Another V&N Clone Attempt Tuesday 11/23/10

I tried another attempt for a V&N clone Tuesday.  I mixed the formula Peter set-forth and left the dough sit out for a total of 17 hrs.  I did reball the dough several times.  This attempt for theV&N clone was made at market today.  This is what the dough balled looked like before I used it to bake into a pizza. The dough ball was rolled with a rolling pin and then opened the rest of the way as I normally open a dough ball.  The dough ball was the right amount for a 14" pizza.



Dough Formula Peter (Pete-zza) set-forth

Ceresota or Heckers Flour (100%):
Water (55%):
IDY (0.283%):
Salt (2%):
2% Milk (fresh) (11.98%):
Total (169.263%):
136.65 g  |  4.82 oz | 0.3 lbs
75.16 g  |  2.65 oz | 0.17 lbs
0.39 g | 0.01 oz | 0 lbs | 0.13 tsp | 0.04 tbsp
2.73 g | 0.1 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.49 tsp | 0.16 tbsp
16.37 g | 0.58 oz | 0.04 lbs | 3.27 tsp | 1.09 tbsp
231.3 g | 8.16 oz | 0.51 lbs | TF = 0.053
Note: Dough is for a single 14” pizza; nominal thickness factor = 0.053; the formulation does not take into account any added bench flour (estimated at around 12% of the weight of formula flour noted above); no bowl residue compensation

Another member of the forum (BTB) posted he thought that sugar might need to be added to the above formula to get the crust to brown better.  Peter posted that he thought the formula might need some more salt and sugar could be a possibility to add, to help brown the crust.

Norma

Thanksgiving Day Pizza-Tom Turkey

I made a Tom Turkey pizza this morning.  I had gotten some of my food ready yesterday, and had an extra small dough ball frozen, so I decided to use it to make a pizza for Thanksgiving. This pizza only took me about 15 minutes to make from start to finish.  I did have all the traditional Thanksgiving food for our area.  My mother baked some of her delicious pumpkin pies.  :)


Tom Turkey Pizza was dressed with mozzarella, Asiago cheese, filling, pepperoni, and dried cranberries for his Pilgrim hat and his red fleshly wattle.
Believe it or not the redder and brighter and bigger the wattle the more the female turkeys find their male to attractive.  Tom Turkey Pizza didn't have any turkey on him, because the turkey with filling was baking in the oven.

I am thankful for many things, especially my family. Four generations were together today. From my mother down to my great-granddaughter. It is nice to get together with family, even if all of our family isn't in our area.  At least all of them are in our thoughts. My great-granddaughter will soon be one year old.  Times goes by so fast.

I am also thankful for all the members on http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php that have helped me with each post, to learn more about pizza making.  As I have posted before, there is such a wealth of information there.

The Christmas season is coming soon.  I really enjoy listening to Christmas songs.  My favorite of all-time is Grown-up Christmas list. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmF2rsDHOZc by Amy Grant.

Norma

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

It is Thanksgiving in our part of the world.  Thanksgiving means to me being thankful for what I have, because there are so many people in this world that don't have much of anything.  I am thankful for my family, friends, and being able to even make pizza at my age.  There are many people that don't have the opportunities I have.  I am not rich, but just an average everyday person.  I am lucky to be blessed with all the people that care for me and my health.

It is sleeting outside now.  It will soon be winter in our area.  I am also thankful for all the people that have helped me along the way in learning how to make pizzas.

Norma

My Brother Helping to Make Dough Balls :)

My brother lives in another state, far enough from me that I don't get to see him very much. :(   These pictures were taken in September 2009, when I was teaching him how to form dough balls.  He is really a great brother. :)  I can only wish I had his knowledge in math.  He is a natural in everything he does and tries.  Although we do live far apart, he is always in my thoughts.  He did come to visit again this summer.  I always enjoy visiting with him and always learn from my brother.

While my brother was visiting we went to Sight and Sound Theater. http://www.sight-sound.com/WebSiteSS/getlanguages.do  They put on amazing shows there. Sight and Sound is in Strasburg, Pa. I have seen many shows at Sight and Sound. They even have live animals in the shows and their shows are spectacular in my opinion. The one pictures was taken outside of Sight and Sound.  My mother was even helping with the dough balls at Root's Market.  :)

Norma

August's Monthly Challenge-I made a Waffle Iron Pizza

I decided to try something unconventional for a pizza  Since I like to experiment in different ways, I decided to try out my waffle iron for a pizza oven.  Since it does heat on the top and bottom evenly, I thought I would give it a go for a pizza oven.  The temperature on the waffle iron can get a over 500 degrees F.

For this month’s challenge I made a BBQ pizza in my Waffle Iron.  Toppings were homemade BBQ sauce, cooked chicken thigh, added to simmering BBQ sauce, fresh peppers from my garden sauteed in olive oil and fresh grape tomatoes from my garden.

