look.  This dough had a 24 hour bulk fermentation, but then a 48 hour ball fermentation in the fridge.

Below is the undercarriage.  This was baked in pan and NOT finished on the stone/steel.  I was satisfied with the bottom after the initial bake.

I'm beginning to really dial in this dough and pizza while being able to bake at home, but also on the road.  However, this is a pizza that is meant to be enjoyed in great volume - both individually and in a crowd.  Here's hoping that as things begin to open up and we get vaccinated, we'll be able to have a couple of pizza parties later this Summer for me to put this pizza thru it's paces.