My recent Mack's pizza attempt

This is probably as close to a Mack’s clone as I think I will get. Finally the cheddar is right. I posted about the cheddar on the other cheese thread. My wish has finally been fulfilled. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKaVpVj9rCQ

I mixed a dough for a 14” pizza one day before I made the pizza. I wanted to try out the new cheddar before Tuesday on another attempt at a Mack’s clone. I did use Kyrol flour, the Gangi sauce and the new cheddar on this pizza. I used 8 oz. of cheddar which probably was a little to much, but I wanted to see how the cheddar tasted when baked on the Mack’s attempt. I didn’t measure the Gangi sauce, but think I applied about 6 oz. because I did weigh out 8 oz. to begin with, but didn’t use all the Gangi sauce in the plastic squeeze container.

I let the cheese sit at room temperature for 2 hrs. to see if it would clump. It didn’t clump, or become stuck together.

I pressed really hard on the dough ball and then opened it. The dough could be tossed and twirled well. I decided to bake in my mom’s home oven because I recently found out that her propane gas oven can go over 600 degrees F. The pizza was baked in about 4 ½ minutes. I baked on the center rack position of my mom’s oven. The rim could have been a little browner, but I thought the bottom of the pizza was finished baking. I am not used to what position to put the pizza stone on in my mom’s oven since this is only the second time I tried to bake any pizzas in it. The texture of the rim was about the same as a Mack’s pizza, but not exactly. The taste of the crust was better than a Mack’s pizza.

As soon as I tasted the pizza I knew it sure tasted and smelled like a Mack’s pizza. The cheese did have the tang with the buttery flavor. My mom also said the same thing and she hasn’t tasted a Mack’s pizza for a lot of years. I also brought two slices home for my daughter and she also said it tasted like a real Mack’s pizza. My mom also told me I can’t bake any other pies in her oven anymore unless it would be the same one I baked today. That is how much she liked this attempt. My mom asked me why I don’t just make this same pizza at market and I said I don’t think I can source the right cheddar and sauce from a distributor near me. I think my attempt could have used a little less TF.

My friend from Trenton also received some of the same cheddar today and baked a Mack’s attempt earlier today. He also said the cheese was finally right. He had used Walmart tomato paste with the same added ingredients Steve and I used the last time.

I think I could eat this same pizza everyday. My mom and I even had a little celebration with a few glasses of my cousins tea wine.

Thanks to everyone that has helped me!! :) I am thrilled that I could finally make a decent Mack’s clone pizza.

Norma

Scott's Pizza Chronicles: A Brief History of the Pizza Slicer

Scott Wiener had an article on Slice about the History of the Pizza Slicer.

I thought this was a good article. http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/08/scotts-pizza-chronicles-the-story-of-the-pizza-slicer.html?ref=title

Norma 

Early Word On Baking Steel for baking pizzas: It Works, says Kenji on Slice

An article on Slice by J. Kenji was about using baking steel to bake pizzas. I am not still convinced it is the best thing to bake pizzas, but was an interesting read.


http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/08/early-word-on-baking-steel-it-works.html?ref=pop_slice

Norma

Neapolitan Dough ball (using TXCraig1's method) to make into a pizza in a cutter pan

The Neapolitan dough ball, (made with the Pizzeria flour and the Ischia starter) using Craig’s instructions couldn’t be baked in Steve’s WFO. I posted a picture of the dough ball at Reply 36 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,20616.msg205373.html#msg205373 After I decided I wasn’t going to Steve’s home, I put the dough ball in the fridge. It had seemed to be fermenting well at a controlled temperature, but I knew it would never last until Tuesday if I didn’t put the dough ball into the fridge. The dough ball did ferment a little more until Tuesday, but not a lot.


I decided to use my cutter pan and oiled it with corn oil to try and make a pizza out of the dough ball. The skin was covered in the cutter pan and let to proof for about a half an hour. I also had wanted to try a blend of cheeses for one of the toppings, so I tried Nasonville medium cheddar, the Amish butter cheese I purchased last week at market and some Asiago cheese I had at market for awhile. I wanted to see if I could get a blend of cheeses that was buttery with a little tang when baked on a pizza. I used my regular tomato sauce and then sprinkled some Greek oregano on the pie before the bake.

The pan Neapolitan pizza did turn out well with a nice light crumb and nice crunchy edges from the cheese melting down the sides of the cutter pan.

At least I found a way to make a good pizza, even if the dough ball couldn’t be baked into a pizza in Steve’s WFO.

Norma

2% Breiss sweet sorghum syrup added to the Lehmann dough 8/28/2012

I used 2% Briess sweet sorghum syrup with Kyrol flour in the Lehmann dough formulation. When opening the dough ball it almost opened normally and didn’t just almost fall open as before. The dough ball was easier to open than my normal Lehmann dough though.


There was good oven spring, good rim crust browning and also good bottom crust browning in my opinion. The rim crust was very moist. The bottom crust had a nice crispness. I thought this experiment went well with the 2% Briess sweet sorghum syrup. Steve and I liked this pizza.

Norma