New Year’s Eve Pizza Tradition
Per our tradition, we welcomed in the new year with pizza, once again made the ‘killer grill’ way. We no longer make pizza in the oven because it just doesn’t get hot enough and the pies are inferior in every way.
Dough coming out of the fridge after a 24 hour retard
Lucy even perked up when got to have some crust. She loved it too. The 100% hydration pre-ferment for this one was 9% flour made up of equal parts sprouted Khorasan and sprouted spelt. The liquid was all apple yeast water. At the last minute, Lucy added in a pinch of IDY and 8 g of NMNF rye SD starter to make to make it a triple threat.
We put it on the heating pad until it doubled, then we stirred it down and put it in the fridge for an 18 hour retard. The next afternoon we autolysed the dough flour, half LaFama AP and half BRM Artisan Bread Flour for an hour, adding enough water to get it to 71% hydration with the 2% PH sea salt sprinkled on top.
We started off by doing 150 slap and folds and then let it sit for an hour before doing 50 more and then 25 more an hour later. The dough was placed on an oiled plastic mat, on the heating pad and covered with a SS bowl and a towel between slapping sessions and then we let it sit for 2 hours after the 3rd one.
We punched it down and put it into an oiled SS bowl, covered it with plastic wrap and placed it into the fridge for a 24 hour retard. It had nearly doubled on the heating pad and then doubled again in the fridge. Three and half hours before we needed to make pies with it, we took it out of the fridge, divided it into 3 parts of 250 g each and placed them back into the SS bowl where the pieces doubled in volume again.
This dough was perfect for making pizza, easy to roll out with not much elasticity but strong enough not to tear and make holes either. Earlier in the day we made a batch of Lucy’s Pizza Sauce with fire roasted tomatoes this time, smoked a pound of two kinds of Italian sausage – hot and mild, 12 large Crimini mushrooms cut into quarters and a huge red onion sliced into half inch slices.
Chris Bianco’s Wise Guy Pizza is the inspiration but we put pizza sauce on ours because we like it better than a white pie like Chris’s. We also put fresh basil on our pies after they come off the grill. Since it was so cold and windy outside, the grill only got to 550 F instead of 650 F like usual but the stone was still hotter than 550 F with all 4 burners running at full whack.
The Cheeses were fresh Mozzarella, Full Fat aged Mozzarella and then grated Pecorino on top. I had some nice 3", thin sliced spicy smoked pepperoni too but forgot all about it...... so it never made it on a pie. It is usually my daughter's favorite but she never mentioned missing it.
Normally it takes 8 minutes to make a pizza but this time it took 12 minutes. My daughter said she was disappointed that the dough didn’t have the usual fresh rosemary, sun dried tomatoes and fresh garlic in it and then said that she liked the smoked mushrooms the best and wished there we more of them on the pies. Then she said it was the best pizza she ever had?
She liked picking up the whole pie with her hands and no plate to show her husband how crisp it was and that even the entire pie had so sag. Extra, thin, crisp and tasty is what makes pizza the most popular food ever invented after about a dozen others! Make sue to put the cut slices on a wire cooling rack so that they don’t get soggy and foldable.
Lucy reminds us to have a salad with those pies!
What a great way to bring in 2019 when served with Artful Farmer and Paraduxx red blend wines! The 4 of us polished off the 3 pies and I hate to admit I had 6 pieces. My daughter’s husband now knows all of Lucy’s tricks to making a great pizza. Now he wants some of my SD and YW starters. Happy New Year to all!
Comments
One look at that pizza and I am starving! I love thin crispy crusts like that! Definitely bookmarking this!
sitting outside on the terrace, not in the summer, with a glass of their house wine. right next door is his excellent Italian retardant Tratto's where Chris's brother is the bread maker and then next door to that is a good whole Foods with the best raspberry, flourless chocolate cake in the bakery for desert! My daughter says we don't have to go there anymore because our pizza is better:-( Thankfully she is moving away from here early this year so my wife and I can still go there!
Glad you like the pizza Danni and Happy New Year!
I never make naan in the oven again after doing it once as it hardly puffed up or browned at all when compared to that made on the stove top. Steaming is easy for the latter too: just put the lid on. I guess I should do the same for pizza with slight modification, perhaps turning down the flame and extending the time by a bit.
Looking at your pizza, my mouth is watering! Although I haven't try this in pizza dough, I also like to put freshly minced garlic in naan dough. Must give the sun-dried tomatoes a try soon. Spicy smoked pepperoni is my favourite too but with all the Italian sausages, I might not notice it missing... maybe not really :)
Happy baking and I wish your whole family good health in the new year!
and brushed with butter on both sides when it comes off the grill. I put it right on the grate rather than a stone to get those fantastic dark spots scattered around, If you use a stone, then it isn't on there long enough to get the right color and markings! This dough would be perfect for Naan but you might want to put some sugar and butter in the dough so it browns up faster.
Thick pan pizza from Uno's used to be my favorite and I still like it but it is a heavy calorific greasy, but delicious pie for sure.... made crust, then slices of cheese over it all, then the sausage and the sausage is the last made in a 2" deep pan. I can only eat one slice now a days:-)
Garlic, Sun dried tomatoes and fresh rosemary,make pizza dough heavenly and would make great naan or focaccia that you dip in EVOO or pasta sauce.
The best to you and yours in the NEW Year Elsie.
That is a nice tradition. It looks great and I love pizza!
Happy baking in 2019!
pride and ego, 2 of the 3 things that cause failure in all things.... along with fear .....but any tradition that gathers family and friends to eat pizza and drink wine is OK in my book and an exception to the rule:-) I don't know anyone who doesn't like pizza. It is one of the few things we pretty much all have in common.
Happy baking in the new year pul
I was thinking about your pizza last night. Now, here it is, and it makes me drool!
Happy Baking!
Yippee
I'm thinking about making a pepperoni one right now and just might do it too! I was thinking about what you did for New Years traditionally or do you celebrate Chinese New Years instead or both? I say it is best to celebrate both and be more inclusive - especially if pizza is involved!
Thinking about you and the best to you and yours in the New Year Yippee.
All the toppings sound heavenly. I love a thick chewy pizza but there's always a place in my heart for super thin and crispy non-foldable pizzas! I am imagining the crunchy sound while biting into it. That's all I can do. Why do you have to post this and not send some to us? Anyways, have a great 2019!
Happy baking and Happy New Year!
I'm guessing it is the favorite of most folks because that is what they can get just abut every where and it is so good:-) I said to the pie eaters, listen to this and then bit into the pie and it crunched like a crispy tortilla chip! You would kike it Job.
Happy teaching and baking with the nee oven in the New Year!
I'm guessing it is the favorite of most folks because that is what they can get just abut every where and it is so good:-) I said to the pie eaters, listen to this and then bit into the pie and it crunched like a crispy tortilla chip! You would kike it Job.
Happy teaching and baking with the nee oven in the New Year!
That's one lovely thin pizza crust with delicious toppings. Haven't had pizza in ages and just been craving some. This hasn't helped.
Happy New Year Dabs.
and fried it like fish and chips you could create a whole new British Food Tradition that would put Tikka Masala to shame Abe! I mean they fry meat pies, green tomatoes, candy bars, ice cream, pickles and just about everything else - so why not pizza? It might be too deadly to try and possibly against the law though:-)
Have a great new year Abe
I just ordered some from Lucy....she said they may be a little cold by the time they arrive ??
Happy New Year and all the best from Max, Lexi and the rest of the East Coast gang!