Mellow Mushroom Pizza found in Atlanta and surroundin areas...Recipes?

[norma427]

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[dwighttsharpe]

Norma

Norma, what's the recipe(formula) for this last pizza you made, shown in posts #375 - #384?

Looks delicious. Thanks.

[norma427]

Norma, what's the recipe(formula) for this last pizza you made, shown in posts #375 - #384?

Looks delicious. Thanks.

dwighttsharpe,

Thanks for saying the MM's attempt looked delicious!    This is the formula I used.  If you try it, let us know how it turns out for you.

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

In the dough formulation you posted, did you weigh the fructose or did you use the volume measurement shown in the dough formulation?

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

In the dough formulation you posted, did you weigh the fructose or did you use the volume measurement shown in the dough formulation?

Peter

Peter,

I weighed the fructose using my scale.

Norma

[Cyberider]

Like all the replication threads, this is very interesting.  I was very surprised yesterday when I saw a Mellow Mushroom Pizza store in downtown Tempe, AZ.  Had no idea there was one in this area and had never heard of it until I read this thread.  Will continue to follow with interest and maybe even try my own hand at replication though I don't have the tools many have here at my disposal.

[norma427]

Peter,

Did you see anything about this in your searches for MM’s?  It seems like Rocky Reeves and Biff Farmer opened a pizza business called Rock Back Pizza Cafe and the Morning Glory Pizza. http://blogs.ajc.com/food-and-more/2011/01/14/in-the-news-noon-midtown-closes-mellow-mushroom-founder-opens-new-pizza-restaurant/?cxntfid=blogs_food_and_more&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/9/1575975/restaurant/Atlanta/Rock-Back-Pizza-The-Morning-Glory-Pizza-Cafe-Newnan

http://www.rockbackpizza.com/menu.php
http://www.rockbackpizza.com/story.php  In the pictures of the men making the pizzas (if scrolled down), the one cartoon man has Excelsior Mill on the back of his shirt.  I wonder what if that might mean this. http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/DuPre_Excelsior_Mill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuPre_Excelsior_Mill


More on the pizzeria.
http://www.trademarkia.com/morning-glory-pizza-cafe-77826975.html

I wonder since it says they make their dough fresh, if anymore information can be found on their dough and pizzas to see if they are the same as MM’s.  It also makes me wonder if this might be a jump to start another themed kind of pizza business.  I also wonder if you call Rock Back Pizza Cafe and the Morning Glory Pizza if you could find any information about their dough.

http://www.rockbackpizza.com/RockBackMenu_Print.pdf

Norma

[norma427]

To add to my last post, this is the picture (the second on down) of the pizza man with The Excelsior Mill printed on his shirt.

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

No, I did not see the items you referenced. However, while I was at the new pizzeria's website, even before I read all of your post, I did send an email to the new place inquiring as to possible similarities between the pizzeria's dough and the MM dough (I mentioned the high-gluten flour and wheat germ and Vitamin E). I don't know what kind of response I will get, if any, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Apparently, Earl "Rocky" Reeves left MM in 2007. Maybe his non-compete time period ran out.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

No, I did not see the items you referenced. However, while I was at the new pizzeria's website, even before I read all of your post, I did send an email to the new place inquiring as to possible similarities between the pizzeria's dough and the MM dough (I mentioned the high-gluten flour and wheat germ and Vitamin E). I don't know what kind of response I will get, if any, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Apparently, Earl "Rocky" Reeves left MM in 2007. Maybe his non-compete time period ran out.

Peter

Peter,

I had thought of calling or sending an email to Rocky Reeves and Biff Farmers pizzeria, but I thought if you wanted, you would be a much better person to ask questions.  The menu does look very similar to MM’s menu.  I also believe in nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I am sure Rocky Reeves would know everything about MM’s operations.  I didn’t know when Rocky left MM’s.

Norma

[Biz Markie]

Sounds interesting, guys!

Quick update - since realizing the Sorghum route wasn't really going to take me in the right direction, I went back to the drawing board somewhat.
I decided to go back to the molasses but rather than introduce another sweetener or simply increase the molasses, I thought I'd tinker with a longer cold ferment.

So I went with the same formula as my previous molasses dough but used 0.16% IDY.  I just mixed it tonight at about 9pm central, and it'll be baked at about 830pm Sunday night.

I'm hoping the longer fermentation will unlock more of the sugars in the wheat.  I guess the downside is this appears to not be what MM is actually doing in their operations.  But when you start getting into freezing dough, etc, my ability to understand the chemistry comes to a screeching halt

[norma427]

Biz,

Good luck with your next experiment!   

I do freeze pizza dough all the time, and what I have found out so far is it really doesn’t affect the taste of the final pizza. The increased amount of IDY (Peter and I have been trying for freezing the dough) is to compensate for the freezing of the dough and it being ready shortly after the defrost. 

Norma

[norma427]

A few more articles about Rock Back Pizza Café.

Yelp
http://www.yelp.com/biz/rock-back-pizza-newnan

Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/RockBack-Pizza/146955868678691?sk=app_2373072738

On the Facebook page, copied for anyone that doesn’t have Facebook.

Welcome to the nommage!

*In Newnan, Biff Farmer and "Rocky" Reeves have just broken ground on a brand-new restaurant, Rock Back Pizza, at a site on the Newnan Bypass...
Farmer and Reeves may be starting a new business from scratch, but they're certainly not neophytes.