I removed a small dough ball from my freezer and time defrosted the dough ball  in my microwave and then left it on my kitchen table for about 1 hour.  I wasn’t sure how this bake was going to go in the waffle iron and had my reservations about the dough sticking to the waffle iron.  I thought maybe if oiled the plates with olive oil that was good for grilling that might work, to keep the dough from sticking.  I did oil both plates with a pastry brush.  I then let the Waffle Iron get hot. The temperature of my Waffle Iron taken with the IR gun was 520 degrees F. The dough was floured some and then also oiled with olive oil.  When I place the skin in the Waffle Iron it quickly started to rise. After baking for a little while I was wondering if both sides were getting baked evenly.  I checked on the bottom and it seemed to be baking well.  I rotated this pie a few times with two forks and then closed the lid on the Waffle Iron.  After I thought the pie was baked enough, I removed it with forks from the Waffle Iron.  I then placed the pie on a metal peel and dressed the pie.  The pie was dressed with BBQ sauce that was made from corn syrup, molasses,  tomato paste, Colgin liquid smoke, vinegar, mustard seed, salt, pineapple juice, garlic, some chili powder and a little bit of Kitchen Bouquet to give it a browner color. None of these ingredients were weighed out. I just put different ingredients into a pan. Then mozzarella was added with sauteed peppers from my garden and also grape tomatoes from my garden.  The broiler of my oven was then turned on and I finished baking this pie in the broiler so the cheese would melt and also the rim would brown better.

In my opinion this was the most different pie I had tasted to this date.  The crust was moist and the tangy BBQ sauce with chicken combined with the peppers and grape tomatoes were tasty.

After trying out this waffle iron as a pizza oven, I saw how fast this dough could rise with using even top and bottom heat.  The dough really want to puff and rise fast.  I had to close the lid tighter so the side wouldn’t become uneven and also because the middle of this pizza would have also been too thick.  After doing this experiment for a pizza using the Waffle Iron, I then thought about a Panini grill I used to own when I had my funnel cake stand.  That grill had flat plates and a floating head. I did use a Panini grill in another pizza challenge.  I will post results about that at a future date.  I really like to try different ways to make pizzas.

Norma

Monthly Challenge "Candy" at pizzamaking.com October

There is a monthly challenge each month on http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php  If anyone is interested what monthly challenges there were, this is the link.  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/board,62.0.html

Many members come up with great looking pizzas for the monthly challenges.

For the month of October 2010, the monthly challenge was "Candy".  I made a pizza for the challenge October 14, 2010

This was my pizza for the “candy” challenge..  This pizza was baked in my home oven on the baking stone in the top rack position.  Toppings on this pizza are mild white cheddar cheese, papaya strips (cut up), dried cherries, cinnamon, and candied pecans.  I placed some candy corn and other candies on this pie after the bake. The combination of the crunchy candied pecans, dried cherries, papaya, candies, white mild cheddar cheese and cinnamon went well together in my opinion.

Since I really like cinnamon in so many ways and recently read this article in our local newspaper about the benefits of cinnamon, this is another reason I decided to include cinnamon in this pie.

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/298502

The dough I used for this pizza was the Preferment Lehmann dough, which is a dough made with a poolish.

Norma

Making Clear Toy Candy that Eventually Led Me to Having a Pizza Stand at Root's Market

Since it is near Christmas, this post isn’t about pizza, but of Clear Toy Candy my husband and I used to make.  We made Clear Toy Candy for many years.  We made wholesale orders for people in New Jersey and other places.  It kept my husband and I really busy before Christmas, because Clear Toy Candy is a tradition around our area.  A lot of our Clear Toy Candy Molds were over 100 years old.  I cherished them, because it took many years and much searching to find the molds.  I was always anxious to add new molds each year to our collection.  When I sold the Caramel Popcorn Business, I saved over half of the molds to use or just because I couldn’t sell them because they held so many memories.  I made Clear Toy Candy before Christmas last year.
These are pictures from when I made the Clear Toy Candy.

My friend Nancy Fasolt, and I talked about Clear Toy Candy many times and she even lent me molds to use around Christmas.  She even wrote a book about Clear Toy Candy that is now for sale.  This is Nancy’s website and where her book is listed about Clear Toy Candy.
http://cleartoycandymoulds.com/index.html

If you have lived in Lancaster County for any length of time, you have tasted a clear toy candy or two or three.  Fasolt dates the candies to medieval Persia. Later they became popular in Germany. Barley sugar candy became more popular in the British Isles.

The traditional colors used for clear toys in the United States are yellow, red and green. Red and green, obviously, are Christmas colors. Yellow is the natural color of the syrup.

Fasolt features several manufacturers of clear toys, including the Regennas family of Lititz. She also describes clear toy traditions, including the Pennsylvania Dutch practice of giving the candy and other food to children on Christmas Eve. Fasolt has been featured on NBC's "Today Show,'' which is how she got to know Willard Scott, who blurbs on the back cover of her book: "Nancy is the Rembrandt of creative candies and that is shown through this historical cookbook. Just like Nancy, the recipes are sweet, creative and the best!''

Nancy is going to be making Clear Toy Candy and signing her book at Hershey, Pa.  This is the website about that.  http://www.hersheystory.org/lib/ads/files/1289842013-Chriskindlmarkt%20web%20page.pdf

I remember how hard my husband I worked making clear toy candy.  We worked many days before Christmas making clear toy candy, until early in the morning.  It was always nice to hear customers say how they remember clear toy candy from years ago, and they also wanted to continue the tradition of sharing with their children the story behind clear toy candy.  It is nice that people still want to share traditions from years ago.  We also sold clear toy candy wholesale to Meisse's candy in Lancaster, Pa.  I remember taking all those boxes of clear toy candy in for them to then retail.  We also made many other kinds of candy and another favorite customers used to buy was peanut brittle, cashew brittle and black walnut brittle.  We also dabbled in old fashioned butterscotch candy and others.

Since this post isn’t about pizza, I thought I would just include this post because while selling many of these clear toy candies at Root’s Market, this is how I eventually got into the Pizza Stand I now have at Root’s Market.

Norma