Starting to make Limoncello 2/17/2012

There is a good thread started by TXCraig1 on pizzamaking.com about making Limoncello.
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,17731.0.html

The liquor stores around where I live don't sell Everclear.  My mother had some vodka that she had for many years, so I decided to try the vodka to make Limoncello. I don't know how it will turn out but it smells good today.

Norma

Great tasting NY style pizza using Pepe's frozen dough ball from Wal-Mart 2/14/2012

Last week I experimented with a Pepe's frozen dough ball from Wal-mart, but didn't have the best results.  I also did a hydration test, gluten test, and baked gluten test last week on another part of a Pepe's frozen dough ball.  This was my experiment from this week with a Pepe's frozen dough ball from Wal-Mart.
As I suspected the Pepe’s dough was stretched too thin last week and probably too many greasy toppings were added as dressings. The 16” size pizza worked out well with Pepe’s dough. Today, the pizza from Pepe’s frozen dough ball turned out really good.

The Pepe’s dough ball was very soft, easy to open, had a good taste in the crust, was moist in the crumb, and browned well on the rim and bottom crust. This was one of the better tasting NY style crusts and all that came from a frozen dough ball that I didn’t even make.

The amount of salt when tasted in the crust tasted just right. There wasn’t an overly salty taste, or not enough either.

Steve, Randy, Jeff, Mark, Lorie, Tony and I couldn’t believe this pizza came from someone else’s dough. Steve thought the pizza was a little to crispy on the rim and bottom crust, but he likes a pizza that isn’t as was baked as the rest of us. Steve did say the pizza tasted good though.

I wouldn’t blink an eye on recommending Pepe’s frozen dough balls to anyone if Pepe‘s frozen dough balls are left to unfreeze and are fermented over a 2 days period. Probably the deck oven also helped Pepe’ dough.

I guess I will call this pizza the “Blasphemous Pizza” because anyone that likes to study and made pizza dough would be horrified that a great pizza can be made out of a frozen dough ball from Wal-Mart.  Goes to show, that even though I try to study pizza all the time, there are better pizzas or even frozen dough balls to be found..lol
Norma

Pepe's frozen dough balls are made with unbleached, nonbromated flour. :)

Another Attempt using the same new formulation for a NY style, with a one day cold ferment 2/14/2012

I made another attempt using the same formulation and only doing a one day cold ferment. The dough ball was left at room temperature for 4 hrs. yesterday before the dough ball was opened.

The resulting pizza was very good in taste of the crust, bottom browning, and crispness when taking a bite. The crispness seemed about right. I am still undecided if I want to use this formulation for my market dough, but do like it very much in terms of TF and how the overall pizza turns out. I still can’t believe a one day cold fermented dough turns out so well. This dough ball was very easy to open and the dough felt really soft.

The “real kicker” is that for this attempt, using the same formulation, I used KASL instead of ADM Gigantic bromated flour. The resulting pizza was the same in every way as using bromated flour. I have been playing around with bromated flours and unbromated flours for a long while and although many members won’t agree with me, I find a flour like KASL can’ bring the same taste, bake, crispness, color and characteristics as using a bromated flour. I sure don’t know, and haven‘t done enough tests, but believe it all has to do with the formulation and if a similar high-gluten flour is used. I really don’t think bromated flour make any differences in this pizza, at least when using this formulation.

Norma

Another Attempt with Caputo with AP and ground baked gluten in the deck oven 2/14/2012

The pizza using the ingredients of Caputo flour, AP, and ground baked gluten sure turned out differently, but good. The rim of the crust almost tasted like Ciabatta. The dough was very soft and easy to open. The flecks of ground baked gluten could be seen in the dough. The taste of the crust was good and the bottom of the crust browned well.

I had some leftover homemade ricotta from last week and froze it to see if it would still be good this week. I had wanted try to make some homemade ricotta with the Wine Vinegar that I purchased later last week and some raw milk, but time got in the way on Monday night, so I just defrosted the ricotta from last week on Tuesday. When stirred, the ricotta from last week became just as creamy as last week and still was good. The dressings for this pie were the unfrozen homemade ricotta, a blend of mozzarellas, some dollops of Cento, (with some added herbs) some prosciutto (not cut neatly), dried cherries, and sesame seeds sprinkled on the rim. This sure was a different blend of dressings for me, but tasted good. The added sesame seeds on the rim also gave the flavor of the crust another dimension. I got the idea of adding sesame seeds on the rim from Best Pizza in Brooklyn, when I visited Best Pizza.

Norma

Valentine Day Heart Shaped Pizza with Heart Shaped Pepperoni 2/13/2012

The formulation I used for this Valentine Pizza is at Reply 76 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,17417.msg171487.html#msg171487

This dough is very easy to work with and shaping the skin into a heart shape wasn't hard.  I cut the heart shaped pepperoni with a scissors by folding the pepperoni in half and then using a small scissors.

Norma