Reeves is one of the original founders of Mellow Mushroom Pizza.

Farmer worked for him for 15 years, running the marketing department.

Reeves left the company in 2007. But it wasn't long afterwards that "he called me and said, 'Biff, let's get into this, let's do a whole new thing,'" Farmer said. "We're going to do the same thing we did at Mellow Mushroom, just kind of take it to the next level." *
~Sarah Fay Campbell

RockBack pizza is a new restaurant combining the styles of rockabilly, bohemia and a dash of that laid-back southern flavor. Sound like a crazy combo? Getting curious? Good!
RockBack will be serving delicious (and HEALTHY) pizzas, sandwiches and other dishes made with high-quality ingredients as well as many tasty microbrews!

In this article Farmer says this will be the first of  what they hope will be hundreds of stores.

http://www.times-herald.com/Local/Commercial-construction-alive-but-its-leaner-1272001

and
http://m.clatl.com/omnivore/archives/2010/12/23/gravy-train-mjq-team-to-open-eav-gastropub-pizza-wars-sister-louias-opens

Norma

[norma427]

I did call Malt products and Domino Specialty ingredients yesterday to see if I could talk to a sales rep about obtaining samples of some kind of molasses that might be like a “fancy molasses”.   Both places they said the sales reps were busy and would call me back, but haven’t so far.  I will post if they call me back.  I also went on both of their contact pages and requested the Homemaid molasses and BSM molasses from Domino’s and the liquid 732  molasses from Malt products.  I told them in the message I left on the contact page that I would appreciate if they would call me to talk about what I had planned on trying to do with pizza dough, and if they have better suggestions on what molasses products I should try.

On another note, what product (dried molasses) from ADM flour does someone think I should try in an experiment for this coming week for a MM’s clone?  I am not sure from the spec sheets which one to try and also how much refined sugar (raw sugar or fructose) to add to either of the dried molasses products.

Norma

[Pete-zza]

On another note, what product (dried molasses) from ADM flour does someone think I should try in an experiment for this coming week for a MM’s clone?  I am not sure from the spec sheets which one to try and also how much refined sugar (raw sugar or fructose) to add to either of the dried molasses products.

Norma,

Looking at the brief descriptions of the two ADM dried molasses products at http://www.adm.com/en-US/Milling/drysweeteners/Pages/Molasses.aspx, I get the impression that both products are light colored but that the Dri-Mol 60 product is lighter in color than the Dri-Mol 604 product. If so, I would be inclined to start with the Dri-Mol 60 product. It's hard to know how much of that product and the fructose you should use since the spec sheets seem to be silent as to the types and quantities of sugars that are in the Dri-Mol product. I think I would aim high on both the molasses product and the fructose, with the greater emphasis on the fructose and sweetness at this point more so than the color of the dough and crust. If you can get obvious sweetness in the finished crust, you can always adjust the molasses piece up or down depending on the color of the dough that yielded that sweetness in the crust. As you can see, you have to do tests. It's a juggling act that changes with each set of ingredients. In my latest test dough, I am using 7.5% Grandma's Original molasses and 7% raw cane sugar. I am also using 2.5% Kretschmer's toasted, ground wheat germ, mainly for texture and flavor. That percent is about the percent that is in the flour before it is stripped out during milling to make white flour.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

Looking at the brief descriptions of the two ADM dried molasses products at http://www.adm.com/en-US/Milling/drysweeteners/Pages/Molasses.aspx, I get the impression that both products are light colored but that the Dri-Mol 60 product is lighter in color than the Dri-Mol 604 product. If so, I would be inclined to start with the Dri-Mol 60 product. It's hard to know how much of that product and the fructose you should use since the spec sheets seem to be silent as to the types and quantities of sugars that are in the Dri-Mol product. I think I would aim high on both the molasses product and the fructose, with the greater emphasis on the fructose and sweetness at this point more so than the color of the dough and crust. If you can get obvious sweetness in the finished crust, you can always adjust the molasses piece up or down depending on the color of the dough that yielded that sweetness in the crust. As you can see, you have to do tests. It's a juggling act that changes with each set of ingredients. In my latest test dough, I am using 7.5% Grandma's Original molasses and 7% raw cane sugar. I am also using 2.5% Kretschmer's toasted, ground wheat germ, mainly for texture and flavor. That percent is about the percent that is in the flour before it is stripped out during milling to make white flour.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks for your help.  I was having trouble deciding which ADM Dri-Mol to use, because the Dri-Mol 604 molasses is lighter in color and is 55% molasses and I guess the rest of the ingredients is sweetener solids as explained in this pdf. on page 6.   http://www.adm.com/en-US/products/food/sweeteners/Documents/Dry%20Sweetener%20Food%20Applications%20Formula.pdf  The ADM Dri-Mol 60 is also 55% or 70% molasses, but I don’t know what the other ingredients are.  I tasted both ADM Dri-Mol products and the Dri-Mol 604 is much sweeter in taste.  I know this is going to be a juggling act to know what to do, but I will think it over and try to come up with a formula.

Since you told me you are using 2.5% of toasted wheat germ in your formula, I might add wheat germ back in this time.  I guess I forgot how much wheat germ gets stripped out during milling to make white flour.

Norma