9 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:Still, this is moving in the right direction.
Dialing in the right thickness factor is such a huge piece of the NY style puzzle. 400g for a 14" crust is basically Domino's NY style pizza, and it's, unfortunately, how most of America defines this style. It's only when you've had the real deal do you understand that a NY slice shouldn't be that doughy/bready.
Joe's is:
14% protein flour
59-63% water
2% salt
1% sugar
2-4% oil
The flour is kind of critical, in that it creates a sufficiently strong dough that best facilitates the characteristic super thin stretch. You can achieve a super thin stretch, as you achieved here, with a weaker flour, but, it's exponentially more difficult/more nerve-racking. Higher protein flour will also brown faster.
Previously, I mentioned the Restaurant Depot in Oklahoma City having 14% flour. There's also 14% protein flour you can order online.
http://www.pennmac.com/items/3230//Bleached-Pizza-Flour-All-Trump-High-Gluten-Flour
There's also a pretty good chance a local bakery is using 14% protein flour and is willing to sell you some.
If you don't want to go any of these routes, then 13%-ish flour is your next best bet- King Arthur bread flour- and only King Arthur, as other brands of bread flour will be closer to 12%.
Joe's also uses a high fat mozzarella that's hard to find on a retail level. Without a trip to RD, whole milk Boar's head is probably the closest you're going to come to it. As the fat content goes up, the cheese golds as it bakes rather than giving you those dark brown spots. One fairly easy cheat for getting a better melt from a leaner cheese is to go with pepperoni pies- the pepperoni will render it's fat and help the cheese gold. You can also grate a little frozen butter over the shredded cheese with a microplane. These workarounds will mostly be cosmetic, though. Pizzeria cheese has a greater percentage of fat because it's aged longer than retail. The longer the aging, the more flavor you get.
