Author Topic: Fornography: A Neapolitan pizza journey. (Read 13080 times)

fornographer · « **Reply #20 on:** April 11, 2012, 08:02:16 PM »

Quote from: Phar Lap on April 11, 2012, 07:55:45 PM

Fornographer,

Thanks so much for the delivery pictures of the Andiamo 70...one question: how did you roll the oven out of the crate?; it looks like it is 4 to 6 inches of the ground when you took off the side panel...did you jerry-rig a ramp?

Thanks...Adam

Oh I forgot to mention that. Yes, I had to buy a heavy duty ramp since I will be using it often for other purpose in addition to moving the oven around. The ramp I bought is this: http://www.discountramps.com/folding-utility-ramp.htm

You will need two for the Andiamo 70.

tommy · « **Reply #21 on:** April 11, 2012, 08:07:44 PM »

I know nothing about Forno Bravo's business, but from my own experience, and hesitance to pull the trigger on their products, this could open up a new, albeit small, market for them. This is really exactly the solution I was looking for, and from a company like FB, I'm really pleased.

Looking forward to more picks of your pies! Is it Friday yet?

tommy · « **Reply #22 on:** April 11, 2012, 08:09:24 PM »

Quote from: fornographer on April 11, 2012, 08:02:16 PM

Oh I forgot to mention that. Yes, I had to buy a heavy duty ramp since I will be using it often for other purpose in addition to moving the oven around. The ramp I bought is this: http://www.discountramps.com/folding-utility-ramp.htm

You will need two for the Andiamo 70.

Maybe I'm not understanding, but why did you need the ramps to get the thing from the truck to your yard (or rather, out of the crate)? Or was that not the case.

I need a ramp for my MIL, so this might be a good reason to get one.

fornographer · « **Reply #23 on:** April 11, 2012, 08:16:00 PM »

Quote from: tommy on April 11, 2012, 08:09:24 PM

Maybe I'm not understanding, but why did you need the ramps to get the thing from the truck to your yard (or rather, out of the crate)? Or was that not the case.

I need a ramp for my MIL, so this might be a good reason to get one.

I need the ramps mainly to get the oven on my back porch which is just an ungainly concrete slab set 8-9 inches off the ground. The ramps made it easier to roll the oven out of the crate because I had to do it all by myself.

fornographer · « **Reply #24 on:** April 11, 2012, 08:23:49 PM »

Quote from: scott123 on April 09, 2012, 11:06:31 PM

Is that foil covering the door? I wouldn't have foil anywhere in a WFO. If it hits 1100ish, you'll have a puddle of aluminum.

Thanks for the caution

Yeah, I was aware of the melting point of aluminum foil. I use it as a poor man's insulation to try to retain as much of the heat of the oven for cooking other meals. I put a significant gap (air cushion) between the foil and the surface of the door facing the inside of the oven. It is quite effective as long as I keep to foil fresh (it gathers soot and gets discolored after a couple of uses). I never put the door while the oven at full blast.

tommy · « **Reply #25 on:** April 12, 2012, 12:57:53 PM »

fornographer, did the delivery guy help at all, or was it a drop at the curb thing.

fornographer · « **Reply #26 on:** April 14, 2012, 09:05:15 AM »

Friday night's practice bake. This is the 2nd attempt at neapolitan pies. Two doughs were mixed Thursday evening from the 2 little red bags of Caputo. One used the home made starter (I'll refer to it as the Atlanta starter) and the other IDY. The flour weight 987. For the IDY, 2% IDY was used. 3% Atlanta starter was used for the other. Hydration was 57%. Mixed for 5 minutes on the KA and then let to rest for 1hr. Took it out of the bowl and then did 2 folds and placed in the container and cooler. The IDY bulk fermented for 24 hours but it was quickly obvious at the end of it that 2% is too much for that length of time--the dough almost spilled out of the container. Probably less than 1% should have been used. In order to rescue the dough, they were balled (280g each) and placed in the fridge which was reset to 38 degrees. They stayed there 13 hours until a couple hours or so before baking. The IDY doughballs opened ok. They were easier to work with and could be opened using the slap technique. Sliding them to the peel was easy; there was no worry about tearing. There was a moderate amount of resistance when stretched (ala da Michele) on the wooden peel.

After last week's attempt, I spent some time practicing managing the heat in the oven. The top-down firing method did indeed work better. The oven was saturated with heat for 1.5 hours. After pushing the coals to the side, it took 15-20 minutes for the floor to even out. After that, it took a log or two (small ones split from the standard 16-18' firewood) to get a rolling fire. The floor stabilized to 850F and a bit above and keeping oven fed with small logs maintained that. After a pie, the floor took 1-2 minutes to recover as long as there is a rolling fire across the dome.

As with the pies, they were a lot better than last week's. The dough was SWEET. It had a crispy exterior and a much softer and pillowy inside. It became tough after it cooled down though. However, when I reheated a slice this morning, the crust came back alive.

