Used A Real Rizzo’s Dough Ball, I purchased in NY, to make a NY style pizza 12/13/2011

I had posted about my trip to NY and tasting a Rizzo’s square slice of pizza at Reply 19 second picture down http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,16573.msg161681.html#msg161681 and had bought two dough balls at Rizzo's Astoria, Queens NY, when I visited Rizzo’s, and had posted about them at Reply 21 second pizza down http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,16573.msg161683.html#msg161683 Last week I had tried one of Rizzo’s dough balls that I had frozen made in a steel pan that I posted about at Reply 88 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,16573.msg162490.html#msg162490

This week I decided to use the last frozen Rizzo’s dough ball to make a NY style pizza without a pan. I left the dough ball defrosted at market for one day. The dough felt drier than my NY style doughs, but was very easy to open. I never felt a dough the same as a Rizzo’s dough ball. It makes me wonder just how low the hydration was of this dough ball. The dough ball was stretched to 18” and then made into a pizza. I was surprised that although the rim wasn’t as high as my normal NY style doughs I use, that there was an open crumb structure.

I have no idea on how Rizzo’s makes their dough balls, but they didn’t feel like any oil was in the dough, but I could be wrong about that. The crust did brown and I think this might have been the thinnest NY style pizza I made so far. I also wonder what kind of flour Rizzo’s uses and what other percents for other ingredients they use in their dough balls.

The dressings for Rizzo’s NY style pizza were my blend of skim milk mozzarella and whole milk mozzarella, my regular sauce, and onions that I caramelized.

The dough ball in the first picture looks oily on the top of the dough ball, but that was from me oiling the dough ball a day after I froze it. I didn’t want it to dry out.

What a different NY style pizza.

Norma

Nancy Silverton's Dough that had dried peppers in the dough and crust 12/16/2011

I had planned on putting "peppers" in a dough for the monthly challenge on pizzamaking.com at this "pepper" challenge, posted by Bill, the one moderator on pizzamaking.com. http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,16617.0.html

I decided since this dough was giving me problems before, to give myself another challenge besides just trying to add dried peppers in something like the Lehmann dough.  I needed two challenges at once I guess.  It would be that either I failed altogether, or maybe I am understanding the Nancy Silverton dough better.  For this dough, I think you need to make it in about a day and a half from beginning to or a little longer.  I also gave myself another challenge and that was to use fresh yeast.  When using fresh yeast it is hard to be able to decide what amount to use in the preferment and final dough.  My fresh yeast was also frozen, so I didn't know how many of the yeast cells had died.

I submitted this pizza in this months challenge, because I had added dried peppers to the dough. I posted this same thing at this months challenge, but I will post it here again. The dressings for this Nancy Silverton’s “pepper dough” pizza were roasted butternut squash that was roasted with olive oil, pepper, and sea salt. The regular peppers were roasted with olive oil and a little bit of sea salt. Fresh smoked mozzarella grated was blended into the butternut squash with a stick blender. I sliced strips of smoked mozzarella and grated Fontina cheese. A few dried peppers were rehydrated to be added as an extra dressing, to go with the peppers in the dough.


I don’t know if it was the combination of peppers in the dough with the other peppers, or the butternut squash with smoked mozzarella, or the room temperature dough fermented with fresh yeast, but I thought this pizza really tasted great. This pizza was baked in my home oven on the stone. At least I am getting somewhere with the preferment Nancy Silverton’s recipe, not like my last few failures. This pizza isn’t exactly like I wanted it, but was an improvement. The dough was still manageable with the dried peppers in the dough and it was easy to stretch out the skin. The dough was punched down one time today, because I thought it was fermenting to fast, and then balled again to ferment more.

Thanks Peter for figuring out the formulation for a preferment and final dough for a 12” pizza!

Norma

One of my Best Friends, My Dog! 12/15/2011

My dog is probably my best friend, because he is always there for me and is always happy to see me no matter what. He doesn’t require a lot of attention and gets me going outside for walks. Just about a year ago he needed serious surgeries on his two hind legs. Although it was quite expensive I couldn’t let him suffer anymore and had the surgeries done. He is doing fine now, and although he is getting older and slower, he is a constant companion for me. He speaks and does many tricks. He went to dog school two times when he was younger. When those shiny dog eyes look at me, I am so thankful I have him as a friend. At times he seems smarter than a lot of people. He knows most sentences and words I say to him, and obeys commands. He would defend me in a NY minute, but is very gentle.  My dog has gone on a lot of trips with me and always behaves.  He is groomed shorter now and I think he looks like the gentleman he is. Someday I will upload some videos of him singing to Youtube.

He has helped me though many tough days, just by being there.

Norma

Buon Natale! From the Corropassi family Stanislaus tomato products 12/13/2011

I received a nice card from the Corropassi Family since I buy Stanislaus tomato products for my pizzas at market from Stanislaus. They also sent me a beautiful plaque. I thought the saying on the plaques was also beautiful.


The beginning of the card says this:

Between tough times and tough weather, 2011 was especially difficult for many American families. In spite of those difficulties and the challenging economy we face together, I am encouraged that our citizen will meet the test ahead with resilience and determination!

At the end of the card it reads:

As a lifelong farmer, I have always believed in the Italian proverb…

“Come Senini, Cosi Raccogli” (As you sow, so shall you reap) because good choices lead to good outcomes.

Thanks Corrpassi Family!

Norma

Another Experiment with the Preferment Lehmann dough with shorter mix times 12/13/2011

Well, here goes in the next experiment with the preferment Lehmann dough if anyone is interested.
These are some of the pizzas made yesterday with the ADM flour and the final dough that was mixed from 3 to 5 minutes. I really couldn’t tell any difference in opening the dough balls that were mixed from 3 to 5 minutes, or the taste of the pies from that experiment. All the dough balls did open very easily. One other thing I wanted to note, was there seemed to be more bigger inter-crust bubbles on some of the pies, and some of the pies wanted to bubble in the middle of the pies, even though the dough balls were warm-up first. Why those things happened was a mystery to me. All in all, this experiment went well, but I don’t have any conclusions from these experiments.

There is always a wrench to put into the mix, like there usually is. On Monday when I went to take the preferments out of the deli case the top of the preferment looked really bubbly like it always does, but on the bottom of the preferment there was a lot of water. I don’t know if the bromated flour did cause this, or if something else was going on with the preferments. I did put the preferments into the Hatco Unit for the same amount of time I have been using lately. Those preferments made with KASL haven’t been giving me any problems lately. I have gone over different methods of letting the preferments proof and I also noted before in this thread that there were problems with the preferment wanting to water on the bottom sometimes.

I sure don’t know how I am ever going to figure out if it was the preferment or the shorter mix time that made the dough balls open so easily yesterday. As I have posted many times dough is always a mystery in many ways.

The one pizza Steve and I made we did bake longer to see how a better browned pizza would turn out.  There is always something new to be learned about dough a making pizza, even if you use the same dough formulation, but change one variable.

Norma