Preferment for Lehmann NY Style Pizza

[norma427]

rest of pictures

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

Everything looks great. Can you summarize what lessons you have learned in using frozen dough? Also, at what stage do you put the dough balls into the freezer?

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

Everything looks great. Can you summarize what lessons you have learned in using frozen dough? Also, at what stage do you put the dough balls into the freezer?

Peter

Peter,

Thanks for saying everything looks great.  It has taken me a few months to try and learn how this dough behaves. First with learning how to make the poolish, proof times of the poolish and then mixing the final dough.  I have learned this dough needs a lower final dough temperature if I am going to be using it all day long at market.  I usually strive for a final dough temperature of around 73 degrees F. It can quickly overferment in higher temperatures, which I just learned yesterday.  Steve and I tried to open a dough ball that was left on the counter for about 2  hours.  The dough opened fairly decent, but developed some thin spots.  When Steve placed the pie in the oven, the thin spots quickly stuck to the oven and we had a mess with that pie.  Lesson learned not to keep this dough out to long, when the temperatures are higher. 

As for the frozen dough, I normally make more dough than I predict I might need.  For the final dough that was made Monday and left either in the deli case or pizza prep refrigerator, it is taken to the freezer at the end of the evening and frozen. The time frame from when I mixed the final dough, which is then left at market, to when it is put into the freezer is about 31 hours.  The freezer isn’t a freezer that defrosts itself.  The freezer is one that needs defrosted by turning off the freezer and then getting rid of the ice that is on the coils.  I find I could use the frozen dough for two weeks, with decent results, although I almost always use it within a week.  I usually use the frozen dough up quickly in the morning or either try experiments at home with the frozen dough.  I also have found I can defrost the dough in the microwave by using time defrost for a total time of 3 minutes, by putting my microwave on defrost at 1 minute intervals.  About the only difference I can see in the frozen dough is the crust doesn’t seem to get as brown as when using the freshly made dough in making regular pizzas..  The frozen dough doesn’t seem to make any difference in making a Sicilian pizza or when using it for cheesy breadsticks or other items I sell using the frozen dough. I still don’t understand that, but will watch and see what happens.  This dough can also be left to defrost in my home refrigerator or left at room temperature to defrost.

I am going to keep on experimenting with this frozen dough to see what kind of results I can get and keep notes on what happens. I also want to try out some other ideas I have on what other kind of pizzas related products can be used with this dough.  As the temperatures get higher here there might be some different results.  Yesterday was near 90 degrees F, so that was probably why the frozen dough behaved different.  This dough might be like some of the other doughs I tried and had to use them right out of the deli case without a warm-up.  Time will tell if that is so. 
I really like this dough and found it can be very versatile for many things.  In future experiments I will report if I have different findings. 

As the weather gets warmer, I might need to add cold water to the final dough mix.

Norma

[norma427]

I decided to try out a Pizzette after reading pizzanapoletana thread about them.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1246.msg11166.html#msg11166

I used my standard frozen dough.  The steps I took in making this Pizzette were to defrost the frozen dough in my microwave, cut the dough into four pieces with a knife, lightly dust each dough ball with flour, then form them into circles trying not to disturb the rim.  The dough was then left out covered for ½ hour.  I put out grated mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, heated pizza sauce, and fresh herbs from my garden.  The herbs were fresh basil, fresh parsley, and Arugula.
I wanted to see how a fried pizza tasted. 

I used a temperature of 350 degrees F to fry the dough.  The dough quickly rose when placed into the hot oil.  The dough was turned over a few times with tongs, until the dough was a nice brown color.  When the Pizzette’s were taken out of the fryer, they were then drained on paper towels.  While they were still hot, grated mozzarella was put on the Pizzette’s next, then sauce, and some with Parmesan cheese. 

I then decided to decorated a few and call them Fried Pizza Men, because some of the dough looked like faces.  The fresh herbs were used to decorate them.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11084.msg99669.html#msg99669

I really enjoyed the Pizzette’s.  They were nice and light and something different than regular pizza.  I have a few more ideas of what to experiment with when using this frozen dough.  Does any members have different ideas as what they might of tried for something different for using pizza dough?

Norma

[norma427]

more pictures

[norma427]

more pictures

[norma427]

more pictures

[Pete-zza]

I have a few more ideas of what to experiment with when using this frozen dough.  Does any members have different ideas as what they might of tried for something different for using pizza dough?

