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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.)
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!
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!
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
This post is outstanding! Thanks for working this! I’m excited to absorb this necessary knowledge!
Chris and I love the Bread Bakers Companion almost as much as we love pizza! Great job on that handy book, Andrew!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.)
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!
just seeing this now and love the idea of a Pizza companion booklet. Would you let me illustrate that one too :)