The Art of Pizza Making: Trade Secrets and Recipes (Plastic Comb)

by Dominick A. DeAngelis (Author), Suzanne Ling (Illustrator) "To start creating your own masterpiece, you'll need what the professionals use..." (more)
Key Phrases: dough dressing, temper the garlic, cups high gluten flour, Good Seasons, Baking Equipment, Old Forge (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
EzineArticles.com, January 11, 2007

Best selling novels and tell-alls stay on the bestseller list for weeks if they are really good or topical. Most new books disappear from the public eye in days. The exceptions are cookbooks. A good cookbook can keep its buzz for years. Some cookbooks are treated like family heirlooms and get passed from generation to generation. The Art of Pizza Making by Dominick A. DeAngelis has been around since 1991 and it shows no signs of slowing down. People who bought it, or were lucky enough to get it as a gift, a month or so ago have tried the methods and the recipes and now cannot wait to write their review on Amazon. Maybe the Art of Pizza Making is working its way into heirloom status.

Almost everybody likes pizza. Anybody who has had an exceptionally good pizza loves it, and the sensation of taste of that one pizza slice has been permanently implanted into the nether regions of their brain. Pizza ingredients are salty, sweet and acidic, so maybe a good pizza is like red wine that unlocks every taste receptor in your body and keeps you wanting more. The Art of Pizza Making is the real deal. The author covers every step of the pizza making process and tells you exactly what you have to do to make exceptional tasting pizza with just the right crispness and texture.

This book not only tells you what type of flour,cheese,and tomato base to use, but how to kneed the dough, how long to let it rise, and what preparation temperature you need the dough at to make the perfect crust. If you follow the directions in the book and use the same ingredients, or as close as you can get to the right ingredients, you will make a pizza as good as or better than any franchise pizza store. If you love pizza you need this book. See full review by Peter Boston --EzineArticles.com, January 11, 2007.

From the Publisher
Now shipping is the updated 2009 edition of this best selling pizza cookbook. As an added bonus, this new edition contains over 10 new pizza recipes such as bruschetta, Cuban, Greek, marmalade, Oktoberfest, quattro formaggi, ranch, Reuben, sheppard s pie, and sunnyside pancetta. Of course, it also contains all of Dominick s latest pizza expertise developed since the year 2007 printing, including a scientific brief on gluten, artisan kneading techniques, and the use of instant yeast and vital wheat gluten. So even if you own any of the previous editions, this one is well worth the upgrade to your collection just for the new recipes alone! --EzineArticles.com

From the Author
Pizza is America's favorite food. I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it. This coalition of dough and toppings can be as diverse as any ethnic cuisine; it's not just a round pie with sauce and cheese. If ten people followed the same pizza recipe, each would get different results, reflecting his or her own individuality. So it must be concluded that pizza making is an art, and not just an assemblage of ingredients.

This book is the culmination of over twenty-five years of research and development. During this period, numerous interviews were conducted with retired pizzeria owners, active owners would never divulge their trade secrets, and artisans in the commercial baking industry. As with any artist, some of my creations were influenced by other artists, from pizzerias in the U.S. and in Italy (my mother was born and raised in Italy).

Although I am an engineer by trade, pizza making is my passion. Each year I go through hundreds of pounds of flour, sharing my pizzas with friends and family, while accumulating valuable feedback on each new recipe. My inspiration to write this book was the lack of availability of an adequate pizza cookbook; I've yet to see a cookbook on the market that contains even the basic fundamentals about making professional quality pizza.
--Dominick DeAngelis, January 2007




Product Description
This book is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of pizza making, for both the amateur pizza maker, and for those who would like to open their own pizzeria. It contains additional information not normally found in a cookbook such as trade secrets, where to buy ingredients wholesale (e.g., the high gluten flour), and comparisons and instructions for special preparation and baking equipment such as baking pans, baking stones, pizza screens, silicone baking mats, commercial pizza ovens, mixing machines and proof boxes. It also contains my unique collection of over 50 pizza recipes such as barbecue, breakfast, bruschetta, Buffalo, calzone, cheeseburger, Cuban, deep fried ( Old Forge style ), dessert, Greek, Hawaiian, Indian, mac-n-cheese, marmalade, mashed potato, Middle East, Oktoberfest, pesto, ranch, red, Reuben, roasted red pepper, seafood, Sicilian, Southwest, stromboli, sunnyside, taco, tuna melt, vegetable and white, with preparation instructions for stuffed, rolled or open-faced style. All the recipes in this book have been perfected, and all the details have been included so that even the most amateur pizza makers can get professional results. Not only does this book include proven recipes, it provides all the tools necessary to create your own masterpiece. I've tried too many recipes that show beautiful pictures of pizzas, but once created are displeasing to the palate. This book is for genuine pizza lovers who are willing to take the time to do-it-right. Creating pizzas can be as much fun as eating them!

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Product Details

• Plastic Comb: 114 pages
• Publisher: The Creative Pizza Company; Updated 2009 edition (March 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963203401
• ISBN-13: 978-0963203403
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,813 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There's a reason pizzeria-like pizza is elusive., July 13, 2004

By	John H. Henderson (Rockledge, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent -- Best I ever spent on a book!, March 12, 2000

By	Klynt Klimek (Waco, TX) - See all my reviews

I've bought many pizza cookbooks, but none have mentioned some of the ingredients, or techniques that this book describes. Following the directions in this book, I made my first home made pizza with a crust I actually enjoyed.

If you are interested in pizzaria quality pizza at home, this is the FIRST book you should read.

This book has replaced ALL of my pizza cookbooks. (Others are collecting dust while this one is collecting tomato stains!) After all, if you use the proper techniques and suggestions used in this book, you can top it any way you want and achieve execellent results.

My sincere thanks to the author!

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Pizza Book I've read, February 27, 2005

By	Robert Mcmahon (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have 5 or 6 pizza books, and 2 of them are exceptional. This book (The Art of Pizza Making: Trade Secrets and Recipes) and American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza by Peter Reinhart. They are very different books though. American pie is very polished with chapters about the author's travels for great pizza as well as cooking instruction. It is a great book, but I prefer The Art of Pizza Making a little more. It is just the facts on what pans are best, what flour works best, and best dough recipe I've tried, etc... If you follow the steps in the book, you will make an outstanding pizza.

One thing I didn't realize when I recently bought the book from amazon is that it was updated in 2004. The amazon listing when I purchased indicated the publishing date as 1991 (which is the year of the original printing). I'm not sure how much has changed with the most recent edition, but it has been updated.