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

[CDNpielover]

You guys are AWESOME - thanks so much for the help.  I can't wait to make this!   

[Pete-zza]

is there any idea how much cheese MM is putting on their pizzas?  I grew up in the midwest and tend to go very heavy on the cheese ( ), but i'd like to have something more similar to what you get at MM.

CDNpielover,

MM does not give weights of its pizzas in its Nutrition Facts, so it is hard to calculate how much cheese they might put on a 14" pizza. Also, they free-throw the cheese. They do not weigh it. From the MM Nutrition Facts, I would estimate that the amount of cheese (many MM stores apparently use the Grande shredded low-fat part-skim mozzarella cheese) is about 6.6-8.8 ounces. That is for a medium (14") MM cheese pizza. I think I would go with around 7 ounces.

Peter

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

As you know, one of the things that has been nagging us for some time is where MM gets its molasses. It seems that, one by one, we have been ruling out various molasses products, usually because the suppliers are too small to be viable suppliers to MM or because the products do not pass muster in areas like sweetness and color. When I think about these things, my mind seems to always turn back to Domino Specialty Ingredients, which is a Florida foodservice supplier of commodity products like molasses (see http://www.dominospecialtyingredients.com/?pageId=1090&rowId=11207). You know of them because of their Homemaid Molasses product, of which you have a sample courtesy of Domino. Since we last spent time on that product, a lot of molasses has gone over the dam. I am thinking now that maybe we should give that product another look.

Tonight, I revisited the specs for the Homemaid Molasses that you reproduced at Replies 531 and 532 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3940.msg158115.html#msg158115. I'd like to think that I have a better grasp of the subject of molasses since you attempted an MM clone dough formulation using the Homemaid Molasses. My recollection is that you used 11% but found that the finished MM clone crust was not sweet. More recently, with my work with the Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup, I believe that one needs to use more than 11%. A better number might be 15-18%. When I look at the Homemaid Molasses specs, they bear similarity not only to the Steen's product but to the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses. I think the Golden Barrel product would be closer if it did not have the blackstrap molasses. It is the blackstrap molasses that makes the dough darker than what MM is using.

I am going to try to come up with an MM clone dough formulation using the Homemaid Molasses. My gut tells me that it should be doable. The objective is to come up with something that is close to what I believe MM may be doing. I will let you know what I come up with.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

As you know, one of the things that has been nagging us for some time is where MM gets its molasses. It seems that, one by one, we have been ruling out various molasses products, usually because the suppliers are too small to be viable suppliers to MM or because the products do not pass muster in areas like sweetness and color. When I think about these things, my mind seems to always turn back to Domino Specialty Ingredients, which is a Florida foodservice supplier of commodity products like molasses (see http://www.dominospecialtyingredients.com/?pageId=1090&rowId=11207). You know of them because of their Homemaid Molasses product, of which you have a sample courtesy of Domino. Since we last spent time on that product, a lot of molasses has gone over the dam. I am thinking now that maybe we should give that product another look.

Tonight, I revisited the specs for the Homemaid Molasses that you reproduced at Replies 531 and 532 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3940.msg158115.html#msg158115. I'd like to think that I have a better grasp of the subject of molasses since you attempted an MM clone dough formulation using the Homemaid Molasses. My recollection is that you used 11% but found that the finished MM clone crust was not sweet. More recently, with my work with the Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup, I believe that one needs to use more than 11%. A better number might be 15-18%. When I look at the Homemaid Molasses specs, they bear similarity not only to the Steen's product but to the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses. I think the Golden Barrel product would be closer if it did not have the blackstrap molasses. It is the blackstrap molasses that makes the dough darker than what MM is using.

I am going to try to come up with an MM clone dough formulation using the Homemaid Molasses. My gut tells me that it should be doable. The objective is to come up with something that is close to what I believe MM may be doing. I will let you know what I come up with.

Peter

Peter,

I know one of the things that have been nagging us for awhile is where MM might get its molasses.  I am glad you thought back to the Homemaid Molasses product from Domino Specialty Ingredients.  I didn’t give the Homemaid Molasses product another thought, because there wasn’t any sweetness in the rim when I tried that formulation.  I forgot about how you were upping the percents of molasses in the recent formulations. 

I remember trying the formulation with 11% Homemaid molasses at Reply 580 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3940.msg158700.html#msg158700 and posting there was no sweetness if the crust from that experiment.

