To begin to explain the story of what happened yesterday, was when I arrived at market I first turned on the oven, got a few other things ready and then put puts two skins in steel pans. The pans where then put on top of the oven where it is warmer. They were covered with lids. I then went about doing other things that needed to be done and started making regular pizzas at about 9:30 AM. About 10:30AM two men came up to my pizza stand and wanted Detroit style slices. I looked in the small and large steel pans and the dough sure wasn’t fermenting, or if it was it sure wasn‘t fermenting much. I told the men that I am new at attempting Detroit style pizza and really am not that well organized yet. These men had purchased Detroit style pizza the other week later in the day. I sure don’t know how I will be able to have the dough fermented enough in the steel pans so early in the morning. It even takes awhile for the dough to ferment when keeping the steel pans on top of the oven. These men were understanding and hopefully they will return. I then decided to try one dough in the steel pan to see what would happen. Well the pizza hardly rose, if at all, when the bake was done. The only positive thing that came out of that experiment is that Steve said the pizza tasted like an old Ellio’s pizza, before they made changes to that frozen pizzas. Steve liked the pizza, but I sure can’t sell it that way. At the end of the day 2 slices of that pizza were still left on a tray that was kept out of the customers views. The first picture is of one slice that was sitting there all day. I tried different methods though out the day of tempering the doughs in the steel pans. I also used my Hatco Unit kept at about 98 degrees F and although those doughs did ferment faster, the skins still want to dry out even with lids on. I sure am at a loss to what to try. The skins drying out really didn’t affect the crumb structure much, but those pizzas weren’t as light in texture. I didn’t add any water in the Hatco Unit though to see if that would keep the skin moister. If I do use the Hatco Unit for tempering doughs, I don’t know what I will use to display the Buddy’s clone pizzas.
These are some of the other Buddy’s clone pizzas that were made yesterday. The first one was a pizza with dressings of my regular blend of cheeses, pepperoni, spinach, Cappicola ham, salami and Cento tomatoes pieces. That pie turned out okay, but think there still was a gum line from too much oiling off of the meats, or the water from the spinach. I guess that is what the gum line was from, but the pizza was still good. I don’t know if I would have first oiled the crust if that would have kept the oiling off of the meats, or not, but that might be something I have to try next. Also might try some meats on top of the pizzas for next week. The next pizza was made with smoked apple wood bacon, cheeses, the sauce Steve doctored up and the “Cat out of the bag sauce” Steve brought along to market. That pizza was excellent in my opinion. The “Cat out of the bag sauce” was excellent in combination with the doctored up sauce. Wow, I could just keep eating that “Cat out of the bag” sauce Dave posted about plain all the time. It is so delicious.
I didn’t take pictures of all the pizzas, but did oil two pans with soybean/vegetable oil (Crisco). The bottom crusts browned just like when using Canola oil. I did sprinkle some Greek oregano on some of the pizzas. All the pizza were made with the sauce applied before the bake.
The market manager came and tried a slice of the Buddy’s clone and he really enjoyed it. He wanted to purchase a whole big pizza for the men in the shop, but I didn’t have anymore big dough balls left. Something to think about until next week.
The one other pizza that was dressed just like the emergency dough without salt was weighed after the bake. It had the same amount of cheeses, pepperoni and sauce on the pizza and weighed 583 grams after the bake. That steel pan was oiled with soybean oil.
Tom Kiefer told me he would give me a much better price on the apple wood smoked bacon if I want to continue using that bacon on my Buddy’s clone pizzas. That is also another thing I have to soon decide what kinds of toppings do I want to try to make consistently and what to name them.
Everyone that has tried the Buddy’s clones have really liked them. The manger of the Old Mill flea and antique market thinks I should stop selling NY style pizzas and just make Detroit style pies. I am not ready to do that at this time. He was a person that really liked my NY style pizzas before. There are regular customers that do like my NY style pizzas. I sure don’t have much of any extra room to add additional equipment in my small pizza stand.
Norma
