Continue to Site

Food Coloring in dough.

I

Integraoligist

New member
I’m reading some recipes on PizzaMaking.com forums and noticed that a few of them, which are copies of deep-dish Chicago style crusts, use yellow food coloring to give the dough that nice deep yellow color that Gino’s East and Lou Malnaties has.

Does anyone use food coloring in their dough? And if so, at what % do you use? Is there any issues other than it changing the color?

Thanks all! I EAT WITH MY EYES!
:shock:
 
Last edited:
Believe me, you do not need food coloring or any other secret ingredient to get a dough like Malnati’s.
 
Last edited:
Food coloring, AKA “egg shade”, is commonly used in Chicago, when making the deep-dish Chicago style pizzas. It has no other affect other than coloring the dough to a yellow color. The amount used will depend upon the final color wanted. Also, like flavors, some colorings are more concentrated than others, so some experimentation is needed.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
48.png
Integraoligist:
excellent, thanks for the info… what exactly is “egg shade”?
Click to expand...
Its yellowish hue.
 
Last edited:
I believe that Gino’s East still uses food coloring but not Malnati’s. The last time I checked, Gino’s East was using FD&C #5 and #6 yellow food coloring. The McCormick’s yellow food coloring that I found in a local supermarket is FD&C #5. I read somewhere that one should not use more than 1/2 teaspoon per pound of flour.

PN
 
Last edited:
Egg shade is a food coloring designed to provide a rich, egg like (think egg yolk) color to baked foods. It is available from any bakery ingredient supplier.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
A little off topic,
Can anyone tell me the order and how to put one of these together and in what order? Also, can I bake these in my conveyor oven, or just bake it in my regular oven in the kitchen? Thanks guys, I think this would be a great promotion in my area since no one makes em’!
Willi
 
Last edited:
48.png
HannahBananasOnline:
I think this would be a great promotion in my area since no one makes em’!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I’ve often thought about opening a Chicago-style place, but my business partner absolutely hates that style of pizza and crust. One thing to keep in mind, the cook times are depressingly long - you really are baking a “pie” with these things.

Whenever I’ve had/made one, the order has usually been crust, cheese, toppings and then sauce on top. Man, I have such a craving for one of these right about now… my poor, poor diet.
 
Last edited:
Willi;
Sure, use a 2-inch deep-dish, dark colored pan. Use a high quality, butter flavored, table grade margarine (Bule Bonnet) to grease the inside of the pan. Sheet a dough piece large enough to cover the bottom, sides, and drape over the pan by about 2-inches. Tightly press the dough down into the corners of the pan. Add ricotta cheese and fresh basil, and maybe some diced garlic, then sheet another dough piece very thin, to the same diameter as the other one. Press this dough sheet down over the filling, taking care to get it tucked into the bottom edges of the pan. Using your fingers, (with thumbs on the outside of the pan) tightly pull/crimp the top dough piece to the bottom dough piece all the way around the pan. Then, use a wood rolling pin to crimp cut the surplus dough from around the top of the pan. DO NOT CUT IT. Tear a vent hole into the center of the dough sheet covering the cheese filling and bake in a deck oven at 450F until the top crust begins to turn golden brown, remove from the oven and add slices of mozzarella cheese to cover the entire top crust, then add desired toppings, followed lastly by the sauce. Place back into the oven and bake for about 30-minutes. You may need to experiment with the final bake time as all ovens are different. If you get too much color to the bottom of the pizza, place a pizza screen under the pan to limit the bottom bake.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
Wow,
OK, so people wait that long in the restaurants up there? I’m guessing they par bake the first step you posted? Thanks Tom, I guess I have a lot of experimenting to do, and a little detective work on the whole ordering execution of the timing.
 
Last edited:
48.png
HannahBananasOnline:
Wow,
OK, so people wait that long in the restaurants up there? I’m guessing they par bake the first step you posted? Thanks Tom, I guess I have a lot of experimenting to do, and a little detective work on the whole ordering execution of the timing.
Click to expand...
up here, a pan usually take 30min. of cook time, so an eat-in customer gets their pie in about 40 minutes.

Stuffed on the other hand, takes about 40-45 min. cook time, and an eat-in gets it in about 50 to 1 hour.

You would not belive the amount of people that wait at places like Ginos and Giordanos for these pies. Are they a pain? Yes, but they kick ash
 
Last edited:
Most of the deep/stuffed places are taking orders when you put your name in for a table on the weekends. They’ll par bake your pie, rack it, then dress it, and finish it once you’ve been seated. It seems to work for them, I suppose b/c of the demand in most of the bigger “name” places. I found it a put off when 2 of our last 3 visits (different places) our order was put in wrong. I blame it on an overly busy host(ess) not listening properly. Or maybe the way I say “sausage and pepperoni” really does sound like “mushroom and pepperoni” to the Chicago trained ear.

The upside for the restaurant is by par-baking, they get to turn the table at least one more time that evening.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top