Pizza Procedure 1.0

My Every Saturday Pizza

27 January 2024
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I usually start at 2 o'clock. I got started late on the day I did this because I did my fire elemental weekly and it took a while because it was like me and 5 people instead of the usual dozens.

320g flour, 225g water, 1½ tsp sugar and yeast.

An open flour canister next to a mixing bowl on a scale. Behind them is the plastic dish I use to keep coffee grounds from getting everywhere when brushing off the coffee grinder, and which I probably should have moved before making a picture, but such is life.

Let it go a minute on 1, then add the water slowly.

Water is slowly added to a mixture of flour, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a KitchenAid stand mixer.

Sometimes it needs a little help.

A flat silicone spatula is used to encourage the flour and water to make dough.

Once it's mixed up, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

With the dough hook detached, a plate is placed over the top of the mixing bowl.

I add more salt than the recipe says, 1½ tsp, because I don't want to dirty another spoon. Once the salt is added, run the machine for 8 minutes on speed 2. Check and see if it needs more flour after a couple of minutes.

1½ tsp of salt is added to the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached.

See, that needs a little more flour. That'll never make a ball.

The dough in the bottom of the mixing bowl isn't making a ball, it's sticking to the bottom.

After adding maybe a couple of tablespoons of flour, that's much better.

The dough in the bottom of the mixer has formed into a ball, and is now kneading.

Before the kneading is done, prepare the pan with Pam on the edges and a tbl of olive oil.

1½ tsp of olive oil is added to a pool of 1½ tsp of oil already in the bottom of a rectangular black metal pizza pan. The sides have been sprayed with cooking spray.

That's close enough I think. It went for almost 10 minutes.

The dough ball in the bottom of the mixer looks smooth, and the bottom and sides are mostly clear. I could let it go longer until they were all the way clear, but it was good enough.

Get a little oil on your tools, then scooch the dough around to make sure it's well oiled and the pan is evenly coated.

The flat spatula from the mixing phase reappears to maneuver the dough in the pan. The pool of oil from before is now spread out to evenly coat the whole bottom of the pan. The dough is partially flattened, covering only a small portion of the bottom.

Stretch it as much as it will go. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes and try again to get the corners situated.

The dough, with a sheen of olive oil on it, now stretches to cover most of the bottom of the pan. A black silicone spatula is being used to press the dough towards the edges and corners of the pan, but the dough doesn't quite fill the corner.

That'll do. Now cover and let it rise until dinner time. 3 hours or so.

The dough covers the bottom of the pan, including all but the very edge of the corners. A scalloped impression in the dough made with the spatula can be seen around the edge of the pan.

An hour later, it seems like not much is happening. That's fine.

The dough rests in the pan under a cover of plastic wrap. It has risen, but it's hard to tell much difference between this image and the previous one.

Almost 2 hours now, and starting to see some rise.

The dough has now risen for two hours. The vestiges of the spatula impressions are still visible at the edges of the pan, but the dough is noticeably puffier, with the olive oil on the surface pooling in nooks and crannies.

It's been a little over 3 hours. I'm going to put it on top of the oven while it preheats.

After rising for over 3 hours, the dough has bubbles on the surface.

4 hours since the kneading started. Looks pretty good.

After rising for another half-hour or so on top of the oven, large bubbles can be seen on the surface of the dough. A close up, oblique view of the dough, showing the bubbles, nooks, and crannies developed over the last few hours of rising.

This is absolutely key. You want a "moat" of cheese around the edge. Maybe half of the cheese used is piled around the edge. I just use store brand Mexican blend cheese shreds. You can use anything that will melt and brown.

Shredded cheese is piled on the dough much higher than seems correct at the edge of the pan.

Like this.

Shredded cheese is piled on the dough all the way around the edge of the pan, coming up close to halfway up the vertical edge of the pan.

Toppings are at your discretion. I do just pickled jalapeños, but almost anything is fine, really. If it'll burn, maybe put under the cheese. I do that with leftover taco meat sometimes.

The rest of the dough is covered with shredded cheese, then pickled jalapeños are added in 12 piles even spaced across the pizza. Normally I use 12 large pieces, but this was the end of a jar, so I am annoyed by the number of bullshit pieces. Is what it is.

I don't usually do sauce because it makes a mess, but three stripes long ways are traditional.

Now in a 475° oven for 11 minutes on convection. Usually I give it a rotation halfway through, but not strictly necessary unless your oven is really uneven.

The pizza is shown in a moderately dirty oven.

Once it stops sizzling, take it out of the pan and put on a cooling rack.

The finished pizza is shown, with the cheese melted and baked golden brown and delicious.

I cut it into 12 pieces, eat the middle six fresh, and save the corners and edges for leftovers.

The bottom of one slice of the pizza is shown, it's nicely browned, with spots where there were bubbles still light in color.

Sitting down to eat, 4:40 since the beginning of kneading.

An Oxo triple timer is shown, reading 4 hours, 41 minutes, and 39 seconds on the bottom timer.

This has been the pizza procedure.