Failed Attempt at a Thin and Crispy Pizza 9/18/2011

Another failed attempt at a cracker style pizza.  I don’t know what I did wrong this time, but the crust wasn’t crispy.  The crust didn’t taste bad, but as can been seen on the pictures the crust sure wasn’t crackery.  When the pie was cut, there was a definite crunch, but that didn’t mean the crust would be crispy.

The skin was left at room temperature today to warm-up for 2 ½ hrs.

The pie was dressed with sauce, a blend of mozzarellas, and pepperoni. I would rate the pizza decent in final taste, but it wasn’t what I was looking to accomplish.

Norma

Flour-A treatise from the Artisan

Flour-A treatise from the Artisan

Prelude:  Attempting to describe the difference between flour in Italy and the United States presents a number of challenges because there is no single source of definitive explanation and definitions.  What follows is a review of literature and included information excerpted from a variety of Italian and English language texts.


http://home.earthlink.net/~ggda/Flours_One.htm 

Norma

Technical Articles from Bread Lines including articles from Didier Rosada ..A very good article to read about making dough and all that goes into making dough!

This article is about Mixing and Techniques- Part 1 by Didier Rosada.

http://www.bbga.org/bread 

The entire article is at this link by Didier Rosada. Mixing and Techiniques-Part I excerpted from Breadlines 2002 Volume 10 Issue 3
 http://www.bbga.org/files//bbga.19.2.techarticle.pdf 

Norma

Interesting part in this article by Didier Rosada at the end of the article about BM Harvest King/Better for Bread flour

Didier Rosada made an initial suggestion of which brands of flours to use. Then, in 1998, General Mills released Harvest King flour, a competitively-priced, winter-wheat, unbleached, unbromoted enriched flour. Most flours on the market were formulated for rough factory machine-handling, but Harvest King was intended to respond best to artisanal baking and hand molding. It is now the bakery's main flour. The bakery uses five different flours each week, all coming in 50 lb bags: 70 bags of Harvest King white bread flour, 10 bags or organic bread flour, 2 bags of medium rye, 2 bags of dark rye, and 2 bags whole wheat. That makes 4300 lbs per week.


http://home.earthlink.net/~ggda/Flours_One.htm 

Norma

Explore the life of a Sourdough: by Didier Rosada

For a long time , this method of baking remained mysterious to bakers.  With the evolution of baking science and microbiology in particular, this natural fermentation process has become more understood.  Whether you use scratch methods, bases or frozen dough, a clear understanding of the science and production steps in the sourdough process is essential to create variety, quality and consistency in your artisan bread line.
The sourdough process consists of three parts-starting a culture of microorganisms, cultivating them to increase their quantity, and using the resulting levain to ferment the final dough.  After using the levain, the baker perpetuates the culture by adding more flour and water to maintain its activity.

Rest of article from Didier Rosada.

http://www.bakerconnection.com/artisanbaker/article_02.htm

Norma

Flour combination sweetens whole grain bread by: Didier Rosada

Flour combination sweetens whole grain bread by: Didier Rosada

No refined white flour is used in this formula. This maintains the integrity of the whole kernel of wheat, which is naturally rich in fibers, minerals and vitamins. In addition, to improve the nutritional value, the formula incorporates a soaker made with seeds rich in minerals and fiber, including flax seeds (loaded with Omega-3 fatty acids), sunflower seeds, rolled oats and sesame seed. You can use other seeds, as long as you maintain the correct ratio of seeds-to-dough weight. Otherwise, the bread can be too dense, not have enough volume or have an unpleasant crust.

http://modern-baking.com/bread_pastry/mb_imp_7271/

Norma

The Joys of owing a small pizza business...Lol 9/16/2011

There are joys and times I am happy I own a very small pizza business.  I like to learn about different styles of pizzas and experiment to see what kind of results I can achieve.  I also get to talk to nice customers and learn from other people that make different kinds of pizza.

This last week and some other weeks, when there are problems with something at market, are one of the times when I really wonder about owning your own small business.  Since I am own a small pizza business most of the work needs to be done by myself. There can be a problems sometimes, because I am not the best carpenter or fixer-upper.  I can do some work by myself, but it is always a challenge.  Last week from all the raining and storms, my deck oven vent was really leaking.  The leaking managed to go onto the floor tiles and then a lot of them loosened up.  Tuesday was a nightmare in trying to avoid tripping over the loose tiles.  I knew I had to do something about the loose tiles.  I went shopping to get some more tiles like I had laid before, but there weren't any like those tiles, so I had to try and get something that matched somewhat. Then it was off to get that sticky stuff that holds the tiles in place.  I pulled up and scraped the tiles that were loose yesterday and today, did manage to get the new tiles laid today.  What a sticky mess, but at least I won't be tripping over loose tiles anymore.  The market manager got his maintenance men to start fixing my ceiling and where the water was coming in at the deck oven vent.  At least I didn't have to tackle that.  This was only one problems that happens when you own a small business and have to do things yourself.  lol  The small train that crosses the tracks at market was going by on my way to market today.

Norma