145/18 – Caputo Red Pizzas:

Last week I cooked Margherita Pizzas and really enjoyed them, bit of work required to improve them so I planned to have another go. I had ordered some Caputo Red flour from Amazon to test as I only hear good things about it so this week it was Caputo Red Pizzas.

The Book:

The dough and sauce recipe is from The Pizza Bible Book:

Ooni Blog:

My new Ooni Blog is now live on this site with all of my notes on there. It’s split out into categories so should be a lot easier to use now. Will be easier for me to update too:

Ooni Blog

THE INGREDIENTS:

Flour: Caputo Red Flour – First time using this!

Yeast: Saf-Levure Dry yeast 

Tomatoes: San Marzano Plum Tomatoes 

THE KIT:

6 litre food grade container with lid: I use this to bulk ferment the dough once it’s mixed

Food grade pizza dough trays (x3): I use these to cold proof the dough balls

The Dough:

Page 21 onwards in the Pizza Bible, it’s my favourite dough at the moment. Made two days in advance and cold proved as a large ball for 24 hours then split, balled and cold proved for another 24 hours. Last time the dough was ripping a bit so I took a note to take it out the fridge much later. This time it came out the fridge when I lit the Ooni Pro so it only sat out for 30 minutes.

The Sauce:

New York – New Jersey Tomato Sauce from The Pizza Bible book. The San Marzano tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, salt and oil blitzed with a hand blender then hand crushed tomatoes were also added. This was leftover from last time, I had two jars in the fridge and one jar was enough for 5 pizzas this week.

The Fire:

Oxford Charcoal Oak Lumpwood placed in the tray, 2 flamers underneath, lit and left for 10 minutes.I remembered to take the chimney cap off this week!

Two Oak chunks on top of the lit charcoal:

The Cook:

I had made a double batch of dough so had two trays, each with 3x 265g dough balls in. I added flour to the tray before I put them in and floured the tops, this helps remove the cling film without tugging the top of the dough balls. The dough felt a bit different this week, a bit easier to work with. The Caputo Red flour?

First Pizza: This was for my youngest daughter and she asked for Ham and Pineapple, controversial to some people but I had a slice and it was really nice! The dough was very easy to stretch and shape. Cooked really well too, loved the leoparding this week. I was at Ooni HQ for a party last week and a couple of the guys mentioned “people who don’t turn the pizza 90 degrees but do 180 degrees” – I kept my failings to myself and vowed to try 90 degree turns this week! This pizza came out really well, not sure if it’s the Caputo Red, turning it 90 degrees, taking the dough out the fridge later or all three!

Awesome!

Second Pizza: Next up my eldest daughter asked for Chorizo and Pineapple. I haven’t seen this combination anywhere before but she really enjoyed it so maybe she’s onto something! As with the last one, stretched and shaped well plus it cooked really well.

Lovely!

Third Pizza: Next up my wife wanted Mozzarella and Chorizo. Rare I cook so many different pizzas, everyone usually gets the same and I was meant to be practising Margherita Pizzas again! Again, stretched and shaped well, cooked well and I topped it with garlic oil, salt and pepper.

I was now getting hungry!

Fourth Pizza: The dough did stretch well but I dropped it at one point and an edge caught slightly, I could see an air bubble but couldn’t get rid of it hence the big blister below! However, it was a fantastic Margherita pizza. A bit too much cheese so I will put less on next time and the basil shrivelled a bit so maybe put it on later next time. Garlic oil, salt and pepper again.

This looked fantastic!

Fifth Pizza: I had some of the Red Devil cheese left from Snowdonia Cheese so wanted to use it on a pizza. As the cheese has chilli in I wanted to make a spicy pizza. Red Devil cheese, pickled jalapeno slices and pickled chillies. This was my pizza and it was fantastic! I haven’t had a spicy pizza for a while and I really must do it more often. The cheese had a great taste to it and was enhanced by the chilli. Cracking pizza!

I overdid it a bit in places, it’s a curse with the last pizza each cook (always mine!) – I must concentrate more on the last pizza!

As is becoming a routine now, left over dough smeared with Gu chocolate spread and folded into a Calzone.

I cook these after I have eaten my pizza and the oven has dropped down to about 300c.

Sliced open: Oozing, melted, warm chocolate spread. So good!

SUMMARY:

These were my best pizzas so far, I was so happy with them. Great to cook so many different kinds of pizza and to get such great results too. The Caputo Red seemed to make a dough that was easier to shape and stretch but it also cooked well and had a nice texture and taste to it. I have nine more bags so will keep testing it!

Taking the dough out later worked better for me. I know people like to take it out for hours before hand but I prefer the feeling of the colder dough for this recipe and I find it easier to work with a bit colder. I believe the cold enhances the leoparding on the crust too.

Spinning the pizza just 90 degrees each time (thanks Jukka!) seemed to help cook it more evenly and produced a better looking crust. 

All in all, I was very happy with these!

THE BOOK:

The dough and sauce recipe is from The Pizza Bible book:

If you don’t have an Ooni Pro yet you can buy one here

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