This is a brilliant use of one of my favorite pestos. Thanks for the inspiration.

the type of pie I usually go for is somewhat of a cross between neopolitan and NY-style; a slightly crisp crusty with a soft chewy interior, but thick and sturdy enough throughout that it can be picked up. This is a pizza from last night, topped with braised fennel, homemade guanciale (using Ruhlman's method in Charcuterie), fresh mozz, anissette cream and dusted with a little pecorino. It was a recipe I saw on Serious Eats.

Here is a video of my latest efforts using the Tartine method. Best pizza I have ever eaten, IMHO. Please watch in HD if you can.

Bill - spectacular and inspirational.

What I call "cheater" dough (pulled off a batch of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day in the fridge. Not ideal dough, but with some kneading, more flour to dehydrate the dough, and some resting time it can make a serviceable pizza) topped with garlic-infused olive oil, the pan-roasted garlic, spinach, sauteed mushrooms, whole-milk mozzarella, and some pecorino romano.

Baked on a pizza stone in smack-dab middle of oven at about 525 degrees (my 500-degree oven runs hot).

Devoured swiftly.

Some recent pies:

A riff on the 'Mike G' and Chris Bianco's Rosa Bianco pizza: gorgonzola, carmelized onion, parmesan, pistachios with a drizzle of truffle honey:


Eggplant parmesan pizza:


Sausage:


Bacon, gorgonzola, carmelized onions:

[quote="Bill/SFNM"]Here is a video of my latest efforts using the Tartine method. Best pizza I have ever eaten, IMHO. Please watch in HD if you can.

This pushed me over the edge--I had to get the Tartine cookbook. And the video is awesome (love the pizza rising up at the end)

thaiobsessed wrote:This pushed me over the edge--I had to get the Tartine cookbook. And the video is awesome (love the pizza rising up at the end)

Thank you thaiobsessed and jygach for the kind words.

I'm sure you will love the Tartine book. Note that I did not use the pizza recipe in the book. Rather, I used book's method for mixing, folding, and shaping "country bread" dough with my own pizza dough recipe. This allowed me to crank up the hydration to over 70% and still have a very workable dough.

Bill, care to share your +70% hydration recipe? I made a modest attempt to search this thread and the forums, but couldn't find it.

I also have found the mixing, folding, and shaping methods for this high hydration dough to be very workable with good results.

gastro gnome wrote:Bill, care to share your +70% hydration recipe? I made a modest attempt to search this thread and the forums, but couldn't find it.

I also have found the mixing, folding, and shaping methods for this high hydration dough to be very workable with good results.

Of course! The pie from the video was made as follows:

For 5 Neapolitan-style crusts (~250g each)

709g flour (Caputo 00 pizzeria flour)
487g of water (430g for the initial mixing with the starter, 57g for the later mixing with the salt)
106g starter culture (fully active, mine is ~85% hydrated)
23g salt

I do several folds over a few hour fermentation period until the dough has fully expanded with adequate gluten structure so that the dough maintains volume even after gentle folding. I have been spritzing in a bit of water after each fold. Into the fridge overnight. Then shape into balls and proof @ room temp for 4-5 hours.

Baked in WFM for ~60 seconds at ~950F. For baking in a conventional oven, I would not use Caputo 00 - maybe a mixture of AP and BF and oil and a little sugar or other browning agent. Get as much heat into the top and bottom of the pie as quickly as you can. Worse thing you can do with this delicate dough is to over-bake. By the time it "looks done", it may be too late.

spinach in a white cream sauce with mushrooms
oven just not hot enough...


sausage with peppers
better...


caramelized sweet onions, goat cheese & grape tomato
oh yea, that's the temp I want...

This weekend a friend and I finally took the plunge to make home made pizza. We cheated slightly by getting pizza dough from Tenuta's in Kenosha just so we could concentrate more on the mechanics and toppings. The three pizzas we made were BBQ shrimp pizza w/Onion, bacon, BBQ sauce instead of pizza sauce, and a Jack blue cheese coleslaw (food network recipe). The second on was an Andouille pizza w/onion confit (which we also used on the BBQ shrimp pizza)and fontina cheese from Food & Wine. The third was just a standard semi veggie with onion, sweet green pepper, sweet red pepper, some left over bacon, and red pepper flakes. Unfortunately we forgot to Dock the first two pizza crusts, but with the pizza stone they all turned out perfectly!! Nice thin cracker crust that was sturdy to hold up all of the toppings without drooping. All in all they were Very good and far better than from a big box pizza place.

