Papa Gino's clone pizza attempt with Pete-zza's help

The Papa Gino’s clone dough ball was left at room temperature to warm-up for about 3 hrs. By my estimates and the poppy seed trick the dough ball didn’t triple in volume over the 3 day fermentation and the 3 hr. warm-up. There were a few speckles on the dough ball, but not as many as last week.


8.7 grams of the three cheese blend (Foremost Farms part-skim mozzarella, AMPI mild cheddar and Romano cheese) were used on the Papa Gino’s pizza along with 6 oz. of sauce (my regular sauce at market, because I didn’t bring a can of 6-in-1s to market) and a sprinkling of Greek oregano in the cheese blend. I got so tied up in weighing the cheese blend and weighing the sauce out with Steve, that I forgot to use the 5.5 grams of corn meal to incorporate into the Papa Gino’s clone dough ball when opening the dough ball. I only remembered that after I slide the pie into the oven. As soon as the pizza was set in the oven I tried to gently sprinkle some corn meal on the rim and also sprinkled corn meal on the hearth. Darn, I would have to have forgotten the corn meal. Sorry, I messed-up on the cornmeal. The Papa Gino’s pizza attempt weighed 1 lb. 12.7 ounces right out of the oven. The edge bottom rim crust got a little too dark, but it sure didn’t taste that way when eating the pizza.

The Papa Gino’s attempt was very good though, even without my remembering to add the cornmeal at the right time. The amount of cheese and the blend of cheeses really gave this pie a good taste and the crumb texture was very good with using the Kyrol and KAAP blend. The crumb texture was much better than my other attempts. The crumb texture was much more tender than my other attempts. Steve also agreed that the crumb texture was better than my other attempts. I think I am beginning to really enjoy a Papa Gino’s clone pizza, even if it is a little thicker. The skin was stretched out a little over 14” to compensate incase the pizza skin did shrink back a little when sliding it into the oven. I also want to post again that I never really tasted a Papa Gino’s pizza though, so I really don’t know if I was anywhere close to a real Papa Gino’s pizza. The crust also had a very good taste even if the crumb wasn’t airy. This Papa Gino’s clone pizza almost reminded me of a thin Greek style pizza.

Norma

Mack's pizza attempt with 3 month old aged white cheddar and oven spring with no pressing on the dough

The Mack’s attempt went well on Tuesday. I decided not to really press on the dough while opening it to see what would happen. I had wanted to try that for awhile to see if there would be more oven spring. The Mack’s attempt yesterday did have a lot more oven spring when opening the dough differently. I didn’t really try to form a rim while opening the dough and opened it normally like I open my Lehmann dough pizzas. I find it interesting that the same dough I have been using for a few attempts (Peter’s formulation) does get a nice and airy crust and a different texture in the rim. Some of the rim was more open than other areas though. The taste of the crust also was very good from the longer cold ferment. The whole pizza was very good in Steve’s, Lorie’s and my opinions. The taste of the Nasonville 3 month old aged cheddar was also very good on the baked pizza. The Nasonville 3 month old cheddar baked well and did oil off a lot. Steve and I used 10 ounces of the Nasonville mild white 3 month old aged cheddar on this Mack’s attempt. Using the Nasonville 3 month old aged white cheddar the pizza almost had the right taste in the cheese, but a little more tang could have been there. I really don’t know how to get that little bit more tang. We also used 8 ounces of the Great Value tomato paste with added ingredients for the sauce. The doctored-up Great Value tomato paste did taste very similar to a real Mack’s pizza.


If anyone is interested, this is how Steve made the doctored-up Great Value tomato paste sauce.

1 12 oz. can of Great Value tomato paste from Walmart

12 ounces of water

½ tsp. black pepper

3 teaspoons dried Greek oregano from Bova

¼ teaspoon Kosher salt

Steve did a great job of doctoring-up the Great Value tomato paste. He added ingredients a little at a time and we tasted the sauce different times. I would have never thought using the Great Value tomato paste doctored-up would have made a pizza sauce that was that good. I am not sure, but maybe the cheddar cheese also helped. I have to test this sauce on another regular market pizza at a future date with regular mozzarellas. Steve also couldn’t believe how good his sauce tasted on the Mack’s attempt. I would imagine if the sauce would sit for a day it would have a little bit of a different flavor.

Again, no VWG could be tasted in the crust in any way.

I would be satisfied eating this Mack’s attempt any day with the same dough formulation, the sauce and the cheddar. Steve also did agree.

I sure don’t know, but maybe more cheddar could be added with less sauce. I am not sure how to go about making that different to see what would happen. I don’t know if anyone can tell if more cheese is applied and less sauce is applied to a real Mack’s pizza with all the videos that have been posted on this thread.

The weight of the fresh baked Mack’s attempt right out of the oven was 2 lb. 2.2 ounces. In a few minutes the weight of the Mack’s attempt fell to 2 lb. 2.0 ounces.

Norma