Another Attempt for a focaccia using Milk Kefir for leavening 1/04/2011

This was a high hydration dough and I went about handling the dough something like preparing bread in the Tartine Bread book, with different stretch and folds at different times. I did two stretch and folds Monday evening and another two stretch and folds Tuesday morning. One before I went to market and one at market. I also did another experiment with the dough for the pizza I made yesterday just to see what would happen when mixing at high speeds in my Kitchen Aid mixer.  I basically wanted to see if mixing at high speeds would destroy this dough.  I really didn’t want to destroy it, but wanted to see what would happen.  After the dough was mixed together I turned the mixer on my highest speed and watched how the dough was coming away from the sides of the mixer.  I hadn’t added any salt or oil then.  All of a sudden the dough became really liquid again. I then turned off the mixer and added the salt and finally the oil.  When the salt was added the mixer started picking up on the hook again.  Then I only mixed on speed 3 until all oil was incorporated, and even hand kneaded a little of the oil in.

From all the experiments I did with milk kefir before, I knew it could rise any dough, but milk kefir does rise dough slower than other starters or IDY.  I think, but don’t know, that is why this dough could be left out at room temperature so long.  I think one of my other starters could have also given about the same results.

I don’t know what would have happened with the alveoles, if I would have baked this dough on the deck of my oven.  It is always a guessing game, when doing anything with dough.  The pizza was baked at around 565 degrees F. in my steel deep dish pan.

This is the formula I used.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9946.msg122397.html#msg122397

and


http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9946.msg122436.html#msg122436

Norma

Pizzamaking.com-April Challenge 2011-"Easter"

The challenge this month was for "Easter".  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13444.0.html

I asked DKM if he wanted to accept my pizza I did for the challenge last year in April at Reply 3 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10648.msg94791.html#msg94791 At least it was a Easter “bunny rabbit”.    That experiment for the challenge went wrong because I couldn’t find my edible silver glitter.  I did have ideas about how to go about the “Easter” challenge for April, by digging danelion, cutting some of my fresh chives that are up, and cutting some of my oregano leaves off of my plant outside that are starting to come “alive” again, since spring is here.  I haven’t had a lot of extra time, because I have been caring for the newborn kitten I had posted about before.
A few minutes after I had just posted, I remembered I almost had a “Easter” pizza challenge ready.  I had baked a preferment Lehmann dough skin at market Tuesday and let it balloon, then cut the skin in half and put Nutella inside the baked skin.  I brought the extra pieces of that pizza home and kept them in the refrigerator, probably going to get thrown out.  I just whipped those slices out of the refrigerator, dusted some confectionary sugar on, place a few pieces of Easter candy on top and added a few spring colored sprinkles.  I got some spring house cleaning done by removing those slices from my refrigerator and also am now able to enter this months challenge for “Easter”.   This was the easiest monthly challenge I have done so far. Saved more time for Easter, too..lol   If I do find time I do have other ideas also.

Norma

Next attempt at a Mack’s Pizza 4/19/2011

For my next attempt at the Mack’s pizza, I used my regular tomato sauce I use at market to see if the taste of the tomato sauce has something to do with how a Mack’s pizza would taste with a different tomato sauce other than a paste with added oregano, a little sugar, black pepper and water.  Although this crust did almost taste and look like a Mack’s pizza, the flavor of my regular tomato sauce really threw the taste of the whole pizza attempt off.  I did use less of the cheese blend than I used on my last attempt.  I also watered my regular tomato sauce down and the sauce I applied was thinner. This attempt wasn’t as greasy as my last attempt either.  Next week I might try WalMart’s tomato paste or my paste like I did last week.  Just by using my regular tomato sauce, this pizza didn’t taste the same as last week.

I can’t decide if I liked the crust of this attempt better than last week, made with the Canola oil.  This week I had used Crisco oil in the formula.  To me this crust tasted different than last week, when I used Canola oil, but still was good.  Now I can’t decide if I want to change back to Canola oil or not.

The dough fermented about the same as last week.  I left the dough ball warm-up for about 2 hours.  With the formula I used, the dough doesn’t ferment too fast.  The dough was easy to open and it could be thrown.  I had to place a screen under the pizza again, near the end of the bake, because it wanted to brown too fast.  Even though this attempt did look more like a Mack’s pizza in the way the cheese and sauce were applied, my last attempt tasted more in line with a Mack’s pizza.

Steve, Pinocchio & Jiminy Cricket mentioned they like my attempt last week better. I would agree with them.

Norma

Homemade Dough Conditioner Pizza 4/19/2011

The Lehmann dough with the 7% blend and the regular Lehmann dough were made into pizzas Tuesday.  The clear winner was the Lehmann dough with the 7% blend.  The crust had a much better taste (although I can’t explain what made it so different), and it was moister in the rim.  The 7%  blend Lehmann dough also had a better oven spring.  Steve and I both agreed the blend Lehmann dough pizza was better.  The only thing that I had to do with the blend Lehmann dough pizza, was to put a pizza screen under the pie, because I thought it was browning too fast.  I didn’t have to put a pizza screen under the regular Lehmann dough.

First set of pictures are the Lehmann dough with the 7% blend.  Second set of pictures are the regular Lehmann dough.  Last picture is the two pizzas side by side.  It can be seen on both dough balls how differently they fermented on the bottom of the dough balls.

These are the ingredients I used in the natural "blend" or dough conditioner I am trying.
lecithin granules, high heat milk powder, Knox gelatin, vital wheat gluten, Diastatic Malt powder, and Vitamin C.  A big thanks to Peter (Pete-zza) for helping me to be able to understand how to go about even trying to make my "blend" to try out in the Lehmann dough!  If it wasn't for his understanding of math, I wouldn't have been able to go forward with these experiments.

Norma

Real New York Frozen Pizza Dough Baked into a Pizza 4/19/2011

I decided Monday evening to remove the Real New York Pizza Frozen dough ball from the freezer to defrost.  I first oiled the whole dough ball and also placed a little oil in the plastic container and placed it in the refrigerator over night.  Tueday it wasn’t defrosted, so when I arrived at market I left it sit out until about 1:00 pm.  The dough wasn’t fermenting very well, so I placed the dough on a container on top of my deck oven and left it there for a few more hours.  It still didn’t look like it had fermented enough, but I decided to make the pizza.  The skin was a little dry, but opened okay. When the pizza was in the oven, it formed bubbles in the middle of the pizza.  After the pizza was baked, it looked okay.  Steve and I both tasted the pizza and the crust was okay, but not like a longer fermented dough.  The crust had a more bread like taste.  If I had to rate this pizza from the Real New Pizza Dough, I would say it tasted almost like some of the pizzas I have tried at New York Slice businesses or about like most NY pizzas do, but not from a good pizzeria.  The crust did have some flavor.  It wasn’t bad.  What Steve and I didn’t understand was how someone that normally doesn’t make dough would know when this Real New York Pizza dough would be ready to use.  I have watched many doughs and would think if someone would just buy this dough at a supermarket, how they would know when it was ready to be used.  I don’t think people would have the patience to watch the dough as long as Steve and I did.  If someone just bought this dough, I can’t understand how they could know when to stretch the skin.  To me, this was a longer process than I thought it would be. I did post about when I bought the Real New York frozen pizza dough before.

Norma