108/18 – Pizza Bible Pizzas:
I made the dough recipe at the start of the Pizza Bible book a few weeks ago. It was a great dough, really easy to work with but I had trouble with the pizzas tearing when cooking which I felt was because the dough balls were too small. I wanted to try it again and have bigger dough balls. Time for Pizza Bible Pizzas!
The dough recipe is from The Pizza Bible book:
The Pizza Bible: The World's Favorite Pizza Styles, from Neapolitan, Deep-Dish, Wood-Fired, Sicilian, Calzones and Focaccia to New York, New Haven, Detroit, and More
THE INGREDIENTS:
Molino Grassi 00 Flour:
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Saf-Leuvre Dry Yeast:
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Zia Rosa San Marzano Tomatoes:
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THE DOUGH:
First off the yeast is activated by mixing it with lukewarm water then whisking it for 30 seconds.
Next the flour is put into the mixer along with ice cold water then then the yeast mixture.
I didn’t have any diastatic malt last time but I ordered some off Amazon for this run:
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This dough is only mixed for 1 minute before salt is added and the mixer runs for another minute. Next, oil is added and the mixer runs for 2 minutes. The dough is then kneaded by hand for 3 minutes and left to rest for an hour. To bulk ferment it the dough was placed into my large food container with a few drops of water are placed on top, covered with cling film and then placed in the fridge for 24 hours.
Next day the dough was split into 3 dough balls. The dough weighed 800g and last time I did 4x 200g so this time I did 3x266g. These went into my plastic pizza trays, were covered with cling film then went in the fridge for 24 hours.
At each step of working with the dough I could tell it was going to be good, it just had that feel to it. Pressure was on not to mess up the cook!
THE KIT:
Same as last time except for one new toy! This time around I had a dough scraper to help cut the dough and to lift it out of the trays before shaping. It’s mentioned in the Pizza Bible book so I felt it was worth a purchase.
Dough Scraper: To cut the dough into balls and to help lift the dough balls out the tray before shaping:
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6 litre food grade container with lid: I use this to bulk ferment the dough once it’s mixed:
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Food grade pizza dough trays (x3): I use these to cold proof the dough balls:
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Jam Funnel: This is a great way to keep the pellets topped up, makes fire management a lot easier
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Portable Fan: Great bit of kit, handy to turbo boost the fire lighting and to keep the fire raging whilst cooking. Recharged over USB:
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Wooden Pizza Peel: The best and easiest way to launch the pizza without sticking:
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THE SAUCE:
I made the New York – New Jersey Tomato Sauce from the same book. The San Marzano tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, salt and oil blitzed with a hand blender then hand crushed tomatoes were also added.
THE COOK:
The dough balls were looking great. 
I had made the Sweet Fennel Sausage mix from the Pizza Bible book as well: Fennel Seeds, Anise Seeds, Sea Salt, Black Pepper, Pork Mince and Honey. I split it into little lumps in advance as I felt splitting it out and placing it on the base before cooking would delay things too long and increase the risk of the pizza sticking to the peel.
The sauce had been in the fridge and firmed up a bit.
My usual technique for lighting (see the Uuni Hints and Tips page):
Dough scraper used to lift the pizza dough out the tray.
To shape the dough I followed the instructions in the book and pushed the centre out leaving a rim then stretched the dough over my knuckles, never stretched it like that before but it worked really well.
#1: I was so happy with this one, it came out really fantastic!
#2: This one also came out really well, pressure was on to get the third one right!
#3: Argh! What happened here was that when I put the peel underneath to spin the pizza it felt like it had ripped underneath and I couldn’t quite get the peel all the way under which caused the pizza to burn. With all the messing about the temperature was affected so I whacked the fan on which caused a torrent of flames and burned it further!
What was interesting on this one was that when I poured on the garlic oil a bit of garlic got stuck in the nozzle and affected the flow. I gave it a big squeeze and loads came out. The first bite of the pizza blew me away though, the large amount of garlic oil had really boosted the flavour! I will be sure to add plenty of garlic oil in future.
Summary:
Really enjoyed these pizzas, we all felt they were the best ones yet so the dough recipe is a winner and the larger dough balls definitely helped. Garlic oil is a surprise discovery that will make an appearance each time. The dough scraper was a big help to lift the dough balls out and retain their shape.
THE BOOK:
The dough recipe is from The Pizza Bible book:
The Pizza Bible: The World's Favorite Pizza Styles, from Neapolitan, Deep-Dish, Wood-Fired, Sicilian, Calzones and Focaccia to New York, New Haven, Detroit, and More
The Uuni 3 Pizza Oven:
Such a great bit of kit and an absolute bargain for £200.
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Your pizzas look so awesome Nathan!
Thanks Phil! Slowly getting there, feel like I learn something with every cook!
Pizzas look great! Which dough recipe is this one you have used?
Also do you find using the malt helps as see in the Pizza Bible Tony recommends only using it in a domestic oven, not wood fired.
Thanks James, this dough is from the Pizza Bible book. The one on page 21 onwards. Been making this one a lot lately and really like it. Easy to make, shapes and stretches well but tastes great too.
Good point on the malt, first time I made this dough I didn’t have the malt and the second time I made it with the malt it tasted better! I will try it without the malt next run.
Thanks. Going to give this dough a try. Previously made the Neapolitan and Sicilian doughs from The Pizza Bible. Both very good!
Interesting about the malt. Think I’ll give some a try