Wild Sourdough Pizza: 3 Day Ferment

Tags

baking steel, pizza, sourdough, sourdough pizza

These pizzas were made with wild sourdough after a 3 day cold fermentation.  The dough was already quite mature at this point, with some loss of extensibility.

These pizzas were baked on a 1/2 inch Baking Steel placed about 10 cm from the top elements in a conventional static electric home oven.  The oven was preheated on “high” for 1 hour before baking.

Hot Sopressata and Kalamata Olive:  This pizza baked for about 8 minutes.  Because of the maturity of the dough, the pizza dough was difficult to stretch to the desired size due to the fragility of the dough.  The cornicione exhibited excellent oven spring and browning.  There was some leopard spotting on the crust.

 

Pizza Margherita:  This pizza baked for about 8 minutes.  The cornicione exhibited excellent oven spring and browning.  There was light leopard spotting on the crust.

The culture was quite active in this dough and by day 3 of cold fermentation, the structure of the dough was already compromised by the acidity of the dough.  This batch would have been fine to bake with after just 24 hours cold fermentation.

Wild Sourdough Pizza

Tags

baking pizza at home, baking steel, marherita, pizza, prosciutto cotto e funghi, sourdough, sourdough pizza

My wild sourdough culture is mature enough to bake with.

A couple days ago I mixed up a batch of sourdough pizza dough, divided into six portions, and placed them in the fridge to cold ferment.  Last night, after 48 hours cold fermentation, I made two pizzas.

These pizzas were cooked in a conventional static electric home oven, baked on a 1/2 inch Baking Steel after allowing the oven to preheat on “high” for one hour.

 

Pizza Margherita:  Baked for about 6 minutes, with the oven switched to “grill” during baking.

After 48 hour cold fermentation, the dough is already fairly easy to stretch and not too elastic.  The cornicione exhibits excellent oven spring and browning from the long fermentation.  There was slight leopard spotting on the crust.

Pizza con Prosciutto Cotto e Funghi:  This pizza baked for about 8 minutes with the oven switched to “grill” during baking.

Shaved Champagne Ham and White Button Mushroom.  The ham was a bit lost on the pizza, possibly because I used a bit more mozzarella than I usually use.  The mozzarella contained quite a bit of moisture, and that, combined with the moisture of the ham may have contributed to the longer baking time.  The cornicione exhibited excellent oven spring and browned nicely.  The crust had light leopard spotting, better than the first pizza, no doubt from the longer baking time.

I will bake more pizza tonight.  Even after 48 hours the dough was mature.  It will be interesting to see how tonight’s pizzas turn out.  I hope the dough has not lost too much extensibility…

Pizza: 3 Day Ferment…

Tags

cold ferment, homemade pizza, pizza

I made two more pizzas from the same batch of dough, only now the dough has had a three day cold ferment…  The dough balls are about 285g.

The oven set up remained the same:  An oven rack was positioned at the second from the top setting and a 1″ terracotta tile was placed on this rack.  On top of the terracotta tile, I placed a 1/2″ Baking Steel.  The oven was set to “bake” and pre-heated for 1 hour before I cooked the first pizza.

The oven hit a maximum of about 280C before cycling off again.  I have had difficulty getting the grill to turn on once the oven is up to temperature, so I had to time the cooking so that the pizza was launched onto the pizza stone as the oven cycled back on.

I pulled the pizza dough out of the refrigerator at the same time I turned on the oven, so the dough was shaped and had a final proof of about 45 minutes before I baked the first pie.  The dough was more extensible and slightly less elastic and could definitely ferment for at least one more day.

Pizza Margherita: Fresh tomato sauce, fiore di latte, fresh basil, grated Grana Padano

The pizza was launched onto the pizza stone at the beginning of the heating cycle.  The pizza baked for approximately 6 minutes with the oven set to “bake” and the temperature set to the maximum setting.  The pizza was turned half way through cooking.  Good oven spring on the cornicione.  Only light browning in spots on the crust – probably because I have not been able to get the grill to turn on to preheat the stone prior to launching the pizza.