Good to hear since you revisited the specs of the Homemaid Molasses, you found they bear similarity not only to the Steen’s product but also the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses.  I can understand that the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses would be darker because of the blackstrap molasses added.

I see in the link you provided at http://www.dominospecialtyingredients.com/?pageId=1090&rowId=11207 there is also something called Refiners Syrup.  When I was at the Country Store yesterday, I looked at all the Golden Barrel products they sell.  I saw on some of the ingredient lists that Refiners Syrup is contained in the ingredients of some of their products.  I sure don’t know what Refiners Syrup but I guess by what you link said, it does produce a darker product.  I looked up Refiners Syrup last evening and this is one article that has some answers about Refiner’s syrups.  http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/03/refiners_syrup.html  I have no way of understanding all about refiner’s syrup really.  Isn’t Lyle’s Golden Syrup also called a Refiners Syrup?

I will await what formulation you come up with for another MM clone dough formulation using the Homemaid Molasses.  I will give the formulation a try. 

I tasted the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking molasses, in comparison to the Homemaid Molasses, this morning after I saw your post, and the Homemaid Molasses does taste sweeter than the GBSBM.  The colors don’t look that much different though, but the Homemaid Molasses seem a little thinner in consistency.

You brain is always thinking isn’t it.   

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

After revisiting the Homemaid Molasses specs, I did check out the MM clone pizza you made with it. What impressed me and made me think that the Homemaid product might be resuscitated for use in an MM clone dough was that the color of the crust and crumb seemed to be lighter than what we got with other molasses products at about the same level of usage in the doughs. I have also come to believe that one has to be careful in comparing the colors of molasses products. It can't be done just by looking at the products in their jars. Comparing the colors on say, a sheet of white paper, is better but it is not conclusive. For example, the Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup and the Grandma's Original molasses look the same to me both in the jars and as samples on a sheet of white paper but I can get several percent more of the Steen's in a dough than I can the Grandma's Original molasses before the color of the Steen's is the same in the dough as the Grandma's Original molasses. The Homemaid product might do the same. One of the pieces of information that I would like to have that I did not see on the Homemaid spec sheets is the amount of water in that product. That would help me in the types of calculations I do.

I did see the Refiners Syrup in the Domino listing of products. However, as noted in the article at http://www.sugar-and-sweetener-guide.com/refiners-syrup.html, refiners syrup is not a molasses. I think it would be improper for MM to use such a product and call it molasses. I used to think the same thing about the Steen's, which is also not called a molasses, but it is an open pit product that seems to have the same DNA as molasses. At least with the Homemaid product, it is unabashedly called "molasses". As noted at the bottom of the abovereferenced article, the Lyle's product, which is a UK product with limited distribution in the U.S., is said to be a refined syrup.

You are correct that my mind is always working. But I try to be focused on the task at hand, which is why the only pizzas I have made in the many months since we got involved in this project are the MM clone pizzas. In my life before the forum, I did a lot of multi-tasking. But I always hated multi-tasking. It leads to much higher error rates and accidents and confusion, reduced attention spans, and makes it harder to compartmentalize and retrieve things stored in the brain's memory banks, and the studies show that. That is why there is a higher accident rate when people try to eat, drink, use their phones, smoke, fiddle with the radio, read, or try to put on makeup while they are driving. It is almost impossible today for anyone to conduct a meeting without people openly or secretly checking their emails, texting or playing games or doing all sorts of other things with their phones or other devices.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

After revisiting the Homemaid Molasses specs, I did check out the MM clone pizza you made with it. What impressed me and made me think that the Homemaid product might be resuscitated for use in an MM clone dough was that the color of the crust and crumb seemed to be lighter than what we got with other molasses products at about the same level of usage in the doughs. I have also come to believe that one has to be careful in comparing the colors of molasses products. It can't be done just by looking at the products in their jars. Comparing the colors on say, a sheet of white paper, is better but it is not conclusive. For example, the Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup and the Grandma's Original molasses look the same to me both in the jars and as samples on a sheet of white paper but I can get several percent more of the Steen's in a dough than I can the Grandma's Original molasses before the color of the Steen's is the same in the dough as the Grandma's Original molasses. The Homemaid product might do the same. One of the pieces of information that I would like to have that I did not see on the Homemaid spec sheets is the amount of water in that product. That would help me in the types of calculations I do.

