A friend of mine stopped by and ordered a pizza and was kind enough to take a few pictures of it and also time the bake on my stopwatch.
She ordered a margherita with extra sauce. It's not a ton of sauce, but a little more than I prefer to put on.
As you can see, I still have the top browning issues. Cheese torn perhaps a bit too large this week.
The crumb shot clearly shows the crumb has started to dry outa bit. She came at a time when there was a rush of pizzas and the floor temp had dropped, so the bake time was 3:41. Quite long for this formula.
After hand mixing the entire batch on my very first day at the market and being pleased with the texture of the dough, I have been trying to get a good feel for the 60quart Hobart mixer, with spiral arm, that the kitchen I use has.
The mixer is extremely proficient in bringing together a mass of dough, but is a bit "rough" on the dough for this style of pizza (Neapolitan inspired...it ain't Neapolian) and my application. After various mixing regimens over the previous 8 mixes, this batch is closer to being good. All water to the bowl, add salt and dissolve, add starter and incorporate with a large spatula, add flour and start the mix on the lowest speed (1). It takes only 5:00 to 5:20 or so to bring the ingredients together and to clear the bowl for my batch size (65 dough balls currently). At that point I let it rest for 15 minutes and then turn the mixer back on speed 1 for 3 rotations of the arm, followed by a few more rest periods and then Tartine turns by hand a couple of times before main fermentation. Next time I'm going to discontinue the 3 revolutions in the bowl after the initial rest and go all by-hand from that point. If that does not do the trick, I'll need to stop the Hobart portion of the mix just before the dough clears the bowl and go by hand from that point. So the Hobart is a very efficient machine with the spiral arm attached, but for this style of pizza the importance of having more gentle mixing action like a fork mixer is becoming apparent. I've only mixed on the Hobart 9 times now, so a lack of deep rooted familiarity with the machine is likely playing a large roll in this as well.
All that being said, the pizzas are getting better at the market each week. Not the pizzas I can make at home, which is a much easier and controlled setting to work in, but I'm getting a little better dealing with the mixer and the extreme weather conditions. Very hot and extremely muggy again Sunday. Even at 4am when I walked the dog before packing up for the market it was so humid my forearms were slick with sweat.
Very puffy dough this week....need to dial down the starter, slightly, or keep the doughs in the cooler a tad longer before pulling for use at the market. --K
