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Te Toroa: The Wandering Albatross

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Te Toroa: The Wandering Albatross

Tag Archives: italian

Cast Iron Pizza Stone

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Pizza

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Tags

cast iron, cast iron pizza stone, italian, pizza, pizza stone, sourdough

Disclaimer: To bake great pizza in a home oven requires a bit of experimentation for best results for your oven. Every home oven is different. This is what I have worked out for my home oven and my style of pizza. Your oven will be different. What works best for my oven may not work best for your oven or for your style of pizza.

My go to setup for baking pizzas in my home oven – an old, hacked together Fisher & Paykel electric with the broiler in the main compartment, which came with our rented house – consists of two stacked Middle Earth Natural Clay Pavers: Plain Paver – 330X330X42MM(PDF). The stack of tiles is set up in the oven so that the top surface of the tiles is about 12 cm from the broiler element.

When I am ready to bake pizzas, I turn the oven on to bake and set it to the highest heat setting and let the oven pre-heat for about 1 hour before baking. Then, just before I start to stretch my dough, I switch the oven to broil (my oven will not allow both bake and broil to be on at the same time) and wait for the broiler element to turn red. Then, I stretch the dough, place on a wooden peel, add toppings, and launch the pizza directly onto the stone.

My current go to pizza dough recipe is the Basic Country Bread recipe from Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread: just flour, water, salt, and leaven (from wild sourdough culture) at around 78% hydration (I suppose that would be about 80% total hydration if you account for the leaven which is at 100% hydration). I typically fold the dough once after 30 minutes, then bulk ferment in the fridge for 24 hours. After 24 hours, I divide the dough into 280g portions and place each portion in a separate container and place back in the fridge to ferment. I bake with the dough anywhere from a 2-4 day fermentation.

Tartine Bread: simplified recipe notes (I add an additional 80g of water with the salt.)

With the terracotta stones, bake times are typically between 7-8 minutes. There is enough heat in the oven that I can get decent puff on the cornicione, but there is very little to no char on the crust.

This is a problem. Char means flavour and crispness. We want a bit of char.

Enter the Lodge Pro-Logic P14P3 Cast Iron Pizza Pan.

I added the Lodge cast iron pizza pan to the stack of terracotta tiles in my oven. The terracotta tiles will add thermal mass, as the Lodge cast iron is only about 3mm thick. Cast iron has a higher heat transfer rate than stone, so it should provide better oven spring on the cornicione and better char on the crust.

Warning: The oven racks in my home oven are stout enough to handle the weight of the terracotta and cast iron. Not all home oven racks are as stout, but should be able to support the weight of, say, a 10kg turkey?

I turned the oven to bake and set to the highest temperature for one hour. Home oven temperatures are notoriously inaccurate. I always use an oven thermometer. My oven thermometer typically indicates a max of about 300C. This time, I used a thermocouple to test the accuracy of my oven thermometer. The thermocouple registered a maximum air temperature of 310C near the surface of the cast iron. That means my in oven thermometer is reasonably accurate.

I do not have a non-contact infrared thermometer (anyone have one I could borrow?), so I was not able to measure the surface temperature of the cast iron. In the meantime, I will have to go with air temps. Hmm… I may have a k-type surface probe somewhere. I’ll have to look for it.

These pizzas were made with Tartine Basic Country Bread recipe at 78% hydration with a two day cold ferment. I took the 280g portions out of the fridge one hour before baking and shaped the dough balls about 30 minutes before stretching. The oven was pre-heated for one hour at the maximum bake setting and maxed out at around 310C. I switched the oven to broil and waited about 3 minutes for the broiler element to glow before I started stretching the dough.

The first pizza was a pizza Margherita with crushed tomatoes (drained), fresh mozzarella (squeezed to remove excess moisture), and fresh basil and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

The pizza was pulled from the oven when the first bits of the crust just turned black. The cook time for this pizza was 4 minutes 42 seconds. The pizza was placed on a cooling rack for two minutes before plating and cutting to preserve crispness of the crust.

An upskirt photo of the first pizza. Look at that char. There is better char with the cast iron than just the pizza stone. I was not able to get any colour on my pizza stones.

Oven spring was not too bad (could be better!) and I did not get much leopard spotting at all. It will be interesting to see if I can get leopard spotting as the dough continues to ferment. The crust was just slightly crisp and the crumb was open and moist. Delicious!

I turned the oven back to bake and let the oven warm up for about 15 minutes or so to get back up to 300C.

Onto the second pizza of the night: Pizza Margherita. What can I say? I like pizza Margherita. 🙂

The pizza was pulled from the oven when the first bits of the crust just turned black. The cook time for this pizza was 5 minutes 20 seconds. The pizza was placed on a cooling rack for two minutes before plating and cutting to preserve crispness of the crust.

An upskirt photo of the second pizza. Again, char was better with the cast iron than with just the terracotta stone.

