Pizza

• Asiago, mozzerella, parmesean, garlic, red pepper flakes
• Margherita
• Young potato, gouda, rosemary
• Pepperoni
• Ricotta, garlic, hot honey
• Peach, basil, ricotta, balsamic

• Asiago, mozzerella, parmesean, garlic, red pepper flakes
• Roasted corn, cherry tomatoes, balsmic, basil
• Goat cheese, fig jam
• Peach, basil, pine nut, parmesean
• Ricotta, garlic, hot honey
• Squash blossom, garlic, broccoli rabe

• Asiago, mozzerella, parmesean, garlic, red pepper flakes
• Cherry tomatoes, balsmic, basil
• Ricotta, sopressata, hot honey
• Potato, pancetta, rosemary
• Pepperoni, pepperoncini, oregeno
• Margherita

• Tried the “I slept in tonight” dough - didn’t rise at all, barely any flavor

• Asiago, mozzerella, parmesean, garlic, red pepper flakes
• Cherry tomatoes, balsmic, basil
• Margherita

• Asiago, mozzerella, parmesean, garlic, red pepper flakes
• Margherita
• Cherry tomatoes, balsmic, basil

• 320g a little too big, gets hard to handle, use 300g

• Ricotta, sopressata, hot honey
• Pepperoni, pepperoncini, oregeno
• Arriabiata with shallots

• 2x Margherita
• Sopressata, ricotta, hot honey

• Bigger dough ball test: 280g, 300g, 320g
• Big pies are great – 300g is a great size on the big paddle
• Dough can stretch much more than I expect; gets nice and cracker-y if so
• Go lighter on the sauce – don’t want any pooling
• Go light on the oil and cheese too, it should look a little sparse; only the Bianca should be sort of thick and layered
• Pepperoni, pancetta, potatoes – can go on in the beginning on the big Ooni

• Pancetta, potato, rosemary
• Asiago, mozzerella, parmesean, garlic, red pepper flakes
• Ricotta, sopressata, hot honey
• Marghertia

• 1st time since mid-Feb, definitely a little rusty
• Didn’t pull dough correctly, crust was too thick + too thin in middle
• Ricotta + sopressata + hot honey + garlic was amazing though, definitely a new favorite
• Didn’t realize my paddle was only 11.6” wide, have effectively been doing 10” pies with a huge dough ball (280g)
• Bought a 16” peel to try some bigger pies

• Pancetta, potato, rosemary
• Garlic cream, pecorino, mozzerella, parmesean, red pepper flakes
• Pepperoncini + salami
• Shittake mushroom A/B test (fresh vs sauteéd)
• Marghertia

• Smoked mozzerella, potato, rosemary
• Garlic cream, pecorino, mozzerella, parmesean, red pepper flakes
• Pepperoncini + salami
• Goat cheese + fig jam
• Marghertia

• Bianca (Piccino): parmesan, pecorino, mozzarella, red pepper flakes, sliced garlic
• Potato, pancetta, rosemary
• Squash, sage, and hot honey
• Proscuitto, goat cheese, fig jam
• Pepperoni + pepperoncini

• Bianca (Piccino): parmesan, pecorino, mozzarella, red pepper flakes, sliced garlic
• Squash, sage, and honey
• Goat cheese + fig jam
• Arugula + balsamic
• Panna (Delfina): margherita + cream + sliced parmesan

• Sweet potato, sage, veal
• Potato, pancetta, rosemary
• Chorizo + pickled jalepeños
• Crimini + oyster mushrooms
• Veal + carmelized onions

• Kitchen was a little too cold, dough didn’t rise enough – need to find a way to keep dough box at 70 F in the winter
• First time doing potato + pancetta in a while, still an all-time pie
• TJ’s pickled jalepeños are great on pizzas - just spicy enough

• Bianca (Piccino): parmesan, pecorino, mozzarella, red pepper flakes, sliced garlic
• Margherita

• Sourdough starter is in really great shape! Dough balls more than doubled in 5 hours

• 2x Bianca (Piccino): parmesan, pecorino, mozzarella, red pepper flakes, sliced garlic
• 2x Prosciutto + arugula
• Pepperoni + pepperoncini

• Dough didn’t rise much, I think the starter is a little weak and needs to be re-strenghtened
• Tossing arugula with olive oil + lemon made a big difference, add some balsamic next time

• Bianca (Piccino): pecorino, mozzerella, paremesean, sliced garlic, red pepper flakes
• Mediterranean (Pizzahacker): red onions, Spanish chorizo, Kalamata olives
• Margherita
• Pepperoni + pepperoncini
• Roasted mushroom (Beddia)

• 280g dough balls still a bit big, ~250g still the sweet spot
• Still have an inconsistent middle crust area, need to work on that
• Letting oven heat up for 45m+ resulted in a 750 F+ temp throughout

