Pizza

Would love to see that!

I don't mind splashing out a bit, someone did lovely glass stackable single proving trays.. damned if I can find em now though...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tapaninaho/uuni-stack-a-clever-way-to-prove-dough-and-store-i ?

Those are the ones! Bloody jokers...

I use gozney trays and inserts but they aint cheap.

https://www.gozneyovens.com/products/en/test-product

Thats pretty bloody serious... not sure I have the space for them...

First play with a real wood fired oven today in Italy. Dough was a bit shit though as I did it by guesswork, and with fresh yeast. Still. Good fun, and delicious

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not too shabby for guesswork!

Yeah I'm setting up a business and was using them at gozney so just had to get them. Good investment imo.

That looks bloody good! I need to get back in practice dough making.

Care to share technique - specifically proving time/method?

That one was aiming for 65-70% hydration. No knead, overnight proof on the counter, then a longer fridge proof with some stretch and folds over the next day and a half before shaping and final proof. Think I was still a bit under on hydration or gluten development.

Kind of a variation on the Serious Eats recipe.

Normally we use the Perfect Loaf recipe for sourdough pizza. Works pretty well.

I now get the talk about proving containers. 9 hours, one more to go supposedly...

(Plate on the right is the same as in the first pic.)

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Do you have any tips for working with the perfect load recipe ...

I'm new to working with sourdough and the first time I made the perfect loaf recipe it was good, decent amount of bubbles, good rise and the 2nd time I made it was pretty crap ...

it could have been room temp or maybe starter quality but I really don't know.

What about it was crap?

For one thing I don't bother with the wholemeal - I don't like it in pizza and it makes the dough harder to handle. We don't do the adding the water bit by bit either, just mix it straight up. Haven't tried with diastatic malt yet, but Kate does put in malt extract

it was dense and not as airy. wondering if my sourdough wasn't quite right or i needed to proof/ferment for longer since it was a bit colder.

Maybe the starter wasn't mature enough, yes. But don't just go by the recipe timings, make sure the dough is rising as it should, doubling in size, etc. Any bench prooves should account for ambient, otherwise stick the dough in the oven with the light on and a glass of hot water if it's chilly out.

I think the author of that blog is from texas or somewhere ridiculously hot like that, so always take timings with a pinch of salt.

More than happy for a first go, a bit thick because we were unsure how to flatten it and overly cautious after a hole messed up the first one. Any tips would be much appreciated.

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jim lahey is all about poking it and then sort of stretching along the edges. there's a bunch of youtube vids that i found helpful .... but the key seems to try not knocking the air out, retaining pockets by poking rather than rolling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKI7ssgFvTI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Entzcl8q7H4

Any tips

More heat / longer pre-heat, or both.

Also put the basil on afterwards and rip the leaves in two with your hands.

From those pics it looks like your dough was good but your oven wasn't quite hot enough hence the rise and fall.
Once the crust crisps the air is locked in, the trick is getting it crisp before it escapes. Yep on your oven it might be worth...
Heating to max for 30-45 mins with stone in, once pizza is ready to go in switch to grill @ max with the stone as close as possible... whack the pizza in, cook, profit.

Those look good, we'll give it a shot next time.

@ᛠᛙᚺᚣ✻ᛕᛙᚺᛥ
We were divided on pre and post oven basil, we agreed the other one was slightly nicer and will refrain from cooking basil in the future. RE temperature: 👇🏻

@chrisbmx116
Ah, hmm. It was on its highest setting (230C) and the stone had pre-heated for about 50 minutes so the oven might simply not powerful be enough. We ahd it on 'top and bottom heat + convection', we might give heating up the stone with convection and then setting it to just 'top heat' a shot. And maybe put the stone a bit closer to the broiler?

1) Preheat oven with stone at max temp,
2) switch to grill/broiler to superheat stone for a couple mins before pizza goes in,
3) switch back to oven when pizza goes in,
4) finish pizza with grill/broiler.
That was always my oven method.

is that hario scale any good?

i think i need a new kitchen scale, mine is starting to become erratic and innacurate.

or would those 8 quid amazon ones suffice.

superheat

this

Ah, makes sense. And our book says 4 minutes with just tomatoes and then another 2 minutes with the topping, or would you go for immediately with the topping? (In our case we did 8 minutes without 3 minutes with, a clear sign the oven is not hot enough.