Why I Oughta...

I've been trying to get what everyone wants on their neo-Neapolitan pizzas - cooked outdoors, at high heat - leopard spotting.  On a recent bake, I achieved what is pretty close to it (at least for me) with these spotts on the pie below: My stretching game has improved quite a bit this past Summer thanks to an all-day class that I took at the North American Pizza and Culinary Academy in Lisle .   However, I continue to find what I call 'indoor' pizza more interesting; despite Nat and the kids all preferring these 'outdoor' pies each weekend. Full Pizza Parlance archive here .  Frico and Stunt Pizza are included.

Thanks to a tip from the Santa Barbara Baker - who runs a great Ooni pizza oven-centric YouTube channel - I've changed the way that I'm using my Ooni Pro 16 outdoor oven.  Historically, I've used the burner FULL-BLAST, but he turned me on to low-and-slow .  I preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes to get the floor temperature up then, right before I slide the pie off the peel, I turn the temp down to like 1/3rd of the flame power.  This allows for a much longer bake and a crispy, flop-free bottom.  I then turn the burner back up to full power and finish the top off for 30 seconds or so.   I haven't quite figured out or solved the final cheese mix on these low-and-slow Ooni bakes - this one above is about 90% fresh mozz with a few little sprinkles of Fontina.   I've also totally abaondoned the Ooni Pro 16 door because it kept extinsuishing the flame from the burner - due to (I think) - the lack of oxygen.  Maybe...if I modify the door in so...

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...

If you ask ten people who lived on the northside of Chicago what their favorite pizza from that time in their life was, I'd bet that 8 of them will tell you one place:  Pequod's .  It is a place that serves a distinct version of Chicago Deep Dish that features what they call a "caramelized crust".  What it really is a well-done whole milk mozzarella edge.  Not quite a frico , but more an 'edge'.    Is it my favorite?  No.  But, I'm a thin-crust-always-kinda-guy.  We've been to Pequod's.  Both the city location, but also the original up in Morton Grove.  Here's my post from a visit there in 2015 .  And here is our first visit to the suburban location (the original started here by Burt Katz) in 2011 .  Also note...we did eventually make it to Burt's Place before Burt Katz passed away .   But, back to Pequod's and why I bring it up.  One of our neighbor's requested a Pequod's-style pizza recently.  I haven...

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).  

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...

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...