36" Pompeii low-dome in Livermore, CA

[Larry P]

Larry that pizza looks amazing! Cant wait to be able to cook in mine, still lots to do but your sharing on this forum encourages all of us.
thanks
Ivan.

Thanks!

Looks like my tile work will be on hold for a couple weeks due to needing to special order tiles. In the mean time, I'll finish rendering the walls on the stand, get some field stone for the stand, and probably another render coat on the dome.

In the mean time, here's a Pizza Margherita from last night:

[Larry P]

I've been laying low for the past few weeks. The tile I wanted for my dome was special order, with 5-6 week lead time. Those are still at least a few weeks away, but I did spend some time this weekend, rendering a coat of SBC onto the walls of the stand. I'm still not 100% sure how I'm going to finish it - either field stone or a mix of stucco and fieldstone. I also have the problem that the rest of the outdoor kitchen will butt up against one side of the oven, so I can't finish the base yet. But anyway, the stucco coat on the base was another big step forward in aesthetics:

[Larry P]

For some inspiration, we're rolling in pies now. Still dialing everything in, but I'm better every time.

[JRPizza]

Larry, nice looking pizza! If you don't mind me asking, what recipe are you using for your dough, and what approximate temps are you running on the floor when you are cooking the pies?

[Larry P]

Thanks! My best results so far are with the floor around 850º. I'm getting a feel for needing to dome the pizza with a hotter floor.

The dough is Caputo "00" flour (100%), spring water (67%), sea salt (3%) and Camaldoli sourdough starter (5%) fermented 48 hours at about 60º in my wine cellar. I also keep the Ischia sourdough but I slightly prefer the flavor of the Camaldoli.

Actually I have my entire instructions in a spreadsheet, so let me grab them:

My formula is 100% flour, 67% water, 3% salt, and 5% starter. I keep my starter around 70% hydration which is close enough to the dough that don't account for the hydration of the starter. I'll typically pull my starter from the fridge and do 3 feedings on 12-hour intervals, then wait a couple hours and it's ready to go. I do a 48-hour ferment, most of which is done at 60ºF in my wine cellar, but I might pull it out to room temp for the last 8-12 hours or so, depending on the weather. Typical bulk ferment for 24 hours then ball it for the next 24.

My dough balls at the party were 270g which are a little on the big side. Typically I'm between 250g-280g. For 8 270g balls that means 1234g flour, 827g water, 37.0g salt, 61.7g starter, assuming 0% waste which I'm able to achieve using the Kitchenaid. If I'm working by hand I'd probably up everything by 5%.

So, measure out the 4 ingredients. I'll measure the flour, then take some from the measured quantity to dust a small bowl and use that to measure the starter, so I don't have trouble leaving some starter stuck to the bowl.

Then, water and starter, with whatever residual flour is left in the starter bowl, into the Kitchenaid with the whisk, and whisk at high speed until the starter is dissolved and the water is turning to foam. Add the salt and continue to whisk for just a few seconds. Switch to the dough hook and add the flour, run on speed 2 while scraping the sides, until the dough forms a ball which should take a couple minutes. Let rest for 20 minutes, then knead using the hook on speed 2 for about 6 minutes. Turn out onto your marble board and do a few stretch-and-folds, then cover with a bowl and let rest for 20-30 minutes. After that time, do a few more strech-and-folds, cover and let rest another 20-30 minutes. Then do a 3rd round of strech-and-fold, at which time you should notice the dough becomes very silky and stretchy. If it doesn't you can continue intervals of resting and stretching, but by this time I'm usually done. That's when I'll bulk it into the cellar for 24 hours.

[JRPizza]

Interesting.. I tried using my sourdough in the kitchen oven but the crust was always very "tough" and you really needed sharp teeth to bite through it . I've been wondering if I'd get different results in the WFO - your pies have me thinking I need to give it a try. My standard dough has been using the following recipe, but have not had the patience to let the dough rise for more than a few hours - guess I need to try the longer rise time too.
By Weight
• 500gr Molino Caputo Tipo 00 flour
• 325 gr water (65% hydration)
• 10 gr salt
• 3 gr dry active yeast

[Larry P]

Your recipe looks good, but longer ferment will improve it. It doesn't require patience, so much as planning ahead. I've been experimenting with 36 hour rise, and not happy with the texture or the flavor. Definitely no issue with toughness here. When I nail it, the dough is soft and pillowy, with a slight crisp membrane on the outer edge.

[JRPizza]

I'll keep working at it. Really want to make a go of using my starter - never have to worry if the yeast is fresh

[deejayoh]

Your recipe looks good, but longer ferment will improve it. It doesn't require patience, so much as planning ahead. I've been experimenting with 36 hour rise, and not happy with the texture or the flavor. Definitely no issue with toughness here. When I nail it, the dough is soft and pillowy, with a slight crisp membrane on the outer edge.

I recently bought Ken Forkish's new book "The Elements of Pizza", which has an approach where you make a levain for the dough and let it rise overnight - and then mix the dough in the morning and let it rise for 5-6 hours balled. I have to say, using that method has improved my sourdough crusts immensely! Much better spring in the oven, easier to work the dough, and good flavor. Apparently its the approach that's used by most of the pizzerias in Naples - based on his research

The book is well worth buying if you haven't seen it.

[Larry P]

That's similar to what Anthony Mangieri does at UPN - makes a sourdough preferment the day before, and mixes it into the dough in the morning for that evening's service. It makes sense, as a way to maintain the benefits of long fermentation, without having to keep 2 days worth of dough balls around all the time. it's something I intent to experiment with, once I feel like I have the oven dialed in.

[Larry P]

It's been a while since I updated my build... My special-order tiles ended up taking more like 3 months to arrive, and when they finally did, I was on a 2-week vacation. I thought the mosaic would take me a few weekends at the most, but I've been at it now for 7 weekends. As a wise man once said, "We do these things, not because they're easy, but because we thought they'd be easy."

But, I finally finished the grout yesterday. I'm planning to seal it, but that may have to wait since they are predicting our first rain storm for today.

Here are pics of the process.

[Larry P]

More pics...

[Larry P]

Continued...

[Larry P]

Next will be field stone on the base, but that may wait until we build the rest of the outdoor kitchen and tie it in with the oven, and that probably won't start for a few months.

[JRPizza]

Nice job! That's a pretty unique look. Hopefully it will appease the tectonic gods and you will have years of "shake free" cooking