Our Strange “Little” Tools (and Associated Techniques)

[Arthur]

Les,

Go buy another one     You'll really enjoy it.

It saves me so much time and I get to use all of the cheese (except for the pieces that end up in my mouth)

Arthur.

[Les]

For when you gotta get rid of that old equipment so you can buy the latest, greatest, most up to datest device, try . . . http://www.craigslist.com/ . . . an online advertising site where you can sell and buy anything for free. 

It's available to most places near metropolitan areas (as well as UK/IE, Canada, Europe, Austrailia, Asia, South America and more . . . here's their expanded location list http://www.craigslist.com/about/cities.html), and then once you get to the area near where you live, it's broken down further into surrounding local communities.

I've sold everything from old kitchen equipment to video games there.

[Les]

Here's something I really like, a silicone rolling mat with circles drawn on it in various sizes so you can see how much you've stretched your dough.  The biggest circle is 14 inches, but the inside blue boarder (on the narrow side) is about 16 inches (i.e., giving another measurement).  King Arthur's "Baker's Catalogue" offers it here:  http://shop.bakerscatalogue.com/detail.jsp?id=5393&pv=1120242814524

Overall the mat is 18 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches, and the nonstick surface is really useful when working with dough.  A bit pricey at $30 though.

[PizzaPolice]

Hiya Les:

Wouldn't it be easier to get out the sharpie and draw circles on your make board?  I did this on mine and it works great.  This way you can stretch it out to the sizes that fit your particular equipment.  I used to use a rectangular stone and the shape on the make board really helped.  You can see it in my last post.
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1520.msg13880.html#msg13880

[Les]

Wouldn't it be easier to get out the sharpie and draw circles on your make board?  I did this on mine and it works great.  This way you can stretch it out to the sizes that fit your particular equipment.  I used to use a rectangular stone and the shape on the make board really helped. 

But then I wouldn't have the nonstick surface of the silicone, plus, I wouldn't get to pay $30 for what you did for free!

[PizzaPolice]

OK...You da man!

[Les]

Everyone has been raving about the Kitchenaid's new spiral dough hook, but I only found it to be minor improvement.  If you make more than one pizza, the dough still incessantly climbs up the hook.  That's because larger batches raises the dough too close to the hook, which digs into the dough too far.  What would be the ideal solution is for Kitchenaid to make the bowl height adjustable instead of only fully up or fully down.

In the meantime, a solution I've been using is to manually hold the bowl about halfway up, which can be tiring if you are making a lot of dough.  But today when I noticed my wire vertical paper towel holder that's installed right next to my mixer.  I just put the handle in spot that held the bowl where I wanted it, and I had my improved, adjustable Kitchenaid mixer!

[TimEggers]

I love Peter's tip on the shower cap!  Ninety-four cents and darn easy and reusable!  I simply clean out the mixer bowl and use the stainless steel mixer bowl and shower cap to chill the dough.  Works wonders!

Also I love to use plain non-flavored breadcrumbs as a release agent.  Works great and doesn't add any flavor to the finished pizza.

So many tips so little time...

...have to get today's pizza out of the oven!  Love that KASL!

[Pete-zza]

Recently I have started using a little trick to keep moisture from forming on a dough ball stored within its container (covered) in the refrigerator, even though the dough has been coated lightly with oil. It is possible to allow the dough to dry out a bit before covering it in the refrigerator, as is done by pizza operators when they cross stack their dough trays for about an hour or two in the cooler, but there are times, as with a Lehmann NY style dough, where I want to get the dough into the refrigerator and covered as soon as possible so as to retard the fermentation process.

The trick entails placing a sheet of absorbant paper towel, folded in half, between the container and its cover, and pressing the cover down on the container so that the paper towel is tightly lodged between the cover and container. This is shown in the photo below. In using this technique, I have observed that the paper towel will be moist after a day or so in the refrigerator. Also, some moisture will form on the cover itself, between the cover and the sheet of paper towel. And the dough remains dry.

Peter

[TONY]

I have a 36 quart coleman cooler that I put a 11 watt bulb (purchased at Lowe's) in.  I t keeps a constant 90 degrees for starter culture and dough proofing.

[Les]

I got my new Escali 115B Pronto digital kitchen scale today, and promptly waltzed over to my neighbor who has every tool created by humankind, including a router which he used to bore a slot in my giant Boos cutting board (which I only use 2/3 of anyway) to insert my countertop-mountable scale!

You can find this scale here:

http://www.everythinghome.com/es11pedikisc.html?source=froogle&kw=115-P

It is SOLID, and has passed all my tests (like measuring something in a one ounce container, and then measuring it in a 10 pound container).


P.S.
I couldn't figure out how to use the mounting template that comes with it . . . it was a good 1/2 inch off all the way around. 

[DNA Dan]

I like to use fresh herbs and spices on my pizza, and garlic is a favorite.  But I find mincing gives a flavor that’s too strong, and hand chopping doesn’t yield a uniform result.  I use the Genius Garlic Cutter to get perfect tiny cubes of garlic.  http://www.garlicgenius.co.uk/genius.htm  You put a couple of cloves of garlic in it side by side, screw down the top, and that forces the garlic through a sharp grid.  Anothe-r part shaves off the extruding garlic into uniform cubes.  It costs under $30 and comes in plastic or stainless steel.

Once you have the garlic, spreading it evenly on the pizza is another challenge since its so tiny and sticky.  I like garlic as the last thing I put on so it’s most exposed to heat.  What I do is very lightly coat the garlic with olive oil (so it will cook better), and then mix that with a small amount of shredded parmesan-like cheese (my favorite is grana padana, and I use a scant 1/2 ounce for a 14 inch pizza).  Work the garlic into the cheese so it breaks up the “shred” into smaller pieces, and mixes thoroughly with the cheese.  Now you have a mixture with which you can easily distribute garlic flavor evenly over the pizza, without adding too much more cheese.

Another way for dispensing fresh garlic on pizza is this:

Add about 1 TBS water to some finely minced garlic so it's diluted in solution. Dip your fingertips in the "garlic water" and flick it on the pizza. Takes some practice, but I find this to be the easiest way for avoiding chunks or blobs of garlic on your pizza. Unless of course you want chunks on your pizza. 

[elicheez]

I have been thinking the same thing, but I worried the cold metal peel might crack the stone.  No problems, right? 

has this ever happened? sounds unlikely.