Homemade pizza - 1st time in years

[Bryan Simmons]

OK, here's what was right and wrong. What was right is that I used semolina flour instead of all purpose. Huge improvement. I used the right sauce, Stanislaus Full Red. Yeah, it's a hassle that it only comes in big cans, and you have to zipper bag the rest and freeze it, but it's really good. I bought the pepperoni from ALDI, so it was about 2/3 the cost of Hormel, but after I use it up, I'll pay more for Volpi.

What was wrong was that I used enough dough to make a 12", but I made a 14", so it was slightly thinner crust than ideal, and I only let it rise once, instead of kneading it a little, and letting it have a second rise.

525F is fine for thin crust.

The proportions of 1 cup fine semolina, and 1/4 cup of water, 1 t of sugar, and a heaping t of dry yeast (with a little olive oil) went together so easily, with no stickiness. I stirred it together with a spoon, and by the time my hands had to touch the dough--it didn't stick to my unfloured hands at all.

The toppings were pepperoni, a little bacon leftover from breakfast, and some finely sliced pepperoncinis. My son, who is picky as fuck, and was dubious about my being able to make a decent pizza from scratch, gave it a figurative thumbs up, and we all agreed that while there was room for improvement, it was pretty good.

My advice is, buy the Stanislaus. If your town doesn't have Italian grocers, you may have to buy it from a restaurant supply store. Semolina flour alone is not ideal for a NY crust, but mixing some in with bread flour will firm things up, or if you want a bready crust, adding some to cheaper all purpose flour will up the gluten.

--Bryan

[Bruce]

On Sun, 2 Aug 2020 14:51:14 -0700 (PDT), Bryan Simmons
<bryang...@gmail.com> wrote:

>OK, here's what was right and wrong. What was right is that I used semolina flour instead of all purpose. Huge improvement. I used the right sauce, Stanislaus Full Red.

Stanislaus Full Red:
"Vine-ripened fresh tomatoes, salt and naturally derived citric acid."

Can't get much better ingredient-wise.

[Bryan Simmons]

It is the gold standard, as they use a vacuum processing method for removing moisture. There is only one competing product, and they also only sell in big cans, their sauce also intended for restaurant use.

--Bryan

[Sqwertz]

On Sun, 2 Aug 2020 14:51:14 -0700 (PDT), Bryan Simmons wrote:

> My advice is, buy the Stanislaus. If your town doesn't have
> Italian grocers, you may have to buy it from a restaurant supply
> store. Semolina flour alone is not ideal for a NY crust, but
> mixing some in with bread flour will firm things up, or if you
> want a bready crust, adding some to cheaper all purpose flour
> will up the gluten.

If you have an Italian market then you'll have tipo 00 flour. Caputo
is the most well known brands (with a couple that are formulated for
pizza), but I like Anna Cento better. I'm famous here for my pizzas
from scratch.

-sw

[Sqwertz]

On Sun, 2 Aug 2020 15:56:40 -0700 (PDT), Bryan Simmons wrote:


> It is the gold standard, as they use a vacuum processing method
> for removing moisture. There is only one competing product, and
> they also only sell in big cans, their sauce also intended for
> restaurant use.

For sauce I use simple RedGold crushed tomatoes. They provide the
perfect texture and moisture. My cheese is a mix of unsmoked
provolone, motz (full fat but not "fresh" if I can find it), and
pecorino. You St Louis types use that Provel crap.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provel_cheese

Spicy giardiniera is a favorite topping of mine on pizza. I just
used it last night on a Totinos.

-sw

[cshenk]

Sounds good Bryan and lots of fun to make I am sure. I'm a bit overdue
to make a home made one. I make my own sauce from canned tomatoes. I
do a medium crust normally but sometimes a deep crust.

Maybe Saturday I'll make one.

Oh I get store frozen ones too for a fast fix and we dress them up with
more 'stuff' such as we have handy.

I may add some of the corned beef from the deli to this one. It's a
boarshead one we like.

[cshenk]

LOL, I just go regular flour for pizza. Works for me and eventually
you get too many flour types to store properly.

[cshenk]

I have the same tomatoes based on sales. Tuttorossa and Cento brands
just now. Heinz and Hunts are salt-bomb crap that doesn't taste nearly
as good and stopped getting them.

I just checked the Cento brand and 20mg sodium per 1/4 cup.

[Ophelia]

"cshenk" wrote in message
news:V9idnSZ6eOcvNLXC...@giganews.com...

===

I always use my regular strong bread flour!



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[Cindy Hamilton]

Mmmm. Salt.

You're right about the flavor of Heinz and Hunts, though. I'm
pretty sure the ones on my shelf are Dei Fratelli

Cindy Hamilton

[Bryan Simmons]

On Monday, August 3, 2020 at 12:27:55 AM UTC-5, Sqwertz wrote:
> On Sun, 2 Aug 2020 15:56:40 -0700 (PDT), Bryan Simmons wrote:
>
>
> > It is the gold standard, as they use a vacuum processing method
> > for removing moisture. There is only one competing product, and
> > they also only sell in big cans, their sauce also intended for
> > restaurant use.
>
> For sauce I use simple RedGold crushed tomatoes. They provide the
> perfect texture and moisture. My cheese is a mix of unsmoked
> provolone, motz (full fat but not "fresh" if I can find it), and
> pecorino. You St Louis types use that Provel crap.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provel_cheese
>

I don't use Provel. That's trashy folks, and restaurants that cater to trashy folks who use that crap. I'm making pizza again this evening. I stopped to get bacon that was in an ad at a good price, and they were out of it, but I can't complain because they had manager special t-bones for $2.99/#. So, only pepperoni and pepperoncinis this evening on half of it, and some salciccia as well on one half. My wife and son aren't crazy about sausage on pizza. It's actually cool enough here right now that I have the dough rising in the car for the first 10 minutes or so.
>
> -sw

--Bryan

[Hank Rogers]

Here's a towel in case you and squirtz ejaculate.