Petaluma baking center hosts pan pizza class with Peter Reinhart

Wearing a black “PizzaQuest” T-shirt and jeans, bread guru Peter Reinhart remains calm at the center of a storm of mise en place. Multiple pans of pizza dough rise under plastic wrap while students prepare a palette of toppings, from white clams with breadcrumbs to “secret sauce,” a vinegary dressing to punch up the pizza pies.

But at the moment, Reinhart is focused on the Genovese pesto he plans to drizzle on an Herbed Tomato and Pesto Foccacia, one of the many trendy forms of pan pizzas he is demonstrating during a hands-on class at Petaluma's new Artisan Baking Center.

“There's a million ways to make pesto … and there are a couple of tricks,” he tells his class. “Toast the pine nuts first. I put half of the Parm and half the pine nuts into the processor, then fold the rest in later, to give it texture.”

After writing 11 cookbooks, including three James Beard Award winners, Reinhart recently embarked on a journey through the hip-yet-square world of deep-dish pan pizza - from Old World Sicilian and Roman pizzas to the New World Grandma and “Detroit-Style” pies - in a new book coming out this spring: “Perfect Pan Pizza” (Ten Speed Press, $22.99.)

Easier to execute than the popular Neapolitan pizzas, which reach perfection in a wood-fired oven, the pan pizzas are well suited for home cooks who bake in home ovens, Reinhart said.

“Baking is a balancing act of time, temperature and ingredients,” he said. “I have an old GE oven, and it still works, but it bakes differently all the time, so I have to constantly readjust the temperature.”

Providing a sneak peek at his latest doughy tome, Reinhart taught his pan pizza secrets to 25 students last month at the shiny, new teaching kitchen built by Keith Giusto Bakery Supply. His challenge was to unveil the techniques he developed for a few of his favorite pan pizzas, including what he considers to be the pièce de la résistance: the deeply satisfying Detroit-Style Red-Stripe Pizza.

“Once you've made this one, you may never need or want to make any other version, as the classic red-stripe is about as close to heaven on earth as a pizza can take you,” said Reinhart, who started baking at Brother Juniper's Cafe in Forestville in 1986 and has taught baking at Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte, North Carolina since 2003.

His idea of heaven on earth - the deeply delicious pie of Detroit - incorporates a visual reference to the Motor City, with parallel lines of sauce reminiscent of tire marks burned into asphalt. So far, the pizza has not made serious inroads on the West Coast.

But move over, Pizza Margherita. According to Reinhart, pan pizzas are a growing trend in the pizza industry, and the hearty pan pies are starting to challenge the ubiquitous thin-crust Neapolitan pizzas. Chef Tony Gemignani serves an array of pan pizzas at his San Francisco restaurants, and now they are beginning to pop up at Los Angeles eateries as well.

“Nancy Silverton has just opened a Roman-style pizzeria in LA called Triple Beam Pizza,” Reinhart said. “She makes a big, long one, and you buy it by the ounce.”

A couple of chefs from Artisanal Brewers Collective (ABC) in LA attended the Perfect Pan Pizza class in Petaluma to derive inspiration from Reinhart, who published his first pizza book, “American Pie” in 2003 after embarking on a two-year pizza quest through Italy and America.

“There's not a ton of pan pizza in LA,” said Joshua Pressman, R&D chef for ABC. “We're opening another pizza place, and we came here to learn from Peter.”

Reinhart, who has developed frozen pizza and other products for Amy's Kitchen of Petaluma, said his latest cookbook grew out of one of his own R&D projects: developing a Detroit-style pizza recipe for a restaurant in Texas. His goal was to make the owner exclaim “Wow!” which took less than a week of experimentation.

“I got the brick cheese, the pans and tasted sauces,” he said. “By the sixth day, I knew we were getting close.”

Ever the innovator, Reinhart made the Detroit pie sing by burying half the cheese cubes into the dough as it was rising, resulting in the perfectly tender texture he was looking for. And he topped the pizza with red stripes after it was baked, which provided a fresher flavor.

“The red sauce is not baked on the pizza, so it tastes very different,” he said. “No one in Detroit is doing it this way.”

Lighter and crunchier than Chicago deep-dish pizza, the Detroit version has a foccacia-like crust that is slightly overcooked so that the cheese melts and oozes out along the edges, where it crisps up deliciously against the metal pan.

-Brick cheese from Wisconsin is traditionally used, but mozzarella, muenster, fontina or provolone can also be used, alone or in combination.