Pizza con Pepperoni e Blue Cheese: Fresh tomato sauce, fiore di latte, blue cheese, pepperoni, red onion

The pizza was launched onto the pizza stone at the beginning of the heating cycle.  The pizza baked for approximately 6 minutes with the oven set to “bake” and the temperature set to the maximum setting.  The pizza was turned halfway through cooking.  Good oven spring on the cornicione.  Only light browning in spots on the crust.

Cornicione

These pizzas had great oven spring.  The cornicione had decent colouring and a wonderful soft, chewy texture.

This pizza dough fermented very nicely over three days and could have easily fermented for four or possibly 5 days.

Pizza: Two Day Ferment…

Tags

baking steel, homemade pizza, pizza

I made two pizzas tonight from the same batch of dough as yesterday, only now the dough has had a two day ferment…  I should mention these are all about 285g dough balls.

I changed the oven set up:  I moved the oven rack down one notch and placed the 1/2 inch Baking Steel directly on top of a 1″ terracotta paving stone.  I set the oven to “high” and preheat for 1 hour.  The oven hit a maximum of about 280C, a bit higher than yesterday’s high temperatures of about 255C.  This is in our domestic electric static oven.  The oven temperature still seems a bit low for some reason.

What toppings do you want on your pizza?

Tonight I pulled the pizza dough out of the fridge at the same time I turned on the oven, so the dough was shaped and had a final proof for about 45 minutes before I baked the first pie.  The first dough ball was still very elastic and not as extensible as I would have liked.

Pizza Margherita

The pizza was launched onto the pizza stone at the beginning of the heating cycle.  Pizza baked for approximately 6 minutes with oven set on “bake.”  Good oven spring on cornicione.  Some light leopard spotting on crust.

Pizza con Taleggio, Prosciutto Cotto, e Salt Cured Caper.

The pizza was launched at the beginning of the heating cycle.  Pizza baked for approximately 6 minutes.  Good oven spring on cornicione.  Some light leopard spotting on crust.

With this oven set up on the second highest rack, the pizza stone ends up a bit farther from the top element, aproximately 10cm below.  I would most likely get a better result by moving the pizza stone closer to the top element.

Pizza, Oh How I Miss You!

Tags

homemade pizza, lardo, olive, pizza, sopressa

The first pizzas from our new place in Lyall Bay.

For those interested in such things…

Baker’s percentages:

Flour:  100%

Salt:       1.8%

Yeast:     0.2% (active dry yeast, 1/2 tsp.)

Water:   70%

I made up a 2 Kg batch of dough, so flour: 1154g; salt: 21g; yeast: 2g (1/2 tsp.); water: 808g.

Method:

1154g flour (115g stoneground white/stoneground wholewheat 1/2 & 1/2 + 1039g strong white flour – or, just use all strong white flour, it works fine.)

1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

743g water @ 25.5C

Mix together in a large bowl.  Once incorporated, cover and autolyse for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add 21g salt + 80g water and incorporate.

Cover and let rest for 30 minutes

After 30 minutes, fold in three parts, then divide into 7 portions of about 285g each.

After dividing, place dough in fridge to cold ferment for at least 24 hours.

These pizzas were baked in a standard home electric static oven on a 1/2 inch Baking Steel on the highest rack in an oven preheated on high for 1 hour.

Unfortunately, in this oven, the thermocouple is placed at the very top of the oven and I believe that with the steel plate, the heat was reflected onto the probe and the oven cut out at a low temperature of about 260C (temperatures were monitored via thermocouple placed at the surface level of the Baking Steel.  I’m still waiting for a non-contact infrared thermometer…).

Pizza Margharita.  Even 45 minutes after shaping, dough was very elastic and difficult to stretch.  Pizza was baked for approximately 8 minutes.  crust was leopard spotted.  Cornicione had great oven spring.  I could not get the grill to fire even with the oven door slightly ajar.

Pizza con Sopressa e olive Pizza.  1 hour after shaping, dough was a bit easier to stretch.  Pizza cooked for approximately 8 minutes.  Crust was leopard spotted.  Cornicione had great oven spring.  I could not get the grill to fire even with the oven door slightly ajar. 😦

Pizza con Lardo.  Approximately 1 hour 15 minutes after shaping, dough was much easier to stretch.  This time I timed the pizza with the oven cycle – when the oven element began to glow again, I launched the pizza onto the Baking Steel.  Oven was set to bake.  Pizza was cooked for approximately 5 minutes.  Crust was leopard spotted.  Cornicione had great oven spring.

