19 Comments

I never thought of hydration like that! That’s why sourdough bakers make insanely high hydration loaves that’s nearly or sometimes even higher than their starter. It’s also why using a steel (thick original baking steel, not thin pizzacraft steel), an even convection and broiler (I did the bread test), and 550°F doesn’t work for me because the bottom burns before the top even has a chance to finish, so I just use a stone at 500F with no fan.

If I use that setup, how much should I raise the hydration by? Would using all 4 fast pizza cooking methods be overkill or even overcook the pizza? Thanks!

Expand full comment

Andrew my oven, which is electric, only has a heating element at the top. What’s the best way to bake the pie with my oven situation?

Expand full comment
founding

What factors do you find to be most important to produce those nice little leopard spots? I'm having pretty decent results, but want to maximize the effect. Hydration? Long fermentation? Type of flour? Other?

Expand full comment

I have a Baking Steel I love, but have heard the baking stone "battery" idea before. (In Cook's Illustrated, completely unsurprisingly.) My question, though: Can you use a second Steel as a battery, too? I have a Baking Steel Griddle I got as a gift, and would love to use that if it would have the same "charging" effects as a baking stone.

Expand full comment

Super interesting and insightful! The only element I'm confused about is hydration levels for high temp cooking. You seem to recommend high hydration for Napolitan type pizza. Youtube star Vital Lacopelli says the opposite and I am confused. He says regular oven need higher hydration dough as it will cook longer. Could you please clarify... The rest is god sent advice!

Expand full comment

Excellent entry!

One doubt, do you preheat the oven with the bottom resistance, top resistance or both activated?. And about cooking the pizza, with what oven configuration do you make it? bottom, top or both resistance activated?.

Many thanks! :-)

Expand full comment