The Home Made Pizza Thread

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Ok guys, I've been following this thread and getting hungry for weeks now... figured I would share my first entry here while I am upgrading my brewery and have nothing better to do :)

First post is of a 1 cup Spelt flour / 1.5 cups all purpose, with a mix of 8 oz tomato paste / whole foods mushroom pasta sauce (tom paste to make it not so watery), fennel seed, 12 oz monterrey jack (they were out of mozz for the pre-holiday rush), and 1/2 lb of wellshire dry dub black forest bacon!

IMG_20131224_130123.jpg

IMG_20131224_132123.jpg


I had to dab the top with a few paper towels as their was so much grease from the bacon! Turned out decently for my first post, definitely better than my last few pizzas, though i should have pre-heated the pizza sheet with the oven, as the bottom could have been a bit more done.
 
A Sicilian women I knew from the old days back in Brooklyn always made this pizza at Christmas and New Years.

Artichoke pizza.

3 cups of chopped onions ( 1/2 inch chop )
2 cans of artichoke hearts cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 or 2 cans of anchovies mashed to a pulp in the oil they come in ( 1-2 cans depending on taste ).
4 ounces of tomato sauce
Salt to taste ( remember the anchovies are salty )
Couple of grinds of black pepper
Fine dry bread crumbs
Olive oil

Make a light/soft pizza dough, the more bread like the better.

Put the onions, artichokes and anchovies in a sauce pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper and slowly sweat them down until very tender.
Add the tomato sauce to give it a reddish/pink color and bring back to a simmer for a minute or two...then allow it all to cool down to the touch.

Lay the dough out in a 9 X 13 pan that has a couple of tablespoons of olive oil spread around (this pizza should have an oily golden crust when done)

Cover the dough with the artichoke mixture evenly then cover the entire thing with a healthy ( 1/8-1/4 inch ) layer of breadcrumbs.
Drizzle the entire surface with olive oil.

Bake till the top is golden brown in a 350-400 degree oven.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

bosco
 
I know this thread is for pizza, but I'll post this here because it's become an ode to all things yeasted. This is my first attempt at San Francisco-style sourdough bread, still working with the culture I obtained from Rex. I didn't use a recipe, just followed a basic guideline - mix all your water with your culture and half the flour to form a very wet dough. Let it sit for up to 24 hours. Then I lightly folded in enough flour to give it the texture I wanted. I'm guessing it was about 60-65% hydration. Then I just gave it a couple of folds, shaped the loaf, let it rise for two hours and baked it at 450 on a pizza stone with a large steel bowl over the top of the bread for the first half of the baking time. It's not perfect, but it is damn good. I probably won't use much for recipes from here on out with this starter because so much of it has to be done by feel - how active is the starter that day, how acidic, what is the temperature, too many variables to get pigeonholed into a "recipe". Next time I want to try something really craggy. Anyway, here it is.

image-1967286883.jpg


image-1842586806.jpg


image-3741353271.jpg
 
bottlebomber said:
I know this thread is for pizza, but I'll post this here because it's become an ode to all things yeasted. This is my first attempt at San Francisco-style sourdough bread, still working with the culture I obtained from Rex. I didn't use a recipe, just followed a basic guideline - mix all your water with your culture and half the flour to form a very wet dough. Let it sit for up to 24 hours. Then I lightly folded in enough flour to give it the texture I wanted. I'm guessing it was about 60-65% hydration. Then I just gave it a couple of folds, shaped the loaf, let it rise for two hours and baked it at 450 on a pizza stone with a large steel bowl over the top of the bread for the first half of the baking time. It's not perfect, but it is damn good. I probably won't use much for recipes from here on out with this starter because so much of it has to be done by feel - how active is the starter that day, how acidic, what is the temperature, too many variables to get pigeonholed into a "recipe". Next time I want to try something really craggy. Anyway, here it is.
Click to expand...
That looks pretty darn good! I find that a moister dough will produce a more open crumb, my doughs are typically a bit on the hard to handle side.
Hopefully I will have pizza tomorrow and sadly you guys will only have pictures:D
 
boscobeans said:
A Sicilian women I knew from the old days back in Brooklyn always made this pizza at Christmas and New Years.

