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

[norma427]

Norma,

Was the MM clone dough ball the one based on the MM clone dough formulation that you liked so much with the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses?

I agree that it would be a good idea to compare the real MM dough with your clone in daylight.

Peter

Peter,

Yes, the MM clone dough ball was based on the MM clone dough formulation I like so much with the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses.

I will wait to compare the two real MM dough balls with my leftover MM clone dough ball until tomorrow when it is daylight. My over the stove light was burnt out tonight when I returned from market and I don’t think I have another one at home to replace it, so the light in my kitchen isn’t really good tonight.  Should I also try to weigh the two dough balls tomorrow that Bob sent me?

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Are there any instructions from you about if I should reball the two dough balls Bob sent me?  I am not sure what to do.  I did receive my new scale today.  I also don’t know what I should do to weigh the two dough balls, since they are in plastic ziplock bags.

Norma,

I have always been so careful in handling my MM clone doughs that I am not sure how I would handle the MM dough balls that Bob sent you. I think I would leave them in the bags until you are ready to use them. As I mentioned before, one useful test would be to make two pizzas in your deck oven at work--one with one of the real MM dough balls and the other with your best MM clone dough ball--and compare the results. Since your next work day is next Tuesday, you will have little choice but to refreeze that dough ball (in the Ziplock bag, of course).

You might use a piece of the second MM dough ball that Bob sent you for the hydration test. You only need 10 grams of that. You will perhaps have to refreeze the rest of the MM dough ball for use later for color comparison purposes or another pizza somewhere down the road. I am open to other suggestions.

One way to weigh the dough balls is to weigh them in the Ziplock bags they came in and subtract the weight of a new but identical Ziplock bag (not another brand). You might be able to look at the box they come in to see if you can identify the weight of the bags. If that information does not exist (they may be rated by capacity rather than by weight), you may have to buy a box and weigh one of the bags. That should be close enough. That might even be closer than taking the MM dough balls out of the bags and weighing them since some of the dough balls might stick to the inside of the bags.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

I have always been so careful in handling my MM clone doughs that I am not sure how I would handle the MM dough balls that Bob sent you. I think I would leave them in the bags until you are ready to use them. As I mentioned before, one useful test would be to make two pizzas in your deck oven at work--one with one of the real MM dough balls and the other with your best MM clone dough ball--and compare the results. Since your next work day is next Tuesday, you will have little choice but to refreeze that dough ball (in the Ziplock bag, of course).

You might use a piece of the second MM dough ball that Bob sent you for the hydration test. You only need 10 grams of that. You will perhaps have to refreeze the rest of the MM dough ball for use later for color comparison purposes or another pizza somewhere down the road. I am open to other suggestions.

One way to weigh the dough balls is to weigh them in the Ziplock bags they came in and subtract the weight of a new but identical Ziplock bag (not another brand). You might be able to look at the box they come in to see if you can identify the weight of the bags. If that information does not exist (they may be rated by capacity rather than by weight), you may have to buy a box and weigh one of the bags. That should be close enough. That might even be closer than taking the MM dough balls out of the bags and weighing them since some of the dough balls might stick to the inside of the bags.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks for your thoughts on what I should do with the two MM dough balls Bob sent me.  I know my next market day isn’t until next Tuesday, so I will refreeze one dough ball this evening for a test for next week.  I will mix my favorite MM clone dough formulation for next week that you formulated for me, and then compare both of them at market to see what kind of results I can get. 

I will use a piece of the second dough ball for the hydration test.  I will read over your instructions again tomorrow and try the hydration test then. 

I can understand now the best way to weigh the two dough balls would be to leave them in the Ziplock bags.  I will try to identify the exact same Ziplock bags and purchase a box and then weigh one Ziplock plastic bag.  I don’t know the exact Ziplock plastic bags Bob bought, but maybe he will see this post and explain.  If not, I can always look at the supermarket for the exact Ziplock bags.  I was worried about trying to take a MM dough ball out of the Ziplock bags to weigh it.  I thought maybe a piece of dough might stick to the bag. 

If I have any other questions I will ask them tomorrow.

