Pizza Anarchy

[Tscarborough]

Great board, glad I found it.  I have read through a lot of it and enjoyed every minute of the read and look forward to many more hours of the same.

But!

I don't seem to make pizzas like you guys and girls.  Every I make pizza is different, every dough is different, and every sauce is different.  I can't spell recipie, much less use one.  Sure, sure, I have a general baseline, but I change so many things every time that there is no way to really objectify the effects.  I have only one criteria:

Is it good, and is there any left at the end.

For dough, I start with 2 cups KA Bread, 2 cups KA AP, and a half of cup of semolina.  To that I add various amounts of salt, sugar, yeast, and powders and herbs.  I use the amount of water that gives me the feel I want, so I couldn't tell you how much that is.

Sauce can range from fresh organic Marzanos and garden basil to homemade fire-in-the-hole BBQ sauce.

Anything I can slice and dice small enough is fair game for a topping, and for cheese, well, I do tend to stick with fresh Mexican cheeses, because they have analogues to traditional pizza types, they are cheaper and always fresher than the available pizza types.  I haven't made any fresh moz yet, but I will.

Tonight I have 4 doughs ready that I made last night, as above with some onion powder, brown sugar, Tony's for salt, and some fresh minced rosemary in the dough.  The sauce is a can of Marzanos DOP, 3 small heirloom tomatoes and basil from the garden, smoked garlic, celery salt, brown sugar, and paprika, chunkily pureed with a hand blender, cooked down and cooled.

The fire is lit, the sauce is done, the dough is warming up, and my plan is to make 4-11" pies:

Margherita with garden tomatoes and basil with Oaxaca cheese (For CIC-House)
Chorizo, poblano, onions, and bell pepper with Panela cheese (for me)
Pepperoni with Oaxaca (for the youngest)
Pit pie (what ever is left)

Pictures at 11:00

[widespreadpizza]

T,  welcome aboard.  I understand everything you said except for one thing.  What is a cup? -marc

[Tscarborough]

A good sized handful, of course....

[Tscarborough]

Fire

[apizza]

Welcome Tscarborough. I think I'm going to enjoy your posts. If I like the pictures at 11:00 maybe I'll burn my scale.  

[Tscarborough]

Sauce

[Tscarborough]

Ingredients

[Tscarborough]

dough

[Tscarborough]

Margarita

[Tscarborough]

Poblano, choriso, etc

[Tscarborough]

Kids pizza

[Tscarborough]

Pit pizza (as close to deepdish as I am going to get)

[Tscarborough]

Crumb

[ddacey]

Hey would you mind putting up some more pics of your brick oven.  I'm interested in maybe building one sometime in the future.  Thanks

[Tscarborough]

You should.  They can cost anywhere from a couple of hundred bucks to many thousands, but with effort and a place to put it you can do it for cheap.  I am in the industry, so I only spent a couple hundred on mine, I used gimmes and leftovers to build most of it.  My outdoor kitchen build is here:

http://brokebrick.com/outdoorkitchen.htm


Note that even though I have been in construction my whole life and masonry for the last 20 years the first brick that I have ever actually laid is the one on the lower left.  And yes, I meant for it to be like it is.

[StrayBullet]

That is gorgeous work!!!

[buceriasdon]

Interesting choice of Mexican cheese. I use them of course, I live in Mexico, however locally Oaxaca (pronounced wa haw ka) is higher priced than other national cheeses. Near the cost of imports. I once found a panela which was outstanding on pizza, sadly never could find it again.

[Tscarborough]

8 crust balls and three loaf balls.  This is the mix on these, more or less, and I must say they rose nicely on the first, punched down easily and smelled better than any I have ever done.

2 batches, each about the same:

2 cup KABF
2 cup KAAP
1 cup Semolina
1 Tea onion powder
1 Tea pickling seasoning
1 Tea dried basil

I used 2 packs active yeast proofed in 2 cups water, 1 Table brown sugar and 2 Table honey for 10 minutes at 100 degrees, 1 cup to each batch.

The only difference is that I added half a beer to one batch (the bread batch) to substitute for water. around 3 cups of liquids each, although I just mix them to the consistency I like, just like I do with mortar, and hand mix them with a bamboo spatula for a couple of minutes.

They doubled in 40 minutes, and I folded them 8 times for the pizza, 4 for the bread and balled them into EVVO coated tupperware.  The pizza will be used tomorrow, the bread on Sunday.

Not sure on the toppings yet, but tomatillo and green chilies will figure heavily into the sauce on some of them at least.

[Tscarborough]

I finally upload the pics from last Saturday.

I started with a pepperoni for my youngest and her friend (no pic), then made a margherita.  Sorry for the crappy pic, I forgot that I had the flash off.

Next I tried an enchilada pizza, but it was a fail and I threw it away.  I used canned enchilada sauce and tomatillo sauce and they both sucked.  Next time I will make my own of both.  I have high expectations for the pizza if done right.

Then a muffelata pizza, it was very good.  Fresh Oaxaca cheese, Genoa salami, ham, onions, green olives, and red and green bellpepper.  I forgot the celery, though.

Next I did one like the little old ladies in a bread making video, mixing up the sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, genoa salami, onions, tomatos, and a little poblano pepper and smearing it on the crust.  It was very good too.

[Tscarborough]

The last 2 were pit pizzas, i.e. everything left.  Also quite tasty.