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Update on the chocolate frozen yoghurt - A limited success: The mix froze down well, nice and even and got down to -22C with 24 hours. I processed this using the ice cream setting but had to stop it halfway through as the machine started to vibrate quite violently - has anyone had the before? A second go went through fine. The finished product was pretty good, nice flavour with a good balance between the acid tang of the yoghurt and the rich chocolate/cream. Texture was a little less good though - it was super, super smooth but was almost gummy in nature. Not sure if this was due to the stabiliser? It also melted very quickly - I think this might be due to having to process it twice and being too greedy/impatient to let it set up in the freezer for a while

200g milk chocolate 300g Greek yoghurt 150ml milk 150ml cream 5g salt 3g stabiliser 150g sugar 50g glucose I guess the stabiliser amount might be open to interpretation given it isn’t for a specific brand or mix of ingredients. based on the unfrozen taste I’d say it was a winner - but then I am a bit of sucker for acid in my food

First recipe from hello, I’m trying the chocolate frozen yoghurt. it’s currently sitting in the freezer overnight so I’ll report back on the finished product tomorrow, but the unfrozen base tastes great. I did find the mix became very stiff as it cooled - no chance of getting it through a fine seive though, it would have taken a month!

First go with the new toy… I love this thing! I went for the dark chocolate sorbet from the ninja recipe book - largely because I had all the ingredients and it takes five minutes to make. super simple: dissolve sugar and cocoa powder in water, bring to simmer and pour over chopped up chocolate (valrhona guanaja). Whisk to melt and the cool and freeze for 24h. I didn’t check temps of the mix but my freezer is set to -22°C. The creami is super easy to set up, no more than five minutes from box to countertop. It’s not as big as I thought it would be either, it fits nicely under the cabinets in my utility room. I span the mix on sorbet setting, there’s a bit of noise from the ninja but not as loud as a vitamix on full tilt. fiest run left the sorbet a little crumbly so I did a quick re-spin. Wow! This is beautiful! Amazing texture, really dense and super super smooth. I cannot wait to try some more recipes but I think this device will be a game changer for me.

thanks @andrewk512 and @blue_dolphin, really helpful replies I've done as suggested and got a copy of Dana Cree's book on order along with a bit of generic stabiliser and some malic acid. I've got a nice low weight precision scale from previous experiments so should be good to go I'll have a read through those articles now while I wait for it all to arrive - I'll be sure to post back when I've made my first batch...

So I’m going to jump into the creami pool too. My birthday is coming up and hopefully soon I’ll be the proud owner of a pacojet lite any recommendations for a shopping list of the more esoteric stabilisers/enhancers to get in before it arrives?

yes definitely. Tell us more…

https://ninjakitchen.co.uk/product/ninja-ice-cream-maker-nc300uk-zidNC300UK?tracking=searchterm:Creami+ getting very tempted…

I had a couple of balls leftover today. They were obviously totally past it but I thought I’d give them a try. they actually turned out ok!

Got a bit wrapped up in the birthday party yesterday so just posting some results. Overall it went really well, probably the best pizzas I’ve done. I didn’t manage to get that perfect margarita I was after but did some really nice pies. The carbonara one was excellent. the ooni coped perfectly with the larger volume, I did two batches of six back to back with a bit of a break in between then knocked out a few more later in the day. first try with the 60% dough, a marinara garlic bread: a slightly overdone margarita and finally one of birthday boy on his new pride and joy:

Cheese and tomatoes getting ready: portioning the dough up, I’ve done 260g balls for most with a couple of little ones for birthday boy to have his own pizza:

So the day begins… I've gone with the same 65% overnight biga dough that I made last time. As scott suggested upthread I’ve also tried a lower hydration 60% dough for a few balls. I have to say the drier dough has been lovely to work with, balled up really nicely after its three hours in bulk. I’m pretty much there with all the toppings and general prep, and so far the weather seems to be holding out. Last night: this morning: 60% dough: 65%: into tubs for their three hour rise:

lol - and I’ve already succumbed to this too! I just feel like trying to manage a load of pizzas without boxes would be a nightmare so had to order some

I certainly will. I think I’ll task oldest offspring with being official photographer - I always get carried away when I’m cooking and forget to take the money shots!

OMG! I could spend hours in there - that guanciale is winking at me… 😂 big pizza day for us on Saturday, it’s our youngest’s third birthday so we have a bit of a party going on. My next door neighbour is bringing his multi fuel ooni and we’ll be turning out maybe 15-20 pies. The weather is looking about 50:50 at the moment though tbh I’m just hoping it cools down a bit, this week has been crazy hot. Our local good pizza place does a “carbonara” pizza - apologies to any Italians reading this, but it was delicious I think I’ll have a try at the weekend. here’s a quick pic of what I’ll try for: white pizza with guanciale, topped with a runny poached egg

Great shop to have on hand! I’ll be really interested how you compare the three. So far I’ve tried the red “cuoco” and blue and prefer the red for the doughs I’ve made. Will see if I can get hold of some of the Nuvola to try. Just looked up on Google translate - nuvola means cloud apparently

great looking pizzas @Duvel! what do you make of the nuvola flour, I’ve not tried it yet?

I should be on commission for them - I frequently bore people with how great the product is 😂 be good to see the pics of yours when you get the lighting sorted

we’re still really happy with our neolith. It’s been great and totally lived up to its billing in terms of indestructibility. And you definitely don’t need to worry about hot things - I’ve been putting red hot pans on it since day one and it hasn’t batted an eyelid.

I picked mine up from a UK company called dentons. The scraper was only about £7 but delivery nearly the same again. Old me would have found enough other things on their website to make the delivery “sensible”, but I’ve turned over a new leaf and promised myself I’d stop buying stuff I don’t need on a whim!

Great advice as always, Scott. That is pretty much my latest iteration to a tee. The only thing I’ve not yet tried is dropping down to 60% hydration. I might do a few balls of this lower water version next weekend…

never had the pleasure of eating them but that look is pretty much what I’m aiming to replicate (eventually…!)

perfect, I’ve just ordered one

I’ve had a couple of korin hi-soft boards for about a year. Really liked using it for that time. The larger one I have has warped slightly but nothing major. I’m more bothered about the surface really, it’s marked up quite badly - scratches and dings which seem to trap food debris. I’ve read that you can sand or smooth out the surface, has anyone done this with theirs? Any tips on how best to do it?

FWIW I’m happy to schlep mine out every time I use it. I keep it in a big dry garden box, the gas tank sits in our shed. the 16” is pretty manoeuvrable on my own but I’ve got quite long arms so some people might find it easier with a lifting partner. I’d love to have space (and climate!) to have a permanent installation but it’s no big deal bringing it out each time. to have the whole shaping, loading, cooking and serving setup in one place I’d probably want about ten linear feet of countertop. That said, I’m a klutz and like to spread out when I cook