Norma,

If you combine a few Lehmann dough balls and bake the combined dough solid and rock hard, you will have a very nice doorstop. With your skills, I am sure that you can decorate it to fit any room decor. Or, if you form a thin skin and bake it without anything on it, you can make a Frisbee-like disc. You will have to be careful, however, if you have a dog retrieve the disc because the dog will find the taste so good that there may be some parts of the disc missing by the time it is brought back to you.

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

If you combine a few Lehmann dough balls and bake the combined dough solid and rock hard, you will have a very nice doorstop. With your skills, I am sure that you can decorate it to fit any room decor. Or, if you form a thin skin and bake it without anything on it, you can make a Frisbee-like disc. You will have to be careful, however, if you have a dog retrieve the disc because the dog will find the taste so good that there may be some parts of the disc missing by the time it is brought back to you.

Peter

Peter,

LOL, you ideas are too funny.     I do have two dogs here at home and they do like the Zeppoles, because of the confectionary sugar that was sprinkled on them, but they don’t like my regular pizzas, only if I give them some pepperoni or other meat that might be added for a pizza. 

What I like about these frozen dough balls are they can be quickly made into many things.

Next try with this dough might be donuts.  Maybe other members will give me some more ideas of what to use the frozen dough for. 

Norma

[norma427]

I tried Artisan Doughnuts with this frozen dough.  I wanted to try a little something different with this experiment.  I wanted to see if I timed cook the frozen dough for 1 minute, if the yeast still would be okay.  When I timed cooked the dough for 1 minute at high power, there developed a big bubble in the one side of the dough.  I thought, that isn’t good.  My microwave is an old model, from GE.  In my former life I worked at RCA for 15 years.  They had a family store and I could purchased RCA items or GE items, a lot cheaper there.  It is a lot bigger than the newer models and doesn’t have a turn table, but the microwave has never broken down.  I then just time defrosted the dough for 1 minute.  The part that had a big bubble became tough, so I cut it off with a scissors. 

I floured the dough. The dough was then opened like a pizza.  I couldn’t find my doughnut cutter.  I think I had it at market to experiment with.  I just use a big cup and another coffee measuring container to make the circle and then the hole. I did flour the doughnuts and holes again before placing on parchment paper.

After I cut all the doughnuts out, there was leftover dough.  I reballed the leftover dough and left it sit for about 10 minutes.  Then I stretched it again.  It was harder to stretch than the first time, but I managed to get two more doughnuts and some holes.

I heated the deep-fryer and fried the Artisan Doughnuts.  What surprised me the most was the dough that was reballed became more airy and the doughnuts were higher when fried.  I don’t really understand what happened, but when I was opening the dough for the second time, it didn’t want to stretch very well, so that might be why it became higher.

The finished doughnuts was either glazed, sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon and sugar.  I decorated one that was glazed to remind me of the problems I had in this thread with all the snow and coldness.  I don’t really like when it gets hot, but I will take it over all that snow and coldness.  The best thing about summer for me is I really like to work outside.  I like to play in the dirt almost as much as I like making dough.  I guess there is something about the smell of dirt and the smell of dough that I really like. 

There was one other thing I wanted to experiment with this dough.  I covered the dough on the parchment paper with wax paper to see if it would keep the dough moist.  It did.

If anyone has anymore ideas for this dough or frozen dough, let me know and I will experiment with the idea.

Norma

[norma427]

rest of pictures

Norma

[norma427]

I tried a Stromboli with a frozen dough ball today. I never made a rolled Stromboli before, only something I call a Stromboli with about the same filling, but it is more like a Calzone.  The dough was time defrosted the same way I did it before at one minute intervals for a total of three minutes.  This time the dough wasn’t completely defrosted in the middle. It was kinda hard in the middle. I decided to try and use the dough that had some frost in the middle, to see if this would have any effect on the final product.  I kept gently pressing on the center, on both sides of the dough, until the dough felt softer.  I had no idea how breaking up these ice crystals were going to affect this dough.  Since this dough does get bubbles in the skin, I really pressed the skin out a lot.  Then I opened the dough into a rectangle. 

The dressings that went on the skin were, 1950 Brand blend (part-skim mozzarella, provolone and white cheddar) Pepperoni, Genoa Salami, and Mortadella.  The dough was then rolled up and pinched at the edges and where the dough ended on the skin.  That part was put on the stone. I put slices across the Stromboli and then used a brushed egg wash over the entire top and sides.

