The Art of Pizza Making: Trade Secrets and Recipes

I came to this book because I wanted to make pizza in a Dutch oven while camping! All Dutch oven pizza recipes were the same - form some pre-made dough in the oven, cover with sauce, cheese and toppings, and bring oven to baking temperature. This resulted in a pizza which left a lot to be desired.I needed information on pizza making that said WHY something was done, and not just recipes, so I could adjust to my odd situation. Dr. DeAngelis, like I, is an engineering Ph.D., so I expected some "why." I was not disappointed. Also, like he, I was born in PA where a pizza parlor was on nearly every block with names like Ferregonio's, Costa's and Veltre's, so I figured he knew pizza.On these counts, I was not disappointed.However, I quickly discovered why pizzeria-quality pizza is so elusive for the home baker: (1) Proper ingredients are often unavailable to the consumer, (2) proper utensils are expensive and/or not readily available to the consumer, (3) the process is time-consuming, and (4) getting good quality pizza is more a function of adhering to many little details rather than any one big item.Dr. DeAngelis asserts that the most important item is to use high-gluten flour. You cannot find this at the local supermarket. You have to find a baking supply house, and the flour comes in 25, 50 or 100 lb. bags, and he adds that anything but the 100 lb. may be hard to locate. And he recommends sharp American cheese! So far, I've been unable to find sharp American.The other important thing is proper kneading with a STRONG preference to using a machine. He recommends a several-hundred-dollar Kitchen Aid mixer, but says that anything with at least 250 W is adequate, meaning that my Sunbeam Mixmaster just meets the requirement (but it gets awfully hot). Just be warned that if you do not have a good mixer, processor or bread machine, you may be frustrated. Like the flour, the recommended pans are only available at restaurant supply houses.As for time-consuming, getting the best results involves allowing the dough to rise under the right conditions for the right time. People with normal lives may find it difficult to time things just right so you're home to take the dough out of the refrigerator 16 hours after making it.Nonetheless, if you follow the instructions as best as you can with what you have available, you can achieve a pretty good pizza that will even impress your wife! The reviewer from the neighboring town of Cocoa probably found what I did; the local phone book does not HAVE the listings for baking suppliers that the author gives, so I too, used bread flour, which has a higher gluten content than all-purpose. I otherwise followed the directions, using his dough dressing (dressing is important), but used a canned spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. Despite the crust looking like it was formed by a two-year-old, when baked, it looked very much like a pizzeria crust, and was amazingly tasty! Perhaps not quite there yet, but certainly a quantum leap above anything I've made before.The book is neatly divided into chapters such as dough, dough dressing, utensils, procedure and others. Of course, it is "spiral" bound, so lies flat when open. I doubt I will use the additional recipes as I like pretty conventional pizza, but they are there for things like Buffalo chicken pizza. I will eventually use his sauce recipe and try other recommended cheeses. Also, the flour and recommended utensils are available from the author's web site for very reasonable prices and shipping.I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in making pizza at home. I have some experimentation yet at home and with the Dutch oven before I feel like I've arrived, but this book has put me on the right path.

Before reviewing the content of the book, I have noticed that some reviewers have `butchered' this book purely because it was not published as paperback or Hardcover book from a recognized publisher... so based on that logic, if a Rolls Royce get its emblem stolen then it's not a Rolls Royce? Doesn't the value of the book come from its content and not its appearance hence the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover"!? One reviewer even wrote paragraphs trashing this item because that reviewer didn't like the idea that the author put this modest effort together using whatever resources available to him, I mean come on... its not like the book costs fifty bucks! I also got the impression that that very same reviewer didn't even bother to go out and get the ingredients necessary like the flour and such and the reviewer never even eluded to the results of trying the author's recommendations and tips.When I got the book in the mail and first started flipping through it, the first thing my wife asked me was "did you know that it was that small and spiral bound before you bought it? Are you happy with it?" I kind of understood what she meant when she said that but it didn't stop us from exploring what this little book had to offer. Now, I am really glad that I continued my faith in the book and author.I agree that upon reading this book for fifteen minutes you get the main concepts of the book and it's not as if you are reading a lengthy book, but the true measure of the books worth must be the improved results from following the author's advice, after all it is a cookery book and the true test of it would be the improved meals. I realized the major flaws in my own recipe and technique... that elusive high gluten flour and kneading technique! I asked around and in the end had to contact one of the local flour mills and they confirmed that they do indeed have it but in 50Kg (110 lbs) sacks which I had to get directly from them, it wasn't an easy task but I finally did... let me tell you that lugging that thing up a flight of stairs was no easy task! My hands are still sore! I will definitely be giving portions of it away to friends and family and keeping the majority. The other flaw in my technique which is also related to the high gluten dough, is that you cannot mix the dough sufficiently by hand kneading. You must use a mixer and most household mixers are really not up to the job. Even though the author states that a 250 Watt mixer should do, my 300 Watt mixer got really hot towards the end of the mixing time. A proper mixer is now on my list of things to buy!I made a batch of the author's pizza dough and it is currently in the fridge waiting to be used later on today to make my very first pizza using his recipe, I have very high expectations. However, feeling enthusiastic and excited about getting the flour, last night I decided to see what effect this new wonder flour would have on other bread recipes. I had previously purchased a wonderful book on bread baking called  Bread: Baking by Hand or Bread Machine  by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno and was never really happy with the results I got for most of the recipes, I always felt there was something the authors weren't telling me. After trying the baguette recipe with this new flour, well... let's just say I'm never going to any more bakeries to buy a baguette ever again! The results from using this high gluten flour are obvious even at the kneading stage, the result is a much whiter and significantly much more elastic dough texture, the final bread had risen much more significantly than all my other experiments with all purpose flour and browned beautifully with a nice crust that I could never achieve before, the inside was still moist and fluffy like a true baguette. I cannot tell you how happy I was with the results, except that the wife and my self kept eating plain bread!In terms of cheeses, I appreciate some reviewers' criticism of some of the recommended cheese combinations although I don't agree with them completely, however, I appreciate that it is a relatively brief booklet and cannot contain everything there is to know in the universe about all the types of pizzas out there. The section on the cheeses has inspired me to experiment with other cheeses like provolone and a few others.As for the sauce recipe, the author has confirmed my current recipe, mostly, especially the use of fresh tomatoes and the herbs and spices.I will admit this though, this little booklet could benefit from a spell and grammar check, which one would assume the author would have done especially given that this is a 2009 revised edition. However, they are minor typos and grammatical errors here and there and do not really make the book unreadable or subtract anything from the knowledge to be gained.Overall, this little book contains some secrets once you try out, not only will it change your pizza making skills, but if you try the same flour and kneading techniques with your bread baking, you will realize that the money spent on this little spiral bound booklet was more than worth it! Thank you Dominick for this marvellous booklet!