Preferment NY style with homemade Italian Sausage

[yaddayaddayadda]

Got a food grinder attachment for my KA, so I decided to try some pies with the homemade sausage, peppers & onions. My dough recipe is as follows:

preferment:

Flour: 38.69 g | 1.36 oz | 0.09 lbs
Water: 38.69 g | 1.36 oz | 0.09 lbs
Yeast (I use instant dry yeast) .125 of a tsp (1/8)

Allow to ferment for 12-13 hours.

Rest of dough formulation:

When making the dough, I added the biga to the bowl of my mixer, and added the remaining ingredients:
Flour: 348.2 g | 12.28 oz | 0.77 lbs
Water: 208.92 g | 7.37 oz | 0.46 lbs
Salt: 6 g | 0.21 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.25 tsp | 0.42 tbsp
yeast: 1/8 TSP
Preferment: 77.38 g | 2.73 oz | 0.17 lbs

Mixing with the paddle attachment until it was all incorporated. I then switched to the dough hook and kneaded for another 7-10 minutes.

After kneading I let the dough rest for 20 minutes, then rolled into a ball, portioned, re-rolled the portions and put in oiled containers in the fridge for my usual 2 days before making pizza.

My sausage was made using Alton Brown's recipe minus the parsley, and I didn't stuff it in casings. It was my first ever attempt at homemade sausage, and it seemed to come out pretty well:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/italian-sausage-recipe/index.html

[Pete-zza]

yaddayaddayadda,

Your pizza looks very tasty. Where did you get the recipe you used, and how did you like the results apart from the homemade sausage?

FYI, what you used as a preferment is technically a poolish (which uses equal weights of flour and water). The term biga has become a catch-all name for different preferments but I try to use the classic definitions and to encourage others to do likewise. Did you wait for the break point of the poolish before using it?

Peter

[yaddayaddayadda]

I just took my basic recipe, and watching an episode of America's test kitchen, they used I think 20-25% for their recipe for the poolish for their cibatta.  I figured that was a good starting point.  Is that a good percentage for the poolish?   Would you have tweaked my recipe in any way?

I'm not sure what the "break point" is and how to judge it.  I just made the poolish before I went to work and then the final dough after dinner was done that night.

Any feedback is appreciated.

[Pete-zza]

yaddayaddayadda,

My "bible" for the use of commercially leavened preferments are the articles by Didier Rosada at http://web.archive.org/web/20040814193817/cafemeetingplace.com/archives/food3_apr2004.htm and at http://web.archive.org/web/20050829015510/www.cafemeetingplace.com/archives/food4_dec2004.htm. The first of the two Rosada articles discusses the break point, how to detect it (unfortunately the photos are of poor quality), and its significance. Also, at the thread at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9908.msg86106.html#msg86106, I assisted member Norma in coming up with a poolish version of the basic Lehmann NY style dough formulation for her to use as part of a pizza operation at a market (Root's Market) in Mannheim, PA. In her case, she makes a fairly large dough batch and she uses a commercial deck oven, but the basic preferment Lehmann NY style dough formulation for a single dough ball can be seen at Reply 225 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9908.msg90226.html#msg90226.

There are endless possibilities for using preferments such as poolish to make a pizza dough, so it is difficult to comment intelligently on any given dough formulation that uses a poolish. Also, it is fairly straightforward to convert a given dough recipe to poolish (or other preferment format) if the rules for the poolish as enunciated by Didier Rosada (and other dough experts) are followed. Whenever I am in doubt, I start by using a preferment that is about 15% of the weight of the total formula flour. In the preferment Lehmann dough formulation that I came up with for Norma, the poolish represents almost 49% of the total formula flour (or about 80% of the total formula water and about 30% of the total dough batch weight). All I can tell you is that Norma has had very good success with the poolish-based Lehmann NY style dough formulation. Ultimately, what really matters is if you are satisifed with your results. You can spend a lifetime looking for the ultimate, "perfect" dough formulation.

Peter

[ZekeTheCat]

yaddayaddayadda - great looking pizza especially the crust !

Was wondering what type oven you use, pre heat time, baking temp and time, on a stone or something else ?

Thanks for any info on baking method and the homemade sausage recipe link too.

[yaddayaddayadda]

yaddayaddayadda - great looking pizza especially the crust !

Was wondering what type oven you use, pre heat time, baking temp and time, on a stone or something else ?

Thanks for any info on baking method and the homemade sausage recipe link too.

Thanks.  I have a frigidaire professional gas convection oven. It's max temp is 550 degrees.  I set it on convection bake at 550. I have a 14x16 pizza stone http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000E1FDA/ref=oss_product that I pre-heated about an hour.  The rack is on the lowest level in my oven.  I baked the pie for 5 1/2 minutes.

[ZekeTheCat]

I forgot to ask in my previous post but what flour do you use for your crust ? Thanks

[Pete-zza]

A member has brought to my attention that the Didier Rosada articles I referenced in Reply 3 in this thread do not use the term "break point" to describe the point where a high hydration preferment such as a poolish or sponge recedes after peaking. The expression "break point" is a term of art that many use to describe this condition, but wasn't used by Rosada in his articles. However, the break point event, along with its significance, is described by Rosada for a poolish as follows (from the first article referenced in Reply 3):

The goal for the baker is to obtain a poolish that is perfectly matured at the time of the final dough mixing.  The full maturation of the poolish can be recognized when it has domed slightly on the top and just begun to recede, creating on the surface some areas a little more concave.  A poolish that has not matured adequately does not provide the benefit of lower acidity; one that has over-matured can create other types of acidity which might affect the flavor of the final product.

And, for a sponge, as follows:

A sponge should also be used after is has reached full maturation.  As with the poolish, the surface of the sponge contains vital clues to help the baker determine its readiness.  When many bubbles are evident and some cracks start to form, creating some collapsing, the sponge is ready for incorporation into the final dough.  An under-mature sponge would not be as beneficial because of inadequate acid development; an over-mature sponge could negatively affect the strength of the dough due to an increase in the acidity level, and would affect the flavor of the bread due to the formation of other acids.

Unfortunately, the Rosada articles, which were retrieved from archives, do not show the photos of the break point. Norma found another version of the article with some photos, at http://www.bakerconnection.com/artisanbaker/article_04.htm, but, as can be seen, the photos do not show much detail.

Peter