Author Topic: February 2009 Monthly Challenge: "Less is More" (Read 11658 times)

andreguidon · « **Reply #20 on:** February 09, 2009, 06:28:36 AM »

simple but delicious to...

regular Neapolitan dough, italian canned tomatoes, shitake and paris saute mushroom and buffala mozzarella....

shango · « **Reply #21 on:** February 11, 2009, 03:40:14 PM »

bread oven

Pete-zza · « **Reply #22 on:** February 13, 2009, 07:08:32 PM »

In keeping with the suggestion by John Schnatter, the founder of Papa John's, that people not eat too much pizza--apparently not even from his own company's stores--I decided to make a "personal" size Papa John's clone pizza, in my case, a 7" pizza. That is not a size that Papa John's makes, although it might be something that they might want to consider for the lunch crowd. I made the pizza strictly in honor of this month's challenge.

The dough for the 7" PJ clone pizza was kneaded entirely by hand, using the "volcano" method and only a fork and bench scraper. No bowls or other equipment was used. The dough was an "emergency" dough that was fermented at room temperature for only two hours before using. So, no long fermentation times, and no refrigerator required. The pizza was baked on a 9" pizza screen at an oven temperature of about 500 degrees F. So, no pizza stone and no long preheat time were needed. The pizza was dressed based on my interpretation of a specialty Papa John's pizza known as "Hawaiian BBQ Chicken". As such, it included a BBQ sauce, grilled all-white chicken that was cut in pieces and marinated in more BBQ sauce, hickory smoked bacon (pieces that were partly cooked), fresh sliced onion (I used red onion), and sweet pineapple. The entire pizza weighed just under 14 ounces, just enough for a couple of slices for two people. By contrast, a 14" Hawaiian BBQ Chicken pizza from Papa John's weighs 2.89 pounds. So, in this case, less is clearly more.

Peter

November · « **Reply #23 on:** February 13, 2009, 07:37:47 PM »

Peter,

I'm having pasta right now, but I wouldn't mind having that instead. Less pizza, more room for pasta!

- red.november

JConk007 · « **Reply #24 on:** February 13, 2009, 09:36:51 PM »

Very Tasty looking Peter! The combination is very nice, and what a perfect size! The PJ's by me has something close what is it 9" ? and soda for $4.99
Watch out California Pizza Kitchen!
John

Pete-zza · « **Reply #25 on:** February 13, 2009, 09:48:56 PM »

John,

According to Papa John's website, the smallest size for their Hawaiian BBQ Chicken pizza is 10". The weight for that size pizza is around 1.5 pounds.

Peter

JConk007 · « **Reply #26 on:** February 13, 2009, 09:51:54 PM »

Ok back to salad and water for me then.

Yeah right!
John

Crider · « **Reply #27 on:** February 14, 2009, 04:18:27 PM »

I've been baking a lot more pizza and bread lately. I read somewhere that Costco has 25lb. bags of flour for great prices, and since our local supermarkets haven't passed on the reduced prices for wheat (the commodity price of wheat has crashed to half of what it was in March, 2008), I asked my wife to check out what they had available. We're out in the boonies and Costco is about 1 1/2 hours away. Visits to the Big City mean a Costco run and a Trader Joe's run.

She came back and had bought a 50lb. bag of ConAgra Harvest 'bread' flour for only $13.49. Here, supermarket bread flour costs us about $3.50 for 5 lbs. and King Arthur runs more than $5 for 5 little pounds. She had gotten a fellow shopper to help load it into the cart and another shopper to slide it on the front seat of the car. When I looked at the label it said Serving Size: 30g and Protein: 3g. That's only 10% protein! How the hell can they claim it's bread flour? Well, I'm stuck with it, there are just two of us in the household and I'm really not too dissatisfied with how it handles.

My entry in the Less is More Contest is this Recession Pizza. Both of us work out of our homes on freelance projects and business has really taken a hit, so now is the time for THRIFT.

DOUGH
$0.13 flour, 210 grams
$0.02 water, home filtered
$0.00 yeast, sourdough
$0.01 salt, kosher (estimate)
$0.16 total, dough

SAUCE
$0.40 tomatoes, California Healthy Harvest brand, half of slightly dented 28 oz. can from Grocery Outlet.
$0.03 black pepper, dried oregano & basil (estimate)
$0.05 balsamic vinegar, splash
$0.48 total, sauce

TOPPINGS
$0.32 mushrooms, sliced, 3 oz. mushrooms on sale at $1.69 lb.
$0.08 red onion slices (estimate)
$0.10 garlic
$0.10 EVOO, splash (estimate)
$1.00 fresh mozzerella, 4 oz. at $5.99 for 1 1/2 lb. (Costco)
$1.60 total, toppings

$2.24 total, pizza (and a little overdone for no extra cost)

itsinthesauce · « **Reply #28 on:** February 14, 2009, 05:05:03 PM »

Looks like Pizza Sliders

November · « **Reply #29 on:** February 14, 2009, 05:29:31 PM »

Quote from: Crider on February 14, 2009, 04:18:27 PM

When I looked at the label it said Serving Size: 30g and Protein: 3g. That's only 10% protein! How the hell can they claim it's bread flour?

ConAgra doesn't list a Bakery Flour with less than 11% protein. What you are looking at on the label are rounded numbers. Even 3.49 can be rounded down to 3, and 29.5 can be rounded up to 30; so you could have a flour with a protein content as high as 3.49/29.5 = 11.8%.