• Mediterranean (Pizzahacker): red onions, Spanish chorizo, Kalamata olives
• Margherita

• First time on the Ooni Koda 16
• Crust still undercooked towards the end, need more bottom heat
• Perforated peel made a big difference: less flour ended up on baking sheet to burn

• 2x Bianca (Piccino): pecorino, mozzerella, paremesean, sliced garlic, red pepper flakes
• Pepperoncini + Pepperoni
• Marghertia

• Turn up the garlic on the Bianca next time
• Dough proofed for a little too long, was very delicate and hard to work with

• Pepperoni with pesto
• Pepperoni with ricotta
• Marghertia with cherry tomatoes

• Finally cracked naturally-leavened dough!! It was puffy, spunky, and delicious – a way bigger improvement than I was expecting. Turns out it was my starter - when I mixed the starter for this dough it rose like crazy. 10 days of 2x daily feeding and then 8 days of daily feeding got to be consistently active, doubling in size overnight.
• Ricotta wasn’t very tasty, just tasted bland. Think I’ll try burrata next time.

Debugging naturally-leavened dough pt. 2

• Starter didn’t rise at all after yesterday’s feeding. I think it didn’t get strong enough before I started refrigerating it. Going to leave it out and feed it 2x a day at a 1:2 ratio (25g starter, 50g water, 50g flour) for a week or so and see what happens.

Debugging naturally-leavened dough

• Is my starter in good shape?
  • Should double in size after today’s feeding
  • Conducted float test (dollop of starter should float in glass of water) but my starter failed
• Levain
  • Use correct water temp + wait for room temp to be regular levels (60ish)
  • Check that levain doubled in size
  • Switch to high-protein bread flour instead of 00
• After feeding, starter didn’t rise on kitchen counter overnight but rose a ton in the oven (no heat just oven light). Must be too cold on the counter.

• 2x Goat cheese and fig jam
• Marghertia

• First attempt at naturally-leavened dough: failure. Dough didn’t rise at all, crust tasted very flat. Need to debug.
• Goat cheese and fig jam continues to be a crowd favorite

• Marghertia
• Pepper Medley: jalepeños, shall
• Proscuitto + goat cheese + fig jam
• Spicy salami + honey

• Used dry-farm early girl tomatoes for sauce; was too sweet and overpowered the rest of the flavories
• Dough sat for too long (3h), absored a lot of flour, and bottom got too burnt as a result.

• Marghertia
• Pepperoni + pepperocini
• Proscuitto + goat cheese + fig jam
• Pesto + cherry tomatoes

• Too much salt in tomato sauce; keep it at 2 pinch per can of tomatoes

• 2x Marghertia
• Magherita with basil cream sauce
• 2x Bianca (Piccino): pecorino, mozzerella, paremesean, sliced garlic, red pepper flakes

• Near-perfect pies all around
• Turn up the parmesan in the basil cream sauce

• 3x Marghertia
• Hot Coppa

• Bottom comes out much crispier when stone is 800+ F
• 225g is really perfect dough size for Koda 13, small enough that the pie can get decent distance from the flame and thus crust doesn’t burnt
• Putting tomato sauce, cheese, olive oil all on beforehand gets everything nice and creamy
• Salami and basil only need 30s in the oven

• Apollonia (Una Pizza Napoletana): egg, pancetta, black pepper, garlic, basil
• 2x Marghertia

• Buffalo mozzarella was a huge upgrade; wet enough that it won’t dry out if it cooks on the pizza the entire time
• Tomato sauce made from Italbrand tomatoes also great; just pureed with a little salt
• 280g dough balls too big for Koda 13, need to target 225-250g
• Dough stretching technique needs work
  • I think it’s getting too thin in the center and needs to be more even
  • Don’t push down with finger tips so hard, pat it down with pads of fingers
  • Try out this method of stretching dough
  • Anthony method of flipping it over a few times but to not try and take the air out of it
• Appollonia didn’t come out right; was basically scrambled eggs on pizza
  • Need to add it very late and use spoon to drizzle it on the pizza
  • Do less than a whole egg
  • Add black pepper and fresh garlic

• Goat cheese + balsamic vinegar + pickled red onions
• 2x Potato + pancetta + rosemary
• 2x Marghertia

• Pancetta + eggs
• Marghertia

• Swiss chard and garlic cream
• 2x Bianca: pecorino, mozzerella, paremesean, sliced garlic, red pepper flakes

