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Anybody else have a baking steel?

douglas_bd

I just tried mine out for dinner tonight, and it's the first time I've ever been happy with pizza at home. The crust was easily the best I've ever had from a home oven. Next time, I'll dry my toppings a little more as there was a bit too much moisture - I think the fresh mozz was the culprit - but otherwise it turned out great.

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Tim_Sutherland_52834

@Tucker, the link goes to the MC website and it shows uses cold (anti-griddle using dry ice, cold plate) and hot (griddle, flat Tandoor, and Teppan).

tuckatodd

@tTim Sutherland I do not own MC yet but what are the other uses. I'm interested?

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Why just use the baking steel to make food hot, when it can also be used as an anti-griddle.

Modernist Cuisine has has some great other uses for a baking steel.

Sumit__65166

thanks!

i was inspired by peter reinhart cookbook american pie to start making pizza at home.

that was 3yrs ago. i picked up few pointers from heston's tv series.

i've got few other bread and baking books, and i picked up few pointers from all of them.

wet dough is bit tricky to work with but once you get a hang of it, it's quite easy to work with it. i've done 77% and 80% but for pizza dough i found 75% works the best. i leave 77% and 80% for breads.

my recipe results in crunchy and chewy dough.

the yeast i suggested imparts a very distinct flavour that you've to smell to believe it.

here's my recipe:

500g organic flour with 12% to 14% protein

375g water (35c) - 75% hydration

5g organic barley malt syrup (optional) - 1%

5g rize organic active dried yeast - 1%

9g of salt (1.8%)

i sprinkle a pinch or two of maldon smoked salt when i take the pizza out of the oven.

- mix flour and salt in your bowl.

- heat the filtered water to 35c, and add yeast and let it hydrate for 5 mins. after 5mins, add optional barley malt syrup, and you'd need to mix it well.

- add all this to flour and salt, and when it all comes together knead it for 10mins at speed 2 on kitchenaid.

- let this this rest for 10mins, and knead it one more time for 10mins. for 8mins knead at speed 4, and for last 2mins knead at speed 6. ay higher speed, you'll see it will start to form a ball. just make sure you hold your kitchenaid otherwise it will try to run away!!

- with a wet spatula, pour the dough on floured working space, and sprinkle more flour on the dough. let it rest for 10mins.

- oil a boil (i use organic extra virgin olive oil), and wet your hands with cold water or flour (both work but you'll find what suits better) and form a ball, and put inside the oiled boil and cover this cling film. let this rest for 45mins.

- after 45mins take the dough out, stretch and fold the dough and form a ball, and put inside the oiled boil and cover this cling film. let this rest for 30mins. repeat this 3 more times.

- in a clean oiled bowl refrigerate the dough covered with cling film for 18-24hrs.

- divide the dough in 4 portions or as you may wish to do so, and let it rest at room temperature for 2hrs in summer and 2.30mins in winter. just ensure you cover dough balls with plenty of flour and cover with a towel. with the hands covered in flour, you can very easily stretch the pizza dough. i think using a rolling pin is a cardinal sin when making a pizza dough.

that's it!

next thing to do is conquer homemade garlic and coriander (cilantro) naan bread!!

sumit

prince_of_porcelain

Hi @lostinsydney and welcome to the site! I also only use flour water salt and yeast, though if I get a levain culture going again, I'll try to omit the yeast (at least overtly). I typically use 70% hydration, 2% salt and 0.08% yeast, but I do think I could easily increase that hydration a little bit. I'd be interested in your recipe to compare. I make the dough about 24 hours in advance, fold a few times and let it sit out overnight, then I cut into pizza sized servings around 9 or 10 in the morning and refrigerate until I start preheating the oven. I think an additional day or two in the fridge helps the flavor of the dough so any leftover dough gets stays in the fridge for the next day. I've been using Ken Forkish's book Flour Water Salt Yeast to guide my baking, and he seems to be a big proponent of mastering those four ingredients first and then experimenting with other add ins. I'd recommend the book to anyone who wants to get started baking. Though the ingredients are few, it has many variations on how to use them. It's also designed for use with typical home kitchen ovens.

Sumit__65166

i love pizza!!!

the higher the hydration, and the crispier the dough is. i prefer working with organic flour with 12-14% protein content, and 75% hydration.

if you haven't tried rize brand organic active dried yeast, i'd suggest give this a go and you will fall in love with this yeast! i've tried fresh yeast to store bought yeast, and none of them come close to this.

i'm in australia but i get this shipped from US

i only use flour salt, yeast and water in my recipe. let me know if anyone needs my recipe.

if you make pizza often as i do you should consider getting a pizza oven instead of baking stone or castiron/steel plate. i've to admit when i bought pizza ove (the pizza maker brand) i wasn't sure if it would work but it does.

the best part it needs only 5mins to warm up, and 5-7mins to bake. however, you can only make 2 and you need rest it for 5-10mins before you can start again.

the beauty of this you can control when you want to add toppings.