“The edge is crispy, and it's puffy,” Bay Area cookbook author Linda Carucci said after tasting the Detroit-style pizza at the class. “The cheese around the edge melts into ‘frico.'”

As part of the recipe packet, Reinhart provided three dough recipes to the class, including a Whole Grain “Country-Style” Pan Pizza Dough and a Naturally Leavened “Sourdough” Pan Pizza Dough.

However, he suggests that home cooks first master the most popular - the Classic White Flour Pan Pizza Dough - made with unbleached bread flour plus kosher salt, instant yeast, water and olive oil.

He also created a chart for the ratio between pan size, dough weight and total cheese weight, so home bakers can use different size pans they already have on hand (see sidebar for ratios.)

Along with his many ground-breaking innovations - the multigrain Struan bread he developed at Brother Juniper's, his soaker and pre-ferment technique for making tasty whole-wheat bread, and the sprouted whole wheat flour he developed - Reinhart has come up with a special stretch and fold method for kneading dough as well as a “dimpling” technique for pushing out the pan pizza dough.

“You push the dough out gradually, in 20-minute intervals, until it fills the pan,” he said.

Besides the Detroit-style pie, the pan pizza recipes he shared included the Pepperoni Deluxe (a Detroit-style deep-pan pizza “on steroids”), Roman-style Bianca and Rossa pizzas, Sicilian “Clams Casino” Pizza and a Grandma-Style “Reverse Cheese and Sauce” Pizza. He also baked up a rustic Grape and Anise Sciacciata, a double-crust Tuscan pie stuffed with glazed grapes that can be served as a dessert or breakfast.

Meanwhile, you can stay abreast of the busy cookbook author and teacher on his website, pizzaquest.com, which includes Webisodes featuring interviews he has done with famous pizza-makers such as Craig Stoll of Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco.

NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment is in the process of editing the interviews into seven, 15-minute episodes, which will be aired on the Bluprint, a rebranding of the Denver-based digital service Craftsy Unlimited.

“It was originally shot as a pilot for a PBS series,” he said. “In two weeks, we go to LA to do the final shooting.”

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The following unpublished recipes are from Peter Reinhart. They will be edited and published in his new cookbook, “Perfect Pan Pizza,” due out on May 14, 2019.

“This is my favorite, go-to sauce, as I love the texture of the tomato solids,” he writes. “You can use crushed tomatoes (sometimes also labeled ground tomatoes) or buy whole tomatoes and crush them with your fingers or grind them in a food processor.”

Crushed Tomato Pizza Sauce

For 4 to 6 pizzas

1 28-ounce can crushed or ground tomatoes (or whole plum tomatoes ground in a food processor)

1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried basil (or 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil)

1/4 teaspoon dried oregono (or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano)

1 teaspoon granulated garlic (or 4 to 5 cloves fresh garlic, minced or pressed)

1-2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or lemon juice, to taste (or a combination of both)

1/2-1 teaspoon kosher salt, or as needed

Stir all the ingredients together, adding the salt gradually, tasting as you go. The flavors of the herbs and garlic will intensify when the pizza is baked, so resist the urge to increase the amount (you can always add additional herbs on top of the pizza after it comes out of the oven). Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 10 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

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“This is probably the one recipe you should start with, just to perfect your system and determine how your oven and baking shelf best needs to be set,” he writes of the Detroit-Style Red-Stripe panpizza. “ Start out with the classic white dough found (recipe below.)

“The amount needed of each topping ingredient will be based on what size pans you use. (See the sizes in the sidebar for dough and cheese proportions based on pan sizes.)

“So, gather your tools and ingredients, make your dough (always at least one day ahead), and read the recipe thoroughly before you start so you know how much time to allow for each step.”

Detroit-Style Red-Stripe

- Classic White Flour Pan Pizza Dough, always made at least one day ahead (recipe below)

12-24 ounces brick cheese, mozzarella, muenster, fontina, or provolone, or in combination, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

1-2 cups sliced pepperoni (optional)

1 cup crushed tomato pizza sauce (recipe above) removed from the refrigerator about 2 hours before baking

Five hours before baking the pizzas, begin panning and dimpling the dough, at 20 minute intervals, in a greased pan, using olive oil or an olive oil and melted butter combo.

After the first hour or two the dough will have relaxed enough to cover the whole pan after a final dimpling.