Artichoke pizza.

3 cups of chopped onions ( 1/2 inch chop )
2 cans of artichoke hearts cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 or 2 cans of anchovies mashed to a pulp in the oil they come in ( 1-2 cans depending on taste ).
4 ounces of tomato sauce
Salt to taste ( remember the anchovies are salty )
Couple of grinds of black pepper
Fine dry bread crumbs
Olive oil

Make a light/soft pizza dough, the more bread like the better.

Put the onions, artichokes and anchovies in a sauce pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper and slowly sweat them down until very tender.
Add the tomato sauce to give it a reddish/pink color and bring back to a simmer for a minute or two...then allow it all to cool down to the touch.

Lay the dough out in a 9 X 13 pan that has a couple of tablespoons of olive oil spread around (this pizza should have an oily golden crust when done)

Cover the dough with the artichoke mixture evenly then cover the entire thing with a healthy ( 1/8-1/4 inch ) layer of breadcrumbs.
Drizzle the entire surface with olive oil.

Bake till the top is golden brown in a 350-400 degree oven.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

bosco
Click to expand...

I enjoyed reading all of those words.
 
ChefRex said:
That looks pretty darn good! I find that a moister dough will produce a more open crumb, my doughs are typically a bit on the hard to handle side. Hopefully I will have pizza tomorrow and sadly you guys will only have pictures:D
Click to expand...
I want to move towards a wetter dough, but I've found one thing with working with this culture is that if the acidity is too high it will totally annihilate the gluten structure and the dough will turn to sludge, and with dough that is already wet and looser I'm wondering how that will work out as far as getting the loaf to keep it's shape. It will take practice I'm sure, but I'm definitely open to any suggestions.
 
Damn good looking loaf of bread.

Crust looks fantastic and the crumb, right down to the bottom crust, is very consistent. This is hard to do with all the variables in flour, from hard bread flour to all purpose flour. For loaves like this I like to use about 25 - 30 percent semolina flour along with a decent bread flour.

I like the idea of the bowl over the dough for some of the bake time... I guess it avoids the problem of spraying with water in the oven and the whole pan of boiling water thing.

Good pictures of some really nice looking bread.

bosco
 
bottlebomber said:
I know this thread is for pizza, but I'll post this here because it's become an ode to all things yeasted. This is my first attempt at San Francisco-style sourdough bread, still working with the culture I obtained from Rex. I didn't use a recipe, just followed a basic guideline - mix all your water with your culture and half the flour to form a very wet dough. Let it sit for up to 24 hours. Then I lightly folded in enough flour to give it the texture I wanted. I'm guessing it was about 60-65% hydration. Then I just gave it a couple of folds, shaped the loaf, let it rise for two hours and baked it at 450 on a pizza stone with a large steel bowl over the top of the bread for the first half of the baking time. It's not perfect, but it is damn good. I probably won't use much for recipes from here on out with this starter because so much of it has to be done by feel - how active is the starter that day, how acidic, what is the temperature, too many variables to get pigeonholed into a "recipe". Next time I want to try something really craggy. Anyway, here it is.
Click to expand...


I am following your guidelines, as I have not found a decent recipe yet. My starter is a regular run of the mill starter that I had added several apples worth of peels too (BTW still smells like apples after ~10 new feedings). I did have a couple of questions: Did you add any salt at any point during the process? Did you refrigerate your sponge? It was my understanding that if the yeast works at colder temps, it produces a tangier loaf? Any experience with that? I want a nice, tangy loaf without the addition of citric acid, just don't know how to get to that point yet, other than letting the sponge sit for longer periods of time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
mccumath said:
I am following your guidelines, as I have not found a decent recipe yet. My starter is a regular run of the mill starter that I had added several apples worth of peels too (BTW still smells like apples after ~10 new feedings). I did have a couple of questions: Did you add any salt at any point during the process? Did you refrigerate your sponge? It was my understanding that if the yeast works at colder temps, it produces a tangier loaf? Any experience with that? I want a nice, tangy loaf without the addition of citric acid, just don't know how to get to that point yet, other than letting the sponge sit for longer periods of time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Salt,I use 1.5 to 2% of the flour by weight after allowing the flour to hydrate for 20-30 mins.
If i have the time I'll start the sponge and leave it out on the counter overnight,
my basic bread i 1 part starter, 2 parts distilled water, 3 parts flour, usually a mix, bread, whole wheat, rye, spelt ect, mix let sit add salt and knead, time allowed refridge for 1 or 2 days, shape oven preheated to 550F, turn down to 400F as it goes in with steam of your choice, I use a cast iron pan in the bottom and add hot water, cover you hand!, bake to an internal temp of 200F.
I think your location has a lot to do with the tartness, Melena had sent me some of her starter that initially had a very nice bite to it which has unfortunately faded, now tasting quite like the starter I have been using for years, they will be blended soon I feel, still makes a great loaf but i think the local bugs take over. Old photo.