The whole Stromboli looked about even when I was finished making it.  It was baked at 400 degrees F.  After ten minutes I looked at the Stromboli and it still looked even all over.  About 15 minutes into the bake, two places on the top of the Stromboli started to develop bubbles.  I quickly grabbed a fork and deflated them.  As can be seen in the finished Stromboli, there are two spots, that had bubbles.

Norma

[norma427]

rest of pictures

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

The stromboli looks delicious. I know you were trying out the new cheese blend. Did you like it? And will it find a home at market?

Also, now that you have made so many different things out of the Lehmann preferment dough, which would you say was your favorite?

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

The stromboli looks delicious. I know you were trying out the new cheese blend. Did you like it? And will it find a home at market?

Also, now that you have made so many different things out of the Lehmann preferment dough, which would you say was your favorite?

Peter

Peter,

Thanks for saying the stromboli looks delicious.  I did like the cheese blend.  I will try it on a regular pizza to see if I still like it, compared to my regular blend.  When looking at this cheese blend it all looks the same.  Just by looking at it, I couldn't tell it was a blend of three cheeses.  I really don't know at this time, if this cheese blend will find a home at market.  My regular distributor doesn't carry this cheese blend, at least not that I am aware of. 

As for what my favorite product out Lehmann preferment dough it is a toss-up between the regular pizza and the Zepploes.  I do really like the zeppoles for a dessert item.  Of course I could eat pizza anytime.

Norma

[norma427]

As a after-thought, I have eaten zeppoles many times at street fairs in NY city.  When using this dough to make the zeppoles, it had all the zepploes from the street fairs beaten in my opinion. 

Norma

[norma427]

I decided this morning to do another submission for the monthly challenge,  because there weren’t too many submissions.  It was hot here and I really didn’t want to turn on the oven, but thought I should do it this morning, as it would be the coolest then.  The weathermen were forecasting for the temperature to be in the 90's with high humidity.

I used frozen dough again, for this pizza I made.  This time it was three little dough balls, that weighed 5.7 ounces a piece..  I decided to a make kind of deep-dish again, but to go about it in a different way.  The last time I made a deep-dish cake, which was sweet.  I wanted a more original pizza this time, so I decided to take one dough ball and roll it out into ropes.  I was thinking, how could I go about making this deep-dish pizza.  I decided after rolling to use a egg wash to try and get the ropes to stay together and then have two layers of ropes.  Well that didn’t work, so I rolled again.  I thought about using a cake pan to put the rolls in so they would hold their shape.  I then placed two layers of the ropes of dough in a cake pan.  I put the cake pan on the stone in the oven.  I looked at the dough in the can pan after five minutes and thought ruh roh, Norma, this isn’t going to work, either. I took the partially baked dough out of the cake pan.  It was sticking to the bottom a little.  Back with the dough onto the stone.  That worked, but I didn’t have two layers of dough anymore.  It was more like one layer.

Not to be deterred, I rolled out some little candles out of the second little dough ball and placed them on the stone.  Then onward to the top of the pizza.  I thought about how much I would need to open the dough to cover the top of the rolls.  I also thought about how the dough might shrink, so I opened it more than the layers.  I used a fork to make the edges like a pie.  The top didn’t exactly fit the bottom when the top and bottom were put together.

When the parts of the deep-dish pizza partially cool, I took the egg wash and divided it into 3 small bowls and added food coloring.  Then I painted the top of the deep-dish pizza, candles, and bottom rope and back into the oven so it would look glazed and shiny. 

This deep-dish pizza was put together in three parts.  If I ever try this again, I might go about doing it differently.  I was in a hurry because I needed to get to market.  There were also a big garage sale in two small towns, where I lived when growing up.  I could have done a better job of painting the pizza and also going about planning how to do this.

At least I did get to find some vintage things at the garage sales and also got to market. Whew... was it ever hot at market today.  The temperature inside was 90 degrees F.

Norma

[norma427]

rest of pictures

Norma

[norma427]

pictures of deep-dish apart, bottom of top crust, candles, and bottom of ropes.  This pizza was more like bread.  You could make this pizza and then take the top off, and put different topping inside to dip the deep-dish in.

Norma

[norma427]

I decided to make another kind of Sicilian pizza from a frozen dough ball, yesterday.  The frozen dough first pressed out in a deep-dish pan, was left to proof at room temperature for 2 hours covered in a deep-dish pan.  I then brushed a dressing of fresh herbs infused with olive oil on the proffed skin, next pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, baby spinach, red bell peppers and then fresh grape tomatoes. This Sicilian pizza was baked in a deep-dish pan that was well oiled with olive oil.

Norma