PIZZA PEEL HOOK RECIPES

Steps:

• It’s easiest to make this in a standing mixer with a dough hook (otherwise mix it in a bowl and knead on your work surface). Put the flour and salt in the bowl and mix the yeast into the water. It’s always a good idea to wait 5 mins before using the liquid to see if the yeast is working – little bits will start to rise to the top and you’ll know it’s active.
• Turn on the motor and pour in the liquid. Keep the speed on medium-high and it should come together as a ball. If the bottom is still sticking, tip in 1-2 tbsp of flour. Knead for 5-7 mins until the dough is shiny and it springs back when you press your finger into it. (If kneading by hand, it will take you about 10 mins.) Try not to add too much flour if you can. This is a slightly sticky dough, but that keeps it light and it rises beautifully.
• Use oiled hands to remove the dough from the hook and bowl. Oil another bowl and place the dough in it. Turn it around so that it’s lightly coated in the oil. Cover tightly with cling film and then a tea towel. Place in a draught-free area that’s warm and leave until the dough has doubled in size. If it’s a hot day, it should only take 2 hrs to rise, but it could take 4 hrs if it’s cold. (If you don’t plan to use the dough for a day or two, place it in the fridge straight away; take it out 3-4 hrs before using. Punch it down first and bring it together on a floured surface.)
• Divide the dough into 2 pieces for big pizzas or 4 for plate-sized ones, then shape into balls (see Shaping the dough in tips, below) – dust them in flour as they will be sticky. Keep them covered with a tea towel or cling film while you prepare the toppings. (you can also freeze them in sealed bags. Just thaw in the fridge on the day, then bring to room temperature 3 hrs before using.)
• To shape the dough: If you want to get air pockets and a light but crisp dough, then don’t use a rolling pin. It flattens and pops the air bubbles. (Two days in the fridge will produce the most air bubbles – take it out three to four hours before using.) If your dough is at room temperature, you can use your fingers to gently stretch the dough out. Once it’s about 16cm, place the disc over the tops of your hands (not palm side) and use them to stretch it further, up to about 25cm. You can start pressing out the other discs, then wait to do the final bit when you’re ready to cook. Once you’ve mastered stretching the dough out, you can experiment with other shapes: rectangles, rounds or squares all look authentic.
• To cook the pizza: An outdoor gas barbecue is best for controlling the temperature, but charcoal will give your pizza a more authentic, smoky flavour. For gas, turn the flames down to medium-low so that the bottom of the pizza doesn't burn. When cooking on a charcoal barbecue, let the coals turn grey before you pop on the pizza.
• Place the pizza on a floured baking sheet (with no edge) or a pizza peel – this is a flat pizza paddle with a long handle, which makes it easier to get the dough on and off the grill. The flour will provide the 'wheels' for it to slide onto the grill – don’t use oil as it sticks more and won’t transfer as well.
• Make sure the grill is hot and the flames have died back if cooking on charcoal. Slide the dough onto the grill, close the lid (if your barbecue has one) and give it three to four minutes. The dough will puff up; it's ready when the bottom has light brown stripes. Use tongs to pull the dough off and turn it upside down.
• Assemble the pizza of your choice – see 'Goes well with', right, for topping suggestions. Remember that less is more, as the dough will stay crisper and the toppings will cook better.
• Place the pizza back on the grill, uncooked-side down, and shut the lid. Give it another three to four minutes, then remove when the cheese is melted and the toppings are hot.

Steps:

• Levain
• Prepare your 120g of starter by mixing 40g of starter with 40g of water and 40g of flour. This is a 1:1:1 starter preparation, but other builds are fine too. Mark your jar with a rubberband and let it sit at room temperature for 4-8 hours until roughly tripled.
• Mixing and First Rise
• Mix the ingredients, including the 120g of mature starter, together by hand, or in a mixer with the dough hook attachment, until everything is incorporated and forming a ball around the hook.
• Scrape the dough out onto a floured counter and knead it for 3-5 minutes, adding a small amount of flour until the dough is manageable.
