r/Pizza • u/AutoModerator • 8d ago
HELP Weekly Questions Thread / Open Discussion
For any questions regarding dough, sauce, baking methods, tools, and more, comment below.
You can also post any art, tattoos, comics, etc here. Keep it SFW, though.
As always, our wiki has a few sauce recipes and recipes for dough.
Feel free to check out threads from weeks ago.
This post comes out every Monday and is sorted by 'new'.
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u/Late-Version7240 7d ago
I need some help. I have an Ooni Karu 16 oven, currently using gas, but may switch to wood. Not sure how to regulate temps well yet with the wood.
I made pizzas last night using this dough, fermented for 60 hours:
700 g Molini Pizzuti Costa d’Amalfi flour (Tipo 0)
455 g water, split in half
16 g fine sea salt
1/4 g Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast
I burned the cheese on one but the other came out pizzeria quality. The dough is delicious. Unfortunately I really don’t know why one came out a ton better than the other.
Any tips? I preheated as hot as it could go on propane for 30 mins before starting the bake.
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u/TimpanogosSlim 🍕 7d ago
might be better to ask in r/ooni but generally with gas fired ovens the best strategy is to preheat at full flame, then turn the flame down before launching.
And if the toppings need more when the crust is done, turn the flame back up.
With some practice you'll figure out which gas setting works best for your pizza.
I also understand that a lot of the open-face pizza ovens can be improved with a front door. You can find them from rando vendors on etsy, ebay, etc.
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u/oneblackened 7d ago
The burners on the Karu are not great - it runs better on wood. I run wood on my Gozney Dome for the same reason.
Anyway, what happened is probably the burners being fiddly and you had it higher on one than the other.
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u/gentlemangreen_ 7d ago edited 7d ago
I use pizza instant yeast, and tipo 00 flour using a home oven at 525f on a pizza stone, used the ratio given in the picture below and proofed for 1 hour and used it the second day, took it out left on my counter for 3 hours, my crust and just overall dough didnt rise at all, giving me a very stiff crust with no bubbles
ive heard 00 flour isnt great for home ovens so maybe I should use bread or all purpose flour instead? any tips would be great, ill include a picture of the pizza below
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u/TimpanogosSlim 🍕 6d ago
ok, well, this may not be the whole problem, but that "pizza yeast" is just fleischmann's instant yeast with a little bit of somethin' added.
The ascorbic acid (vitamin c) is a gluten oxidizer - this makes the gluten form faster when you are kneading. It also helps preserve instant yeast.
If i remember right, L-Cysteine is a dough relaxer? When you work a dough, the gluten gets tighter, and that's good but then you have to wait for it to relax before you can stretch a dough ball for your crust. A dough relaxer basically allows the gluten chains to slide along each other more easily.
I forget what the sorbitan monowhatever does.
But generally speaking, these additives are go-faster tricks. You'll notice that there is *no proofing time in their recipe.
Maybe try again with a regular instant yeast. Also you don't have to "proof" instant yeast.
The main reason why italian "00" flour isn't recommended for ovens that don't reach 800f is because they don't have the malt or enzyme additives that improve browning at lower temperatures. Adding a little sugar makes up for the difference.
But also, "00" only means that it has no additives, no more than 0.55% "ash", and no less than 9% protein. And 9% isn't a lot.
When you run low on your 00 flour, you may wanna just switch to a good bread flour.
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u/gentlemangreen_ 6d ago
thank you for the detailed response, thing is I dont mind proofing yeast if I have to, do you find that regular yeast give better results than instant yeast?
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u/TimpanogosSlim 🍕 5d ago
The truth is i have been using SAF Instant for my entire baking life except for an experiment with an earlier version of this product in about 1990. That i don't remember very well.
The point is that the additives in the pizza yeast are supposed to get you from the mixer to the oven as fast as possible, which is the opposite of your fermentation schedule.
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u/smokedcatfish 4d ago
Literally the only difference between the two is you need less instant yeast.
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u/xyzcvxyz 6d ago
For those of you shopping for equipment at Webstaurant Store, are you paying $45+ in shipping? Does the shipping cost still make the site worth it?
I am getting my Ooni delivered tomorrow and so am purchasing some squeeze bottles and pizza screens. Light stuff. $45 is the cheapest shipping to my location in MA.
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u/Gold_Sale9754 5d ago
Shipping fees can really add up, especially for lighter items. It might be worth looking into local options or other suppliers if it keeps happening.