Norma

[Chicago Bob]

Norma,

Those are double zipper "heavy duty freezer" bags from Ziplock and they weigh 1/2 ounce each. Reply # 991 is where I (one sentence)talk about having weighed them before being shipped to you....so, easy to miss. I said that they were 13 oz. but they were actually 13.3......(I now know just how accurate Peter likes to be)    

I know you won't have any trouble performing the hydration tests,Norma.....you're a clever gal! Hope the dough is still usable to make a groovy Mellow pie or two after your experiments (I'm sure it will be fine). Talk to you tomorrow....

Bob

[norma427]

Norma,

Those are double zipper "heavy duty freezer" bags from Ziplock and they weigh 1/2 ounce each. Reply # 991 is where I (one sentence)talk about having weighed them before being shipped to you....so, easy to miss. I said that they were 13 oz. but they were actually 13.3......(I now know just how accurate Peter likes to be)    

I know you won't have any trouble performing the hydration tests,Norma.....you're a clever gal! Hope the dough is still usable to make a groovy Mellow pie or two after your experiments (I'm sure it will be fine). Talk to you tomorrow....

Bob

Bob,

Thanks for telling me what kind of Ziplock bags the MM dough balls were sent in and how much they weigh. 

Hopefully, I won’t have any problems performing the hydration test.  I think the dough balls will still be useable for 2 “groovy” MM pies. 

I just weighed the one dough ball you sent me in the plastic Ziplock bag and it weighs 13.4 ounces in the plastic Ziplock bag or 551 grams.  I then went out to the freezer and brought in the MM dough ball, that is almost frozen already, and it weighed 12.7 ounces or 531 grams.  Either MM has a quality control issue or Peter might be surprised. 

Thanks again for letting me play around with real MM dough balls! 

If you need any of the molasses I am using to try in my MM clone doughs, let me know, and I will send you some.

Norma

[Chicago Bob]

Norma,

You're quite welcome dear, but I'm sure the pleasure is all the MM's dough balls....you "saucy" lass.
For the slight weight discrepancy,I think Peter just might agree that if corporate can get machines or hired help to keep it that close....it ain't bad. Dunno.

I forgot to mention, concerning your dough balls, I told the MM 'worker' to not put cornmeal in the box these doughs were loaded into...what you have is only a light dusting on the top....f.y.i. .


Looking forward to sharing some sock-it-to-me hydration results with you and the forum.....should be a far-out happening scene,man!

Now go rest your hands Norma,night!

Bob

[Pete-zza]

Norma and Bob,

It looks like I confused myself and possibly the both of you also. I remembered the 13 ounce dough ball weight from Reply 991 (http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3940.msg167231.html#msg167231) but somehow I got things twisted in my mind and I ended up subtracting one ounce from my 12-ounce dough ball rather than adding an ounce. Also, the 11-ounce dough ball seem to fit the data that Bob provided on the small cheese pizza that he purchased from his local MM location. I will admit, however, that yesterday when I tried to fit the 11-ounce dough ball to the MM Nutrition Facts I couldn't do it. Going forward, I plan to use 13.25 ounces as a dough ball weight for MM clone dough formulations for the 10" pizza size. It may well be that the base dough ball weight for that size is 13 ounces with a quarter-ounce tolerance on both sides, just as is the case with the Papa John's dough balls. In the meantime, I discarded my most recent dough ball because it was of the wrong weight and I did not want to spend time on it if it wouldn't help the cause of this thread. Also, I concluded that it was too dark.

Norma, you might want to check the data you gave on the two dough balls you weighed (in their bags). The two gram-based numbers you gave--551 grams and 531 grams--convert to 19.44 ounces and 18.73 ounces, respectively (I divided your gram numbers by 28.35). Also, once we get the numbers straight, I came across a couple of other tests that you might be able to perform since you have real MM dough balls. I stumbled across the tests when I was responding to another member on another thread. But you can read about the tests at Reply 23 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,783.msg7865/topicseen.html#msg7865. I am not sure that the tests will work but they look simple enough and perhaps can be performed on a smaller scale using pieces of one of the MM dough balls and pieces from your MM clone dough. Maybe we can get some relative numbers on things like gluten to see if MM is using a high-gluten flour such as the one you have been using.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

You're quite welcome dear, but I'm sure the pleasure is all the MM's dough balls....you "saucy" lass.
For the slight weight discrepancy,I think Peter just might agree that if corporate can get machines or hired help to keep it that close....it ain't bad. Dunno.