• I prefer to hand knead the dough, but if you want to keep the dough in your mixer for 5-10 minutes until it passes the windowpane test, that is fine too. Covering it while it's still shaggy, and doing several rounds of stretching and folding over the course of a couple of hours is also an option.
• Lightly oil a bowl, dab the "top" of your dough ball in the oil, then lay the bottom side down in the bowl and cover.
• Let the dough rise until it has approximately doubled. I tend to leave the dough at room temperature for a few hours and then put it in the refrigerator for a day or so, and finally pull it out when it is fully risen or close to fully risen and just needing a few more hours at room temperature.
• The bulk fermentation can be just a few hours if you use warm water and have a warm house or put the dough in a lit oven, or this can be five days if you use sleepy starter and put the dough in a 37F refrigerator. I did the latter recently, and the pizza was tasty-sour and the crust perfectly bubbly.
• Preshape and Second Rise
• When the bulk fermentation is finished, lightly oil a 9x13 baking pan and your counter.
• Scrape out the dough onto the oiled counter, gently press out most of the air, and divide the dough into 4-5 pieces. The total dough weight is approximately 1140g. This makes five approx. 225g or four 285g pizzas. (You can go larger and smaller, but you may need to adjust cook time.)
• Form each piece into a ball by folding the sides of the piece inward. Then hold the ball in one hand with the taut top on your palm, while you pinch the bottom pieces together with your other hand.
• Place the balls in the oiled pan seam-side down, and cover or put the entire pan in a plastic bag. The final proof can be at room temperature for 45-90 minutes or in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. Various combinations of room temperature and cold proofing work, and a lot depends on how warm the dough was when you shaped it, and if your room temperature is very warm. Even in a heat wave, I've not seen a big difference in pizza outcome when the first dough ball of a batch was formed into a pizza and cooked an hour before the last dough ball.
• Topping Prep
• 45-90 minutes before the dough is finished proofing, set up your toppings and the area where you will be stretching and "decorating" your pizza. My preferred pizza sauce is NYTimes Classic Marinara plus 6 ounces of tomato paste (sometimes I skip the paste). I like to make it ahead of time, and simply pull it out of the refrigerator to warm up a bit when I'm setting up the toppings.
• Shaping and Baking (by oven type)
• Wood-Fired Oven
• About 30 minutes before your dough is finished proofing, fire up your pizza oven. Make sure your Uuni or other pizza oven is clean and ready to go -- the stone tiles have been brushed off, and the charcoal/wood tray has been emptied.
• Have everything you need on hand: kindling, charcoal, gloves, an aluminum pizza peel, and a "hot plate" to lay the door on (also the cast iron pan if you cook vegetables or meat too). I use a couple pieces of kindling as a rack, and steel/aluminum baking sheets and cooling racks for the pizzas that come out of the oven. (See gallery)
• Your damper in the chimney should be open, and the flue at the base of the chimney inside the oven should be about half open.
• Place 4-6 pieces of very dry kindling in the fuel area of your pizza oven. Light them and put the cover back on. Checking on them every few minutes, let them burn for about 5-10 minutes, until they are fully burning. Add about 15 pieces of lump charcoal and wait another 10 minutes or until the temperature is over 700F. About 5 minutes before cooking your pizzas, you can add wood again for an extra burst of heat. Wait a few minutes for the wood to be fully lit and the smoke to be white or clear, not black, before before loading a pizza. This entire process takes about 20 minutes, and this is what has worked for me, but you may prefer different time parameters, fuel types and amounts.
• Prepare your pizza peel with flour and cornmeal. Rub the flour into the wood and sprinkle the cornmeal on the top of the flour. I prefer a wood peel for prepping and loading pizzas, and an aluminum peel for removing them. A third smaller peel for turning the pizza is a helpful option, too.
