Pizzas from today's baking...

[heliman]

1. Roma tomato, mozarella, bacon & mushroom

2. Refried beans, corn chips & mozarella (optional chilli/sour cream)

3. Anchovy, capers, mozarella and brie cheese.

(not too happy with the results)

[paulyboy]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

They look pretty good to me.
Makes me hungry.....roll on dinner.
LoL
Paul

[heliman]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

Tks for the comments Paul ...

Things that I weren't happy with were: the fire and texture of the dough.

Having said that, the pizzas didn't go to waste! Have got a few pieces left over for beakfast tomorrow.

Here is the cross section of the crust

BTW - still reckon that the Defiance Brand Bakers Flour available locally is the best and most cost effective flour I have come across so far. I am still hunting for Caputo flour here in Perth as I am not prepared to pay $140 /25 kg (without shipping) to get it from Sydney.

Rossco

[Stan]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

Hey Rossco,

Have you tried mixing any flours? The pizzamaking forums are full of references to mixtures of AP and pastry flour to approximate an Italian 00 like Caputo. Mixing might be a viable option for folks like you who can't get Caputo locally. Just a thought.

Stan

[heliman]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

Hi Stan - thanks for the tip...

Currently I am working my way through a 25 kg bag of a local pizza flour and with only 2 people in the house to feed, this is taking quite a while.

Will definitely explore a possible flour mix though - wasn't aware that this was a viable option.

Rossco

[texassourdough]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

Looking good, Rossco!

Nice brownng on the pies. The crust looks pretty puffy and good. What's bothering you about the dough? Can you verbalize it? (sometimes that IS a challenge!)

Bake On!
Jay

[heliman]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

Thanks Jay - the dough remains rather soft and gassy and doesn't stretch properly. Maybe it just needs some additional kneading and a reduction in the amount of yeast. I'll continue to experiment...

Rossco

[Mitchamus]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

they look great!

My dough is a little bit different every time I make it.

I make my dough by hand though (no mixer)
and it's true that you "get a feel" for the dough after a while.

[texassourdough]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

Hi Rossco!

I thought the finished dough looked pretty good.

My favorite pizzaria recently got a new spiral mixer that makes about 100 pounds of dough at a time. Their dough changed character dramatically with the new mixer. Same flour, same hydration, much silkier and sexier to the touch.

I am becoming convinced that most pizza dough is undermixed (but possibly overworked - which results in overheating and oxidation) and with less than optimal gluten development. Part of this conviction arises from the spiral mixer results and part from recent work on baguettes with a variety of mixing techniques ranging from 500 stretches and folds to 500 swipes with a plastic dough scraper. The tactility of the dough is more like the spiral and less like my "normal" pizza dough. I think I will try some alternative mixing on my next batch!

As an aside (for sourdough) I think you don't want to mix artisanal boules as much. I think they benefit from less thorough mixing and that the reduced mixing and working help get bigger bubbles! (Wetter too!)

I don't have any great ideas for you. Will let you know how my experiment comes out - but it will probably be December before I do it!

Jay

[heliman]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

Just putting another quick batch of pizza dough together which I will have for lunch. Have a lot of work to take care of today and tomorrow but I think a break around lunch time to make a few pizzas will be a good diversion...

Thanks Jay & Mitch for the info today...

Rossco

[pizzacrazy]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

Hi Mitchamus,

I like you making dough by hands not by mixer.. could you explain how you really able to do it?

[Mitchamus]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

there are a few ways to do it:

The no knead method

The Stretch n fold technique

and just plain old kneading!

It only takes about 5-10 minutes of kneading time - regardless of how big the batch is.

[heliman]

Re: Pizzas from today's baking...

I would like to try hand kneading one of these days. The are some useful FB videos on the method here: YouTube - fornobravo's Channel

Check the "hand kneading bread dough" and "boule shaping" vids which are also applicable to pizza dough preparation.

Rossco