[aaronatthedoublef]

I grew up on the South Side and we always had thin crust. Pizza was the one food we would bring in on a semi-regular basis. In the 70s we had two new places come to our neighborhood. One served deep dish and the other was Giordano's.

I haven't been back to the old neighborhood since my mother died but there were many different pizza places even a Pizza Hut (ugh).

I am raising my kids as if they are South Siders when it comes to sports teams and we have a tradition that I will ship in pizza when a team wins a championship. The Blackhawks have cost me a fair bit of money.

The place I was craving the most now is the Home Run Inn. It has it's own distinct pizza but seems to never have had the big publicity places like Malnati's and Giordano's enjoyed.

And no, we will not be ordering pizza if the Cubs win tonight. I am from the South Side.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks.

The first time I make something I try to follow the recipe exactly. For his pizza dough in "My Bread" Leahy says to use 300 grams of bread flour and let it rise for two hours so I did that. I used a little extra water because the dough was too dry and was not coming together.

I then divided it in half per his instructions and tried to stretch it by hand to fit a half sheet. That was where I ran into trouble.

I took the second half and froze it. Then I let it thaw out for about 24 hours in the refrigerator and rolled it with a rolling pin. If I'd really wanted to test this I probably should have tried to hand stretch this but I didn't.

Now I'll try some variations on the flour. I know you suggest semolina to lower the gluten but I'll use cake flour. My family does not like semolina (at least when I use it).

Also, looking up Leahy recipes on the web Mr. Leahy and his acolytes are letting his pizza dough rest for 18-24 hours. I really like longer so I may try that too. But I like to only change one or two things at a time. All this takes time and I only make pizza once a week so it will take a while to sort all this out. I would bet some of this is covered in "My Pizza" but I do not want to shell out another $20+ for it.

[aaronatthedoublef]

RottieDog, that is exactly what Jim Leahy recommends in "My Bread". I tried that a couple weeks ago with no success. It was thick (Mr. Leahy says his is cracker thin) and chewy but tasted good. I kept tearing holes in it and repairing the holes.

Some of this may have been because it needed to rest more after I cut the dough.

This week I took the second half of the dough and used my rolling pin and rolled it out and put it on a half sheet. It was thin. Perhaps it was because the dough was rested or maybe it was just the rolling pin or maybe both.

I can turn pizza on my hands, toss it, or roll it but not stretch it by hand. Maybe I just need to practice more.

My primary purpose is to give people a dough they do not need to knead in a machine or by hand.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sounds like a good meta topic - what accidental discoveries did you make while cooking/baking that changed the way you make a recipe?

[aaronatthedoublef]

I worked in the kitchen in college and we had a night time snack bar. Usually I ran the grill while the pizza makers made pizza. We usually started them with a rolling pin and then hand tossed them and the tossing could get quite involved.

Friday night was usually slow (people went off campus) so we would have pizza tossing contests and in addition to seeing how big people could stretch the dough we had people doing 360 degree turns and various other acrobatics while the dough was in the air.

How no one ever crashed into anything and was seriously injured is a minor miracle. 🙂

[aaronatthedoublef]

In a six strand, double decker like Mike's I have two lengths - the bottom and the top with the top being shorter.

[aaronatthedoublef]

One of my all-time favorites is Rosie's Bakery All Butter, Fresh Cream Sugar-Packed Baking Book. The old version I have is available used on Amazon. There appears to be a newer edition available though.

I love that book

Like BakerAunt, I think RLB can be a little challenging. She left an important step out of her buttercream recipe that caused me to lose several batches before I asked my friend and she told me what I was doing wrong. I also like the Bernard Clayton Complete Book of Bread.

Peter Reinhart's BBA is a great read even if you never make a recipe from it.

I really like the KAF Baker's Companion. I use it a lot. I also like Jacques Torres Dessert Circus. But it is very expensive now. I bought it on remainder at the public television store after they cancelled the series.