• Did 3 x 280g balls slightly too big — 250g definitely the ticket
• The dough balls being too big causes the crust to be too chewy
• Got pretty close on the Piccino Bianca — need to go light on the mozz (has so much moisture, add pecorino, and do 1:1:1 ratio. Make chili oil spicier, needed to kick it up with flakes
• Don’t scrimp on the garlic slices, they aren’t too flavorful
• Put garlic in close to the end so that they don’t burn
• Try cooking at a lower temp generally – when I did Delfina’s pizzas at 600 way back when they came out really nice
• Consistently undercooking the pizzas — cook em longer
• Kale pesto and garlic cream was delish do that more
• Chard needs to be very moist and out in late as to not burn
• The soft dough is really difficult to get out of the box — think of different solutions. More flour helped a lot though
• Watch some more videos on how to shape dough,

• 2x Bianca (Piccino): parmesan, pecorino, mozzarella, chili oil, garlic
• 2x Potato, pancetta, rosemary

• Single Ken dough recipe, split into 3 250g dough balls
• Make dough right before people come over on Saturday, in time for Sunday lunch (do regular 24-48hr dough, most compatible with the schedule)
• Want to get dough to rise more
  • Maybe it’s OK that the dough doesn’t rise: Ken says says the dough will expand rather than rise after a cold ferment
  • “To prevent salt from foiling your bread bakes, measure carefully and never pour yeast and salt on top of one another in your mixing bowl.” (source)
  • Room could be too cold, try letting it rise in a warm place (source)
• [[The Pizza Lab: How Long Should I Let My Dough Cold Ferment?]]
  • Longer fermentation affects leoparding: slower fermentation causes stronger gluten structures, allowing the gluten to expand more and create airer dough
• Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour (source)
  • Pizzeria is 12.5% protein, whereas retail Americana style is 13.5%.
  • Apparently Pizzeria style is better suited for ovens that are 500+ degrees
  • brickovenbaker.com has Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour repacked into smaller units, bought 9lbs for $22 (equivalent to 4 regular bags)
• Get some different yeast, I have a sense the corner store yeast isn’t good (source)
  • Ken recommends SAF Red Instant yeast, stored airtight in the fridge for up to 6mo

• 200g per pizza too little, need to use 250g+
• 36hr total ferment, think it was too long, stick to 24hr or try Saturday pizza dough
• Use much more flour on the bottom so it doesn’t stick so much
• Dough
  • Making 24-48hr dough, 1.5x quantity
  • Scale not accurate enough for salt/yeast, did 3 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp on yeast
  • Timeline
    • Started at 8:20
    • Mixed at 8:40
    • Kneaded at 9:00
    • Turned into dough balls at 11:30
  • Became 6x 200g dough balls, want to aim for 250g in the future

• Prepped Beddia dough out at 8:45, pull Ken dough at 10:30
• Ken dough seems like it hasn’t risen at all. Maybe there isn’t enough yeast, or I didn’t properly activate the yeast. Hard to cut that recipe in half given how little yeast content there is.
• Alex said she did half of Ken’s dough after 24hrs and second half after 36hrs and the second batch came out much lighter/less dense. Good idea for next time, esp since I’ve got the fridge space.
• Beddia dough was very flat and stretchy, barely held together. Ended up splitting it into 4 dough balls that were 215g each. Had I left it to sit for longer after rerolling I think it could have been nice.
• Yeast is not dead tested it

• Put toppings on pizza after putting it in better, less burnt
• Pizza shop dough just too wet for neopolitan style pizza
• Pizza needs hours to settle putting into a ball – prepared at 4:30, was unworkable at 5:30, was barely OK at 6:30, much better by 7:30
• Basil creme was a hit – much better than regular basil
• Cherry tomatoes oven roasted for a bit with pepper flakes and olive oil ++
• Use real anchovies not the paste

• Don’t put cheese in until halfway through so that it is doesn’t bubble and become like a NY slice
• 250-280g is a good size for the oven, <220g below is just too small/too much crust
• Lightly dress the argula with olive oil before using it on the pizza

• Potato, pancetta, rosemary
• Salami + spicy honey
• Margherita

• Margherita
• Pesto
• Pancetta + egg
• Margherita + egg

• 2x Pizzeria Beddia Roasted Mushroom

• This was awful

• Crimini Mushroom
• 2x Chorizo + jalapeño

• Used Trader Joe’s plain dough, was pretty meh
• Really need to focus on forming the right amount of crust, turns out to be too much consistently
• Pulling the dough into the air tends to make it uneven, better to just keep it on the surface Beddia-style

• Margherita
• 2x Arriabiata: tomato sauce mixed with Calabrian Chili
• 2x Green Goddess (Starbelly): arugula, bacon, green goddess dressing

• My technique still isn’t there yet the pizzas were too thin and had too much crust on them
• Dough was really hard to work with, wasn’t stretchy and elastic
• Next time, try dough from Pizza Shop, Delfina, Pizzhacker

• 2x Margherita
• 2x Potato, pancetta, rosemary

• Garlic cream and chard
• 2x Calabrian chili, roasted red peppers, dandelion greens
• Ricotta cream, spinach, garlic

