After reading through a number of John's threads where he experimented with preferments, bulk fermentation time, etc., I decided that I need to try it.
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,15563.0.htmlhttp://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=d95265d8869c2b8eaad3675ea3cc471d&/topic,16618.0.htmlhttp://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,16761.0.htmlNever being able to follow any recipe without changing it, I used the following:
Flour (50/50 Central Milling Organic High Mountain High Protein; KABF Organic Bread Flour, so probably around 1.5% higher protein than the original Fazzari): 100%
Water: 62%
IDY: 0.5%
Salt: 2%
EVOO: 2%
Honey: 2%
Preferment used 33% of flour, 100% hydration, and 20% of IDY. Let it sit at what passes for room temperature around here in the winter (65 degrees) for 16 hours, and then mixed in the rest of the ingredients in the Bosch Compact with the dough hook on speed 1.
Because the final dough temperature was only 65 degrees, I decided to let it sit at 65 degrees for an hour before refrigerating for a 42 hour bulk ferment. Since 12-year-old critic and Mom were off all day and evening, I divided the dough and made one dough ball for a solo bake, and put ti back into the refrigerator for 8 hours (along with the other half of the dough, which I will ball and bake tomorrow night).
2 hours at room temperature (65) moving up to 70 degrees with a little help from a microwaved bean bag. The dough opened really easily (but I need to work on getting it more even next time). With nobody else to dictate toppings, I dressed it with one of my favorite combinations - chopped garlic, shitake mushrooms, roasted yellow pepper, and sauteed kale, along with Jarslberg cheese.
Into the oven on my 3/4" soapstone tile at 535 degrees. I had a small launching issue which caused the dough to bunch up a little. 4 minute bake with the broiler on high all the way through. At 3:30, I lifted the pie from the stone and "domed" it.
It was fabulous. I'm having trouble finding a way to describe this crust. It was beautiful, pillowy and tender inside with a slight crunch to it. The crumb was great in spots (and not so great in others, where I had mishandled the dough when I opened it). The underside was quite charred (which I expected), and there was good top browning. I demolished half of the pie (sighing all the way), and then started to experiment with putting pieces of the second half back in for 15, 30, 45, and 60 seconds to get a little more crunch. The optimum seemed to be 45 seconds. No cold pizza for me tomorrow!
All in all, this was the best pie I have made (the bottle of 1983 Nuits St. Georges probably helped). I believe that it can get better, but what a start. I'll be interested to see what happens with another 24 hours of cold fermentation before balling (tomorrow).
Thanks John!!!
Barry