I forgot to mention, concerning your dough balls, I told the MM 'worker' to not put cornmeal in the box these doughs were loaded into...what you have is only a light dusting on the top....f.y.i. .


Looking forward to sharing some sock-it-to-me hydration results with you and the forum.....should be a far-out happening scene,man!

Now go rest your hands Norma,night!

Bob

Bob,

I thought I could detect that cornmeal was only on the on side of the dough balls you sent me.  Thanks for that information! 

Like the old “hippie” sayings, “Dance like no one is watching!” - “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem”-“you’re either on the bus or off the bus.” and “Old hippies don’t die, they just lie low until the laughter stops and their time comes round again”.

Peace my friend! 

Norma

[norma427]

Norma, you might want to check the data you gave on the two dough balls you weighed (in their bags). The two gram-based numbers you gave--551 grams and 531 grams--convert to 19.44 ounces and 18.73 ounces, respectively (I divided your gram numbers by 28.35). Also, once we get the numbers straight, I came across a couple of other tests that you might be able to perform since you have real MM dough balls. I stumbled across the tests when I was responding to another member on another thread. But you can read about the tests at Reply 23 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,783.msg7865/topicseen.html#msg7865. I am not sure that the tests will work but they look simple enough and perhaps can be performed on a smaller scale using pieces of one of the MM dough balls and pieces from your MM clone dough. Maybe we can get some relative numbers on things like gluten to see if MM is using a high-gluten flour such as the one you have been using.

Peter

Peter,

I did recheck the weighs of both the one now frozen MM dough ball and the one in the refrigerator.  Since it was somewhat dark in my home last evening and I was excited and tired both, I didn’t see the decimal point on my scale.  The weighs now are 1 lb. 3.4 ounces 551 grams and 1 lb. 2.7oz. Or 531 grams.  I did order two weights to calibrate both of my scales, but they didn’t arrive as of now.

These are the pictures of the one MM dough ball Bob sent me compared to my leftover MM clone dough ball (from yesterday) in the daylight.  I took different pictures so it can be seen how similar the colors are.  My clone MM dough ball is a little darker in color.
 
I read about the other tests (from your link) that I can conduct on the MM dough ball and will see if I can also do those tests.

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[norma427]

These are the pictures of one MM clone pizza made yesterday.

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[Chicago Bob]

Peter,

I wonder if the 12 oz. ball you through out was for a small but it just got overweighed? In my reply #1006 where I brought home the small cheese pizza to weigh I also mention that I got a single "small" frozen ball too and it weighed 11.05oz.. The 2 "medium" balls Norma received from me weigh 13.3oz. Something tells me that if I were to get a "large" frozen ball from them it would weigh right around 15ozs. Maybe that's just the way my MM shop is doing things...dunno...
Also, I remember you saying that MM uses a separate TF for their "small" so now I'm totally not" Crystal Blue" on this one!
If you decide to use 13.5 as the dough weight for devising the recipe formula this can always be easily converted/scaled back if one is wanting to make a lighter (11oz) 10 in. pie,no? Thanks for all your help Peter....you're great!

Bob

[Chicago Bob]

Norma,

That pie there is MONEY! It truely looks waaay better than what I see downtown at my MM shop. No wonder you wanted to be able to sell this at market.....beautiful job girl!

Bob

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

On the matter of the color comparisons, I would have been shocked--but very pleased--if your MM clone dough ball was of the identical color to the real MM dough ball. Was the difference today in the natural light much different? If so, maybe MM is using an "open pit" molasses like the Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup. That product has no blackstrap or other conventional molasses in it, like your Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses. If you end up doing a comparison test using your deck oven at work, it will be interesting to hear about the flavor/taste comparisons.

All of what has been going on in this thread reminds me of the joke about a fellow who was travelling west across Texas from Texarkana. Every time he would look up, no matter where he was, he would see a sign to Amarillo. He said it was as though the sign was on the back of a moving truck.

So close but yet so far.

