Why I Oughta...

I've been a proponent of a low-moisture cheese for pizza making for a number of years.  A special cheese, specifically:  Chellino Scamorza Cheese .  It isn't smoked and is most-similar to the traditional low-moisture Mozzarella that you find at the Jewels or Marianos.  But, I've been experimenting with a different set of cheeses with my Bar Pies.   I took that class with the OG Pizza-online-guy Adam Kuban last year where he talked about his "KuBlend" where he talked about how he blends a couple of cheeses for Bar Pies.  For some recent Bar Pie experiments , I've moved away from the Chellino Scamorza and have begun to trial this 2 parts Whole Milk Mozzarella (low-moisture) and 1 part Fontina.   Fontina has been on my radar for a bit as the folks at Via Napoli in the World Showcase at EPCOT Center use it (see this post from 2017 that shows a few cheeses they use including: Robiola, Parmesan, Provolone and Fontina.) Below are the two products ...

I make exactly ONE "stunt pizza" at home.  It is a BBQ chicken pizza that I call the "Orange Bird" that features chicken and double application of a store-bought sweet bbq sauce.  First I apply the sauce to the chassis and then, post-oven, I squeeze on a drizzle (it is, I suppose, *more* than a drizzle, but less than a full slather) on top.  I've added this post-oven drizzle after I found the pice a little dry but that the sauce burns pretty easily when put on top pre-bake.  In this case, (once I de-pan the pie) I put down (first) a heavy hand of post-oven Romano scattered on top, then after waiting a beat, I put down this sauce which finishes with the heat off the top of the pizza.   Btw....you might be wondering what a 'stunt pizza' is?  Urban Dictionary has an entry that sums up the term pretty well , but that's not where I picked up the term.  It was from Pizza Blogger Adam Kuban - somewhere along the lines of following him online in various p...

Applying the formulation with a 51% hydration factor from last wee k and a 190 gram dough ball yielded a nice result.  Laying on a ring of Vermont White Cheddar lead to a nice frico.  Notes:  I used ZERO bench flour and was able to roll out the ball to a something close to 12".  Using Crisco as the sort of 'paste', I was able to stretch the skin out and it didn't snap back. This one has Roni cups and a heavy hand of post-oven Romano.  No baking steel involved, but I think I need to go back to putting the steel on the rack above to provide for that refractory heat in order to get the top just.right (well done).  

Up at Angelo Caputo's in Addison, they're selling pizza cheese for a full buck cheaper than Frankie's Deli in Oak Brook Terrace .  Cheapest I've come across was at Nature's Market in Westmont, but that $5.99 price is (now) almost four years old.      For tracking purposes, I shredded six of these #1'ers, but ended up using probably four of them across 10 bar pies and 2 skinny Detroit pies on Christmas Eve.  Also, four white Cheddars was probably 50% too much, too.  Next year - with the same amount of bar pies, I could factor 4 scamorzas and 2 white cheddars. They bill it as "Cheese for Pizza" from The Chellino Cheese Company, Joliet, Illinois on their packaging.  And that's how we use it.

August marks six-month mark on my Bar Pizza journey.  Started back in March and have posted a few times including my ' pockmark progress ' and how I've tried both pre-and- post-bake ricotta .  I've recently settled some of that (I'm now using Chellino Ricotta pre-bake on my bbq chicken 'stunt pizza'.  More on that in a future post).    Here are a few recent photos showing my progress.   First, with so little yeast, I'm surprised by this kind of structure: Below, you can see a sort-of edge profile.  I'm happy with the thickness, the ply-ability and the crisp on these pizzas.  I do, however, give them first a cooling-rack rest followed by a post-cut dimple pan.   Here's a little frico below.  I've recently moved away from using any sort of cheddar - as it oils-off differently than the other cheeses I'm using. And the full monty - below.  Cup and Char post-bake basil. Here's another profile below: And the top-down, cheese onl...

