Fornography: A Neapolitan pizza journey.

[fornographer]

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. 

The grate allows for air to flow underneath the log and results in better combustion.  With the grate, the flames can reach the opposite side of the oven easier. 

[Jackie Tran]

Dude that was incredibly quick progress.  Overall C+? Are you kidding me?  I think others will agree with me, your latest pies look PHENOMENAL.  Better than mine for sure.   Outstanding work.  What was the hearth temp and bake time on those beauties?   You've got me wanting pizza and I just finished eating dinner!

Chau

[RobynB]

Those look yummy!  How was the plantain one?  I actually had plantains ripening for my last bake to try and then forgot to use them     What cheese did you use underneath?  Result?

[TXCraig1]

Drop dead gorgeous pies!

Plantains - wow  - I don't know why that looks incredible to me when pineapple would make me cringe, but it does look awesome!

CL

[fornographer]

Thank you all   Had it not been for all the experience you've shared on this forum, these pies would not have been possible. 

@Chau--your tip with the starter was spot on.  I got worried that the dough didn't rise much after 36 hrs and took 24 hours in balled form to rise.  Also was worried that the pie was going to be too sour again.  They turned out to be the better than I expected. The floor was somewhere between 800F-850F most of the time. The margh's bottom was a bit too charred for my taste because I launched it too soon; I had just put in a slightly larger log, it caught fire big time very quickly and the floor might have reached near or over 900F.  In your experience, what temps are appropriate for 57% hydration pies? Next time when the floor gets too hot, I'll just lift the pie and let it cook on the turning peel. 

@Craig and @Robyn--Plantains are PERFECT for pizza.  My wife was planning to cook them wrapped in egg roll wrap and deep fry them--a popular Filipino snack known as "Toron".  Then I thought about slicing them like pepperoni and just putting bufala milk based butter on the pie.  The caramelized slices plus the creamy melted butter plus the tart wheaty dough; they were a party in our tummies.  My daughter, who is turned off by char on the pizzas (she got brainwashed by the pale pies they serve at preschool) actually liked this! This will be a regular on my weekly bakes.   I'll go for thinner slices next time and put more of them. 

[PortMoodyFoodie]

Very nice work!  I loved the pictures of the unloading!  I am in the process of ordering the Andiamo 70.  Unloading it and getting it to the back is going to be very difficult, i might have to take apart my fence.  If you don't mind I have a couple of questions.
1. How did you get that colour red?  They told me it was only available in Bronze colour. 
2. Second, Are you able to get more than one pizza in there at a time? 
3. How long is your heat up time, to 900F?

Thanks,

Danny

[fornographer]

Very nice work!  I loved the pictures of the unloading!  I am in the process of ordering the Andiamo 70.  Unloading it and getting it to the back is going to be very difficult, i might have to take apart my fence.  If you don't mind I have a couple of questions.
1. How did you get that colour red?  They told me it was only available in Bronze colour.  
2. Second, Are you able to get more than one pizza in there at a time?  
3. How long is your heat up time, to 900F?

Thanks,

Danny

Hi Danny  When I was ordering, they had 3 colors available:  green, bronze, red.  I guess it depends on what they have in stock.  It is possible to have 2 10 in pizzas in there. However, it will take a lot of skill with the peel and possibly a smaller peel of 6 inches to properly dance with a pie.  On the videos on youtube, they made turning the pies look so easy.  I quickly found out that it will take a lot of practice to attain some decent peel kung fu.  The 45 minute heat time is possible.  However, I like to saturate the oven with heat so the floor recharge time between pies is minimal.  During the first weekend of baking, I had the floor at 900F. I think that was too hot and I got too much charring at the bottom.  Last weekend, I was playing with different floor temps but I think most of the time it was from 800 to 850.  The oven's behavior is not quite stable yet.  I heard that over time (from the Primavera 70 owners which is what the Andiamo 70's guts are made of), it will be more predictable.   I fire up the oven 2 or so hours before cooking the pies.  It's still very early days and I'm still climbing a steep learning curve so I have not really developed a solid workflow yet.  

Make sure to get good seasoned firewood.  If you can get kiln dried oak, that's perfect.  Also, I split my firewood into smaller pieces of about 16 inches in length and 2-3 inches in the cross section.  I use a hand operated log splitter that I got for a reasonable price at Harbor Freight.  

Owning a WFO is great fun.  The learning curve, at least for me, is steep but there are a lot of smart helpful folks in this forum and also the Forno Bravo forum.  

