2nd bakes in the Blackstone Pizza Oven with frozen dough balls (one was a NY style dough ball and one was a Detroit style dough ball)

These were the next two bakes in the BS. They both were from frozen dough balls that I had leftover from yesterday. I put them in the fridge this morning to defrost. The one was my regular dough and the other one was my Detroit style dough ball of 9.5 ounces. I forgot to bring home my 16” wooden peel from market, so I had to use my 14” wooden peel for both of these pizzas. I should have calculated how much I had to take off of my regular market dough ball for a NY style pizza, but I didn't do that. I just cut part of the dough ball off.

It can be seen at what temperatures I baked both pizzas at. When fiddling around with the red knob I can just about get constant temperatures which I think is a good thing.

My NY style was too thick, but in my opinion it was really good in the taste of the crust and the rim did have decent browning. The Detroit style pizza made into a somewhat round pizza was also good and it almost tasted like a Neapolitan pizza to me and was soft like a Neapolitan pizza. When I went to load the Detroit style pizza, it didn't load round. The crumbs were moist on both of these pizzas. All Trumps flour is used for my regular at market and Occident flour is used for my Detroit style dough.

I am really liking how the BS bakes! :)

Norma

Trying some experiments on making a cheesestick pizza with my garlic sauce

These are how the experiments went when using my regular dough balls to make the cheesestick pizzas yesterday.

The first dough ball was rolled out some with a rolling pin then hand stretched and docked. The garlic sauce I made was used to dress the skin and also Foremost Farms LMPS mozzarella. The cheesestick pizza was placed right on the deck, but a screen was needed to finish the bake. No bubbles formed on the rim, or in the middle of the cheesestick pizza. What somewhat surprised Steve and I was the PJ dough I had used before and my regular dough really didn't give any different taste in the crust. The cheesestick pizza slices were also soft just like PJ cheesesticks are soft. I sure don't know, but think the garlic sauce gives the most taste instead of the crust.

The second cheesestick pizza had a different method in docking the skin, because Steve wanted to see what would happen if the skin was docked heavily, then rolled some more with a rolling pin and then docked one time again. The dough ball was rolled some with a rolling pin and then hand stretched the rest of the way too. We thought that experiment was also interesting because bubbles did form in the rim and some other bubbles formed while baking. I used the bubble popper to get rid of some of those bubbles, but there still were some after the bake. The second cheesestick pizza we used my regular cheese I use on my other pizzas. The parts that we thought were weird about that was we really couldn't taste any difference in using different cheeses and my regular cheese didn't brown as well in the bake. A screen also have to be put under the cheesestick pizza in the second bake.

The garlic sauce I made when compared to PJ garlic sauce was my garlic sauce tasted less salty, but that wasn't a bad thing in Steve's and my opinions. Steve and I liked my garlic sauce. The garlic part of my garlic sauce tasted fine.

Norma   

First Bakes in the Blackstone Pizza Oven (Neapolitan pizzas, with the new GM flour and the Ischia starter)

I had planned to bulk ferment the GM flour Neapolitan dough for 24 hrs., but since I made a mistake in mixing the first batch last light I had to make another batch of dough.  The bulk ferment of the dough was less than 24 hrs.  This is what the dough looked like before it was balled.  The dough was keep at between 60-67 degrees while it was bulk fermenting in the Styrofoam container.  This is the formulation I used. I used the light gray Celtic Sea Salt as the salt in the dough.  

The bulk fermented dough felt soft and it was balled at 250 grams for each dough ball.

My BS oven is together and was lighted for a little while.  My granddaughters one friend from Texas and my granddaughter helped me put the BS together.  I didn't know it for a little while, but my great-granddaugher was picking my upripe tomatoes in the garden.  The collar on the shaft had to be adjusted with a allen wrench because the steel plate on the bottom was dragging.  I don't know if the steel plate is adjusted too high now.    

I really didn't bring the BS up to the highest temperature it can get, but after 2 minutes the bottom stone was 237 degrees F.  At 5 minutes it was at 483 degrees F.  I didn't take any other temperatures and now have turned it off until I can get some sauce and cheese ready for the bakes.

I also injured my arm while putting the BS together.  Some of those pieces are sharp.

I just did take a two photos of how the one dough ball looks.  To me it looks like it is ready to be baked.

This is how my first bakes went on the BS.  It started to sprinkle before I was ready to make the pizzas.  I knew it might rain from the weather forecast, but I went ahead and made 2 pizzas.  I sure am not good at landing the pizzas in the middle of the stone, but the first pizza and second pizza tasted very good.  This was the first time my mother ever tasted one of my Neapolitan pizzas and she really liked how soft the crumb and bottom crusts are.  Until I went to make the second pizza it was really pouring, but I still went ahead.  The pizza wanted to stick to the peel, but I took some more flour outside in the shed and tried to loosen the pizza from the wooden peel.  It did become loose, but the peel was still wet.  

It stopped raining when it was dark so I made the 3rd pizza in the BS tonight.  In my opinion this pizza was the best one out of the three today.  The BS flames looks so cool at night.   I dressed this pizza with the same sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes from my garden, Diana's Aleppo peppers and a pepper oil I made.  I really liked the dressings too.

Norma