I did see the Refiners Syrup in the Domino listing of products. However, as noted in the article at http://www.sugar-and-sweetener-guide.com/refiners-syrup.html, refiners syrup is not a molasses. I think it would be improper for MM to use such a product and call it molasses. I used to think the same thing about the Steen's, which is also not called a molasses, but it is an open pit product that seems to have the same DNA as molasses. At least with the Homemaid product, it is unabashedly called "molasses". As noted at the bottom of the abovereferenced article, the Lyle's product, which is a UK product with limited distribution in the U.S., is said to be a refined syrup.

You are correct that my mind is always working. But I try to be focused on the task at hand, which is why the only pizzas I have made in the many months since we got involved in this project are the MM clone pizzas. In my life before the forum, I did a lot of multi-tasking. But I always hated multi-tasking. It leads to much higher error rates and accidents and confusion, reduced attention spans, and makes it harder to compartmentalize and retrieve things stored in the brain's memory banks, and the studies show that. That is why there is a higher accident rate when people try to eat, drink, use their phones, smoke, fiddle with the radio, read, or try to put on makeup while they are driving. It is almost impossible today for anyone to conduct a meeting without people openly or secretly checking their emails, texting or playing games or doing all sorts of other things with their phones or other devices.

Peter

Peter,

You are probably right that the Homemaid Molasses might be able to be resuscitated for the MM clone dough.  I remember the color of the dough with the 11% Homemaid Molasses was lighter in color. 

I also have almost concluded that the color of molasses products used is hard to predict what the color of the final dough might be.  Just by looking at the molasses products or comparing them on white paper always doesn’t show what the final results would be. 

I do still have Paulette Meltzer’s phone number and can try and call her about the amount of water in the Homemaid Molasses product.  I will post if I find out that information. 

Thanks for the article about refiners syrup is not a molasses.  I also think it would be improper for MM to use such a product and call it molasses. 

Thanks for telling me about how your mind is always working, but you hate multi-tasking.  I think I am the opposite of you, in that I do like multi-tasking, but also think it can lead me to errors sometimes.  I really don’t know why I like multi-tasking, but I guess it makes life more interesting.  I know you aren’t prone to errors like I am, so your way of staying on one project for a long while is good.  It has helped all your reversed-engineered projects.

I know I see people all the time doing various things while driving and it can lead to accidents.  At least when I am driving, I don’t believe in multi-tasking.  I try to keep my mind on what is going on around me.  I never would use a cell phone while driving, unless I knew there was some kind of emergency, or I was expecting some kind of special call.  The world of technology is good in some ways, but also bad in other ways, at least in my opinion.  It is always nice to learn new technology with the new gadgets, but somehow it leads to less conversations and less interest in what is going on around each person.

Norma

[norma427]

Peter,

I just called Paulette’s number at Domino Specialty Ingredients and luckily she was in.  After checking, Paulette said the Homemaid Molasses had 20% water in the product.

Norma

[Pete-zza]

I just called Paulette’s number at Domino Specialty Ingredients and luckily she was in.  After checking, Paulette said the Homemaid Molasses had 20% water in the product.

Norma,

Thank you very much. After my last post and before you provided the above information, I decided to call Domino Specialty Ingredients. I left a voicemail for someone familiar with the technical aspects of the Homemaid Molasses product to call me back. If they do, I am sure that I can come up with a few more questions. If you hadn't provided the percent of water, I would have used 20% anyway since that is the percent of water in the Golden Barrel molasses product. Maybe the Homemaid product is like the Golden Barrel product sans the blackstrap molasses. Regular molasses has a water content of around 22%. The Steen's product seems to be at 23-25%.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

Thank you very much. After my last post and before you provided the above information, I decided to call Domino Specialty Ingredients. I left a voicemail for someone familiar with the technical aspects of the Homemaid Molasses product to call me back. If they do, I am sure that I can come up with a few more questions. If you hadn't provided the percent of water, I would have used 20% anyway since that is the percent of water in the Golden Barrel molasses product. Maybe the Homemaid product is like the Golden Barrel product sans the blackstrap molasses. Regular molasses has a water content of around 22%. The Steen's product seems to be at 23-25%.

Peter

Peter,

I am sure you can come up with a few more technical questions if someone responds to your voicemail. 

