Another MM pizza attempt at home, and pretzels made with the same dough 11/10/2011

The experiment at home went well with the same formula that was used Tuesday.  The dough balls were left to ferment at room temperature for 6 ½ hrs.  The dough ball opened well, and could be tossed and twirled.  The dough was a little more gassy, but that didn’t seem to make any difference, at least to me. The bake in my home oven also went well.  The rim crust had nice oven spring.  There were only two things that I noticed that were different.  Since the dough ball wasn’t frozen, the color of the dough ball and baked rim crust were lighter.  The other thing that was different was the crust was a little sweeter.

The dressing used on the pizza was “Grub”, and mild white cheddar.  After the bake, Hot Sauce, (made with Texas Pete Buffalo Style Chicken Wing Barbeque Sauce, honey, and melted butter with garlic) was sprinkled over the melted mild white cheddar.  I also cut fresh chives from my garden and sprinkled them over the pie.  The standard butter garlic sauce was also brushed on the rim, then Parmesan cheese was sprinkled on the rim.

Then I used the second dough ball to make the pretzels.  That experiment went okay too.  I made 4 soft pretzels out of the second dough ball.  I decided to try four different ways to dressed the soft pretzels.  One had nothing on, the second had the butter and garlic sauce with Parmesan cheese, the third had melted butter with honey and garlic powder, and the fourth had salt, garlic butter honey mixture with Parmesan cheese .

The pretzels all tasted good.  It is really easy to make soft pretzels with this dough.

Norma

Another Luigi's attempt 11/08/2011

The Luigi’s clone attempt was made today using the formula Peter set-forth, and the method of cold fermenting that Gene mentioned in the Luigi's thread.  The dough ball sat out on my counter and beside my oven for 3 ½ hrs.  The dough ball looked like it had fermented okay.  The dough ball was easy to open to 18”, and I did toss and twirl it.  It was easy to toss this dough.  


The pizza baked okay, but I think I should have left it in the oven a little longer.  The crust was little darker than the pictures and the video show.  This was the video of the Luigi‘s clone attempt being cut by Steve.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKgZWMKdX-E  It can be seen in some of the video how the crust looked on some of close-up frames.



The pizza baked okay, but I think I should have left it in the oven a little longer.  The crust was little darker than the pictures and the video show.  This was the video of the Luigi‘s clone attempt being cut by Steve.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKgZWMKdX-E  It can be seen in some of the video how the crust looked on some of close-up frames.


The Luigis’ clone pizza did turn out very good in the taste of the crust.  That surprised Steve, Randy, my taste testers and me.  We couldn’t believe a one day cold fermented dough had such a good taste in the crust.  I don’t know if it was the Power Flour that made the taste of the crust taste better or the formula Peter set-forth.  Steve and I really liked how the Power flour makes a NY style pizza.  Randy’s one slice was reheated after it was cold and he said the taste of the slice was even better reheated.  I was too busy trying to make other pies to be able to enjoy a reheated slice. 


Norma

Greek Pizzas made out of frozen Preferment Lehmann dough balls 11/08/2011

These are the pictures of two Greek pizza made with frozen preferment Lehmann dough balls on Tuesday.  The one Greek pizza had tomato sauce in the dressings, and the last one had Alfredo Sauce with garlic, and a blend of cheeses, in addition to the other dressings on both pies.

Norma

Didier Rosada: “Baker’s Tip”: The Power of Salt and How Different Flours Perform

In this article Didier Rosada explains the power of salt and also later in the article it compares how different flours perform.

http://www.sfbi.com/pdfs/NewsF02.pdf 

Norma

Home to develop a formula: Didier Rosada

In this article Didier Rosada discusses how to develop a formula with using different flours.

http://www.sfbi.com/pdfs/SFBINewsWI07.pdf 

Norma

Failed Dough and Pizza attempt with Nancy Silverton's Dough 11/08/2011

I think this was another one of my failed experiments.  My guess of why this experiment failed was because I added extra rye flour to the formula. Maybe the rye flour was responsible for lower rim rise and structure of the dough.  I don’t know from the day cold ferment if that caused acidification of the dough or not. I haven’t used rye flour in formulas before Nancy Silverton‘s Dough, so I have no idea what rye does in pizza dough.  I also don’t understand why Nancy Silverton Dough didn’t have any yeast added in the final dough.  The Nancy Silverton’s dough ball did rise, but wonder if that also caused some kind of issue with the crumb and texture of the pizza crust.  I let the Nancy Silverton’s Dough ball rise at room temperature yesterday. The dough was easy to open, but I could feel there wasn’t much bubbling in the dough, or enough structure in the dough.  The dough didn’t want to tear, but something was wrong.

I still don’t understand with the extra amount of rye that I used to control the stickiness in the dough, how the finished pizza still didn’t have any rye flavor in the crust.  The crust tasted bland to Steve, my taste testers and me.

I don’t know if anything that Didier Rosada talking about in “How to Develop a Formula” in the relationship to the amount of rye I used in Nancy Silverton’s Dough formula had something to do with my results or not.  http://www.sfbi.com/pdfs/SFBINewsWI07.pdf

I don’t know if I will be able to figure out what wrong with this dough and final pizza.

Norma

Next attempt at a Mellow Mushroom Pizza 11/08/2011

The attempt with the MM clone dough formulation with the Malt products #732 molasses, brown sugar and 55% hydration went well.  The dough could be opened very easily, and could be tossed and twirled well.  The rim really had a nice texture and the bottom crust browned well, but I did have to add a screen for part of the bake, because the bottom crust did want to brown too fast.  I didn’t have to add a screen in my last attempt, or my attempt with the Brer Rabbit molasses and brown sugar.  I don’t know why a screen was needed.

The color of the crumb looked about the same as a MM’s crumb, and the molasses taste was there in the crumb.  I couldn’t detect the brown sugar in the crumb, and it had a nice amount of sweetness, something like a real MM pizza.  Steve said the sweetness level was better in my other attempt with the Brer Rabbit molasses and the brown sugar.  I agree that that pie had a little more sweetness in the crumb.  As I posted before, my pizzas at MM’s had the right amount of sweetness for me in the crumb, at least for my tastes.  I don’t know where to go from this last attempt, because I am now stumped on what to try.  I was satisfied with the MM clone pizza attempt, but not with using a screen.  Even using the Malt Products #732 molasses in the formula needed extra sugar added to give the sweetness in the crust.  That still leads me to believe either MM is using a different brand of molasses, or also is adding some other kinds of sweeteners to their dough to be able to get sweetness in their crusts.

The MM dough ball was left to sit at room temperature beside my oven and on my counter for about 2 ½ hrs.  Even letting the dough defrosted and cold ferment for longer, didn’t seem to make any difference in the way the dough fermented.  It sure didn’t ferment very fast.  My dough ball wasn’t gassy at all.

I had wanted to mix some other mixtures and brush them on the crust, to see if they would make the crust sweeter, but I didn’t have time for those experiments yesterday.

The dressings used on the MM clone attempt were my regular tomato sauce, a 6 blend of cheeses, (3 mozzarella, mild white cheddar, Asiago, and Romano), spinach, red and green peppers, and sausage.

Steve, my taste testers, and me thought the MM’s clone tasted very good.

Norma