Sicilian dough made with a soaker 5/12/2012

The Sicilian pie made with the soaker went okay, but the crumb was much denser. The taste of the crumb was very good though. I sure don’t know what a 3 day soaker does, but even with the added water, the dough felt different.


Norma

Sicilain Pizza Made from Frozen Dough Ball 5/23/2012

From the one frozen dough ball left over from last week another Sicilian pizza was made yesterday. It turned out okay.

Norma

How to handle sticky Pizza Dough..use parchment paper 5/23/2012

I had two frozen dough balls from the 5 dough ball batch and used two sheets of parchment paper on the peel for the one pizza and no parchment paper for the second pizza. The first pizza with the two sheets of parchment paper slid into the oven with ease, but the second pizza without the parchment paper wanted to stick some again. These are only the pictures of the pizza using the parchment papers.

The dough ball was very gassy and sticky before dusting with flour.


Norma

Mack's Attempt again 5/23/2011

The Mack’s clone attempt was made yesterday and although the pizza was really good, it didn’t taste like a Mack’s pizza in the cheese, sauce or crust. It had somewhat of a Mack’s taste, but that isn’t good enough.


The dough ball opened beautifully, was pressed out very hard (to try and keep the rim from rising), could be tossed and twirl easily, and was nice in every way. Even though the dough was pressed out hard, the rim wanted to get some huge bubbles while in the oven, which I used the bubble popper to deflate. There was still some rim rise as can be seen in the picture. The rim didn’t brown enough until the bottom of the crust appeared to be baked enough.

The cheddar melted beautifully and tasted buttery and creamy on the slices, but something was missing from the taste of the cheese. It didn’t have exactly the tang as Mack’s pizza cheese does. I don’t know if it was the cheese and sauce combination, or if I used too much cheddar and sauce. There was a fairly high amount of cheddar and sauce on the pie when it was dressed.

When I talked to the one distributor of the Nasonville cheese he told me some pizzerias want the cheddar aged more before they use it on pizzas. I can’t be sure from the dates on the Nasonville cheddar I purchased really how long the cheddar was aged, or really when it was made.

I guess it is back to the drawing board for me for another attempt at a Mack’s pizza. I guess I have to change something in the dough formulation, but really don’t know what to try, except to use shortening and really don’t know how much shortening to try. For the sauce and cheddar, I guess I would add less the next time to see if that changes the flavor profile in anyway.

All the taste testers did really like this pizza, but this wasn’t a clone Mack’s pizza. I had different taste testers taste the Nasonville cheddar plain and they all said it was the creamiest cheddar they have ever tasted.

Norma

Jim’s idea for making a Pizza using the Epoxy Method 5/15/2012

I must say the “Epoxy Method” with the preferment and soaker worked great with Jim’s formulation. The dough ball seemed to ferment just enough until this afternoon. The dough ball was left out at room temperature of about 83 degrees F for about 1 ½ hrs to warm-up. The dough ball opened so easy and wasn’t sticky at all. The pizza slide off the peel easily and the bake went well. There was good oven spring, decent crust browning, a nice crispness on the bottom crust and the taste of the crust was really good. Steve and I thought the crust had a nice complex flavor better than using other methods. The pizza wasn’t like bread at all.


Thanks Jim for thinking of the “Epoxy Method” for us to try! I think it made a great pizza.

If anyone want to follow along on the journey to try and make a better crust, this is the thread where Jimmyg came up with the idea of the Epoxy Method for pizza.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,19129.0.html

Norma

The progress of the attempts for a Sicilian pizza for market 5/15/2012

The Sicilian dough that was bulk cold fermented for 3 days, then divided and balled and fermented one more day worked out reasonably well. I only made two pies out of the 3 dough balls and froze one to see how that works out. One dough ball that was used was from a plastic bag and one was from the plastic container. The taste of the crust was great since the dough had longer to ferment. The one problem I still am having is how much to stretch out the dough before putting it into the oiled steel pan. Either I stretch it too big or too small. When it is in the oil and the stretch is too small, it wants to slide around and takes some effort to get it stretched the full way in the steel pan without it wanting to stretch back, even after it is left to rest for awhile.


Steve brought some Orangecello to celebrate. The Orangecello went well with a slice of Sicilian pizza. :)

Formulation I am using.

 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,18281.msg178345.html#msg178345

Norma
 

Mother's Day present from my granddaughter and family...A great pizza cutter! :) 5/13/2012

I had a great time yesterday with my family on Mother's Day! :)  We all had a picnic at my place and it sure was fun having 5 generations of my family together. 

It is always fun watching my grandson and great-granddaughter. 

My granddaughter and family gave me a really nice pizza cutter.

Norma