The Atlanta starter based dough was just taken out bulk fermentation and balled this morning. I'm looking forward to more practice tonight.

Below are pictures.

fornographer · « **Reply #27 on:** April 14, 2012, 09:09:44 AM »

IDY pies

fornographer · « **Reply #28 on:** April 14, 2012, 09:12:06 AM »

more IDY pies

fornographer · « **Reply #29 on:** April 14, 2012, 09:12:33 AM »

more idy pies

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #30 on:** April 14, 2012, 10:59:52 AM »

Beautiful. Just beautiful. What did you think of the sardine pie?

fornographer · « **Reply #31 on:** April 14, 2012, 12:53:49 PM »

Quote from: TXCraig1 on April 14, 2012, 10:59:52 AM

Beautiful. Just beautiful. What did you think of the sardine pie?

Thank you, Craig

My wife loved it and ate almost all of the pie by herself. It was ok to me; I mostly prefer eating the sardine on a nice steaming cup of white rice.

thezaman · « **Reply #32 on:** April 14, 2012, 03:12:58 PM »

forno, the pizzas look really good.how easy is it to move that oven around? is it the same dome that is in the primevera 70? also you have sometype of a log holder in there can you give me some info on it?looking forward to seeing tonight's bake!!thanks,larry

fornographer · « **Reply #33 on:** April 14, 2012, 03:48:09 PM »

Quote from: thezaman on April 14, 2012, 03:12:58 PM

forno, the pizzas look really good.how easy is it to move that oven around? is it the same dome that is in the primevera 70? also you have sometype of a log holder in there can you give me some info on it?looking forward to seeing tonight's bake!!thanks,larry

Hi Larry. Thank you. The oven is very easy to move around. I would have loved it better if they put bigger wheels on it. In the future, I plan on putting bigger wheels, maybe pneumatic ones so I can roll it on rough terrain. Yes, it is the same guts as the Primavera 70 but I guess FB used their new refractory technology on it. The log grate I found is called The Grated Mini Fatwood Fireplace Grate (http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1LENP_enUS461US461&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=The+Gratest+Mini+Fatwood+Grat). I got mine from Woodland direct. As you can see, it's the perfect size for the oven. It glows red when the oven is in full blast. The first time I saw that I got scared and quickly removed it with my peel. Then I remembered that iron has a melting point at more than 2000F.

BTW, I love what you're doing to your P70. The stand is beautiful and painting it a different color every year is a great idea. I may think about raising the floor on my oven like you did.

thezaman · « **Reply #34 on:** April 14, 2012, 04:31:17 PM »

measure your floor to center if you are at 13.5 inches or less you are fine. john d.has the same oven and his was lower than mine so i raised it to get 13 inches.i think mine was one of the first builds and the floor may have been set lower. this year i am going to try a multi color chip material that you scatter over epoxy paint to get a marble look.i did it in my basement and liked it, so i bough the black, gray ,and white chips for my baby. my wife says the house needs painting,but i have priorities.

tommy · « **Reply #35 on:** April 15, 2012, 04:16:25 PM »

What's the purpose of the grate (besides the obvious). I don't recall seeing grates in WFOs, but I might not have been paying attention.

fornographer · « **Reply #36 on:** April 15, 2012, 07:07:57 PM »

Fornography Sunday. 4 Pies using naturally risen (sourdough) doughs that were fermented for a long time. a) Simple Spicy Sorpressata b) Wet Queen (a really sloshy Margherita) c) Prosciutto, Fior di Latte, GA Tupelo Honey d) Sliced Plaintain, Bufalo Milk Butter

The best tasting pies to date. The dough just had a hint of sourness and all the complex delicious flavor of a long fermentation (a bit of wheaty sweetness). It reminded me of the pizza we had last fall at Franco Manca in the Chiswick neighborhood of London. The texture was crispy on the outside yet very tender and very easy to chew.

The winner of tonight was the Plantain pie. It was slap yo momma delicious.

These naturally leavened pies were more preferrable to the IDY pies from Friday night. The dough was a lot easier to open, strong but yet easy to stretch (did not spring back at all) on the peel. I was finally able to replicate the way Da Michele stretches their pies on the peel.

Mixing: 5 minutes on KA. 1 hour rest. 2 folds then on to the fermentation container.
Leavening Agent: 2% very very young starter (younger than the one used for Tartine style bread)
Hydration: 57% (water at 45F)
Salt: 3%
Fermentation: Approximately 36 hours bulk at 60F. 24 hours balled between 70F -76F.

Overall a C+. Lots of lessons learned but still a very long way to go. The pies are, I think, ok to serve to guests and I think I can hunt for better ingredients and recipes now.

fornographer · « **Reply #37 on:** April 15, 2012, 07:08:27 PM »

pictures

fornographer · « **Reply #38 on:** April 15, 2012, 07:09:22 PM »

more..

fornographer · « **Reply #39 on:** April 15, 2012, 07:09:34 PM »

more..