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There are so many variables that go into making a PIZZA. The hydration of the dough, flour, yeast and many more.. Amounts of any kind of yeast in a pizza can make a big difference. Most recipes posted on the web, use too much yeast in their recipes. What I have found out so far, is either bulk fermenting the dough or cold fermenting the dough will give a better flavor in the crust. I am still experimenting to find different flavors in the crust of pies. In my opinion pizza is all about the best flavor you can achieve in a crust. I still am on the journey about flavors in the crust. Even differences in temperatures in you home or times of the year can influence how much yeast to use. If you want a pizza to develop flavors in the crust, there are many ways to go about achieving this.

Pizzas

Pizzas
Preferment for Lehmann Dough Pizzas

Crust of Pizza

Crust of Pizza
Rim of Preferment Lehmann Formula

Adventure in Pizza Making

There are many ways to go about trying to make any kind of pizzas you want to create. PIZZA making is fun and also you get to eat your finished product. I learned to make all my pizza on http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php If you look on pizzamaking.com you can see all the beautiful creations of pizzas members make on this site. Members and moderators help members and guests achieve almost any kind of pizzas they want to create. Since joining this site, my pizza making skills have gone from non-existent to something much better. I invite you to take a look at this site.

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Sicilian Pizza

Sicilian Pizza
Sicilian Pizza with Preferment for Lehmann Dough

At my mom's home getting ready to bake in her gas oven

At my mom's home getting ready to bake in her gas oven
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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Pizza Making Class at Fred's 3/12/2011 :)

Fred (SmokinGuitarPlayer) on pizzamaking.com, had a Pizza Making Class today at his business.  I knew he was going to baking all the pizzas in his little Italian oven.  I wanted to go to see how a little Italian oven works and also to learn more about making pizza, at Fred’s Pizza Making Class.  Steve and I went together to Freds’ class.  Fred did show everyone at his class how to make dough in his Bosch mixer.  He even showed how to ball dough balls, open dough balls, and dress the pies.  Fred said I could take pictures and videos of everything he did.  Steve and I found Fred’s Pizza Making Class very interesting.  Fred talked about what he had learned in some of the pizza classes he had attended.  Fred used half Pizzeria flour and half Caputo Rinforzato flour and he had made the dough balls he used today in his Pizza Class 2 days ago and cold fermented them, until today.  The pizzas Fred made in the Pizza Making Class were very good and his Italian oven baked the pizzas fast.  I think his oven was around 725 degrees F when he put the first pizza in the oven to bake.  Most of the pies baked in about 2 to 3 minutes.  The crust was very tender.  Fred made many kinds of pizzas and we got to sample them all.

Steve and I had a very good time today in Fred’s pizza making class and I learned a lot of new things about making pizza.  I really like Fred’s little Italian oven.  It is a “little gem”!  The bottom of the oven has a heating element and the top has an infrared element.

Fred had his Forno Bravo “The Primavera60" WFO sitting out in front of his business, but wasn’t using it today, because he wanted to teach people that were interested to make pizza in a oven.

This is Fred’s website and some of the items he sells.  He has many items for sale in his business.

http://www.fredsmusicandbbq.com  and  http://www.fredsmusicandbbq.com/category_s/478.htm

I bought a few items at Fred’s business.  I bought Pizzeria flour, Caputo Rinforzato flour, Royal Fig, and Sicilian “kiss of garlic” spread.  I want to try out Pizzeria flour and Rinforzato mixed flour in my deck oven sometime.

Thanks Fred for the great Pizza Making Class and all the free pizza we got to taste.  All the pizzas were great!  You are a great pizza making teacher! :)  The Nutella dessert pizza was delicious, also!

