re: Christmas Pizza Party

Fake news

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I was reading that the real mozz can create moisture issues and make it soggy. That's why I went with the lower moisture shredded blend.

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If you are cooking in a home oven, use low moisture. Fresh mozzarella is for a oven with an air temp that will be 700+ at least. You can squeeze out the moisture as much as possible, but really fresh mozz isn’t suitable for home oven use.

00 flour, homemade Italian sausage, caciocavallo cheese, Sicilian olives, kalamata olives, onion.

I make a similar pizza dough but I add honey. In addition, I make a pre-ferment(biga, poolish, starter, etc.) the night before using whole wheat flour (about 15-20% of the total flour needed). I would recommend anyone making their own pizza dough to try this:

1. Calculate anywhere from 10 - 20% of the total amount of flour you are going to use in your recipe.
2. Take this amount of dough, add in equal amount of water and a small amount of yeast.
3. Mix up well, cover and set on counter for 8-12 hours.

After the 8-12 hours, add the remaining ingredients (simply subtract the amount of water and flour you used above) and make your dough as normal, including making the dough ball and placing in the fridge for the regular fermentation process.

This pre-ferment adds additional flavor and only requires about 10 minutes to create as you are just mixing flour, water, yeast and stirring it then covering.

Before and after pic:



Pre-ferments

I made pizzas Saturday night as well on my Kamado Joe. 3rd time making pizzas on that thing. They come out so good.

Used 00 Flour for the dough.
Fresh and shredded mozzarella
Red Gravy for the marinara
Calandro's italian ground sausage
Onion, Bellpeppers



I slightly burned the bottom of the supreme pizza. Forgot to sprinkle the stone with flour before adding the pizza. The middle also bubbled up a bit, i've been a bit out of practice on my pizzas. USed the bobby flay recipe for the dough. 2nd pizza came out perfectly.

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Nice cheeses for your house blend:
Whole milk mozzarella
Provolone
Romano
Parmigiana
Fontina
Asiago

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yep. And I'd add that when you buy your whole mozzarella, look for low moisture, but NOT low fat. The low moisture will help your dough not get soggy on top after the cheese melts.

One of your ingredients has too much water. Might be the sauce you're using, or uncooked veggies that release water when cooked.

I've seen some people have success by precooking the dough with just the sauce. This cooks the water out of the sauce and dries it a bit. Other options: precooking the veggies and meats, grating the cheese and spread it out on a pan to air dry a bit.

Or, your dough could just have a high hydration ratio: aka, too much water for the amount of flour.

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The middle of the pie already comes out with a bit of liquid when I make a pepperoni pie with the low moisture mozz.

I dont think the whole milk fresh mozz will be good for my oven. It goes up to 550 allegedly, but doesn't hold the heat with the door being opened all the time.

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You're being a purist. Be a purist. Don't use cheese with anti caking agents in it. Shred your own. Whole milk mozzarella tastes better than part skim mozzarella. I am not suggesting fresh mozzarella in any of its varieties, I'm suggesting this:




You need a stone too.

I always use fresh grated whole milk mozzarella. It’s so good.