Interesting that you would have come up with 20% water in the Homemaid Molasses product anyway.  I didn’t even know, or hadn’t paid attention, to how much water was in the Golden Barrel molasses, regular molasses, or the Steen’s product.  This thread has been so long, with many tries on different molasses products that I can’t remember all what has gone on in this thread. 

Maybe the Homemaid Molasses product is like the Golden Barrel product sans the blackstrap molasses.  I can taste the difference in the Homemaid Molasses and the Golden Barrel product. 

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

I used the expanded dough calculating tool at http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html to come up with a test MM dough formulation using the Homemaid Molasses, as follows:

MM Clone Dough Formulation Using Homemaid Molasses

KASL or Power Flour (100%): Spring Water (52%): IDY (0.70%): Salt (1.8%): Vegetable (Soybean) Oil (2.55%): Homemaid Molasses (18%): Total (175.05%):

312.33 g  |  11.02 oz | 0.69 lbs 162.41 g  |  5.73 oz | 0.36 lbs 2.19 g | 0.08 oz | 0 lbs | 0.73 tsp | 0.24 tbsp 5.62 g | 0.2 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.01 tsp | 0.34 tbsp 7.96 g | 0.28 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.75 tsp | 0.58 tbsp 56.22 g | 1.98 oz | 0.12 lbs 546.73 g | 19.28 oz | 1.21 lbs | TF = N/A

Note: Dough is for a single 14" pizza; bowl residue compensation = 1.5%

You will note several things in the above MM clone dough formulation.

First, you have a choice of using either KASL or the Power flour. I think the Power flour may fit the MM Nutrition Facts better than the KASL, for the reasons as previously noted, but the differences aren't so great as to compel the use of the Power flour.

Second, I increased the hydration to 52%. The reason for doing this is was to compensate for the lower water content of the Homemaid Molasses and to achieve a total water content for the MM clone dough of around 40%.

Third, I did not specify volume measurements for the Homemaid Molasses since that information is not provided in the Homemaid Molasses specs (tablespoon measurements are usually reserved for retail molasses products, whereas commercial molasses products specify numbers per 100 grams). Maybe sometime you can weigh out say, 1/4 cup of the Homemaid Molasses, and divide that weight by 4 to get a rough conversion to tablespoons by weight. I would expect 20-21 grams per tablespoon. That number would also allow me to get sugars, carbohydrates, sodium and the like on a per tablespoon basis.

Fourth, in making the MM clone dough with the Homemaid Molasses, you might want to hold back on some of that molasses (that is, not mix all of it into the formula water) until you see that you are able to match the color with the MM dough sample that you now have in the freezer. You should defrost that dough ball to do the color comparison. Once you are done with it, you can refreeze it. If it takes more or less than the 56.22 grams of the Homemaid Molasses to get the colors matched, you might note the weight of the Homemaid Molasses that actually achieved that match. That would allow us to recalculate the amount of the Homemaid Molasses to use the next time, if the results warrant a next time.

Fifth, depending on what you achieve in terms of sweetness, we may want to tweak the amount of salt used in the MM clone dough. The amount now indicated (1.8%) is based on the MM Nutrition Facts and takes into account the sodium inherently included in flour and also in the Homemaid Molasses.

For the above MM clone dough formulation, I calculated an "adjusted" hydration that takes the water content of the Homemaid Molasses into account of 55.6%. The "effective" hydration that also takes the soybean oil into account is 58.2%.

If there are any further developments related to the Homemaid Molasses, I will let you know.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

I used the expanded dough calculating tool at http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html to come up with a test MM dough formulation using the Homemaid Molasses, as follows:

MM Clone Dough Formulation Using Homemaid Molasses

KASL or Power Flour (100%): Spring Water (52%): IDY (0.70%): Salt (1.8%): Vegetable (Soybean) Oil (2.55%): Homemaid Molasses (18%): Total (175.05%):

312.33 g  |  11.02 oz | 0.69 lbs 162.41 g  |  5.73 oz | 0.36 lbs 2.19 g | 0.08 oz | 0 lbs | 0.73 tsp | 0.24 tbsp 5.62 g | 0.2 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.01 tsp | 0.34 tbsp 7.96 g | 0.28 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.75 tsp | 0.58 tbsp 56.22 g | 1.98 oz | 0.12 lbs 546.73 g | 19.28 oz | 1.21 lbs | TF = N/A

Note: Dough is for a single 14" pizza; bowl residue compensation = 1.5%

You will note several things in the above MM clone dough formulation.

