Right now I'm working on technique. This is all pretty new to me. I'm using a screen instead of a stone. I'm baking at 450 degrees in a conventional oven. I made a few over the past week and only after making a few did I realize that I'm supposed to be baking these on the bottom rack. I've been doing the 2nd to last. Maybe dropping it all the way down will help it crisp up better? I need advice.
Other problems...Are the toppings too wet? I always get these little pools of moisture on the pizza surface. Maybe I should drain my mozzarella longer? What can I do if the tomatoes are really juicy? It's been a good summer for tomatoes. I find the dough a little difficult to work with as well. It needs to rest longer probably; I'm usually anxious to get started. I think too-cold dough is not good.
I'm learning by trial and error.
Further reading: Empirical pizza diagnostics
4 comments:
in my early years working in pizza kitchens i found that ovens are freakin hot. something like 500+ and very close quarters. so the heat is close to the bottom and the top of the pie. my un-educated guess would be that you conventional oven has too much space around it for the heat to cool.
you need a high heat close to the base but also hot surfaces close to the top.
perhaps it is time to build a little brick house inside your regular oven?
I like(d) using a pizza stone...until it cracked and broke in half recently! 3 years of use, heat at 450 degrees, I guess they just break eventually.
I have noticed using fresh tomatoes does indeed make it runny, all the water comes out of the tomatoes but doesn't go anywhere! Slice as thinly as possible?
GREAT NOW I WANNA PEETZA
Maybe it's time I take it to the grill.
I can get a strong heat source from the bottom and closing the lid, get intense concentrated heat surrounding the pie.
I'm going to re-read Steingarten's essay on this.
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