Learning Knowledge to Make Pizza: Rinforzato Pizzas with Ischia starter and Steve’s neighbor’s pizzas 7/14/2012

Welcome...

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.

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.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Rinforzato Pizzas with Ischia starter and Steve’s neighbor’s pizzas 7/14/2012

I was invited to Steve’s home last evening. A neighbor of Steve’s bakes pizzas in his home oven and wanted to see how the same formulation would work in Steve’s WFO. His neighbor uses Peter Reinhart’s Neapolitan dough. Bob (Steve friend and business partner) also was at Steve’s last evening.

I brought along two dough balls I had mixed late Friday evening. The dough I mixed was 60% hydration, 2.8% salt and was leavened with the Ischia starter at a room temperature controlled ferment. Steve ran his oven around 650 degrees F to about 680 degrees F last evening.

I wanted to use the leftover ingredients I had purchased at the 9th St. Italian market, so I took them along. I also had wanted to make fresh Ricotta yesterday, but other things got in the way. The pie with the dried cherries was supposed to be make with a white base, but the tomato base tasted good with the other ingredients and Mike‘s hot honey drizzled over after the bake. I found it interesting that my pies baked almost like Steve’s NY style pies that he had baked in his BBQ grill mod on Friday at about the same temperatures.

Steve’s neighbor was having problems at home and yesterday with using Peter Reinhart’s Neapolitan dough in that it is a sticky dough. Steve and I gave him some tips on using a high hydration dough and how to do stretch and folds to get the high hydration dough more manageable. Steve’s neighbors 3 pizzas baked in Steve’s WFO were very tasty and had great oven spring. I might have to revisit Peter Reinhart’s dough if I can bake in Steve’s WFO again.

I couldn’t take pictures of Steve’s pies he made because it was getting too dark.

Thanks again Steve for the invite! I sure had fun again. :)

Norma