During the final dimpling, spread on the top, and embed into the dough, half of the measured cheese cubes. This should allow 3 to 4 hours for the final rise. The dough will bubble up around the cheese and rise significantly in the pan.

Twenty minutes before final assembling and baking of the pizza, preheat the oven to 500 degrees (450 degrees if convection).

When ready to bake, cover the top with about 8 pepperoni slices (if using), and then cover the surface with the remaining cheese (equal to the amount used earlier), especially focusing it around the outer edge and perimeter of the dough - this will create the frico - as well as over the whole surface.

Distribute additional pepperoni slices (the amount is up to you) over the layer of cheese.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 8 minutes, and then rotate the pan 180 degrees and continue to bake for an additional 7 to 9 minutes, or until the cheese caramelizes to a golden brown on the surface and the pepperoni bubbles and browns.

The under-crust of the dough should also caramelize to a rich golden brown, and the outer walls of the pizza should form a dark brown, thin, crispy cheese crust - the frico. (Note: you may have to experiment with shelf placement and baking time, depending on how your oven bakes.

The key is to have the under-crust of the dough become crisp and golden at the same time as the cheese on top caramelizes. If the under-crust seems done before the cheese caramelizes you can finish off the top of the pizza by turning on the broiler - but watch it carefully as it will brown within a minute or two.)

Transfer the baked pizza to the top of the stove or to a heat-proof counter and remove the pizza from the pan by first tracing around the perimeter, between the crust and pan wall, with a rounded pallet knife (icing spatula), a metal dough blade, a metal or Teflon burger spatula, or a butter knife with a rounded end, and lift the pizza, or slide it, onto a cutting board. Use a spoon or squirt bottle to drizzle two to three stripes of pizza sauce across the top (or make a cross hatch of sauce), cut the pizza into either 4, 6, or 10 squares, depending on the size of the pizza, and serve.

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Note that the formula below specifically calls for unbleached bread flour and not Italian -00- flour or all-purpose or high gluten flour.

However, if all you have on hand is all-purpose flour or some other type, feel free to proceed but be prepared to adjust the hydration (slightly less water for all purpose or Italian flour, slightly more water for “high gluten” flour).

Classic White Flour Pan Pizza Dough

4 1/3 cups (1 pound 4 oz. or 567 grams) Unbleached bread flour

1 3/4 teaspoons (0.4 oz or 11 grams) Kosher salt

1 1/4 teaspoons (0.14 oz or 4 grams) Instant yeast

2 cups (16 ounces or 454 grams) Water (cool, about 60 degrees)

2 tablespoons (1 ounce or 28 grams) Olive oil

1 tablespoon (0.5 ounce or 14 grams) Extra-virgin olive oil (for stretch and folds)

In a mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, stir together the flour, salt, and yeast. Add all the water and stir with a large spoon, or use the paddle attachment and mix on slow speed for 30 seconds to form a coarse, shaggy dough.

Add the oil. Increase the speed to medium (or continue mixing with the spoon or with wet hands) and mix for another 30 to 60 seconds to make a wet, coarse, sticky dough. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes to fully hydrate.

Increase the mixer to medium high speed (or continue mixing by hand) and mix for another 30 seconds to make a smooth, sticky dough. It should be soft, supple, sticky to the touch, and offer a little resistance when pressed with a wet finger.

Use 1 teaspoon of olive oil to make a 15-inch diameter oil slick on the work surface. Rub some oil on a plastic bowl scraper and on your hands and use the scraper to transfer the dough to the oil slick.

Wet your hands. Stretch and fold the dough (see video on YouTube) by getting under it with your fingers and stretching it, then folding it halfway over, turning the dough and folding it halfway over three more times, from all four sides. Then flip it over. The dough should get a little firmer each time.

Cover the dough with a bowl and let it rest for 2 to 5 minutes. Then, repeat the stretch and fold (you can rub additional olive oil on the work surface, as needed).

Again, cover the dough, let it rest for 2 to 5 minutes, and repeat the stretch and fold. Cover with the bowl and again let it rest for 2 to 5 minutes. Perform one final stretch and fold to make a smooth ball of dough. The dough will have firmed up after each stretch and fold and will now be soft, smooth, supple and somewhat sticky, but firm enough to hold together when lifted.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for anywhere from 12 to 72 hours, and put it in the pan on the day of the bake.

On the day you plan to bake, follow the steps according to the instructions for the pizza above.

Staff Writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 707-521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @dianepete56.