IMG_0138.jpg


IMG_0135.jpg
 
mccumath said:
I am following your guidelines, as I have not found a decent recipe yet. My starter is a regular run of the mill starter that I had added several apples worth of peels too (BTW still smells like apples after ~10 new feedings). I did have a couple of questions: Did you add any salt at any point during the process? Did you refrigerate your sponge? It was my understanding that if the yeast works at colder temps, it produces a tangier loaf? Any experience with that? I want a nice, tangy loaf without the addition of citric acid, just don't know how to get to that point yet, other than letting the sponge sit for longer periods of time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
I think this is where beer making knowledge lends a hand. The culture is sort of like a sour beer. Upon discarding most of the starter and feeding, the yeast will take off first, creating a mild, sweet and yeasty starter. Then as you let it ripen, the bacteria, probably mainly lactobacillus, will start to ferment the more complex elements of the flour and have more of a presence in the starter. So to have a nice sour loaf, I would let that mainly occur in the starter and then add the sour starter to the dough. I don't feel that long cold retards are beneficial for sourdough, because of the effect the acids have on the dough. Now, I know very little on this subject, but I did have one very qualifying experience lol... I made some dough that by my experience should have baked a perfect loaf. I let the sponge do a 2 day ferment and it got sour as hell. I then mixed in the proper amount of flour to achieve a medium to well hydrated loaf. It looked fine in the proofing basket. And then when I dropped it out onto the stone - this. The lactobacillus had totally destroyed the gluten structure. Which made sense to me after, because in my pie crusts I add a tablespoon of cider vinegar to achieve this affect - it makes the flakiest and most tender crust ever, based on the same principles. This loaf would not do well in the state fair :D

image-1244670627.jpg
 
bottlebomber said:
I think this is where beer making knowledge lends a hand. The culture is sort of like a sour beer. Upon discarding most of the starter and feeding, the yeast will take off first, creating a mild, sweet and yeasty starter. Then as you let it ripen, the bacteria, probably mainly lactobacillus, will start to ferment the more complex elements of the flour and have more of a presence in the starter. So to have a nice sour loaf, I would let that mainly occur in the starter and then add the sour starter to the dough. I don't feel that long cold retards are beneficial for sourdough, because of the effect the acids have on the dough. Now, I know very little on this subject, but I did have one very qualifying experience lol... I made some dough that by my experience should have baked a perfect loaf. I let the sponge do a 2 day ferment and it got sour as hell. I then mixed in the proper amount of flour to achieve a medium to well hydrated loaf. It looked fine in the proofing basket. And then when I dropped it out onto the stone - this. The lactobacillus had totally destroyed the gluten structure. Which made sense to me after, because in my pie crusts I add a tablespoon of cider vinegar to achieve this affect - it makes the flakiest and most tender crust ever, based on the same principles. This loaf would not do well in the state fair :D
Click to expand...
That is a sad lookin loaf!:(
There is a stone underneath?:mug:
 