First, you have a choice of using either KASL or the Power flour. I think the Power flour may fit the MM Nutrition Facts better than the KASL, for the reasons as previously noted, but the differences aren't so great as to compel the use of the Power flour.

Second, I increased the hydration to 52%. The reason for doing this is was to compensate for the lower water content of the Homemaid Molasses and to achieve a total water content for the MM clone dough of around 40%.

Third, I did not specify volume measurements for the Homemaid Molasses since that information is not provided in the Homemaid Molasses specs (tablespoon measurements are usually reserved for retail molasses products, whereas commercial molasses products specify numbers per 100 grams). Maybe sometime you can weigh out say, 1/4 cup of the Homemaid Molasses, and divide that weight by 4 to get a rough conversion to tablespoons by weight. I would expect 20-21 grams per tablespoon. That number would also allow me to get sugars, carbohydrates, sodium and the like on a per tablespoon basis.

Fourth, in making the MM clone dough with the Homemaid Molasses, you might want to hold back on some of that molasses (that is, not mix all of it into the formula water) until you see that you are able to match the color with the MM dough sample that you now have in the freezer. You should defrost that dough ball to do the color comparison. Once you are done with it, you can refreeze it. If it takes more or less than the 56.22 grams of the Homemaid Molasses to get the colors matched, you might note the weight of the Homemaid Molasses that actually achieved that match. That would allow us to recalculate the amount of the Homemaid Molasses to use the next time, if the results warrant a next time.

Fifth, depending on what you achieve in terms of sweetness, we may want to tweak the amount of salt used in the MM clone dough. The amount now indicated (1.8%) is based on the MM Nutrition Facts and takes into account the sodium inherently included in flour and also in the Homemaid Molasses.

For the above MM clone dough formulation, I calculated an "adjusted" hydration that takes the water content of the Homemaid Molasses into account of 55.6%. The "effective" hydration that also takes the soybean oil into account is 58.2%.

If there are any further developments related to the Homemaid Molasses, I will let you know.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks very much for setting-forth a formulation using the Homemaid Molasses product.  You sure did that fast.  I will use the Power Flour for my first attempt.  Thanks also for explaining why you increased the hydration to 52%. 

I just weighed the Homemaid Molasses in three ¼ cup containers and used my small scale.  The one ¼  measuring cup was metal and other two were plastic.  These are total weights, not divided by 4, but as you will see there were many variations and that is why I didn’t divide by 4.  I eyeballed each one and got 83.32 grams for the metal ¼ cup, 73.66 grams for the one plastic ¼ cup, and 78.50 grams for the other plastic ¼ cup.  I did tare out each ¼ cup before weighing. All the ¼ measuring cups do look different is height and width, but they all were ¼ measuring cups.  Sorry, the weights weren’t the same or nearly the same.

I will hold back on some of the molasses to see if I can be able to match the color of the MM dough sample that is now frozen.  I will defrost the MM dough sample first.  I will also note the weight or any extra or less of the Homemaid Molasses if more or less is needed for color comparison.

I won’t know about the salt amount until after I bake the pizza.

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

I did end up speaking with Paulette at Domino Specialty Ingredients. She also emailed me the specs for the Homemaid Molasses. That made it easier for me to read than what you scanned into your posts and to discuss with Paulette.

I began by asking Paulette if there was another molasses product that the Homemaid Molasses was most like. She said the Grandma's Original molasses. As we learned before, the Grandma's Original molasses is also a first boil product. However, I am sure that there are differences also. I am hoping that one of those differences is that the Homemaid Molasses is lighter in color than the Grandma's Original molasses.

When I asked Paulette whether she knew anything about the Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup, she said that Domino used to get their molasses from Steen's. Now, Domino gets most of its sugar cane to use in its refineries from Guatemala. In fact, they now get cane from 23 different countries because of difficulties in procuring adequate amounts of cane to use to make their various molasses products and other sweeteners. When I asked Paulette whether it would be fair to characterize the Steen's product as a "molasses", even though Steen's itself does not call it that, she unhesitatingly said yes.

Like Steen's, the Domino molasses refinery is in Louisiana.

When I asked Paulette why the Homemaid Molasses has 20 percent water whereas the Steen's is about 23-25%, she said that it was because Steen's uses cane juice, which apparently translates into more water.

I also asked Paulette if she had heard of the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses. She said she did not. However, she did say that it was common to add blackstrap molasses to get more flavor in molasses products. The Homemaid Molasses does not contain blackstrap molasses.

