Continuing "Boardwalk Style" pizzas

As I said in my last post, I am not really looking to make an authentic Mack’s clone anymore, especially in the crust.  I don’t mind if my crusts have some oven spring.  That being said, I really pressed on the dough balls while opening them and also pressed on the edges of the skin, before fully opening them yesterday.  No matter what I did, the rims still had oven spring.  The only thing I didn’t try was to roll out the dough with a rolling pin.  Really I think a pizza with some oven spring looks better, at least to me.

The Gangi tomato product can be really thinned down, which is really a good thing in my opinion.  I have watched at the shore when the sauce was being applied with the hose and mostly always thought the sauce was thicker when it was applied, but since experimenting, I now think that the sauce is really thinned down with water.  I have never been close enough to really see how thin the Mack’s sauce is, even though I have watched closely when the sauce is applied many times.

My friend Trenton Bill had sent me the little plastic cup with the spout in the one pictures and did tell me he thinks that does apply the sauce well.  I agree, after using it later yesterday for some of my pizzas.

I think I am happy with the formulation I used with the Occident flour.  The bottom crusts browned okay for me yesterday and the TF seems okay too.  The dough balls also opened much better yesterday and I didn’t have to fight with them.  The crust tasted very good and the bottom crust was crisp when cut and also the rim crust was a little crisp, but was also tender inside, with a little chew.  I also really liked the Occident flour in the formulation I used.  The whole pizzas just seemed better to me.  I thought the IDY amount might have been a little too high for a two day cold ferment, but none of the dough balls fermented too much yesterday.  The pizza prep fridge was at 37 degrees though during the two-day cold ferment.  I am not sure what amount of IDY to try for a one day cold ferment next week.

I still have to work on the amount of cheese to apply both times, but the pizzas and slices held up well in the heated cabinet yesterday.  The slices also reheated well.  I don’t want my rim crusts to get too brown in the bake because when the short reheat is done, then the rim crust does get a little browner.

 Different customers told me they really like the “boardwalk style” of pizzas yesterday.   My youngest daughter and her boyfriend were at market yesterday morning and it was the first time they have tasted the “boardwalk style” of pizza.  They both really liked it and my daughter’s boyfriend, that had lived in Brooklyn, NY for most of his life said the “boardwalk style” of pizza reminded him of the best pizzas he had eaten in Brooklyn.  Finally, there was a woman that came to my stand yesterday and must have tried the “boardwalk style” of pizza last week.  She said she has told all of her friends about the “boardwalk style” of pizzas.  I couldn’t believe it, but she told me my “boardwalk style” of pizza tasted just like Mack’s pizza.  She purchased some slices yesterday and said she will be back.  The lady said Mack’s pizzas have been her favorite all her life too, but she wasn’t as old as I am.  The lady and her husband that live in NY (that also have a house in Lititz) were also at my stand yesterday.  They purchased a whole pizza to take home.  I will have to wait and see what they thought of the pizza.

Norma

lol, another Mack's attempt 8/21/2012

I didn’t know how to go about changing the last formulation for the dough to try another Mack’s attempt, so I just used the same formulation I attempted the last time, but used a little less sugar. I sure wouldn’t think the little less sugar changed the crust of the attempt I did yesterday, but it seemed like it did. I didn’t change the TF at all. The resulting pizza crust did come out different though. I have no idea why that was, unless I didn’t place the pizza the same place on the deck and didn’t rotate the same, or the sauce and cheese were different. In the last minute of the bake, the pizza was seeming to brown more on the bottom crust than I wanted it to, so it was moved to the top deck. I then even put a screen under the pizza for the last 30 seconds.


This attempt at a Mack’s pizza is the closest I have come so far, at least in Steve’s and my opinions. I used 50/50 Great Lakes sharp cheddar and Nasonville cheddar. The Nasonville cheddar is soft, creamy and without much flavor and the Great Lakes sharp cheddar has the sharper flavor and tang. I know Nasonville does melt well when baked on a pizza, but I don‘t like the way it clumps after grating. The Great Lakes sharp cheddar did help some with the clumping since it was added. I had grated the cheddars on Monday, but then purchased a new cheese yesterday at market. It was Amish butter cheese. I decided not to add it to the blend, but would think if I did it would have given the attempt a buttery flavor. I let Pete taste the Amish butter cheese and it does taste like butter, but I didn’t know how it would melt when baking the pizza. That is why I didn’t try it. We did add a little more than 8 oz. of the cheese blend yesterday.

Steve and I were trying to decide if we should make the sauce a little thicker than last week. We decided to make it a little thicker, but not near as thick as in other attempts. It still squeezed out of the plastic squeeze bottom well. I let Steve decide how much spices to add to the Gangi sauce. He came up with the best taste so far using the Gangi sauce. I think he added about 1 teaspoon of Kosher Morton salt, ½ tsp. of regular pepper and a lot of oregano. That amount was for a bigger amount than what was in the squeeze bottle though. We probably would have had enough sauce for at least ½ of another pizza. When I tasted Steve’s additions to the sauce it tasted just like the sauce on a Mack’s pizza. Great job Steve on the sauce!!

This whole attempt produce a very enjoyable pizza and the taste was almost like a Mack’s pizza. The only thing missing was a little buttery flavor and also a little tang. Other than those two things I would rate this Mack’s attempt successful.

Norma  

 

Another attempt at a Mack's pizza 8/2012

The dough ball looked normal to me yesterday and Steve did weight it before we made the Mack’s attempt. Steve said to me he didn’t see how I got so confused about the TF on Monday night. I explained the story of why I thought I might have be confused. The dough ball weighed 1 ¼ lbs. We also weighed the shredded AMPI mild white cheddar before it was applied and it was 8 oz. We didn’t weight the Ganig sauce, but sure thinned it down a lot. I thought it looked neat how the thin sauce just blends in with the cheddar.

Kyrol flour and a lower TF were used for this experiment.

The dough ball sure opened well, and could be tossed and twirled with no problems. The pizza baked fine, but there were a little too much crisp to the bottom crust for Steve and me. The slices sure were thin, at least in our opinions. The crust did taste much better than the last slices of Mack’s pizza I had though.

I find this whole process interesting, because I really don’t think we would have had to applied the whole 8 ounces of cheese and with the sauce being so thin, would think this would be a much cheaper way of making an 18” pizza with less cheese and also less sauce (when it is thinned down). I am curious about who might have come up with this idea for applying cheese and sauce. Whoever came up with these ideas sure knew what they were doing.

Norma