P.S. One of these days I'll set up a photo bucket or similar account so I can post pictures. As it was we were so hungry by the time they were all done I almost forgot to take any pictures.

I should have taken a picture, but I was hungry... Pizza dough via the Tartine method. Topped with roasted red pepper pesto (peppers, pine nuts, Parmesan, basil, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper), mozzarella, and goat gouda. Delicious. Served with a 2009 Evodia Grenache -- which was rated 90 points and a paltry $7.99 at Binny's.

Got a new peel...

fresh tomato and goat cheese with basil

fresh sweet corn & roasted poblano peppers with monterey jack cheese

caramelized onions & crispy panchetta with goat and mozzarella cheese

I would have to guess that you all never go out for pizza anymore.

Actually, I love to eat pizza out
Places like
Coalfire, stop 50, Pepe's in New Haven & DiFara in NYC

Made a really nifty one last night: fresh mozz, wild 'shrooms, ramps, & the star of the show, Michigan asparagus from the Evanston farmers market. I briefly steamed the asparagus, and sauteed the chopped ramps and mushrooms in EVOO with a sprinkle of truffle salt, then cooled them, and drained off the excess liquid. I should have taken a picture, but you know how things go sometimes. . . .

May be the best pizza I've made to date - i highly recommend this combo of flavors & textures!

A really, really thin crust with purple asparagus, green onion, and green garlic; topped with fresh moz.

My stone finally cracked last week after years of usage, so long that I know longer remember the brand or where I bought it. Any recommendation for a reliable pizza stone I can pick up somewhere in the local environs today?

Piquillo pepper 'pesto' (thus the fluorescent hue) with mozzarella, topped (after baking) with basil/pine nut pesto.

I'm really diggin' the Tartine bread dough used for pizza dough...

Butternut squash, carmelized onions, blue cheese, oven roasted tomatoes (added after cooking).

Really nice, thaiobsessed. Here are a couple of my latest using the Tartine folding method on my standard dough.

Maitake mushrooms, coppa, Oaxacan cheese, speck (added after baking):



Dessert Pizza: Plantains (super-ripe) fried in butter, drizzled with nutella and a sprinkling of sugar after baking:

thaiobsessed wrote:I'm really diggin' the Tartine bread dough used for pizza dough...

Same dough, no modifications? How many pizzas do you get out of a recipe?

gastro gnome wrote:thaiobsessed wrote:
I'm really diggin' the Tartine bread dough used for pizza dough...


Same dough, no modifications? How many pizzas do you get out of a recipe?

I was making Tartine bread anyway, so I cut the dough in half. The half yielded 3 generously-sized pizzas.
Next time I plan to use Bill's recipe (though I will probably sub 1/2 bread flour).

By the way, beautiful pizzas Bill. I love the idea of using Oaxacan cheese.

Did anyone else see the mention of the mention of the 'Frankenweber' (modified Weber grill morphed into pizza oven) in the Tartine cookbook? I've become kind of obsessed with this. I may have to take a welding class...

Photo from the Edge:

Bill/SFNM wrote:Photo from the Edge:

Just gorgeous...

Chorizo, goat cheese, corn, roasted poblano

Thanks, thaiobsessed. You have seem to also have arrived at the conclusion that pizza dough is a perfect platform for Mexican ingredients. And Asian ingredients also. So here is something you may find interesting. A few months ago I was walking though the kitchen while the cleaning lady was eating the pizza I had just baked for her lunch. The kitchen smelled amazing. She puts chile on everything she eats; she had found the container in the refrigerator of chile garlic sauce from Nguyen's dumpling book and spread some on top of the piping-hot pizza. So good I have started using it as a topping:

Bill/SFNM wrote:Thanks, thaiobsessed. You have seem to also have arrived at the conclusion that pizza dough is a perfect platform for Mexican ingredients. And Asian ingredients also. So here is something you may find interesting. A few months ago I was walking though the kitchen while the cleaning lady was eating the pizza I had just baked for her lunch. The kitchen smelled amazing. She puts chile on everything she eats; she had found the container in the refrigerator of chile garlic sauce from Nguyen's dumpling book and spread some on top of the piping-hot pizza. So good I have started using it as a topping:

I would absolutely destroy that, damn that sounds good.

This is a pizza from tonight with homemade pepperoni and Italian sausage...