Three Pizzas

Tags

baking steel, homemade pizza, mozzarella, pizza, pizza margherita

Pizza Margherita

Pizza dough one day ferment (warm weather and very active starter). Cooked in about 4:30 minutes on Baking Steel.

Pizza Margherita Cornicione

 

Pizza Prosciutto e Funghi

One day ferment.  About 4:45 minutes on Baking Steel.

Pizza Salami & Olive

One day ferment.  About 5 minutes on Baking Steel.  I was quite proud of this pizza until I realised I meant to add mozzarella.  Still a good pizza!

Snackaroos Pizza Snacks

Tags

pizza, snackaroos, snackaroos pizza snacks

 

I walked to the Asian market up the street this morning to pick up a few essential ingredients to make mapo dofu tonight.  Whilst there, I found Snackaroos Pizza Snacks!  Into the basket they went.

Bowl of Snackaroos Pizza Snack

They taste somewhat like mildly pizza flavoured bits of crispy pizza crust.

Baking Steel: Two Day Sourdough Ferment

Tags

bread, ham and mushroom, pizza, pizza margherita, sourdough, tartine basic country 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.

Today I continue my Baking Steel pizza stone with the same dough used in Pizza at home: Baking Steel, this time after a two day cold ferment.

I placed a 1/2 inch Baking Steel approximately 8 centimeters from the top broiler of my oven, on top of a terra cotta paving tile.

Oven setup for 1/2 inch Baking Steel, located approximately 8 cm below electric broiler element.

I turned the oven setting to high. At the same time, I removed two portions of dough from the refrigerator.

Tartine sourdough, two day cold ferment.

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 divide the dough into 280g portions and place each portion in a separate container and place in the fridge to ferment. I typically bake with the dough anywhere from a 1-4 day fermentation.

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

After about 30 minutes, I shaped the dough into balls and let them bench rest for 30 minutes. Again, I found the dough easier to work with after about 45 minute bench rest. I need to remember to allow at least 45 minutes bench rest before stretching.

The dough was shaped and bench rest was about 30 minutes before stretching. Handling was improved after about 45 minutes.

For the first pizza, I forgot to set the oven to broil before stretching the dough, so after I launched the pizza, I set the oven to broil and propped the oven door slightly ajar with a metal spoon.

My mouth was watering even before this pizza was launched onto the Baking Steel.

Two things: 1. Because I forgot to set the oven to broil before stretching the dough, the pizza stone did not have sufficient time to heat prior to launch. 2. With the door propped slightly ajar with the metal spoon, the broiler element stayed on, so the top of the pizza cooked faster.  OK.  Three things:  3. I must learn better how to drink beer and remember all my pizza baking steps!

I love the aroma of ham & mushroom pizza hot from the oven!

I removed the pizza when the first spots on the cornicione were just turned black: 2 minutes, 53 seconds. The pizza was removed to a cooling rack for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust before plating and slicing.

Note: I was lazy and did not turn this pizza halfway through cooking for an even bake. That is why the pizza is a bit more cooked on one side than the other. Even in a proper woodfired pizza oven, the pizza needs to be turned half way through cooking. I have added an 8″ round pizza tool to my wish list…

Less heat, less char

I neglected to let the stone heat under the broiler prior to launch so when the top was cooked, the bottom was not charred as much as it could have been.

Bubbles! Delicious bubbles…

With the broiler element glowing through the entire bake, there was plenty of heat for great oven spring. Unfortunately, since I neglected to preheat the baking stone prior to launch, there was insufficient heat in the stone to bake the pizza from below and match the baking from above. The end result is that the pizza coloured on top before the dough was completely cooked through. I must remember to preheat the stone under the broiler prior to launching the pizza…

All things considered, this was a most excellent pizza.

Onto the second pizza: Pizza Margherita!

Just before stretching the dough, I set the oven to broil and let the upper element heat to glowing. Because this second dough ball had more time to relax on the bench, it was much easier to work with.

Pizza Margherita ready to launch.