[fornographer]

3rd weekend of baking on the Andiamo 70.

The dough was mixed on Thursday night and bulk fermented until they were balled on Saturday morning.  A very young natural starter was used; it tasted slightly sweet and slightly tart. The hydration was around 57-58% and significantly less salt (2.3%) was used.  

I think I may figured out how to make a creamy white crust with a lot of blisters on it.  The oven was saturated with heat for 2 hours. With the floor temperature between 850-880F and the flames licking the dome all the way to the other wall, the pies cooked between 50-60 seconds. A little bit of rotating and moving the pie to prevent excessive charring on the bottom was done.  The oven floor--it gets better every weekend--is a lot more even as far as how the temperature is spread out. Combined with the long fermented dough, the pies blistered easily.  The crust was thin and crispy; the interior had large irregular holes and when eaten they were very light.  

The 12 hour bulk fermented + 8 hour balled pies did not have the same appearance even though they were cooked in the same oven conditions.  Visiting family (specially the kids) like them all the same because the dough was sweet. The had oversized blisters and were just brown.

Important lessons learned from this weekend: a) oven control b) turning peel control c) launching pies (no inadvertent calzones..though 1 pie fell on the ground) from the wooden peel d) how to get decent leoparding, I think.

My favorite again was the plaintain pie. The plaintain were cut a little bit thinner. No butter was used and only lemon infused extra virgin olive oil was drizzled on the pie.  For me this was perfect.

A C+ effort.  Much to learn, still. Although I like rustic irregularly shaped pies, I'd like to learn how to make a perfectly round pie with a uniform rim.  

[fornographer]

more pictures..

[fornographer]

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[TXCraig1]

More very nice looking pies. What is the diameter of the skin before the bake? How many grams are your dough balls?

Have you thought about sauteing the plantains first? How about some brown sugar? Maybe a finish with some dark rum?

[fornographer]

More very nice looking pies. What is the diameter of the skin before the bake? How many grams are your dough balls?

Have you thought about sauteing the plantains first? How about some brown sugar? Maybe a finish with some dark rum?

Thanks Craig.  I didn't stretch the pies much before the bake for fear of tearing; they were opened to about 8" and then stretched on the peel to roughly 10-11".  The dough balls were 280g and next time I will try 300.  Good idea on sauteing the plantains first.  They were very ripe and may not need additional sugar when sauteing but I'll try a batch next time.  Oh yeah, dark rum. 

[RobynB]

Boy, you're a tough grader!  I think those look better than C+   

[norma427]

fornographer,

Great looking pies! 

Norma

[Mangia Pizza]

Great job!  The pies look awesome.  Definitely better than a C+, the only thing I would change is the thickness, but
that is a matter of preference......

My real question is: are you happy with the Andiamo 70 and would you recommend it?

I am undecided between the Primavera and Andiamo 70.

Thanks for the great write up so far........

[fornographer]

Great job!  The pies look awesome.  Definitely better than a C+, the only thing I would change is the thickness, but
that is a matter of preference......

My real question is: are you happy with the Andiamo 70 and would you recommend it?

I am undecided between the Primavera and Andiamo 70.

Thanks for the great write up so far........

Hi   Yes, I am very happy so far with the Andiamo 70.  The Primavera 70 is definitely more visually appealing than the Andiamo 70; the latter looking more like a 1st generation stealth fighter jet with its angular features.  The Primavera 70 might have a slight edge on thermal mass but the Andiamo is truly capable of reaching the performance needed to make Neapolitan style pies.   I came very close to choosing the P70 but chose the Andiamo because it is more practical (it has wheels).  For my requirements and budget, the Andiamo 70 fit the bill.  Gotta wonder though, FB declares that they have reduced the weight of the 2nd generation P70, I wonder why they didn't put it on a stand with wheels.   I've seen much heavier ovens on casters. 

[fornographer]

Some pies from last week and last night.  I have been experimenting with cake yeast the past few weeks.   From last week, the dough was fermented at 65F-70F for 2 days.  This weekend I played with a 12hr poolish + 100% hyrdration flour (no yeast, no salt) that was left in the fridge for 12 hours. 

Cooked at higher 700s(F) to lower 800s(F) floor with flames overlapping across the oven. 

Most flavorful crusts I have made so far.  I have finally made some B pies I think. 

[fornographer]

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[fornographer]

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[fornographer]

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