30 Comments
Jan 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

I think a pizza companion is needed! I spent yesterday leafing through my folders, trying to find a recipe for my kid's (my giant kid's) pizza party. Ended up using a mimeographed copy of your Katchapouri recipe from a class!

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

I like the idea of hydration levels for various types and gram weight for the various size of pizzas. Hurry up and complete it so I can buy it! lol

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author

gram weights are in the chart already! hydration levels would be interesting, but more likely to be ranges rather than strict amounts, since recipes vary.

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Yes, I see that. Thank you!! I am looking for larger size (family size, like 16") pizzas but it appears the only 14" inch size you have is tavern. Am I misreading?

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author

That's all for now, but you can easily scale to any size you want. Calculate the area of the pie (8 x 8 x π = 201) and multiply it by the g/in2 number...

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Ah Thank you! That is most helpful! New baker here so I am a bit of a novice. Thanks again!

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

This post is outstanding! Thanks for working this! I’m excited to absorb this necessary knowledge!

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

Chris and I love the Bread Bakers Companion almost as much as we love pizza! Great job on that handy book, Andrew!

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author

Sarah!! Thank you so much, I am so happy to hear that. Hope you both are well!

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

I am completely obsessed with this chart. I'm going to print it out and start taking my own notes! There are two things I'm thinking about regarding bread and creativity these days. The first is a quote from Tara Jensen's Flour Power: "Intuition is data accumulated by the body over time, so if you want to become a great baker, practice, practice, practice!" She goes on to recommend making bread daily, and even purposely messing up loaves of bread, to see what the dough is like when it's overproofed, for instance. The second thing I'm thinking about is a time a year ago when we went to gather with some friends in Cape Cod, and we brought everything to recreate our weekly pizza night for everyone. People kept asking for the recipe, and we could give it to them, but I realized the "recipe" was the result of regularly playing with the dough to see what worked and what didn't. (I'm thinking a lot about how this all relates to writing, also, lately.) This is all to say: thank you for all of this. Part of developing this intuition is gathering information and applying it to see what happens! I'm excited about it.

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author

Thank you, Julie! I agree with all of that, and it is going to be a big part of my book.

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I'm very excited about your book!

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I've used cast-iron skillets for Detroit-style pizzas, especially when scaling up the recipe since I only have one Detroit pan. Would you consider adding some of those typical skillet sizes to your chart? I always end up pi-r-squaring on the fly to figure out which pans to use.

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author

I'll consider it, Lynn! I've always been wary about using a CI skillet sub, because they take so much longer to heat up than a pizza pan. Isn't that an issue when you use one?

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I really love using a CI skillet. Theres a flavour to how the oils penetrate the crust that is so rich and lovely.

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author

I don't think I've ever made a pizza in a CI skillet, I should do a side-by-side with a black steel pan!

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

I’d be all for a pizza companion.

When we were refining our recipe for a Chicago-style deep dish pizza, one of the things we did was calculate the surface area of round cake pans—not just the bottom, but up the sides of a 2” high pan, because that’s what we do when we make Chicago-style pies. From that exercise, we learned that what we’d considered a “full” (1.0x) recipe was barely enough for two 14” pies, and that we were better off making a 1.1x recipe if we were doing that. But a half recipe was perfect for two 9” pizzas if we aren’t looking to feed a crowd.

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

Maybe? Dunno. I usually place the skillets right on my baking steel (so they get a quick jolt of heat), and say a little prayer that everything works out. No one in my family complains about the results, and I like the quality of the crust. The added weight is not optimal, though.

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

Would love this! I have a very specific question that likely is too random for the companion but would love an answer nonetheless. How can one mimic the effects of the broilers on flatbreads (e.g. your lavash recipe on SE) and pizzas (e.g. sorta Neapolitan style) when limited to a gas oven with the bottom drawer broiler? Obviously my baking steel won't fit in there and any normal-sized pizza wouldn't either. Thanks!

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author

Netta - that's a tough one! I don't really think you can get a similar effect when a broiler is that low and cramped for space. I wish I had better advice than that, sorry.

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Thanks anyway! The renter’s life…

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Jan 12, 2023Liked by Andrew Janjigian

This may already be in the works but I would love to read a breakdown about the subtle differences between all of the square pan style pizzas (grandmas pizza, Sicilian, Detroit, pizza al taglio etc.)

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author

Kyle - I am thinking that if I did a booklet, it would have individual pages for each style of pie, with detailed descriptions and specs.

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I LOVE your BBPC! Super appreciative here! I have been using a different formula (up ‘til now) for sweet stiff levain. I will try yours as written, but I’m curious what the actual sugar percentage is... the description says 22.5% sugar, whereas the 100 gram formula (uses 13 grams) making it 28%. Many thanks!

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Ha! Not in the form of a question... so here goes:

Would it make sense to reduce the sugar?

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Apologies... My question doesn’t belong here in the pizza discussion. I could not find a BBPC general questions thread.

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author

are you looking at this formula? https://newsletter.wordloaf.org/p/the-acid-test?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fsweet%2520sourdough&utm_medium=reader2

You'll note that the percentages are absolute vs baker's, which is why the two percentages are different. The weights are correct as written there.

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YES! Thank you so much! I now get it, and I’m going for it!

Also, like others, I wish you a speedy and complete recovery!

In appreciation,

Jan

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just seeing this now and love the idea of a Pizza companion booklet. Would you let me illustrate that one too :)

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author

Of course! who else would I ask?!

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