True Grit

[Xabia Jim]

Hey, I don't mind the cornmeal and flour debate...I've learned from it.

I love my fiber and maybe that's why the cornmeal doesn't bother me.....We've used it for years in baking! Maybe we use a lot more different things with the breads than the flour that seems popular with the pizza afficianodo's

How about a list of the different things we can put under our pizzas, bread, etc.

White Flours
Whole Grain Flours
Cornmeal (is that polenta?)
Ricemeal (looks like white cornmeal)
Wheatmeal (is that grits?)
Bran
Brown Rice Flour (CJ, what other things have you seen used?)
Anyone try seeds?

I did get sand in my paella once...that's true grit and another story!

XJ

[CanuckJim]

Re: True Grit

XJ,

For Kaiser rolls and bagels, I've been using extremely coarse stone ground cornmeal, but I've also used white stone ground cornmeal and fancy durham flour. All are good, each a bit different. I think I've said I dust my peels with brown rice flour, but that's just for slip, not taste.

Jim

[sssmasi]

Re: True Grit

As some of you might know I am passionate about using only flour on the bottom of pizza. I really do not understand why people object to it? Do you really have problems sliding it off? To me cornmeal completely destroys the texture of the crust and the beautiful flavours of the dough. If you like cornmeal, I would say put it in the dough when you make it... not under it when you cook it. At least then it would add a bit of complexity to your pizza. I've never tried anything like that... has anyone? Maybe it makes for a neat flavour.

[Xabia Jim]

Re: True Grit

sssmasi....

On our second or third set of pizzas in the new oven, we did a taste test...flour vs cornmeal....

I think after the passionate debate, we probably just had too much flour under the pizza....it was too pastey tasting......I'm a newby to the WFO type pizza oven using a peel and was using a high hydration dough...very sticky....so I was worried about sticking and sliding.....both flour and cornmeal technically worked fine for me.

I'm on a high fiber diet so we are using whole grain flour anyway. I think you could add a lot of different things to the dough if you wanted. I may try using raw sesame seeds under a pizza dough soon...anyone tried onions in their dough?

I'll definately work on my peel technique...(I want to see the video of James pulling a dough onto his peel!!)...and don't worry, I'll continue to use flour as well as experiment with other things....just how I am