Pizza attempt 1

I'll admit, I'm a bit of a pizza snob. I guess my picky nature traces back to my origins in New York. I was born in Yonkers and lived there only 5 years, but visited often. And when I visited, I always ate some of the world's best pizza. Anyone who has a constant reminder of how pizza should taste will never be satisfied with pizza from a chain restaurant.

When I started my first pizza attempts, I tried to emulate this guy. It was a little too ambitious, considering that I didn't have a pizza stone, peel, or 800 degree oven. And my homegrown yeast culture, while healthy looking, failed to properly rise my attempts at French bread, bagels, and of course, pizza. It was pretty discouraging.

A few weeks ago, I watched the Good Eats episode on pizza. It followed several of the principles I previously attempted, but was much simpler and used a normal oven temperature. At this point I also had a stone and a peel. I decided to give it a try.

My peel is made from a spare piece of 5/8" plywood I had lying around. I simply cut it in the general shape of a peel with a circular saw, and I had a working (albeit crude) pizza peel.

Then I followed the instructions from the Good Eats episode "Flat is Beautiful." I doubled the recipe to make four pizzas. First, I mixed the ingredients just until combined, then I let it autolyse for 20 minutes (not included in the episode). The autolyse helps to develop the gluten, important for a chewy crust. I don't have a stand mixer, so I kneaded by hand for a long 30 minutes. It barely passed the windowpane test (stretch out a small ball of dough thin enough to let light pass through without tearing), so I let it cold rise in the fridge.

The next day I removed it from the fridge and divided it by four. Three I returned to the fridge, and the last I let rest 30 minutes as per the instructions in the episode. When I formed the pizza shape, it was very tight. It was hard to pull the dough thin enough, and the dough in the middle of the pizza was uneven. So some places were thin, and others thick from the way that I had folded the edges in the bottom of the dough to make a ball. I was a little concerned but I put it on the peel, added the toppings, and onto a stone in a preheated 550 degree oven for 6 minutes.

The results were actually tasty! It was a little overcooked, because I discovered my oven is hotter than I thought. Thus, the crust was a little tough but it had good flavor. I could tell I was on the right track. And the crust rose, so I had a nice cornice. Below are more pictures: