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Showing posts with the label hydration

Pepperoni and Giardiniera Pizza - Chicago Thin Experiments - January 2025

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Wintertime is indoor pizza time around our house.  That brings with it a dilemma:  What style of dough do I make that satisfies everyone.  You see...Nat and the kids prefer what we call 'outdoor pizza' - something that is probably described as "Neapolitan-adjacent".  A higher-hydration dough that has a large (or at least 'larger') cornicione that is typically (or ideally) covered in Leopard spots .  Some might say'Dough-forward'.   I prefer something closer to Chicago Tavern Pizza and/or Bar Pies .  Thin, crispy and 'toppings-forward'.  I even like 'stunt pizzas' - like BBQ chicken and more recently....a Buffalo Chicken Dip Pizza (that...in my mind... Nat 'invented'.) Since I'm stuck using the indoor/kitchen oven, I have to either make a choice (make one dough or the other) or....make both.  This past weekend, I picked one:  Chicago Thin.  And....due to travel, I ended up making a same-day dough (not ideal).   The sam...

Detroit-Style + Sfincione Research - Pizza Project - December 2022

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I'm not *exactly* sure how I recently came across this new (to me) pizza style, but it sure has my attention.  What style is that?  I suppose the widest birth name-wise I can give it is: Sfincione.  It is a version (most often) of something similar to a Sicilian or Grandma pizza.  Tweaked.  Kenji @ Serious Eats has done his thing with it and calls it "New Years Pizza" .  It is characterized by a light, hole-filled dough that is crisp/fried on the bottom.  Sauce on top.  And...finished with the crunch of breadcrumbs.  That recipe is, however, NOT where I started on this pizza journey rabbit hole.  Nope.  It was earlier this year when I read that a pizza pop-up from Nashville (of all places) was coming to town to participate in a Chicago pizza festival.  That place is St. Vito Focacceria.   Well...that's interesting, I thought.   I didn't attend said fest. But, I've been sitting on this Instagram po...

Chicago Thin From Bar Pie Chassis - January 2022

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For the better part of 2021, I have been making (exclusively) Bar Pies at home to the exclusion of just about any other type of pizza.  I've made the occasional Detroit-style, but for the most part, it has been 12" round Bar Pies for 10+ months .  However, Bar Pies have a specific provenance - that of the east coast.  New Jersey.  Massachusetts.  Those places make "Bar Pie".  What do we make in Chicago?  Something called Tavern pizza.  Or Tavern-style pizza.  Or, just Chicago Thin Crust.   Bar Pie isn't too far from Chicago Thin, but it is a bit different.  So, I've decided that 2022 is going to be my Chicago Thin/Bar Pie hybrid year.  My maiden voyage down this path was this past weekend when I took a Chicago Thin recipe that I found on YouTube , modified it to be a little bit *more* like my base Bar Pie formulation in some ways, dropped the hydration down a bit and then, finally did a couple of downsizing from a 14" for...