So far, I'm NOT a fan of this flour. It doesn't want to brown. Sunday, I made a few pies with it at 60% HR, 48 hours, Ischia - my normal formula with 5 Stagioni substituted directly for Caputo. I didn't like the way if felt (very dry). I didn't like the way it didn't want to come out of my plastic dough containers. I didn't like the way it opened - it seemed rough and almost stringy. I didn't tear any when opening, but I had the feeling I could if I was careless. I didn't like the way it baked - next to no leoparding. I didn't like the way it got a lot crispier on the outside compared to Caputo, and I didn't like the texture of the crumb. It did taste OK. The oven was plenty hot. 850F on the floor and 900F on the walls farthest from the fire. This oven would have baked a Caputo pie beautifully.
To see if if maybe it had to do with using Ischia or if the oven wasn't hot enough, I made two batches of 24 hour IDY dough:
100% 5 Stagioni
60% and 62% water
2.8% salt
0.03% IDY
2 hours bulk at 75F and 22 hours in balls at 70F.
I kept the oven going for 3 days straight, and it was as perfectly balanced as I've ever had it. 850F on the floor 915F on the walls. And, the fire was much smaller than normal to maintain this temperature. The results were almost exactly the same. I couldn't get a 60 second pie. At best, they were 80 seconds. The lightest one in the pictures below I took out at 60 just to see how it looked.
Anybody who has worked with this flour have any ideas before I throw it in the trash and go search for Caputo again?
CL
These two were the 60% HR, 48 Hour, Ischia Dough:
