My Pie Monday: Sicilian Rianata, Nutmeg Pizza and Much More! 7/11/2011

Posted by Meredith Smith, July 11, 2011 http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/07/my-pie-monday-sicilian-rianata-nutmeg-pizza.html

Happy Monday, Slice'rs! This week's gallery showcases some of the holiday weekend creations from your brethren in pizza. There's a classic Neapolitan with peppers and onions from Ev, a B.A.T. (that's bacon, arugula, and tomato) pie from amusebouche1, and a Mack's Pizza clone from Norma427. Alosha7777 gets closer to pie perfection, and Slice-inspired pies come from Kakugori, thanks to last week's Mi Famiglia review, and Jimmyg, after reading Scott Wiener's Sicilian pizza lesson. And, last but not least, we have a first time submission from my mom (cool name to follow).

SLIDESHOW: My Pie Monday: Sicilian Rianata, Nutmeg Pizza and Much More!


http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/07/my-pie-monday-sicilian-rianata-nutmeg-pizza-slideshow.html

My Pie for MPM

Mack's Pizza Clone by Norma427: "This was a clone attempt for Mack's pizza. I used the Shurfine brand of tomato paste for this attempt, with added sugar, dried crushed basil leaves, oregano and salt added to the sauce. It was applied with a squeeze bottle. The white cheddar was applied on the skin first, then the swirls of tomato sauce, then a second round of cheese.

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/07/my-pie-monday-sicilian-rianata-nutmeg-pizza-slideshow.html#show-172245

Norma

Pizza Prep Fridge had higher than normal temps in overnight fermentation!-Gluten Matrix Softened, Almost overferemented!

What is another day without some problems.  My pizza prep refrigerator always keeps my dough really cold, but for some reason, which I still don’t know, the pizza prep refrigerator was at 50 degrees F, when I arrived at market yesterday.  The temperature control knob is way in back of where I store the dough balls and is hard to turn, so I don’t have any idea if that knob could have been move or not.  I sure didn’t move it.  I removed the dough balls and trays of dough and fiddled with the knob.  In about an hour the temperature of the pizza prep fridge was back to normal, but I was concerned how my dough balls were going to perform during the day, because they usually do expand some during the course of a day.  It was hot at market yesterday, so I knew I couldn’t let my dough balls warm-up too long, but with the problems of the dough already fermented a lot, it had me wondering what would happen.  The dough was very sticky when taking it out of the plastic bags, but when floured, the dough balls opened up easily.  I had to break big bubbles on almost every dough ball before I opened them.  I only took one pictures of the second pie that came out of the oven, but other pizzas made yesterday did get browner on the rim.  The pictures I wanted to post are what the dough balls looked like in the morning when I arrived at market, how a dough ball looked later in the day, and two pictures of what the inside of the dough balls looked like when the bubble was popped.  The gluten matrix can be seen on the pictures of the popped bubbles

Norma

Wheat Berry Starter and Wheat Berry sprouted Wheat 7/12/2011

 I used tweezers and separated some of the spouted wheat berries, from the ones that weren’t sprouted.  Since I think I know better now how to sprout the wheat berries, I will try sprouting again.  Maybe the next time, I will have better luck with sprouting more of the wheat berries.  I did grind the sprouted wheat berries in my little grinder.

My wheat berry starter was getting more active, but I still am not sure if it was active enough.  I decided to make two small dough balls last evening.  I made one with the wheat berry starter and one with the wheat berry starter and the ground sprouted wheat berries.  I am not sure if the wheat berry starter is going to leaven the dough, but guess I will see today.

Pictures of wheat berry starter, picked wheat berries, ground sprouted wheat berries, one dough ball with wheat berry starter and one dough ball with wheat berry starter with grounded sprouted wheat berries. The grounded sprouted wheat berries can be seen in the dough ball.  The size I selected for these pizzas was 13", since I don’t know if my wheat berry starter is strong enough.

Norma

Cracker Style Experiment with EL-7 started 7/10/2011

I made a dough for a cracker style crust with EL-7.  The pizza size I went with was 15" to be cut to 14".   I did use 130 degrees F water for the mix in my food processor.  The dough came out okay in the food processor, but I remembered after the dough was looking crumbled and I had lumped it together and removed it from the food processor bowl, I had forgot to add the oil.  I then put the dough that had looked okay to me, back into the food processor and added the oil.  The dough then looked quite different.  I balled the dough and coated it lightly with vegetable oil.

I had heated my homemade proofing box before I started the dough and the temperature on the proofing box was 110 degrees F.  I let the dough ball that had been place into a plastic container, proof for two hours.  The dough in the beginning was somewhat easy to roll out, but as I kept measuring, for 15", with the somewhat shaggy edges, I am not sure it I have the right thickness factor. The skin became increasing harder to roll out after it had cooled some. The skin weighed 9.3 oz. after it was cut and the skin only measures 12 1/2".  The skin then was wrapped in plastic and put into a plastic zip bag. I will be taking the skin to market.

Norma

Wheat berries Starting to Sprout 7/11/2011

Some of my what berries are sprouting and some aren’t.  The ones that are sprouting did sprout as long as the wheat berries or longer.  Now I am now sure what to do.  I don’t know if I should just dry them all and try to pick the wheat berries that did sprout out or not.

Norma

finally got my door frames painted on my one shed today, did a little gardening and am watching a hybrid Rehinart dough

I finally finished painting my shed doors today.  When fall arrives and I cut down all my plants, then I am going to paint the rest of both sheds.  I did a little gardening and saw my San Marzano tomatoes are ripening more today.  All the tomato plants are really growing now.  Means to me more of Les's sauce and other things to do with all the tomatoes when they are ripened.  It was hot outside today, so I did put the fan on while I was painting.  It is supposed to get hotter tomorrow and really hot on Tuesday.

I am also watching my hybrid Reinhart dough, because I am having problems working with a higher hydration dough when using the hybrid Reinhart dough.  I did use higher hydration doughs before and didn't have all these problems, but will see what happens on Tuesday when I make the pizza.  The hybrid Reinhart dough ball will be rebaledl tomorrow when I am at market.

Norma

How My Ground Wheat Starter is doing and also still trying to sprout wheat 7/10/2011

This post is to update how my ground wheat berry starter is doing, and how the wheat berries I am trying to sprout are starting to sprout.  The first picture is before I fed the starter this morning and less than two hours later how it looks on the top and side of the glass container.  The starter seems to be fermenting differently than any other starter I tried to make before.  The bubbles are smaller and the starter smells a lot different than any other starter I have made.  The smell is wonderful.  I wish the starter would be ready to be able to make a dough for market, that I could try to room temperature ferment, but I am not sure if it is ready.

The wheat berries are finally starting to sprout a little, as can be seen on the picture.  The picture was taken right after I rinsed the wheat berries and then placed them back into the kitchen cupboard.  The wheat berries don’t smell at all now.  I guess I now know I was going about sprouting the wheat berries wrong the last time.

While driving around in my area the wheat and barley fields are all cut down now.  I was lucky to be able to get some wheat berries.  Now to see how the starter and sprouted wheat do when making a pizza.  This has been a nice journey so far.

Norma