Welcome from Peter

[Purplegoanna]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Hi Pizza Quest Members and All Others too,
This area of the Forno Bravo Forum is dedicated to Pizza Quest related matters, including questions and answers, sharing of ideas, tips, tricks, leads for tools and ingredients, best pizza finds, and on and on. I may jump in only from time to time, so if anyone poses a technical question, whether about dough or pizza technique, please pose it to the group, not just to me. If any reader has a suggestion or response to that question, feel free to share it. If I see any misinformation or bad advice, I'll try to address it, but I can't promise that I'll be on top of everything--I'll be focused primarily on developing new copy for the Pizza Quest website and won't be able to be the so-called "Answer Man," though I'll try my best to offer ideas when I can. But I'm also confident that the cumulative wisdom of our community will be the most helpful of all, so let's keep sharing.
The main rules of this Forum are the same as for Forums in general: no bashing, no foul language, and a general tone of civility. We're all in this together and are building a community of like-minded pizza freaks and lovers of artisanship, so let's demonstrate that in our communications. I look forward to seeing where it all leads and expect to learn as much from you as you hope to learn from me. Onward....

Hi Peter from NEW ZEALAND, i have to say after trying numeruno pizza bases looking for a thin crispy base recipe yours has come out tops.......THANKYOU so much for sharing it with us and it seems everyone else on the net......

[paneman]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Hey Peter, it's kurtis Baguley here. Just ordered a ner casa2G100. Looking forward to the build. Looking forward to great bread baking.

Just wanted to say hi!~Regards

-Kurtis

klbcf7@gmail.com

[sacwoodpusher]

Re: Welcome from Peter

I just made pizza dough because the DeMolay group is coming to my house on Saturday. So 3:00 PM on Wednesday to ferment in the fridge until Saturday am when I will take out and shape into 10 10 oz balls. I will be teaching the boys how to make wood fired pizza at 12:00 noon.

10 10 oz. dough balls means 100 oz of dough the hydration will be 65%

100/1.65= 62.5 oz. or 3# 14.5 oz Bakers Pride Pizza/Bread Flour from Sam's.
40.6 or 2# 8.6 oz. 50 degree well water from Wilton, CA
2% salt or 1.25 oz salt
yeast 1 TBL (I never use less.)

Mix dry ingredients in a tub, and add water. Mix with wooden spatula and then knead by hand until all dry is incorporated. (1-2 minutes.) Refrigerate until 3 hours before use when I will divide into 10 balls, and stretch to form a skin.

I accidentally added 2 oz of salt instead of 1.25 oz.....Should I throw it out or go ahead with it? I calculate 3.2% salt.....way too much????

I will use Cento Tomato Puree which is unsalted for the sauce, and slivers of Precious Mozzarella which I buy in 2 lb blocks from Costco.

I believe in using local,commonly available, or inexpensive ingredients where possible. Tony G. uses ConAgra flour (Bakers Pride) for his Chicago pizza school class. As I get better, I will try the upgraded ingredients, but they gotta be worth the bucks.

We had the DeMolay pizza making event yesterday. The boys were in the 15 year old range. The "oversalted" pizza crust worked out just fine as regards taste, oven spring, etc. What did not work out, in my opinion, was the workability of the dough. I could stretch it, and had no issues, but the boys did have some difficulties making the dough thin enough. They would stretch the dough, and it would "unstretch", or pull back to its original shape, or they would put a hole into it. I had no problem, but it takes a while to get a feel for pizza stretching. I have to say that a salty crust with an unsalted sauce was delightful. I had them all make Margharetes, but I had no basil, it dies in the garden in late fall, but I did clip off some fresh oregano and thyme from the garden. Nobody chose to use thyme, but they did use the oregano.

I have the same type of pizza making venture next Saturday, but this time it is for the Job's Daughters. (I am the Master of Elk Grove Lodge #173, and my daughter is the Job's Daughter Honor Queen this term.) I will be making about 200 oz. of dough this time, but will be trying a hydration of 75% this time. I think this may work better for the girls. By the way, the flour I use has a protein content of 11.4% according to the Con Agra rep I spoke to. He mentioned that is the protein content IN NORTHERN CA.

[Peterreinhart]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Great idea, frying a small piece! Let us know how the event went. I'm glad the dough seems to be working for you despite the added salt--maybe those 3.5%'ers know what they're doing!

[sacwoodpusher]

Re: Welcome from Peter

I just made pizza dough because the DeMolay group is coming to my house on Saturday. So 3:00 PM on Wednesday to ferment in the fridge until Saturday am when I will take out and shape into 10 10 oz balls. I will be teaching the boys how to make wood fired pizza at 12:00 noon.

