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