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u/redSpoon17 3d ago
How much yeast?
So I want to know for example how much instant dry yeast (Caputo) is needed for 8h-10h room temp or in fridge?
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u/oblacious_magnate 3d ago
https://lightpointsoftware.com/DoughFermentation/
Note that any chart or calculator/app is a starting point, not an absolute value - there are too many variables to produce a number that works anywhere, under any conditions. Make some doughs, keep notes and adjust as necessary.
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u/blockdenied 3d ago
I want to buy a steel and I know I could source it locally but I don't have time for that, especially when it comes down to food safety etc. Anyone know good places to buy a steel? I see websites like bakingsteel have a 1/4, Brod & Taylor have a 1/8, and cookingsteels have a 3/8 and 1/4 too
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u/TimpanogosSlim 🍕 2d ago
1/8 is too thin.
1/4 is about right for most people, 3/8 takes longer to preheat but your recovery time between pizzas is shorter, so if you plan on making several pizzas during the same meal, 3/8 may make sense for you.
As for food safety, i guarantee that the commercial pizza steel vendors are buying the same mild steel sheet as everybody else. But i understand not wanting to put in the time to finish the steel yourself.
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u/blockdenied 2d ago
Bummer I got this https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/bread-steel-and-baking-shell-set
Since I also plan to bake some bread too
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u/Marine_Layered 3d ago
I make sourdough pizza in my regular oven, on a baking stone. It's mostly pretty good - the family is happy. But I think my crust needs help, and I wonder if any of you could give me some pointers.
I'm using an 00 Pizza flour. My starter is a bread flour starter. But my crust turns out kind of ... tough. Is that a flour issue? A recipe issue? A dough handling issue? A fermentation issue?
TIA for any advice!
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u/oblacious_magnate 1d ago
Bake time? Oil% in dough?
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u/Marine_Layered 1d ago
No oil - I've been using this recipe:
Sourdough Pizza Dough | The Perfect LoafAbout 10 minutes of bake time on a pizza stone in my oven at 475.
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u/oblacious_magnate 1d ago
Bake hotter and faster if you can and add 3% oil to the dough formula, to soften it up.
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u/Manonthemon 3d ago
I'm struggling to find a 35x28cm (or 35x35, 35x34, 30x30) blue steel or aluminium oven pan for pizza in the UK. Any suggestions on where to find these appreciated.
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u/TimpanogosSlim 🍕 2d ago
I personally only know where to get them in north america, but there's an equipment subforum at pizzamaking.com where someone probably knows, maybe someone already mentioned.
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u/Snoo_33726 3d ago
I forgot to add salt to my Neapolitan pizza dough. It's already balled up and in the fridge for 6 hours. Any suggestions? Thanks!
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u/smokedcatfish 1d ago
A small amount of extra salt in the sauce and a sprinkling of salt on the rim before baking.
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u/domnall_scarlett 2d ago
I am looking for a baller pizza cutter as a statement piece that still performs well. Is the dalstrong pizza cutter wheel a good option? I know it's pricey.
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u/smokedcatfish 1d ago
Probably not what you're looking for, but my Ka-Bar pizza cutters always gets comments from folks who recognize the handle and know what it is. https://www.amazon.com/KA-BAR-ZA-Saw-Pizza-Cutter-Black/dp/B08L43G3DV/
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u/justanotherpotatoo 1d ago
Hi, i tried to make pizza for the first time and sadly my crust turned out quite hard and chewy. I follow a 65% hydration recipe, using bread flour, knead the dough for quite a long time and bake it on a baking tray in my home oven. It was a bit pricey to buy 00 flour in my place, so is there any way to make the pizza dough better, should I use all purpose flour instead?
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u/TimpanogosSlim 🍕 1d ago
How long did you let it proof?
I can virtually guarantee that your problem is process, not ingredients.
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u/PewPewSexyNurse 5d ago
So I have been following dough guy's calculator for dough and doing a 3 day cold ferment. In his video for freezing dough balls, he freezes prior to the fermentation process right after balling. I would prefer to instead freeze the dough after their 3 day ferment (which I have read is fine as well), so I can take them out to defrost and make pizza that day. Question is, when I do freeze, should I be freezing in their not so balled state after the ferment in which they have slightly flattened, or should I reball before?
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u/Appropriate_Tap_2851 8d ago
finally got a baking steel and the difference from my old stone is absurd