Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In 2011, I took a wonderful pizza making class in New York City's Little Italy, and I've been making decent pizza at home since then. However, after 5 years, I found I wasn't getting any better at stretching out my pizza dough, and the quality of my pizza dough itself wasn't always consistent. Frustrated, I took The Pizza Bible out of the library and was immediately attracted to the lush pictures of every type of pizza I'd ever heard of and some that I hadn't, (St. Louis style? Cincinnati Red?) I was a little put off by some of the writing. As 11-time World Pizza Champ, there are at least 11 recipe intros of pizza making heroism that I originally found a bit over the top. In any case, I decided that my pizza making wasn't going to get any better on it's own and I purchased the book. Tony states that professional grade, high gluten flour along with diastatic malt powder are essential to amazing pizza dough. So I held off awhile because that was annoying. I could find a bunch of the kind of flours called for on Amazon, as well as the malt powder, but they weren't all on Amazon Prime and I didn't want to have pay shipping on 4 different 5 pound bags of flour. However, on Tony's website,[...], Tony sells sample packs of assorted flours and throws in a small packet of the malt powder. The person I contacted there was super helpful and accommodating and I placed my order. Then I made a batch of the Master Recipe dough, which Tony gives as a sort of lesson for your first attempt. It took 3 days, but I could tell right away it was different from my old dough recipe. It was lighter, bubblier, softer and stickier. On the third day I barely needed to stretch it- I was able to softly press it to the correct size in a minute or two. Then there was the taste. You know people say "it's even better than what you can get in a restaurant?" but it never really is? THIS IS! Seriously- my 8 year old noticed! My husband, who thought the whole need for me to order 15 pounds of flour through the mail was a scam, literally ate his words. Not only was the crust tender and delicate, the flavor was incredible! Nuanced! I made something with nuances!! I right away emailed the nice man who helped me choose flours from Tony's shop to thank him, and he told me that once I graduate the next step, which is the dough using the starters, it will make it even better. I can't imagine. I can't wait. If you want to make great pizza, get this book. Yes, you will need to order special ingredients and buy special supplies. You will need to invest time and refrigerator space. Suck it up! It's worth it!