Yesterday I shared some of my Bar Pie progress shots and talked about pockmarks and what-have-you.  As part of this journey, I've been thinking about some of what Adam Kuban called "stunt pizzas" during the class I took with him earlier this year.  One of the pizzas that I've had in the back of my mind is this shot I posted on the blog back in 2015 .  It has a ricotta that I'm pretty sure is added post-bake.  And that's what I did recently; my first time with post-bake ricotta. Chellino Ricotta to be exact. I'll be working this stunt pizza out a little bit more because I think it has some promise.  'Roni cups, post-bake ricotta, basil and Mike's Hot Honey.  Just like the Spicy Bear from 2015 .  Well, almost like that.

We are right in the midst of gardening season and that (usually) means that pizza season begins to head towards a downswing.  But, that doesn't mean that I haven't made some real progress with my bar pizza work.  Back a month ago (beginning of March), I posted how I was able to achieve some of the pockmarking that I was after and today I'm sharing a couple more progress photos.  I'm happy with the way this basic cheese came out, but I used a little bit too much traditional cheddar (didn't have white) around the ring. In the month of March, I also started to take my bar pizza act on the road and baked off a couple of road pies including this pepperoni 12-incher that was (maybe??) the best bar pie that I've made to date. It was (below) crispy and well done and the undercarriage showed the right bit of char/doneness while the top came along just about where I want the final product.  Of note, the oven I used for this one has NO convection function, but does go to ...

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 ...

Back in  this post from October of 2015 , at the very end, I mention that in a video , the franchisee of the Aurelio's in Geneva "points out that they roll/sheet their skins out ahead of time and let them kind of dry out. They don't want the top 'sticky'. Not 'doughy'."  I thought that was interesting.  They pan their doughs ahead of time.  That kinda makes sense in terms of a production environment, right?  But, I wasn't sure if that was just unique to the Geneva franchise.   Welp, over on their Instagram handle , the folks at Aurelio's pizza confirm for me - as fact - this pre-panning of the dough that I've been thinking about for years.   View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aurelio's Pizza (@aureliospizza) I've been making Bar Pizzas the past few weekends and this is something I'm going to incorporate into my tests to see what impact it has on the finished product.  Also, note...they use cutt...

Over the weekend, I took the Bar Pizza Class from Slowrise Pizza featuring Adam Kuban and learned a bunch of things.  I also cooked eight pizzas over the previous 72 hours.   And, I think I've gotten a little bit better with each of those eight.  Here's a look at the undercarriage of one of the slices that I housed shortly after it came out of the oven.  Really lovely pizza chassis that I can work to modify going forward to make my own. It was light, crisp, flakey and super thin. Of the eight pizzas (not pies), two of them can be classified as "stunt pizzas" - a term that I learned during the class.  One of them based on Adam Kuban's Margot's pizza menu and one of my own creations.  I think that they'll be offering more/other classes or making the class that I took 'on demand', so I don't think it is appropriate to disclose anything else from the class here online other than a few notes (below).  But, I will tell you that Bar Pizza is going to...

Ahead of the virtual Bar Pizza class I am taking today, I added a new pan to my pizza making gear at home.  It is another pan from Lloyd's Pans out of Washington State .   I've been very happy with my Lloyd's pans over the years including the long, narrow ones that I bought last year during quarantine and the cutter pans that I've been using for years.   For the Bar Pizza Class , the instructions provided by the instructor (Online Pizza OG Adam Kuban) recommended a specific pan, but provided for a couple of alternatives including a cheap one from Target and using cutter pans that I have on hand.  I figured that I should go all-in and spring for the *right* pan.    That pan is the one you see below from Lloyd's Pans - a 12" Deep Dish Stacking Pan .   Here's how it came in the box: A close look at the label shows the specs and mentions the PSTK coating that Lloyd's puts on their pans. One thing to mention, I ended up buying this pan via ...