[Pete-zza]

I wonder if the 12 oz. ball you through out was for a small but it just got overweighed? In my reply #1006 where I brought home the small cheese pizza to weigh I also mention that I got a single "small" frozen ball too and it weighed 11.05oz.. The 2 "medium" balls Norma received from me weigh 13.3oz. Something tells me that if I were to get a "large" frozen ball from them it would weigh right around 15ozs. Maybe that's just the way my MM shop is doing things...dunno...
Also, I remember you saying that MM uses a separate TF for their "small" so now I'm totally not" Crystal Blue" on this one!
If you decide to use 13.5 as the dough weight for devising the recipe formula this can always be easily converted/scaled back if one is wanting to make a lighter (11oz) 10 in. pie,no? Thanks for all your help Peter....you're great!

Bob,

Now I am completely confused.

If you sent Norma two dough balls weighing 13.3 ounces each, how is it that Norma got weights of around 18 ounces? Unfortunately, there is no way of using the MM Nutrition Facts to get total weights of pizzas, including the small MM cheese pizza. There is not enough weight information given to do the calculations to fill in the blanks. Someone would have to buy some pizzas of differerent sizes from MM and examine the weights to note the relative differences.

It is hard to imagine that the different MM locations are using materially different dough ball weights since that could do harm to MM as a corporation and to its reputation and to its quality control and franchising system. Franchisees are all supposed to sing off of the same songsheet. Also, if you look at the menus of the various MM stores, as I have done, you will see essentially the same pricing structure. The prices aren't exact, but they are very close. Moreover, some of the MM pizzas have large numbers of toppings. For example, the Mega Veggie has twelve topping on it (plus sauce and cheese). I am not sure that a 15-ounce dough ball for a 16" pizza would be enough to support everything on that pizza. The same may well apply to other dough ball weights.

It is true that it would be possible to use the same baker's percents for dough ball weights differing form a 13.25-ounce dough ball. The problem is that the weights of all of the ingredients are in relation to the weight of flour in the dough ball. To get those numbers in the ballpark, you would need to know, or estimate, the amount of flour in the dough ball. I already have come up with MM clone dough formulation for 12-ounce dough balls and yesterday I came up with one for an 11-ounce dough ball (until I thought I made an error), and I think I can come up with another formulation for a 13.25-ounce dough ball, but the baker's percents will not be identical because they are premised on different flour weights. The answer lies in knowing what the MM dough balls actually weigh.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

That pie there is MONEY! It truely looks waaay better than what I see downtown at my MM shop. No wonder you wanted to be able to sell this at market.....beautiful job girl!

Bob

Thanks!  You can easily make MM clone pizzas too.  They are very easy to make. 

Norma

[norma427]

Peter,

Since I don’t have the calibration weights for my scale today, I weighed a newer dollar bill and it weighed 1 gram.  If I breathed on the scale it did weigh differently.  I could only find one metal lid container that was exactly 2 ½ “ in diameter and ¼” in height at home. I don’t keep any jarred spaghetti sauces or many jarred things at home. The other metal jar lid was a little smaller.  I used the 2 ½ “ diameter metal lid for the MM 10 gram dough.  The other lid I used for my leftover 10 gram MM dough.  I had the toaster oven at 500 degrees F first, because if I turned it much higher the broiler coil wanted to turn on, before I placed both skins in the oven. Neither of the two doughs ballooned, but both did rise.  I wasn’t sure of how to split them, but used an x-acto knife to slice the top down the center, but not to the bottom of the skin, and some needles to pick the skin.  I am not sure if I was supposed to split the skins in two or not, so that is why I am now posting the pictures of the process so far.  If I am doing something wrong, let me know.  The both skins are now baking in the toaster oven at 200 degrees F.

I did taste both raw doughs and I really couldn’t taste any significant amount of difference in the two doughs.  

Should I take this skins out at different time intervals and weigh them until they stabilize?

What other specific tests will help this thread?

Do you want me to put the frozen MM dough ball on my kitchen scale and take a picture of how much it weighs?  I already tasted a piece of the other MM dough ball, and also took out 10 grams for the tests, so weighing the dough ball that is now in the refrigerator and won’t be of any help.

In the natural sunlight my dough ball was only a tiny bit darker.  It almost looked like the same color of the dough balls Bob sent to me.  I thought my Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses does have a small amount of blackstrap molasses in it.  Do you recall that conversation before in this thread?

I liked your joke!  I agree, so close, but yet so far.  

Norma

[norma427]

Norma