With respect to the Homemaid Molasses specs, I asked Paulette why the ranges of numbers in the specs, as for sugars, carbohydrates, etc., are so wide. She said the ranges are wide because they get product from multiple suppliers and that the numbers are different for the different suppliers. She added that the numbers change because sugar cane changes due to weather, heat and normal variations from one crop to another.

I also asked Paulette whether she had ever heard of Mellow Mushroom. She said that she had heard of it but it was through "some lady" who was trying to copy their formula. I don't know if Paulette knows who their customers are so we can't completely rule out Domino as a supplier to MM.

In light of the above, you may want to pay attention to the amount of Homemaid Molasses you use so that you don't overshoot the mark and get and overly dark dough and finished crust. When I have used the approach of gradually adding the molasses to my food processor bowl, I measured out the molasses in a separate container rather than adding it all to the formula water. I also weighed the container separately so that I could calculate any amount of the formula molasses that was not used.

Peter

[Pete-zza]

I just weighed the Homemaid Molasses in three ¼ cup containers and used my small scale.  The one ¼  measuring cup was metal and other two were plastic.  These are total weights, not divided by 4, but as you will see there were many variations and that is why I didn’t divide by 4.  I eyeballed each one and got 83.32 grams for the metal ¼ cup, 73.66 grams for the one plastic ¼ cup, and 78.50 grams for the other plastic ¼ cup.  I did tare out each ¼ cup before weighing. All the ¼ measuring cups do look different is height and width, but they all were ¼ measuring cups.  Sorry, the weights weren’t the same or nearly the same.

Norma,

No need to concern yourself over the weights. Often when I speak with people in the molasses business or look at the labels on the molasses jars, the one tablespoon weight is often stated or shown as 20-21 grams. That may be another case where normal variations occur.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

I did end up speaking with Paulette at Domino Specialty Ingredients. She also emailed me the specs for the Homemaid Molasses. That made it easier for me to read than what you scanned into your posts and to discuss with Paulette.

I began by asking Paulette if there was another molasses product that the Homemaid Molasses was most like. She said the Grandma's Original molasses. As we learned before, the Grandma's Original molasses is also a first boil product. However, I am sure that there are differences also. I am hoping that one of those differences is that the Homemaid Molasses is lighter in color than the Grandma's Original molasses.

When I asked Paulette whether she knew anything about the Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup, she said that Domino used to get their molasses from Steen's. Now, Domino gets most of its sugar cane to use in its refineries from Guatemala. In fact, they now get cane from 23 different countries because of difficulties in procuring adequate amounts of cane to use to make their various molasses products and other sweeteners. When I asked Paulette whether it would be fair to characterize the Steen's product as a "molasses", even though Steen's itself does not call it that, she unhesitatingly said yes.

Like Steen's, the Domino molasses refinery is in Louisiana.

When I asked Paulette why the Homemaid Molasses has 20 percent water whereas the Steen's is about 23-25%, she said that it was because Steen's uses cane juice, which apparently translates into more water.

I also asked Paulette if she had heard of the Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses. She said she did not. However, she did say that it was common to add blackstrap molasses to get more flavor in molasses products. The Homemaid Molasses does not contain blackstrap molasses.

With respect to the Homemaid Molasses specs, I asked Paulette why the ranges of numbers in the specs, as for sugars, carbohydrates, etc., are so wide. She said the ranges are wide because they get product from multiple suppliers and that the numbers are different for the different suppliers. She added that the numbers change because sugar cane changes due to weather, heat and normal variations from one crop to another.

I also asked Paulette whether she had ever heard of Mellow Mushroom. She said that she had heard of it but it was through "some lady" who was trying to copy their formula. I don't know if Paulette knows who their customers are so we can't completely rule out Domino as a supplier to MM.

In light of the above, you may want to pay attention to the amount of Homemaid Molasses you use so that you don't overshoot the mark and get and overly dark dough and finished crust. When I have used the approach of gradually adding the molasses to my food processor bowl, I measured out the molasses in a separate container rather than adding it all to the formula water. I also weighed the container separately so that I could calculate any amount of the formula molasses that was not used.

Peter

Peter,

You had a very interesting chat with Paulette.  I am glad she did email you the specs for the Homemaid Molasses so you could read them better.

