Boardwalk Style Pizzas

The pasta and salad lady in the main building gave me two plastic sign holders last week and told me to make some signs for inside them so customers that might come to her stand might see the signs.  The pasta lady also said she would tell her customers how she really liked my boardwalk style pizzas.  I quickly made two signs on my computer.  I took them over to her pasta stand yesterday morning and she put them on top of her counters.  In two of the photos I think my old caramel popcorn stand can be seen in the left back round.  That was kind of the pasta lady to put those signs on her stand.

I am really liking how easily this dough stretches into a skin and how the pizza tastes with the dough only cold fermenting for one day.  The opening of the dough balls are a breeze and the skins do not want to stick to the wooden peel after dressing.  The bottom crust is crisp enough for me and so is the rim crust, with a nice moistness inside the rim crust.  The photos show the rim crust really isn’t really dark, but then I have to reheat most of the slices for customers, so the rim crust does get a little darker in a matter about 20 seconds.  Most of my customers now do like their slices reheated to get the bottom crust to crisp again after they have been stored in my heated cabinet.  My rims are bigger than a Mack’s pizza.

The technician came to my place to install a converter box so I can watch more channels on my TV.  I don’t know how we started talking about pizza (who doesn’t want to talk about pizza :),  but I found the conversation very interesting in some things the technician said.  The technician said he had worked for Papa Dino’s 45 years ago near Harrisburg, Pa. and that has always been his favorite pizza.  He said there was also another pizza business he also really liked, but it was upstate and the last time he visited that pizzeria the man had his recipe for sale for 3,500.00.  I asked the technician if the man ever sold his recipe and he said he didn’t know, but that pizzeria is closed now.  I asked the technician if he tried Papa Dino’s pizza now at their only location in Lancaster and he said yes he did, but said the cheese still tastes the same, but the crust and sauce have changed and he doesn’t like it anymore.  I told the technician that I also always liked Papa Dino’s pizza too and know that the Papa Dino’s pizzas have changed.  I asked the technician if he recalled what type of cheese was used on the Papa Dino’s pizza after all these past years and he said he was young then and didn’t remember much about anything, except he really liked Papa Dino’s pizza back then and still continues to think about it after tasting many pizzas.  We also discussed all kinds of the pizzas around our area and he thinks the same thing as I do, as the crusts are really bland and almost taste like cardboard.  The technician and I also talked about other things pizza related and told him I also make pizzas.  I told the technician that I make something like a Papa Dino’s pizza at market now.  He said he has to come to market sometime when he has off on a Tuesday and try my pizzas.

Some more customers said my boardwalk style pizzas taste like a Grotto’s pizza and 3 women said it tastes just like a Mack’s pizza.  I think it is kind of funny that one kind of pizza can taste like different pizzerias pizza.

Norma

Still working on a "boardwalk style" of pizza

These are a few pictures of the "boardwalk style" of pizza I am working on.  The cheese and sauce are decent, but the dough and crust just doesn't seem right.  I changed the formulation yesterday and will see what happens.

Norma

Used Pete-zza's Dough formulation with KABF and VWG for next Mack's attempt

The Mack’s attempt yesterday using Peter’s formulation, turned out well. The taste of the cheese was a little too strong and the Great Value tomato sauce could have either used a little more oregano, or should have been left to sit longer to develop a more oregano taste, but the crust turned out well with KABF and VWG. Steve and I couldn’t taste there was any VWG added in the crust. Steve even said that he thought the crust was better than when I used Kyrol flour in that it had a more wheaty taste. I thought the crust was good.


I couldn’t tell any difference in the handling the dough ball (from the time I went to open it) from Peter’s formulation (using KABF and VWG) from when using Kyrol flour. The dough ball opened the same, could be tossed and twirled and baked almost the same in my deck oven. The only difference Steve and I could tell was the bottom crust at the rim was a little crisper. The little bit of crisper rim crust could have even been from a different place I had it in the oven, or the amount of time it took to bake.

The overall weight of the fresh baked pizza after 4 minutes was 2.126 lb. The weigh did dropped after that though. It also weighed more right out of the oven (2.136 lb.). I used 10 oz. of grated cheese and 8.5 oz. of the one year old aged Nasonville cheddar (the same as my last attempt). The cheese and sauce were weighed on my regular scale, not my digital pizza scale. I don’t know why I used 8.5 oz. of sauce this time and only used 8 oz. in my last attempt.

Steve used the 12 oz. of Great Value tomato paste and it can be seen how much paste was left in the container. He added 9 oz. of water to the tomato paste. These weren’t measured on my digital scale, but on my scale that I used for weighing cheeses that are used on my pizza. Steve used my measuring spoons and measured ½ teaspoon of Morton’s Kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon of black pepper and 2 teaspoons of oregano to the paste and water. These were measured level in the stainless steel measuring spoons. We used the paste sauce within 15 minutes, so there wasn’t much time for the oregano to give the paste more flavor.

I got a bill from Nasonville for the 4 cheeses I had purchased yesterday and will post more about that in the next day, or so, after I call Nasonville. I think I was way overcharged for the shipping on the cheese. I will post about that on the Mack’s cheese thread.

Overall this was a very good pizza. Steve and I didn’t share any slices with our taste testers, because we want some slices to take home.

Norma

 

Another Mack's attempt 7/10/2012

Using Peter’s (Pete-zza) dough formulation for a clone Mack’s attempt and the AMPI cheddar cheese these are the results.


Some of the AMPI mild white cheddar (from a 5 lb. loaf) was left out for a day at market (wrapped in aluminum foil) and then refrigerated for about 2 hrs. The other part of the AMPI mild white cheddar was grated about 1 hour before the bake and then also refrigerated. Steve and I tasted both cheddars from the loaf. The cheddar that was left out for a day tasted less twangy than the cheddar that was just grated. I sure don’t know why that was. Steve also noted the same differences.

The Gagni sauce, with added spices, was applied in a swirl pattern. Steve and I did add more cheddars on both sides than we should have, but that was to see if we could decide if the cheddar taste of the AMPI mild white cheddar was right when baked on the Mack’s attempt.

Steve applied oregano to the side that had the cheddar that was just grated and not refrigerated, so we could tell the differences in the cheeses when we tasted slices.

What surprised us was that the cheddar that wasn’t out for a day did taste better and melted better when baked on the Mack’s attempt.

Although both Steve and I can’t be sure if the AMPI mild white cheddar is what Mack’s uses on their pies, it sure tasted almost like a Mack’s pizza. I also thought the pizza tasted like a Papa Dino’s pizza.

When my daughter returned home from work last evening she reheated the slices with both cheeses (I already was in bed). I didn’t talk to her until this morning, but she told me she thought the same thing as Steve and I thought, that the slice with the AMPI mild white cheddar (that was not left out) did taste like a Mack’s pizza and also a Papa Dino’s pizza. My daughter has tasted both Mack’s pizzas different times and also Papa Dino’s many times, but not Papa Dino’s recently. Her favorite pizza in our area was Papa Dino’s also.

If anyone can purchase the AMPI mild cheddar I would be interested in their thoughts when baked on a clone attempt. If anyone thinks that using the AMPI mild cheddar does make a pizza that tastes like Mack’s I will attribute that to what I saw at Joey Mack’s.

Either next week or the following week Steve and I will apply less cheese to see what happens.

Norma