Artisan-inspired pizza

[Essen1]

Congratulations on the weight loss. Pies look very good as always. It's the same pies in both sets of pictures isn't it?

Craig,

Thanks. You're right, those are the same pics. I messed them up. Here are the ones for the revised second formula...

I'll post the details on mixing and fermentation later on tonight.

[Essen1]

Norma & Para,

Thanks guys. The weight loss was necessary

[randyjohnsonhve]

Beautiful Pies!  I noticed that your recent formula used a preferment...was it a true poolish with ADY?  Also, I am interested in your times of mixing, fermenting, etc...

What difference did the preferment make to your original formula in January?

What did of oven are you using, and what are the times there?

Congrats of the weight loss and I look forward to hearing your replies...

RJelli

[Essen1]

Beautiful Pies!  I noticed that your recent formula used a preferment...was it a true poolish with ADY?  Also, I am interested in your times of mixing, fermenting, etc...

What difference did the preferment make to your original formula in January?

What did of oven are you using, and what are the times there?

Congrats of the weight loss and I look forward to hearing your replies...

RJelli

RJelli,

Thanks.

To answer your questions:

I used 45% of the total ADY in the poolish of each formula. The poolish of the first one was fermented for 12 hrs, the second one for 24 hrs, both at room temp.

The poolish, especially the 24 hr one added a bunch more flavor to the crust. For the oven I used my home oven and a stone, lowest rack and heated to 630°F. The bake time was about 7 minutes. I didn't really time it but rather pulled it when it was visually okay to me.

Now for the mixing process...

I added the flour to the poolish, then the sugar, the rest of the yeast, gave it a couple of spins, added the salt and then the oil. I mixed it until it all came together and then let it rest for about 30 mins in the bowl. Then I let the mixer knead it for 8 minutes on Speed 2.

Poured it onto a lightly dusted counter, gave it a few manual kneads, shaped it into a ball and gave it a bench rest of another 30 minutes, covered with plastic wrap. Removed the wrap, dusted it lightly again, gave it some quick kneads, shaped it into a ball again and placed it into an oiled bowl, brushed the dough with some oil, covered it and gave it a 24 hr cold ferment.

That sums it all up, basically.

[Essen1]

Working with a Biga right now.

I mixed it together last night and will give it a 24 hr fermentation. The pics are from last night (Page1) and from this morning, after 12 hours (Page2). It's coming along nicely and the smell is great, very yeasty...

The formula for the Biga:

134 gr. Power flour (100%)
81 gr. Water (60%)
0.34 gr. ADY (0.274%)

There's an artisan pizza shop in Palo Alto that uses Bigas in their dough formula and the pies are just stellar.  The photo of the pizza below is what I'm shooting for.

[Essen1]

Last night, after a 24 hr fermentation of the Biga, I incorporated it into the final dough formula using my stand mixer.

I used water at an 80°F temperature, added the Biga, the flour, the sugar and the rest of the ADY. I gave it a spin of one minute just to roughly mix everything up, added the salt and mixed for another two minutes until no raw flour was visible. I then let the dough rest for 30 minutes before adding the oil so that the flour had a chance to absorb the water.

The dough was then kneaded on Speed 2 for 5 minutes. Since I used the Power HG flour I didn't really wanted to overknead everything. I poured it onto the counter, shaped it into a ball and gave it a bench rest of 20 minutes before placing it in a bowl for the overnight 12 hr ferment.

This morning I divided the dough into two 430 gr. balls, oiled them up and back into the fridge they went for another 12 hrs, until 7pm tonight.

I think this was possibly the airiest dough I have ever made. I couldn't believe the large voids on the bottom of the dough.

Here's the dough formula...

Flour (100%): Water (65%): ADY (.3%): Salt (1.75%): Oil (1.5%): Sugar (3%): Total (171.55%): Single Ball:

501.31 g  |  17.68 oz | 1.11 lbs 325.85 g  |  11.49 oz | 0.72 lbs 1.5 g | 0.05 oz | 0 lbs | 0.4 tsp | 0.13 tbsp 8.77 g | 0.31 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.57 tsp | 0.52 tbsp 7.52 g | 0.27 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.67 tsp | 0.56 tbsp 15.04 g | 0.53 oz | 0.03 lbs | 3.77 tsp | 1.26 tbsp 860 g | 30.34 oz | 1.9 lbs | TF = N/A 430 g | 15.17 oz | 0.95 lbs

From this I calculated the Biga amount of 25% of the total dough weight and subtracted the amounts from the formula above. I did this manually instead of using the PF calculator.

The Biga numbers are posted my previous post and the numbers (rounded up or down) for the final dough are

Flour    372 grams
Water  239 grams
Salt          9 grams
ADY     1.16 grams
Biga     215 grams
Oil          7.5 grams
Sugar     15 grams


I post the outcome a bit later...some pics.

[Riprazor]

Essen, can you post some specifics about the temps and cooking environment?  If I follow the post you are using a stone and not a metal cooking surface?  How long and what temperature?

Thanks,
Barry

[deb415611]

Essen,

Great pizzas, love that last one.  Are you liking the biga version better than the Poolish?

[Essen1]

Essen, can you post some specifics about the temps and cooking environment?  If I follow the post you are using a stone and not a metal cooking surface?  How long and what temperature?

Thanks,
Barry

Barry,

I have to apologize for the long delay in replying to you.

The bake temp was around 627°F (have a pic somewhere that I could post) and the time was around 7 minutes on a stone, set on the lowest rack.

[Essen1]

Essen,

Great pizzas, love that last one.  Are you liking the biga version better than the Poolish?

Thanks Deb.

I'm not sure yet about those two. The Biga created a lighter dough structure, imho, compared to the poolish. I'd have to test this a little more to be certain, though.