First ever pizzas today on the newly acquired Ooni Karu... and they were fabulous!
The crust didn’t look anything like what some of you guys have managed, but the base overall was excellent. I struggled rolling out the bases with my hands, so I ended up using a rolling pin! Some practice needed there...
The buffalo mozzarella with Parma ham was the best taste combination of the few pizzas I made. I thought I’d read that buffalo mozzarella isn’t the ‘authentic’ cheese for neapolitan style pizza (?), but it was the favoured choice in my household.
The pizza oven location / setup is makeshift for now...
(Before popping the basil on)
You are right, purists would say that buffalo mozzarella does not belong. The fact is that I love it on pizza, it is a perfect match to the sauce, and all pizza places in Italy offer it in the menu.
However, if you go behind the counter you will see that the buffalo mozzarella is kept in slices on a grid, so that it looses some liquids prior to using it for the pizza. This way it will not be too wet on the pizza and will just melt like normal mozzarella.
We have a gozney roccbox on the way and it will get a lot of use. We have researched the basics like how to move the dough to the peel, make the dough the correct the shape, rotate the pizza in the oven, let the oven heat for 30 mins etc.
Any tips on pizza dough recipes? We had a mates using the Jamie Oliver one and it was ace.
Any other general tips?
Stu
The Nuvola dough feels just so much lighter. Strange I know as all the balls were weighed to 250g. It seemed to carry the hydration better and stretched with ease, though not saying the blue is bad.
The first Nuvola one I put on the table followed a blue both topped with mutti, f de l, nduja, fresh chilli, salami, olives and dressed with chilli oil. Wifey, pal and his wife all said the dough was so much lighter and puffy.
I can’t wait to try a full 24hr @ say 64% it’s going to be mental.
Have you tried it??
Pitch
These look very nice Coot. How did you do the garlic bread? Last time I tried it it burnt really quickly. Is yours just minced garlic, grated parmesan and oil? How long did you have the camembert in for?
I'm toying with trying the Nuvola flour next as it comes in 1kg bags. What sort of hydration level is ok for this? Highest I've gone so far is 62% on a RT proof. I see Adimaria do a Nuvola Super flour now as well but only available in 25kg sacks!! Way too big for me.
https://www.adimaria.co.uk/rice-flow...per-flour-25kg
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
Interesting on the Nuvola, will certainly be giving it a try.
I’ve not yet ventured up from 63% hydration but might need to hive it an other go soon, now I’m getting most pizzas out without ruining them.
Wasnt any garlic on those (garlic glove chopped up and poked in the camembert).
I've doing a garlic/garlic tomato bread I'd either cheat if in a hurry and use a blob of garlic butter (those ones in containers) or if time mince some garlic and add to butter and oil and drizzle over.
Can also just dock the dough, add a bit of olive oil then when it comes out put the garlic butter on. Should all be melted by the time you serve it up.
Cheese was in for about 10 mins.
The bread was just oil, oregano and grana padano.
Raffe, CM, Matt, A di have 1kg bags at the mo.
You will see I also got some of the semolina flour. It is a lot finer thar the supermarket stuff and I thought too fine but it works superb and no burn whatsoever. Stock up on mozzarella as well and freeze you can soon make a big order up.
Pitch
Just on the garlic bread questions here is what I do.
I soften butter with course rock salt, garlic purée and olive oil. It’s quite lose and almost runny.
I pop the base in the oven (nothing on it) and as it cooks leave the spinning peel on top so it does not puff up I don’t want the air bubbles burning.
When the base has coloured nicely I take it out of the oven and brush the garlic butter all over it. You can also add mozzarella or parmesan at this stage.
I then pop back in the oven for seconds. DO NOT let the butter colour, if you do it’s gone.
Hope this helps.
Pitch.
Great stuff Paul, will try that.
You clearly enjoy the photo showmanship more than me, if my wife came with a camera when I'm cooking she'd get a few choice words!
Ptich you have an apron...you are my hero!!
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Haha. Cheers chaps.
My pal took the pic on Sunday and put it on his FB page taking the piss.
I generally do stick an apron on buddy cause I’m such a messy twat when cooking and knacker jeans/shorts. + I was doing take outs hence gloves and hat and cleaning everywhere after every couple of pizzas. Striving for my 5 star hygiene rating LOL.
With a bit of ingenuity you can make a pizza on a Weber Q 😀
What pizza sauce are people using and where can I buy some?
Take a can of good Italian tomatoes and crush them with a potatoe masher or a fork. You can as well blitz it with a blender but some people claim it releases bitter flavours from the tiny seeds inside. That's it.
If so inclined, you can mix some basil leaves or salt into the sauce, I don't as I put some seasalt on the pizza after I have applied the sauce and put basil leaves on top.
Whatever you do, don't cook the tomatoe sauce. It has to be raw when the pizza goes into the oven.
Interesting, been using the ooni recipe which says to cook it though & thicken the sauce. Will try it your way & see.
Paul, I too wear an apron as I get food everywhere when prepping. Annoyingly my black fabric apron is a nightmare for floury hands after each pizza
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I was wondering if anyone can help me on the following:-
1) When discussing hydration level of the pizza dough, how is this calculated?
Is the hydration level measured by ratios, if you have 100 grams of flour, and add 65 grams of water = 65% hydration. Is this the same ratio for all flours, 00 and bread flour.
2) Will using bread flour rather than 00 grade flour impact on the quality of the pizza dough prepared (taste/thickness/preparation).
3) A good place to purchase Caputo Blue Flour.
4) What are the benefits of adding semolina flour to the dough mix .
Thanks in advance.
1. Yes ratio. It is not 65% water of the total weight.
2. It'll be different. I like the bready taste of supermarket Canadian strong flour, but the results won't be the same as in the picture.
3. http://www.adimaria.co.uk is where I bought my Caputo from
4. It's just preference. I use semolina when the missus isn't around, she prefers it without. I use it for dusting when prepping the pizza as it doesn't burn as easily as regular flour to the stone.
Hate to be picky, but the hydration is calculated as the percentage of water versus the flour only. Salt and yeast don't go into the calculation.
Not that it would make much of a difference, but that's the proper definition:
https://www.pizzamaking.com/glossary.html#index_h
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
Another lunch another pizza.
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Is there any reason I should not use a Gozney gas heated pizza oven in kitchen? Thinking about winter use.
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
Great tip on the garlic butter Pitch - will try that as ours don’t turn out too well.
Q on Italian sausage with fennel - any good online companies to order from? Local supermarkets don’t seem to have it and asked a butcher and they don’t do it.
Q on the tomato sauce - we buy the best tins of tomatoes when we can get them. We always find a sprinkling of sugar enhances the finished product - are we heathens?