• Remove a dough ball from the proofing pan and gently grasp one side of the circle with both hands. Holding the top edge of the circle (10 o'clock and 2 o'clock), let the rest of the dough droop/stretch downward while you then rotate and re-grab the dough like you're turning a steering wheel. This will develop about a 1/2-1 inch crust edge and stretch the middle. (Using a rolling pin is fine too.)
• If the dough only stretches a bit, lay it down on your floured counter for 5-10 minutes while you work on your other dough balls and check on your oven temperature. By the time you come back to the first circle, the gluten should have relaxed and you will be able to stretch it further. Try not to let any part of the dough get thin enough to see through or you may end up with a hole.
• Lay your pizza dough on the floured/cornmealed pizza peel. Stretch and adjust the dough a little more, aiming to position one edge of the pizza all the way at the front edge of the peel. When you insert the peel into the oven, the front edge of the dough will "catch" on the hot stone, making it easier to slide the peel out from under the pizza.
• Now top your pizza dough to your liking and put it in the oven. If you leave the pizza on the peel for more than a few minutes, it may begin to stick to the peel, so keep your assembly line moving.
• After about 1.5 minutes of cooking, rotate your pizza with an aluminum peel. The heat is strongest in the back of the oven near the fire, so this will encourage even cooking and char spots. After about 1.5 more minutes, your pizza is likely done.
• Using an aluminum peel, remove the pizza from the oven and put the pizza on a rack if not eating right away (this keeps the bottom crispy), or on a plate or a steel/aluminum sheet to serve.
• Repeat with the next pizza and so on. When you're finished cooking the pizzas, let the fuel burn off and the oven cool down before cleaning and storing it.
• See the last photo gallery for ideas for things to cook while the oven is warming up (pitas), cooling down (s'mores, garlic knots from extra dough), and still very hot (steak and veggies).
• Kitchen Oven
• About 30 minutes before your dough is finished proofing, preheat your kitchen oven with a baking stone or steel in it to 500F, using the top shelf if you have a top broiler. You can also use an upside-down baking sheet as your baking surface, with parchment paper under the dough, and preheated to only 450F.
• Flour and sprinkle cornmeal on the peel as described above, or use a square of parchment paper for each pizza.
• Remove a dough ball from the proofing pan and gently grasp one side of the circle with both hands. Holding the top edge of the circle (10 o'clock and 2 o'clock), let the rest of the dough droop/stretch downward while you then rotate and re-grab the dough like you're turning a steering wheel. This will develop about a 1/2-1 inch crust edge and stretch the middle. (Using a rolling pin is fine too.)
• If the dough only stretches a bit, lay it down on your floured counter for 5-10 minutes while you work on your other dough balls and check on your oven temperature. By the time you come back to the first circle, the gluten should have relaxed and you will be able to stretch it further. Try not to let any part of the dough get thin enough to see through or you may end up with a hole.
• Lay your pizza dough on the piece of parchment paper or floured/cornmealed pizza peel. Stretch and adjust the dough a little more, aiming to position one edge of the pizza all the way at the front edge of the peel if that is what you're using. When you insert the peel into the oven, the front edge of the dough will "catch" on the hot stone, making it easier to slide the peel out from under the pizza.
• Now top your pizza dough to your liking and put it in the oven. If you leave it on the peel for more than a few minutes, it may begin to stick to the peel, so keep your assembly line moving or use parchment paper.
• For a pizza stone or steel, bake for 7 minutes, then switch to broil for 1 minute more. Keep the oven on broil an additional minute before you load the next pizza. This helps reheat the stone before you switch back to bake mode.
• For a baking sheet, bake the pizza on parchment paper on the sheet for 8 minutes, then broil (still at 450F) for 1-2 minutes. Then move the pizza to a bare lower rack, removing the parchment after the transfer, and bake 3-4 more minutes.
• Remove the pizza from the oven with a peel, spatula, or even by tugging on a corner of the parchment paper.
• Put the pizza on a rack if not eating right away (this keeps the bottom crispy), or on a plate or a steel/aluminum sheet to serve.
• Repeat with the next pizza and so on.