Chris_Young_80640

Yes, starters can be frozen. I've done that in the past and sponge's freeze rather well. You will want to increase the time for your initial proofing, but that's about it.

prince_of_porcelain

@Jack - that's where my steel is from. It's probably more expensive than a local source, but not bad considering shipping must be killer. I've had good luck with it.

@Chris - Sounds like I need to get another levain started. I had a good culture going last fall, but just didn't bake enough to keep up with it and eventually tired of feeding it every morning. It seems unlikely, but is there any possible way to freeze a starter and maintain active properties once it thaws?

Jack_Mayer_85396

For anyone interested who may not have access to a steel fabricator, I ran across this site: www.bakingsteel.com

Chris_Young_80640

If you want those slow to develop flavors, the best thing to do is mature maybe 20% of the final dough batch weight for several days and then incorporate this into the rest of the dough as a starter sponge.

prince_of_porcelain

My pizza dough has been aging for the last 3 days in the fridge. We called it quits after 4 pies on Saturday and didn't have an hour to heat the steel again until tonight, so it was more or less by default. I was a little worried it wouldn't have much oomph, and definitely had smaller air pockets though not bad at all. But the flavor was phenomenal. 3 days may be just a bit too long (and maybe just right), but I'm thinking an extra day or two to age will really help develop the dough. Any thoughts on how to do this even longer without degassing?

seijoed

Hahahaha!

prince_of_porcelain

Do I have a really really really?

Jack_Mayer_85396

looks really, really good!

prince_of_porcelain

Looks really good!

Brendan_Lee_56950

looks good!

seijoed

Pizza iron comes through again

Played some with my dough as well - ended up with a really nice load.

1000 g flour

550g of water 450g without carbonation hydrate 100g with carbonation

2 tsp bloomed active yeast, 1 dl warm water. 1 tsp sugar.

I just winged the oil and salt...

2 table spoons of regular salt...

1 healthy squeeze of oil. (About 2 table spoons)

I ran this in the stand mixer, put it on a warm stove in an oiled bowl,

it rose to about 4x size, then I worked it again, cut into 6 portions for a second rise - resulted in a very flexible dough - as in can be tossed.

Mike_Minh_Truong_54120

Thanks edward

Edward_33547

@Mike

Unfortunately, we do not carry any inventory of the circulators at our facility, but they drop ship from PolyScience in Chicago in usually a day or two. So you could have one at your door in about a week. Let me know if you have any questions regarding which one might be best for you.

Mike_Minh_Truong_54120

@chris

Thanks for the reccommends. I'll be picking up one or another this coming week. It's just around the corner from me.

Also, can anyone just stop by the Delve kitchen during business hours to pick up a polyscience professional and water bucket?

Chris_Young_80640

Yes Mike. Go to OnlineMetals.com, they have local pickup right down on the North slope of Queen Anne. I recommend the hot-rolled steel plate:

http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=9610&step=4&showunits=inches&id=839&top_cat=849

You'll probably need to grind the metal clean (very abrasive sander, or pay someone to blast it with media). Then season it.

Mike_Minh_Truong_54120

I used to own a ceramic clay pizza stone, but it just recently crack and am now in the market to replace it with a steel baking stone. Now, all I need is to find a steel business in my neighborhood (Seattle) that can cut me the right size steel for my oven.

Anyone know of a place in Seattle that can cut me steel?

seijoed

@Chris - cool! Then I got it right, it seemed easier that way.

Chris_Young_80640

In my experience, it's best to go very light on the oil with each application. I actually try to polish off as much oil as I can after applying the oil and before the heating step.

seijoed

@Tucker, yeah I think so, I think canola would work too. what I did was oil it, in the oven, cool, heat, oil - rinse repeat, it took about 3 times for a black shiny surface.

tuckatodd

@Johan - I would think peanut would work as well. All I have right now is canola and didn't want to use that

seijoed

@Tucker I think it was corn

tuckatodd

@Johan - What type of oil did you use to season?

tuckatodd

Unfortunately my oven has the broiler on the bottom of my oven. The pull out drawer style if anyone recalls(its old). Any suggestions to get the best results without a broiler. My oven does heat up to 550 though. Thanks

tuckatodd

I Just ordered mine today? Be here tomorrow. Only cost me $20. Might have something to do with knowing the owner my whole life. One of the perks of growing up in a small town of 2000 people!!