I recall that the Grandma’s Original Molasses is a first boil product like the Homemaid Molasses product.  I do have the Grandma’s Original Molasses at home plus the Homemaid Molasses.  I just tasted both of them and really can’t tell much difference in their flavors, but I think the Homemaid Molasses is a little sweeter.  I also took a picture of the Grandma’s Original Molasses beside the Home Molasses product.  To my naked eyes there isn’t any differences in color in the two products.  I don’t need glasses to see far away, but just to read fine print, so I guess my eyes aren’t deceiving me.

Interesting story about where Domino’s gets their sugar cane from.  I didn’t know Domino’s molasses refinery was in Louisiana. 

I can now understand that the ranges of numbers in the specs, as for sugars, carbohydrates, etc. are wide, since Paulette explained why.

I did mention today when I talked to Paulette that I wonder where Mellow Mushroom gets their molasses and Paulette didn’t make any comments.  She probably wouldn’t even know if Mellow Mushroom bought molasses from Domino Specialty Products.  I would think someone would know that answer would be on the selling end of Domino Specialty Products, but guess they wouldn’t be able to give out that information even if they did know.

You sure got a lot more information from Paulette than I would have been able to.

I will follow your instructions for weighing out the molasses and won’t add it to my formula water.

Norma

[CDNpielover]

Dear Norma,

I plan to make a pie with this dough tomorrow night!  You mentioned that you cook at 500 in your home oven, and 525 at the market.  can you tell me why?  Is it because the temperature is limited in one?  I will be cooking in a home oven that can get up to 550-ish.  You mentioned that one should be careful so that the bottom doesn't get overdone...  I will probably cook at 500, but i'm just curious as to why you use different temps in the different ovens.

Pete and Ev - what temps do you all cook at?

Thanks!   

[norma427]

Dear Norma,

I plan to make a pie with this dough tomorrow night!  You mentioned that you cook at 500 in your home oven, and 525 at the market.  can you tell me why?  Is it because the temperature is limited in one?  I will be cooking in a home oven that can get up to 550-ish.  You mentioned that one should be careful so that the bottom doesn't get overdone...  I will probably cook at 500, but i'm just curious as to why you use different temps in the different ovens.

Pete and Ev - what temps do you all cook at?

Thanks!   

CDNpielover,

I bake at 500 degrees or a little over (maybe 520 degrees F) because that is the highest temperature my home oven can get to.  I baked on a pizza stone on the bottom rack at home.  At market I bake in a Baker’s Pride oven and I keep the temperature around 525 degrees F for my regular market pies, but the temperature in the deck oven can vary very much, if placed in different parts of the oven, or if the oven door is opened a lot.  The Baker’s Pride oven does have a bigger deck.  The sugar from the molasses in the dough can make your bottom of your crust brown too fast.  That is why I said to watch the bottom of your pie.  I have had a few pies that I needed to place on a screen at the end of the bake because the bottom would have wanted to become too brown at market.  Most of the MM clones at market didn’t need a screen.  At home I didn’t have to use a screen.

MM does have a longer bake time and I still can’t figure that out.

Norma

[norma427]

Peter,

I left the MM small sized baseball dough ball defrost and then proceeded to mix the MM clone dough with the Homemaid Molasses product this evening.  

I sifted the Power flour, added the oil to the water in the mixer bowl, added the sifted Power flour, salt, and IDY.  I mixed on speed one, while adding the Homemaid Molasses product, until I thought I had about the same color as the MM small dough ball.  I don’t think there will be enough of the Homemaid Molasses product in the dough to give much sweetness to the crust because there was only 31.25 gram of the Homemaid Molasses added until I thought the dough looked the right color.  The plastic container I used for the molasses I weighed first and it weighed 10.76 gram.  After part of the molasses was taken out of the container it weighed 35.73 gram, which I then subtracted 10.76 grams from.  That left 24.97 gram of the Homemaid Molasses in the plastic container which I then subtracted from 56.22 gram to get the figure of 31.25 gram I used in the dough. Do you think I should try and mix more of the Homemaid Molasses product into the dough or let it go?  The dough is sitting on the table in a plastic container not balled.

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

I think I would let it go, and review your results when they are in. When I have a chance tomorrow, I will recalculate the numbers.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

I think I would let it go, and review your results when they are in. When I have a chance tomorrow, I will recalculate the numbers.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks for giving me your opinion to just ball now.  I wasn't sure what to do.

Norma