November · « **Reply #30 on:** February 14, 2009, 05:43:12 PM »

Quote from: Crider on February 14, 2009, 04:18:27 PM

She came back and had bought a 50lb. bag of ConAgra Harvest 'bread' flour for only $13.49. Here, supermarket bread flour costs us about $3.50 for 5 lbs. and King Arthur runs more than $5 for 5 little pounds. She had gotten a fellow shopper to help load it into the cart and another shopper to slide it on the front seat of the car. When I looked at the label it said Serving Size: 30g and Protein: 3g. That's only 10% protein! How the hell can they claim it's bread flour? Well, I'm stuck with it, there are just two of us in the household and I'm really not too dissatisfied with how it handles.

As a matter of fact, what you bought was ConAgra Mill's Minnesota Girl flour. It has a protein content of 11.8%. See their brochure and notice that the suggested uses are the same.

http://www.conagramills.com/media/ConAgraMillsBrochure.pdf

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10250592&whse=BD_823&Ne=4000000&eCat=BD_823|9896|10035&N=4031138&Mo=7&No=5&Nr=P_CatalogName:BD_823&cat=10694&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=bdoff

Crider · « **Reply #31 on:** February 15, 2009, 03:03:56 PM »

Quote from: November on February 14, 2009, 05:43:12 PM

As a matter of fact, what you bought was ConAgra Mill's Minnesota Girl flour. It has a protein content of 11.8%. See their brochure and notice that the suggested uses are the same.

Aha! That explains why it handles more like bread flour than all-purpose.

JConk007 · « **Reply #32 on:** February 15, 2009, 09:14:18 PM »

I like your theory on the less is more. Interesting take so at $15-19 for a 16-18 large pie (in NY) the profit looks good for these guys.
Anyway I have just got access to Costco and the reasonably cheap Con agra bread flour. and I asked about it here. http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7516.0.html Is this pie made with that ? please keep me posted on you results with that flour
Thanks

Crider · « **Reply #33 on:** February 17, 2009, 01:50:18 PM »

Quote from: JConk007 on February 15, 2009, 09:14:18 PM

Anyway I have just got access to Costco and the reasonably cheap Con agra bread flour. and I asked about it here. Is this pie made with that ? please keep me posted on you results with that flour
Thanks

That's the same flour. It isn't bromated. That pizza in the photo was made from it. It was about a 63% hydration and huge oven spring. Last night I finished making hamburger buns out of this crazy recipe ( rockinrs.com/Living%20Cookbook/NY%20Style%20Jewish%20Rye.htm ) for NY Style Jewish Rye but with 100% sourdough yeast. Fermented the rye separately for three days. The dough held together pretty well after I mixed up the white Costco flour.

Pizzacrazy7 · « **Reply #34 on:** February 17, 2009, 10:15:47 PM »

Here's my "less is more" interpretation.

"Dough" - 1/4 loaf french bread = .25 (1.00 for whole loaf)
Sauce - Couple of spoonfuls = .10 (estimate)
Cheese - Light cheese = .20 (estimate)

Total Dinner Approx .55 (+ or -)

JConk007 · « **Reply #35 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:27:54 AM »

Nice PC ,
but I could eat 4 of those so you are back at the $2.25
john

petef · « **Reply #36 on:** February 20, 2009, 11:18:46 PM »

Less is more for pizza sauce recipe development

Less is more when it comes to developing your pizza sauce recipe.
You can quickly develop your sauce recipe by experimenting with
different ingredients in very small amounts. Using this method,
you can quickly determine which ingredients to use or avoid
without wasting time and money cooking an entire pizza.

Here's how I do it.

INGREDIENTS

Obtain several 4 oz serving bowls.

Prepare your sauce base using no spices or special ingredients.

Gather the several spices or ingredients that you are considering
adding to your pizza sauce recipe.

Grate several ounces of the cheese you plan to use on your pizza.

If you use oil as topping, have some of your favorite oil
handy to drizzle on. This affects texture and flavor.

COOKING THE SAUCE

In each bowl, place about 1 teaspoon of your sauce base.

In each bowl, add a small amount of just one or two ingredients.
Make a mental note or write down what you added to each bowl.

Microwave all the bowls about 20 seconds just to heat the sauce,
then mix well and add about 1 ounce of grated cheese. If you use
oil to top your pizza, drizzle some of your favorite oil onto
the cheese. This will allow it to melt more smoothly. Microwave
again, but just long enough to melt the cheese. Mix well.

TASTING AND COMBINING

Now taste each bowl to see which ones seem most pleasing.

Select 2 bowls you like most and combine them. Mix well,
and taste again.

Continue this process of tasting and combining bowls
until you achieve the taste you are after. This process
will save you much time as opposed to cooking an entire
pizza over and over again. You can easily repeat the
entire process to try other ingredients until you
achieve the taste and texture you are looking for.

Why cook an entire pizza, just to experiment
with the sauce recipe? This technique uses
less ingredients, less time, and can produce
a sauce & cheese topping recipe of your
desired taste and texture more quickly.

---pete---

jeff v · « **Reply #37 on:** February 24, 2009, 03:21:36 PM »

This month just flew by! Anyway...

First this idea came from Red.November with my own spin on it.

I poured some flour on a small baking sheet and sprinkled it with fine sea salt, and some IDY. Then I sprayed it very well w/ water, and re-misted it over the next few minutes til I thought it was saturated-EZ. Then let it sit for 2 hours-EZ. Topped w/ grape tomatoes (no sauce = EZ), and whole milk mozz. Sprinkle w/ oregano, basil, salt, and EVOO and bake at 425--EZ!

Jeff

jeff v · « **Reply #38 on:** February 24, 2009, 03:23:08 PM »

Finished, and the the last pic was the only downside to less work pizza.

Jeff

November · « **Reply #39 on:** February 24, 2009, 03:44:58 PM »

Jeff,

It doesn't look like it turned out all that bad. If you ever decide to try it again, maybe you could start with a spray of water on the pan before starting the pile of flour.

- red.november