• Garlic cream and chard was really tasty and beautiful, basically a cheesy garlic bread with chard
• Red peppers are too watery to use, could try again and roast them for much longer, they just tasted soggy
• Used too much Ricotta, pie became floppy
• Split Lamonica dough into 220g balls, came out OK but very thin, would like to try a 300-350g ball for a thicker crust/longer cook time
• Really overdid it on quantity, had 3 cups and barely used 1 cup

• Cherry pie
• Potato, pancetta, rosemary
• Nduja and spicy honey
• Margheita

• 4x Margherita
• 4x Pepperoni
• 2x Prosciutto + arugula
• 2x Potato, pancetta, rosemary

• 2x Margherita arribiata
• 2x Di Fara (Pizzeria Beddia): margherita with lots of torn basil

• 2x Di Fara (Beddia): margherita with lots of torn basil
• 4x Corn cream sauce + cherry tomato + basil (Beddia)
• 4x Nduja
• 2x Prosciutto + arugula

• Margherita
• Panna (Delfina): margherita + cream + sliced parmesan
• 3x Nduja + pepperoncini
• 3x Potato, pancetta, rosemary

• What went well:
  • Pizzas came out really nice, best set I’ve ever done in general
  • Both potato and nduja were delicious, fully flavored
  • Smoked salt on the crown was nice
  • Potato really benefitted from:
    • Nice olive oil pre-cooking
    • Lots of chives and rosemary
  • Bianco sauce was a huge upgrade over my own tomato sauce
    • Mixed with chilbrean was nice
  • Olive oil drizzled on the margarita was really nice
  • My dough stretching technique getting better, dough still feels pretty chewy and not as airy as Pizzahacker’s, but better than before
• What didn’t go well:
  • Don’t feel like my cream situation is ideal
  • Panna still not working, need to study Delfina’s

• Hung out at Pizzahacker and picked up some tips:
  • Smoked salt on the rim
  • Try Bianco Di Napoli tomato sauce
  • Use really high-quality olive oil
  • Put everything on the pie before it goes on the paddle
  • Make a crust by putting air in the dough rather than making it thicker

• 2x Prosicutto + arugula
• 2x Margherita

• What went well
  • Dough was a perfect consistency when I started at 10:45a and cooked at 6:30a
  • Turning the heat up between pizzas to get it back to 800 is a good move to get the bottom sufficiently crispy
  • Prosciutto arugula was pretty good
  • Flaky salt on all pretty good
• What didn’t go well
  • Rolling pin doesn’t really help - makes it all too flat/uniform and doesn’t give it a good crust
  • Taste is still not there
    • Sort of feels like all the ingredients aren’t meshing
    • Doesn’t feel like a full mouth feel, too bready or boring
    • Tomato sauce is too chunky/watery?
• What to try next time
  • Sample some pizzas from Pizzahacker, Delfina and study then (maybe go to the restaurant?)
  • Look for a pizza making class
  • Consult with Kamran
  • Try store bought tomato sauce again

• 2x Margherita
• 2x Potato, pancetta, rosemary

• What worked
  • Pizza station was perfect
  • Potato pizza had promise
  • Lots of bottom heat at first and then lower heat throughout seems like a good approach
  • 4 dough balls for 6 people was right (with a 2 calzone mix ups)
  • Semolina was much better than flour
• What didn’t
  • Dough got too crusty to work with — by 7:30 was really tough to handle
  • 7:30 was 9.5 hr of room temp, targeting a solid 8 would have been perf or maybe even less
  • Doing pizzas after episode was very stressful, everyone was just waiting on me
  • Dough kept getting too thin in the middle, too thick on sides — maybe try a rolling pin?
  • Few of those pizzas were too bready, needed more toppings to stay interesting
  • Many of them still not round, round really key to getting it right
  • Flame too tall, pizzas kept catching on fire
  • Bottom got too thin on multiple
  • Was doing too much work on the paddles
  • Stop doing garlic bread until I can figure out how to make it more interesting
• Next time
  • Max 8 hours (maybe even less)
  • Try rolling pin
  • Turn the heat even lower when pizza is in there (to avoid catching on fire)
  • Flaky Salt all the pizzas after they come out
  • Sharp cheese on the potato pizza?

• Margherita
• 2x Pepperoni

• Tried Lamonica dough for the first time, pretty good!

• Margherita
• 2x Pepperoni

• Olive oil after oven
• Oregeno instead of basil
• Freshly grated whole milk mozzarella instead of pre-shredded cheese

• 2x Margherita
• Cheese
• Pancetta + egg

• Used dough from Lucca’s deli, sat out for too long and got crusty
• Egg really hard to cook right, ended up being overcooked because of Ooni top heat

• 4x Margherita

• First attempt at pizza!!!
• Really hard to get the pizzas to be round
• Triangle shape lead to uneven cooking