ChefRex said:
That is a sad lookin loaf!:( There is a stone underneath?:mug:
Click to expand...
There is a stone lol... It had to be pried out after baking. I actually loved the whole experience because I learn a ton from things like this, and from a humor stand point it was hilarious. It was amazing to see how the structure of the bread had been compromised, but it made total sense. Especially thinking about how the structure of the starter changes - upon feeding, mine is like thick pancake batter. Then is puffs up and hits almost bread dough like consistency. Then after a few days, it is like heavy whipping cream; just a thick soup. I guess this bread had headed down the soup road.
 
mccumath said:
I am following your guidelines, as I have not found a decent recipe yet. My starter is a regular run of the mill starter that I had added several apples worth of peels too (BTW still smells like apples after ~10 new feedings). I did have a couple of questions: Did you add any salt at any point during the process? Did you refrigerate your sponge? It was my understanding that if the yeast works at colder temps, it produces a tangier loaf? Any experience with that? I want a nice, tangy loaf without the addition of citric acid, just don't know how to get to that point yet, other than letting the sponge sit for longer periods of time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
I realized I didn't answer your questions. About the salt, yes, I add salt just after I've added in my initial flour. It's important to regulate the metabolism of the wild stuff because it seems that it is more likely that it will gobble all the food up and then leave itself tired and lifeless when it's game time. I think adding the flour in two stages helps with that too, because it will have new fresh food for the second rise. I did a long cold-ish rise with the bread-fail loaf but there was too much else going on to say that the cold ferment did it. This last loaf I let the sponge go for about 3 hours, then I added the rest of the flour and let it rise shaped for 2 hours and then baked it. One huge advantage of using the starter is that you can get all the complexity of a long ferment in a much shorter time. But again, I am no where near qualified to be giving advice as you can now see ;)
 
Rex, I think your choice of flour is where your loaves are getting strength that mine didn't have. I used 100% Unbleached KA bread flour.
 
ChefRex said:
Potato and brie, cream seasoned with garlic, rosemary and s&p. Crust is nice and thin, crispy. Win!
Click to expand...
Lovely, what type of flour did you use? I read interesting information recently about how overworking can damage elements of the dough that contribute to browning. I'm still trying to get my crusts to take that much color. Are you vegetarian btw or just not a big meat eater? I can't remember one of your pies having meat.
 
bottlebomber said:
Lovely, what type of flour did you use? I read interesting information recently about how overworking can damage elements of the dough that contribute to browning. I'm still trying to get my crusts to take that much color. Are you vegetarian btw or just not a big meat eater? I can't remember one of your pies having meat.
Click to expand...

Combination of AP, bread and White WW, someday I need to put recipes that work in writing as I go with the flow and results vary, this was nice though.
Definitely an omnivore, love my meat, on pizza a lot of the times I find it will make it greasy. No pepperoni please! Cheap mozzarella will do the same thing.
The potato, cream combo works great as a change up from tomato based pies, may go tomato tomorrow as I still have dough.:D
 
Oh, I do work the dough hard, I have a KItchen aid and I let it go for a while. Baked at 550F, I have two stones in the oven and let it peheat for quite a while, when the oven tells you it's up to temp only means the air is, it takes time for the stone and walls to reach temp, thermal mass.
 
steelcurtain said:
You all inspired me to attempt one myself. Definitely tasty, likely due to me wanting my first attempt to be a success, but nonetheless, yummy.
Click to expand...
Looks good my friend. A word of advice that may be useless to you but I'll shoot it out there anyway - I definitely prefer to cook vegetable toppings before they go on, especially things like peppers and mushrooms. The mushrooms let off a ton of water that can sog out your pie, and the peppers are usually still crunchy by the time the rest of the pie is done. Having said that, I wouldn't kick that pizza out of bed ;)
 
cheezydemon3 said:
You baked 7 pies and 2 calzones, and we get 2 pics of the same pie? ;)
Click to expand...


I only uploaded one pic, and it was just 1 calzone. I was too busy eating to snap more pics. The pies went fast.
Next time I'll take better pics.

Here is a pic from some dough that I used too much yeast on and had very little elasticity.

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1388432421.237163.jpg

Yum
 
Trying to go whole wheat this year. Wish me luck.

Read some stuff that pretty much said that eating only whole grains when eating pasta or bread, and brown rice whenever eating....well.....rice..goes a long way towards being healthy.
 

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