This time I actually remembered to preheat the stone before launch and left the oven door closed through the bake.

Pizza Margherita!

I removed the pizza when the first spots on the cornicione were just turned black: 3 minutes, 50 seconds. The pizza was removed to a cooling rack for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust before plating and slicing.

Nice char from the preheated stone.

Looking very good so far…

Those air bubbles in the dough create areas of thin dough and leopard spotting! (that’s a good thing)

This was a most excellent pizza. The cornicione was baked through, light and airy. The crust had decent char. Not too bad.

Note: As with a proper woodfired oven, the pizzas need to be turned at least once during baking for even cooking. I did not turn these pizzas, hence the uneven cooking. I have added an 8″ round pizza tool to my wish list.

I still do not have a non-contact infra-red thermometer, so was unable to check the temperature of the stone just prior to launching the pizza. I hope to buy one soon…

The flavour of the two day sourdough was more pronounced than the one day ferment and the dough was easier to work with: Greater extensibility and lower elasticity.

Next up… Three day fermentation.

Pizza at home: Baking Steel

Tags

baking steel, basil, bread, fior di latte, margherita, mozzarella, pizza, pizza stone, romana, the potted kitchen garden, thyme

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.

In the last pizza post, I documented baking pizzas in a home oven using the Lodge Cast Iron Pizza Stone.  In my home oven, even the relatively thin cast iron pizza stone created greater oven spring and better leopard spotting on my pizzas.  This time I take it a step further and begin experimenting with A36 steel.  Steel has a slightly higher heat transfer rate than cast iron and a 1/2 inch thick piece of steel will hold considerably more heat than the relatively thin cast iron of the Lodge Cast Iron Pizza Stone.

I placed a 1/2 inch Baking Steel approximately 8 centimeters from the top broiler of my oven, on top of a terra cotta paving tile.

Oven setup for 1/2 inch Baking Steel, located approximately 8 cm below electric broiler element.

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 divide the dough into 280g portions and place each portion in a separate container and place in the fridge to ferment. I typically bake with the dough anywhere from a 1-4 day fermentation.

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

I decided I to bake two pizzas and set up my mise en place.

The oven was set to high and preheated for at least one hour. Just before baking a pizza, I set the oven to broil and let the upper element heat to glowing before stretching the dough.

After shaping, I waited 30 minutes before stretching the first dough ball.  I have consistently found the dough to be more relaxed after about 45 minutes after shaping and much easier to stretch.  I need to remember to time the shaping to a minimum of 45 minutes prior to stretching and baking the first pizza.

One day sourdough ferment.

After stretching the dough, I made the first pizza and launched it onto the Baking Steel.

Pizza Romana: Tomato sauce, fior di latte, red onion, capers, anchovie, Kalamata olive, fresh thyme.

I removed the pizza when the first spots on the cornicione were just turned black: 3 minutes, 26 seconds. The pizza was removed to a cooling rack for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust before plating and slicing.

Pizza Romana upskirt

Even after less than 4 minutes, the crust was browned evenly and the cornicione was beautifully soft and airy.

After letting the oven temperature recover, I once again switched the oven to broil and prepped the next pizza.

Pizza Margherita: Uncooked tomato sauce, fior di latte, fresh basil

I removed the pizza from the oven when the first dark spots on the crust turned dark black: 4 minutes, 42 seconds. The pizza was removed to a wire rack to cool for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust.

Pizza Margherita upskirt

The cornicione was sufficiently cooked and reasonably light and airy. Bear in mind this was just a one day sourdough ferment. Later pizzas should have better development and leopard spotting, especially after 3-4 days.

Pizza Margherita cornicione

Note:  As with a proper woodfired oven, the pizzas need to be turned at least once during baking for even cooking.  I did not turn these pizzas, hence the uneven cooking.

I still do not have a non-contact infra-red thermometer, so was unable to check the temperature of the stone just prior to launching the pizza. I hope to buy one soon…

I was very happy with how these two pizzas turned out, even after just a one day sourdough ferment. Today’s pizza on the Baking Steel seems to have already outperformed the Lodge Cast Iron pizza stone. I look forward to baking more pizzas over the next several days.

Cast Iron Pizza Stone

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.