More Practice

[acbova]

Still working with locally milled Daisy flour I upped the hydration to 70 with only room temp fermentation of 14 hrs.  It was a bit hard to work with, but gave a nice result.  If I was to do this at a gig I would chill or lower the hydration. 

The Kale is marinated ala Craig and was my favorite taste of the day.

[acbova]

I used 275 gram dough balls. 

Also I would love some constructive feedback.

[MightyPizzaOven]

They look great... do you have any pictures showing bottom of the pies? Did you use ADY? ADY%? Bake time? What did you use for baking?


I tried 64% hydration last weekend, it was bit hard to work with.

[acbova]

Thanks...

Here is my oven http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,21855.msg221357.html#msg221357

I used idy .15%   Floor was at about 700F-> 750F

[Chicago Bob]

They look great... do you have any pictures showing bottom of the pies? Did you use ADY? ADY%? Bake time? What did you use for baking?


I tried 64% hydration last weekend, it was bit hard to work with.

Stretch an fold...

[Chicago Bob]

I used 275 gram dough balls. 

Also I would love some constructive feedback.

I like 'em...they have sort of a "different" look to them. Protein of the Daisy mill?

[acbova]

The flour is 11 to 12.5 and it seems to have a lot of color.  Not whole wheat but in that direction.  It is milled to be 00 according to the miller.  http://mcgearyorganics.com/store.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=129&category_id=2

I hope that the "different" is the flour and not the pizza maker

I'm pretty sure the bakes were less then 2 min, but I did not time them. 

[Chicago Bob]

I hope that the "different" is the flour and not the pizza maker

No no, definitely not the chef...you are doing great Tony. For WFO pie's they have a sort of crisp/crunchy look and that is why I was asking if that Daisy was maybe higher type protein.
Keep up the good work and thanks for the pics....fun watching you progress.   

Bob

[f.montoya]

VERY tasty looking, acbova!

From your pics, all being top view, the first one looks beautifully Neapolitan in appearance. The last photo looks gorgeously upscale New York style, with it's crust's overall coloring, which looks pretty mouthwatering, I might add(you can see in my profile that I love NY Style). Might there have been an oven temperature difference when the two were baked?

[acbova]

Thanks for the feedback, I see your point.  The Kale was later then the others or at least I'm pretty sure.  I've got a big oven and I can get away with not feeding it for one pie, but eventually it catches up with you, and I think it was very well a colder oven.  I also think I was trying to not let the bottom over cook and was moving faster.   Clearly consistency needs some effort.

[La Sera]

Hi Acbova,

They look tasty.
Can I offer up a small piece of advice? You might want to brush the raw flour off your crust. A healthy percent of customers may think of that as a negative to an otherwise great pizza. My eye went right to it in every photo.

Good luck!

[f.montoya]

Hi Acbova,

They look tasty.
Can I offer up a small piece of advice? You might want to brush the raw flour off your crust. A healthy percent of customers may think of that as a negative to an otherwise great pizza. My eye went right to it in every photo.

Good luck!

Might Acbova be topping his pies directly on the peel and feels the need for extra flour to prevent it from sticking? In that case, I would recommend using something like Semolina. I bought a couple of bags of this. What's great about it is that it acts like cornmeal, so you don't need as much to keep things from sticking, but it also has a neutral flavor, which means no bitterness that usually comes when there's excess flour on the bottom of a pie.

Also, you can buy yourself even more time by topping your pie on the countertop and then sliding/pulling it onto your peel, which can be very lightly dusted with Semola as well. You can have someone hold your peel up against your counter edge or you can set a table behind and just across from your counter where you can rest the handle of your peel.

[acbova]

I totally agree on the raw flour.   

[Chicago Bob]

Do the peels with the holes in it do a good job; less dusting needed?
+1 on the semolina...I use a real small amount.

[acbova]

I've looked a bunch of different pizza places (and mobile businesses) and very many were using the slotted launch peel, as am I.   Still this dough was more sticky then I was used to.  When it stuck I would lift the edge and throw a little flour, and clearly I missed. 

I've also noticed the first few pizzas stick even though I flour the peel.  Maybe it's moisture and the launching a few pies dries the peel.

I think semolina would work better if I dusted a wooden peel before building the pizza.   But I'm trying to streamline the process overall so I like the slotted metal peel.

[TXCraig1]

The Kale is marinated ala Craig and was my favorite taste of the day.

I'm happy to take credit for a great pizza, but I can't take credit for this one. Marinated kale on pizza is on my list of things to try, but I have not done it yet.

Pies are looking good!

[acbova]

... Marinated kale on pizza is on my list of things to try, but I have not done it yet.

Ha! OK another search give the marinated kale inspiration to pizzablogger, sorry K!  I just read it on Craig's thread. 

Actually I really did even read the marinate quite right on that thread.  I did it with olive oil, salt and lemon juice, where pizzablogger put the lemon post bake. 

I bought the really nice purple kale at my market and needed something good to do and it really came together. 

[acbova]

So tonight one of the pizza's got stuck.  I had a bin of 50/50 rice flour and white flour, we tried that for flouring the peel and that made the difference and got the pie into the oven.   Success!