These are a couple pictures today from the Pizza Making Class.  To see other pictures, they are on pizzamaking.com at this link.  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13261.0.html

Norma



Wednesday, March 9, 2011

New Try at a preferment Lehmann dough with another milk kefir 3/08/2010

When I was at our local health food store recently, I saw something that caught my eye.  It was Yogourmet Freeze-dried Kefir starter.  It is a commercial product and all that is needed is to use 5grams of starter to 1 quart of milk. The product itself is supposed to be refrigerated, but when making the milk kefir it is left out at room temperature for 24 hrs. and then refrigerated again.  It gives directions on the back of the package how to make the milk kefir.  What I saw in the ingredients listed is what interested me most.  The ingredients listed are: Skim milk powder, abcorbic acid, active lactic bacteria and yeasts. Inside the package there are 6 packets. I don’t know, but the sound of the abcorbic acid with active lactic bacteria might be able to create a sourdough pizza.  I am not sure though, whether it will be able to leaven a pizza dough or create a sourdough pizza, like my last attempt at:  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,12173.0.html

Pictures below of front and back of product.



What I would like to do is make another preferment Lehmann dough, but I am not sure how much of this product to include in the formula or if I should just include this in the poolish.  I think I will need to add some IDY, but am not sure of that either.  I am going to start this milk kefir  and see what happens.  I started a dough Friday to bake at market on Tuesday.

Yogourmet Kefir Starter
Make healthy Kefir known to provide B-Vitamins and other healthy nutrients.
A blend of selected strains of dairy cultures, yeast and kefir grains including - L. Caucasicus, L. Casei, S. Lactis, S. Diacetilactis, S. Cremoris, S.Kefir, T. Kefir.
No appliance and no refrigeration needed, milk is incubated at room temperature for approximately 24 hours.
A predigested drink due to the fermentation process. Acceptable for people that are lactose intolerant.
A bubbly effervescent drink with a Ph of about 4, clean acid taste with no bitterness aftertaste. Smooth texture and a slight aroma of yeast and taste of sourcream and buttermilk.
Ingredients: Lactic Bacteria and yeasts (Leuconostoc Cremoris, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Streptococcus Lactis, Streptococcus Cremoris, Streptococcus Diacelillactis) skim milk powder.
Each single box makes 6 individual quarts of yogurt and contains 6 envelopes of 5 grams.
Each single box makes 6 individual quarts of Kefir and contains 6 packets of 5 grams. Total 1.5 gallons.
6 Box pack makes 36 quarts or 9 gallons.
12 Box pack makes 72 quarts or 18 gallons.
Made in Canada. 

I did follow the directions to heat the milk to 180 degrees F and had left a small amount of cold milk to mix 5 grams of freeze dried culture in.  So far on Friday, the milk didn’t look curdled and it still looked the same, but I did mix it into the poolish for a preferment Lehmann dough and also use some of the milk kefir to mix into the final dough Monday, in place of some of the water.  Since I don’t really know how to go about this, or if it will work, I might also add a little IDY. 

I decided this  to use the milk with the milk kefir cultures in, even if it wasn’t curdled.  I mixed the a poolish with replacing all the water with the not curdled milk kefir.  I also mixed another poolish up for a preferment Lehmann dough, (1 dough ball) right after I mixed the milk kefir poolish to see how both poolishes would ferment.  I left both at room temperature for 9 hrs.  It can be seen on the regular poolish and the milk kefir poolish that the milk kefir poolish didn’t bubble at all.  I then put the same amount of yeast in the milk kefir poolish.  I haven’t decided, but think I am going to replace some of the water in the final dough on Monday with milk kefir if it curdles or not.
Picture of freeze-dried milk kefir mixed with milk before I mixed it with the flour and picture of the both poolishes after 9 hrs.



After I added the IDY to the milk kefir poolish the poolish did bubble, but bubbled different than my regular poolish.  The poolish is thicker and the bubbles of fermentation even look different so far.  The milk kefir poolish is now in the refrigerator.  I tasted both the regular poolish and the milk kefir poolish.  The milk kefir poolish doesn have a slight sweet taste and does taste different.  The freeze-dried cultures have fermented the milk this morning.  I tasted the fermented milk kefir made with the freeze-dried cultures and it does have a pleasant taste. It tastes like yogurt without any flavorings. It doesn’t have a slightly sour taste like the regular milk kefir grains did when making the milk kefir.  It was put into the refrigerator until Monday 3/07/2011.





I made the first milk kefir smoothie from the freeze-dried milk kefir.  I put almost 3/4 cup milk kefir in with frozen sliced peaches, frozen mango chunks, regular milk, and a little bit of vanilla in my blender.  The milk kefir smoothie tasted great.  The milk kefir has now separated a little, since it has been in the refrigerator.

Pictures of what milk kefir looked like last evening and milk kefir smoothie.

I made the dough ball 3/14/2010 and went “hog wild” to see what would happen if I used all milk kefir to replace the water, in the final dough formula for one dough ball.  The dough even felt dry, so used a total of 134 grams of milk kefir in the final mix.  

Picture of milk kefir poolish and amount of milk kefir added to one dough ball.   It can be seen on the picture how much darker the milk kefir poolish is from the milk kefir. One picture of dough ball with all milk kefir, in the poolish and final dough.




The milk kefir poolish and dough made with all milk kefir, to replace the water, worked out okay.  The crumb was moist and the rim did get oven spring.  The bottom of the crust has me intrigued. It almost looks like a pie that came out of a WFO.  I will have to work with the milk kefir poolish and milk kefir in the final dough and make some changes.


Norma




Monday, March 7, 2011

“My Pie Monday” 2/28/2011 My Pie Monday: Artichokes, Mascarpone, Stuffed Pizza, and More!

These were the pies for MPM on Slice 2/28/2011, posted by Maggie Hoffman.

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/02/my-pie-monday-20110228.html


This week, we've got a luscious-looking artichoke-topped pizza from Heidirobb, a mascarpone-filled delight from Norma427, Chicago-style stuffed pizza from Gregg, and a banh mi pizza from Amusebouche1. Plus, awesome pies from Emilydev, Burger365, BiereBeer, Joe H., Olsonmatt, Troutdogz, ESNY1077, richpo, Lance Roberts, John Wozniak, and Tupper Cooks!

My “MPM” Focaccia col Formaggio di Recco

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/02/my-pie-monday-20110228-slideshow.html#show-143286


Thanks Slice for including my pie on “My Pie Monday”!

Norma

Sunday, March 6, 2011

tried out new recipe with pizzeria flour for my deck oven 3/1/2011

I used a formula posted on pizzamaking.com to try pizzeria flour baked in my deck oven. Usually Pizzeria flour or “00" flours don’t bake well in my lower temperature deck oven at market, but this pie did turn out very good, in my opinion.

This is what I used for a 16" pizza.

283g Pizzeria flour,
187 water
2 grams wet yeast,
4 grams sea salt.

warm water mixed to melt yeast,.add the rest of the mixture, hand mix three minutes, rest 15 minutes, mix three more minutes. The gluten development would take place during the room rise or cold rise. Room rise 3 to 4 hours 70 degrees. Cold rise 8 to 24 hours. The water at 66 percent was important. The salt and yeast were at the minimum and more could be used. This makes 2-240 gram balls, that would make a 12 inch pizza.  Gentle stretching for a light pie.

This idea was given by the zaman (Larry) on pizzamaking.com  Thanks, Larry! :)

Norma
















“Pizza Girl” is going to the gym and making “pizza” :)

My oldest daughter and granddaughter joined a local gym in our area.  They both invited me to go along to the gym with them, because guests are free. I do walk everyday with the dogs and do get exercise at market and while I do other things, but know my body is not in the best fitness.

I did go to the gym today for the first time in my life. What a nice new adventure. It was a blast and I did get good exercise.  I did things on various exercise machines for over 2 hours.  At least my cardio was good while I was on the sit-down bicycle and the treadmill, both for a half an hour each.  All the exercise machines were new to me and I had to learn how to use them.  We all had a great time!  Some of those legs lifts with weights, can really make my legs tired..lol Hopefully I will be able to go to the gym with my daughter and granddaughter at least 4 or 5 times a week. I do need to step up my fitness a notch.

I am making another Peter Reinhart dough today also, so I am still the “pizza girl”.   I really like playing around with different doughs and seeing how the crust will taste in the final pizza.  There are many kinds of pizzas I haven’t explored as of now.

Hopefully I will become better at making pizzas and also get in better shape.

See if I can get in better shape, than I am now.

Norma