Weekly Pizza Lunch: Coney Island’s Totonno’s rises from the floodwaters

29 Mar

Totonno's pizza plain pie

Totonno’s serves one of the better coal-oven pizzas in NYC. A plain pizza from just after the joint’s triumphant post-Sandy reopening.

You know, you’re not going to go wrong adding toppings to a Totonno’s pizza, but when the joint is firing on all cylinders, like it was when I visited yesterday, you only need a plain pie for a satisfying meal.

Of course that didn’t stop me and my dining companion from getting another pizza topped with sausage. Continue reading →

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Bar pies: my first two attempts

27 Mar

bar pizza

A 75% hydration bar pie, baked March 26.

I had lunch last week with someone who inspired me to work on a recipe for bar pizza. To that end, I’ve made it twice in the last four days, on Sunday and again Tuesday night (above).

The best bar pizza I’ve had has been from Colony Grill (my favorite) and Star Tavern (a close second). Since I have a purported recipe for Star Tavern pizza, though, that’s what I went with as a target. (The truth is I haven’t had Star or Colony often enough or recent enough to accurately compare and judge whether my aim is true. That said, I’m not so much concerned with accurately replicating them than with making something in the bar vein that tastes amazing. That is my goal.) Continue reading →

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NYC’s best lunchtime pizza special: Motorino’s prix fixe pizza-and-salad meal

18 Mar

two pizzas from Motorino, NYC

Two of Motorino’s signature pies, from top: the brussels sprout and pancetta pizza and the hot soppressata and garlic.

Did you know you can get some of the best pizza in NYC (and therefore THE WORLD) for a mere twelve bucks? Oh, and it comes with a salad, too. Continue reading →

Detroit-style pizza, 75% hydration, all-purpose flour

18 Feb

Detroit-style "supreme" pizza

Detroit-style pizza with green pepper, onion, homemade Italian sausage.

After my previous attempt at 60% hydration Detroit-style pizza, I did some grousing about the result on Facebook. Dmcavanagh and Norma saw my complaining and gave me some advice. First, that this style really does have to be made at a higher hydration, and, second, that all-purpose flour works best. You want a lower protein count for a softer crust that she says, “almost melts in your mouth.” Anyway, tonight? SUCCESS! Continue reading →

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Detroit-style pizza, 60% hydration

16 Feb

Detroit-style pizza

Dough is 60% hydration. Flour, yeast, salt, water.

I made this pizza tonight largely as an excuse to keep seasoning my Detroit-style pans. Also, I wanted to try a more faithful rendition of the genre.

This is a 60% hydration dough. The pans’ instructions say to use a relatively dry dough for the first couple of pizzas, as anything above 65% will have a tendency to stick. Continue reading →

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Thinner-crust pan pizza

9 Feb

pan pizza

Topped with Vermont Smoke & Cure smoked pepperoni.

I made pan pizza last weekend but wasn’t happy with the thickness. I thought it was too spongey, too doughy, too much. What would happen if I halved the dough amount?

Well, even at 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick (as opposed to more than an inch), I’m still not that into it. Don’t get me wrong, the recipe I used makes a great-tasting pizza and is successful in its mission of re-creating Pizza Hut pan pizza. It’s just that I’m still unsure it’s a style I’m wild about. Continue reading →

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Experimenting with pan pizzas

8 Feb

pan pizza in cast iron pan

Topped with Vermont Smoke & Cure smoked pepperoni and candied jalapeños.

It’s no picnic trying to do Pizza Night with a baby in the house. The diaper changes, the rockin’-her-to-sleep sessions, the walks around the neighborhood—all those things tend to interrupt the two to three hours I like to set aside for pizza prep, baking, eating, and clean-up.

All that’s a long way of saying I was jazzed to try J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s “Foolproof Pan Pizza” recipe on Slice. It’s basically about 20 minutes of active work—if that—and the rest is just letting the dough rise. Continue reading →

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Basic Lehmann dough, Baking Steel on bottom rack

19 Nov

Brussels spout pizza raw

Brussels spout pizza, pre-cook.

Cook date: November 18, 2012
Dough used: basic Lehmann dough mixed lean and with low sugar and yeast (58% hydration)
Number of pies cooked: 2 (Brussels sprout, bacon, and Parmigiano; “frozen-pizza-style” pizza
Cooking surface: Quarter-inch-thick Baking Steel, bottom rack; half-inch Baking Steel and Emile Henry Flame pizza stone placed on rack above

I used my quarter-inch-thick Baking Steel for this pizza. This time I put it on the bottom rack of the oven. On the next rack up, I had my half-inch-thick steel AND my old pizza stone arranged to cover the entire rack. (Longest edges of each running front-to-back in the oven, with stone overlapping steel by a couple inches.) Essentially they created an artificial low ceiling for the oven right over the pizza. This had the effect of blocking a significant amount of heat from rising to the thermostat. That in turn meant the oven stayed on, constantly trying to hit 550°F. This would be good if I had a broiler element above the pizza to cook the top as quickly as the crust. What actually happened, though, was that the bottom steel sheet got insanely hot and almost incinerated the dough. Well, not really. But the bottom crust was done in about 1:50. The top, not so much: Continue reading →

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