I am still a big fan of The Joy of Cooking. I have several different editions including my mom's from the 50s and I like it better than the Mark Bittman or the New York Times attempts to displace it.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I know, I know... but, as the Great Chicago Pizza Book points out, most Chicago pizzas are made using a sheeter. I remember watching them at Giordano's.

The other day we had a dough shortage (we had an extra teenage boy at the last minute!) and I bought some dough at the store. I started to hand stretch it and then, for fun, started to toss it at which point my middle looked at me and said "stop showing off". 🙂

So I can and have done both. For most nights I prefer my rolling pin as does my family (which is really who this is all for).

[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting... We do about a load a day - we're a family of five.

We hand wash pots and pans. I guess they are dishwasher safe but we still hand wash them.

I also hand wash most of our metal mixing bowls. Yes they can be put in the machine but dishwashers are not designed for bowls and I find it easier to just use my hands.

When we have people visiting we'll usually do two loads a day.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. I used KAF bread flour so it's definitely high in protein but it's no-knead so I didn't think the gluten would have developed much. I actually followed the recipe exactly and even weighed the ingredients. I needed a bit of extra water as the dough was too dry.

I still have half a recipe left so I'll play with this. I may try using a rolling pin which is what I normally use. It makes it thinner than I can get hand tossing and I do not have the big crust on the edge.

Thanks for all the help.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, beautiful challah!

Just out of curiosity, have you ever made a six strand challah? I've tried a couple but they don't come out as nice as the two layer challahs.

I made two different pizza recipes, mine and Jim Leahy's no-knead pizza dough. It's interesting because the method in the book appears to be different from what is online in places like this http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/03/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe.html.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone. Some day I'll write my dough recipe down and post it. I actually need to write it up before I do my talk...

I'll look at the recipes you all suggest.

This weekend in addition to my normal pizza I made a Jim Leahy no-knead pizza dough. Leahy, in his My Bread book says this should be ultra thin and almost cracker-like. I could not stretch it this thin and it was actually pretty thick and bready. I should have put it aside and let it rest but I was feeding people. I still have a half recipe left so I'll try it again some time under less urgent circumstances.

I really want a go to no-knead recipe for people who do not have a stand mixer and do not want to knead it by hand.

The other new thing I tried with my own crusts was to bake it part way with just crust and sauce then pull it from the oven and put cheese and other toppings on it. This was to try and make the crust crisper and it definitely worked. Normally the outside edge is cracker crisp and the pizza become softer the closer I move to the center. With these pizzas the pizza was crisp from the outer edge to the middle even with extra sauce and lots of veggies.

But my family did not like it this way so I won't do it again as it's more labor intensive.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The only nit I have to pick is Mike characterizing the Chicago style of thin crust as being "North side". As a fourth generation South Sider there was and is plenty of the distinctive, ultra-thin pizza on that side of town too. In fact, the legend of Ike Sewell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ike_Sewell) aside the first place in Chicago to server pizza was a tavern in Hyde Park called Ken and Jacques's. In the late 50s Urban Renewal razed the entire block and Ken and Jacques's became a group of row houses one of which became my family's home.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. I have not tried vinegar instead of sugar. I have to make some dough tonight so maybe I'll try it with this batch and let you know. I'm also going to make some no knead too. I'll let my family decide what they like better.

I know that Leahy uses sugars in some of his doughs but not in pizza. I haven't read enough of the book yet to understand why he does when he does.

Also, you pointed me to some recipes for different Chicago pizzas in the past but I lost them. Would you mind pointing me to them again?

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Fascinating... Whole Foods in Connecticut has both types. The organic WF brand is long and skinny and the inorganic (I know that's not the real term) is short and stubby.

My favorite is LoL half sticks which packages eight half sticks instead of four quarter pound sticks per box.

As for pricing $3.99 a pound is pretty good. Here we're looking at $5+ on average. Whole Foods inorganic is actually the best bargain on a regular basis at $3.69/pound. I usually buy LoL when it is on sale (usually two for $5 which is different from $2.50 per pound) and stock up with it in the freezer. If I need something that requires butter that has not been frozen I'll go buy some for the occasion and depending on the occasion I decide what butter I want to buy.

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