10 10 oz. dough balls means 100 oz of dough the hydration will be 65%

100/1.65= 62.5 oz. or 3# 14.5 oz Bakers Pride Pizza/Bread Flour from Sam's.
40.6 or 2# 8.6 oz. 50 degree well water from Wilton, CA
2% salt or 1.25 oz salt
yeast 1 TBL (I never use less.)

Mix dry ingredients in a tub, and add water. Mix with wooden spatula and then knead by hand until all dry is incorporated. (1-2 minutes.) Refrigerate until 3 hours before use when I will divide into 10 balls, and stretch to form a skin.

I accidentally added 2 oz of salt instead of 1.25 oz.....Should I throw it out or go ahead with it? I calculate 3.2% salt.....way too much????

I will use Cento Tomato Puree which is unsalted for the sauce, and slivers of Precious Mozzarella which I buy in 2 lb blocks from Costco.

I believe in using local,commonly available, or inexpensive ingredients where possible. Tony G. uses ConAgra flour (Bakers Pride) for his Chicago pizza school class. As I get better, I will try the upgraded ingredients, but they gotta be worth the bucks.

Thank you Mr. Reinhart. Not wanting to sacrifice a whole dough, I took off a piece a little less than a golf ball, put it in a small bowl, and immersed the small bowl in a bowl of 100 degree water. I then fried the dough instead of firing up an oven for such a small piece. I ate the sample, it tasted good, not too salty, but I will go light on the salt in the topping. It did rise and generated frying pan spring. I exposed the crumb with my teeth.

[Peterreinhart]

Re: Welcome from Peter

The only way to know for sure is to pull off 10 oz. and do a test bake. I have heard of pizzerias that go up to 3.5% salt with good results, so I won't say throw it out and start over. The salt should slow fermentation in addition to tasting salty, so it may take longer for the dough ball to wake up, but two hours at room temp. should be enough for the test (just the dough ball, not the whole batch). Please write back after you test it and let me know--you may decide that you love the added salt--you never really know about these things. The good news is that you have plenty of time to make a new batch if needed.

[sacwoodpusher]

Re: Welcome from Peter

I just made pizza dough because the DeMolay group is coming to my house on Saturday. So 3:00 PM on Wednesday to ferment in the fridge until Saturday am when I will take out and shape into 10 10 oz balls. I will be teaching the boys how to make wood fired pizza at 12:00 noon.

10 10 oz. dough balls means 100 oz of dough the hydration will be 65%

100/1.65= 62.5 oz. or 3# 14.5 oz Bakers Pride Pizza/Bread Flour from Sam's.
40.6 or 2# 8.6 oz. 50 degree well water from Wilton, CA
2% salt or 1.25 oz salt
yeast 1 TBL (I never use less.)

Mix dry ingredients in a tub, and add water. Mix with wooden spatula and then knead by hand until all dry is incorporated. (1-2 minutes.) Refrigerate until 3 hours before use when I will divide into 10 balls, and stretch to form a skin.

I accidentally added 2 oz of salt instead of 1.25 oz.....Should I throw it out or go ahead with it? I calculate 3.2% salt.....way too much????

I will use Cento Tomato Puree which is unsalted for the sauce, and slivers of Precious Mozzarella which I buy in 2 lb blocks from Costco.

I believe in using local,commonly available, or inexpensive ingredients where possible. Tony G. uses ConAgra flour (Bakers Pride) for his Chicago pizza school class. As I get better, I will try the upgraded ingredients, but they gotta be worth the bucks.

[Mike D]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Welcome Peter!

If everyone on this forum has not read "American Pie" you should. It's a great read and has easy simple stuff. I use the Roman Dough and the uncooked sauce recipe every time. It is fast, easy and just good.

Mike

[Mike D]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Welcome Peter!

If everyone on this forum has not read "American Pie" you should. It's a great read and has easy simple stuff. I use the Roman Dough and the uncooked sauce recipe every time. It is fast, easy and just good.

Mike

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Welcome aboard!

[C5dad]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Peter,

after reading the reviews of your books, I am even more psyched about this endeavor. So much so that I just bought The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

When will we see some more material??

[lwood]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Hi Peter,
Can I have your autograph, welcome. Looking forward to your insights.

[Tman1]

Re: Welcome from Peter

I just got Baker's Apprentice from the library 2 days ago. Welcome!

[texassourdough]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Hi Peter!

Glad to have you actively on Forno Bravo!

Dough here in San Antonio continues to be my favorite pizzaria. He continues to find great, new combinations and ingredients as you saw when we visitied his place last year.

Doug has been visiting VPN pizzarias all over the US and meeting their owners during the past year and is building up quite a knowledge of the WFO pizzaria population in the US. Look forward to having you come back out west.

Bake On!
Jay

[mn8tr]

Re: Welcome from Peter

Copied, pasted, printed and ready to go cook. To bad I have to work all day.

Thanks "T" this looks pretty "goof proof"