I did not take a picture of the cornicione on the second pizza – too busy eating!

The pizza turned out pretty good. More testing tonight with 3 day ferment dough…

Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by anyone or any company for this post. All equipment and food product was purchased by me at full retail cost.

Sourdough Pizza: 3 Day Cold Fermentation

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Pizza

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

hot sopressata, italian, kalamata olives, mushroom, mushroom duxelles, pizza, prosciutto, sourdough

Three day sourdough fermentation. Now we are getting into prime pizza making territory: 3-5 days fermentation.

I picked up some fresh mushrooms at the grocery store and mixed them with dried porcini in a mushroom duxelles. The mushroom duxelles proved to be quite robust and overpowered the prosciutto. Next time I will try cooking the mushrooms more simply and sauté them in olive oil with salt & pepper.

Look at that crust! After three days of cold fermentation, the crumb of the cornicione is very well developed and the oven spring is not too bad.

The hot sopressata was nice, but the Kalamata olives could have been better quality. I will have to do some shopping…

Pizza! Pizza!

29 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Pizza

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

baking, brussels sprouts, champagne ham, fior di latte, garlic, italian, parmigiano-reggiano, pizza, pizza stone, sourdough, taleggio

Ham & Cheese: Crushed Tomatoes, Champagne Ham, Fior Di Latte, Taleggio

Brussels Sprouts & Sopressata: Fior Di Latte, Brussels Sprouts, Sopressata, Garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Hello Pizza, My Old Friend!

28 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Pizza

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Tags

baking, basil, extra virgin olive oil, fior di latte, italian, pizza, pizza stone, sourdough

It’s been a while since I last made pizza, as I put my sourdough starter into deep freeze in January. It’s been a long time. Too long.

I mixed up a batch of pizza dough this morning. I usually let the dough cold ferment for at least three days before I make a pizza, but it’s been so long I couldn’t wait…

Pizza Margherita: Chopped tomato, Fior Di Latte, Basil, and a Well Deserved Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Conchiglie Rigate with Spinach and Andouille Sausage Ragù

05 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Pasta

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

andouille sausage, conchiglie rigate, italian, pasta, ragù, sausage, spinach

Risotto with Wild Boar Sausage, Fire Roasted Anaheim Chiles, & Sautéed Mushrooms

23 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Rice

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Tags

chiles anaheim, italian, mushroom, rice, risotto, sausage, the potted kitchen garden, wild boar sausage

The Fire Roasted Anaheim chiles are from The Potted Kitchen Garden. Pork and chiles are a natural match.

To make a riff off Chile Verde, try adding Chile Verde sauce to the risotto after the first addition of stock.

Mezzi Rigatoni With Wild Boar & Serrano Chile Tomato Sauce

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Pasta

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Tags

chiles serrano, italian, mezzi rigatoni, pasta, sausage, the potted kitchen garden, tomato sauce, wild boar sausage

I picked up some wild boar sausage at the market. I diced a small onion and softened it in extra virgin olive oil over a gentle heat until translucent, then added a diced Serrano chile from The Potted Kitchen Garden and cooked them together until they got happy in the pan.

I removed two Wild Boar Sausages from their natural casings and crumbled them into the pan and gently sautéed until lightly browned, breaking up any larger bits of sausage as it cooked.

In a separate bowl, I hand crushed two 400g tins of tomatoes and added that to the pan with a healthy pinch of sea salt. I brought the sauce to the boil, then reduced to a gentle simmer until thickened and adjusted for salt. The tomatoes are only lightly cooked, as I wanted a light fresh tomato sauce to go with the boar.

Whilst the sauce was reducing, I cooked the Mezzi Rigatoni in salted, boiling water until al dente.

I drained the pasta and put it back in the pan with a bit of reserved pasta water and added the Wild Boar Tomato Sauce, stirring over a low heat until the pasta was well coated, and served in warm bowls with a side of garlic bread.

What Toppings Do You Want On Your Pizza?

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Pizza

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Tags

italian, pizza, sourdough

Mushroom Risotto

25 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Rice

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Tags

italian, mushroom, mushroom duxelles, rice, risotto

I picked up some rather large and beautiful white button mushrooms at the grocery store. I diced 3/4 of them and made a mushroom duxelles, which I added to the rice as it cooked. I sliced the remaining mushrooms and browned them in a bit of olive oil and butter.

Sourdough Pizza: Two Day Fermentation

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by smkesler in Italian, Pizza

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

aubergine, blue cheese, cold ferment, fennel, italian, mushroom, pizza, pizza stone, sourdough

Testing sourdough pizza with 2 day bulk fermentation…

Pizza al Finocchio, Funghi e Formaggio Erborinatio (Pizza with Fennel, Mushroom, and Blue Cheese)

Pizza alle Melanzana (Pizza with Roasted Eggplant)

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