Robenco15

Correct. Neither are malted.

The Chef and Pizzeria are both great. If you’re working in a home oven at 550F tops Chef is what you want, if you don’t want bread flour. Pizzeria works better than Chef at the high heat a pizza oven like the Ooni puts out. Both are good though and using one instead of the other isn’t a huge deal. Home ovens I’d stick with bread flour and other artisanal flours like the stuff from Cairnspring or Central Milling. I’ve been really enjoying the Artisan pizza dough more than the Neapolitan and have some fun flours coming to me from Cairnspring. I don’t love Dan Richer’s new pizza book, but it did show me how finding a really good and different flour can make for an exceptional pizza experience. Meanwhile I’m currently bulk fermenting the Mod Pizza Neapolitan dough with Caputo Nuvola for the first time so definitely curious to see how it goes tomorrow night. Pretty sure my Levain dough is a dud. No reason to put it in a refrigerator. Basically kills it.

Made the Levain Neapolitan dough today. Did a 4hr bulk ferment at 75F before balling. Honestly still not sure it was enough based on how it balled up. Sourdough starter doughs, at least pizza, in my experience really need long RTfermenting to get going. I honestly think following the fermentation steps for their Master Neapolitan dough would probably give great results. I guess I’ll find out Tuesday how this goes.

7qts of Turkey stock made with chicken stock combined with last year’s Turducken stock. Enough for gravy and to save some to add into next year’s turkey stock. It’s an infinity stock I guess?

Ok cool. My range has a double oven so the bottom oven is already smaller than a standard one. I’ll start with that and take it from there. Thanks!

Oh ok that’s Keller’s hack from Bouchon Bakery I believe. I’m curious what hacks Modernist Bread may have. The bread I’ve done is in a dutch oven so I spray it with water before putting the lid on and baking. Ice cubes seem to be another clever way of introducing steam.

…could you elaborate? I’d like to not do this to my oven…

Last question as I’m making this dough tomorrow. Did you follow the recipe exactly? “20 min. bench rest and then shaped into balls and into the fridge”? I have found sourdough pizza dough that gets a cold ferment benefits from a RT bulk ferment between 2 and 4 hours. It gives the levain a chance to get going. Too soon into the fridge and it never gets a chance to develop.

Ok cool. That’s what I asked for. Surprised the cooking time is so off but thanks for the heads up.

What size pan are you using? I’m getting one for xmas.

Last week I made chicken stock. This weekend I'll make the turkey stock using the chicken stock as the base. That's probably it for this weekend. Then I'll shop and make some stuff this week before I host friends on the 20th. Smoking turkey breasts, confit the legs, sweet potato au gratin, Turkey Jus Gra in place gravy. Vanilla creme brulee for dessert made with vanilla sugar. Other stuff. Will be good. I got the call up from my Aunt to make the gravy for the large family Thanksgiving which is kind of a big deal (in only my mind, lol). Excited about that. The ChefSteps Turkey Gravy is by far the best gravy I've ever had or made. It's easily the best part of the entire meal, and the meal is great.

Thank you! Great tips!

Ah yes, dense was my word. Looking at the cornicione it just didn't rise as much as I'm used to, but I think I do remember the crust being a touch chewy. I kinda enjoyed that as it was like having a Neapolitan pizza and a good piece of sourdough bread all at once! But I get your point for sure. My starter is really strong right now after a week of restarting it so this weekend I'm going to use it for this recipe.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't tell you how nice it was to receive this reply. I greatly appreciate it! I CANNOT wait to get these books. This is going to be a good winter!

Giving serious thought about getting Modernist Bread for Xmas. I have a modern double oven with convection and everything, but I don’t have a steam oven. Is not having a steam oven a deal breaker with these books? Are there serviceable work arounds they recommend?

That’s really odd it’s so dense and chewy. I’ve made a lot of levain Neapolitan doughs and haven’t had that issue. Will have to try it. Your Levain good/strong? This one is a levain based Neapolitan.

That’s disgusting. It’s not you. It’s the recipe/concept. Man, thanks for taking one for the team. This is a Pork, Onion, Spicy Chimichurri NY direct dough. Awesome. Just made a Poolish for the Artisan dough for Friday pizzas.

Lol outside of eGullet (I guess?) that’s not a very common tool to have in the kitchen. I don’t have $1k, the space, or the wife (!) to allow for that kind of purchase, haha. I’m sure it’s a great technique though. It comes down to the flour and technique though. I achieved full hydration with the high hydration dough, just need to get better shaping it and for the NY adding the whole wheat complicated things in a way I didn’t expect. I guess the chamber vac could have helped there but who knows.

Made the high hydration Neapolitan dough the other night with 50% Pizzeria and 50% Super Nuvola. Had a gorgeous fully gluten developed ball for the bulk fermentation. Then when it came to ball it was just so difficult. That damn Super Nuvola really ups the difficultly at that hydration. The 100% Pizzeria is a light and beautiful pillow when all is said and done. Anyway, I’m keeping the balls in the fridge and just doing one a night or so. Did one tonight. Stuck on the peel during launch and have me an oval, but actually tasted great. Had a soft but crispy outer crust and a light and fluffy inner cornicione. That damn Super Nuvola is good! Made the direct NY dough tonight. Got cute with it and added 25% whole wheat flour with the 75% breas flour. May be regretting that as kneading it to full gluten development was nearly impossible. I’m sure it’ll work out in the end. Going to divide into 400g and 609g balls and throw in the fridge for a few days. Should be great.

That’s completely backwards but it it works for you, awesome. I’m going to get a GI Metals peel for launching and turning larger pizzas. I use a turning peel for Neapolitan and smaller ones, but after doing all of these larger ones I need something better than the cheap aluminum one I have.

Sausage, Pepper, Onion, Broccali Rabe, Mozzarella, Ricotta Artisan Dough with Poolish

Some flours lend themselves better to long ferment times as well. Caputo Super Nuvola was literally made for long ferments. It’s possible with more common flours though, just gotta toy with it. Maybe a day if bulk ferment before balling. If doing a long cold ferment I like to give it a chance at RT for up to 4 hours to help it get started as the amount of yeast is so small. It happens though. That Tokyo Marinara above was fermented a day too long. Life can get in the way of pizza.

Made the direct Artisan Dough yesterday for tonight. Was awesome. Smell is incredible. Also did the pizza sauce but next time I’ll actually measure everything. Was great, just got lazy. This is Fior di Latte chunks, shredded mozzarella cheese, ricotta, and sausage. Working on honing in the oven temperature, but I think I got it with my second pizza (no pics of that one).

So no balls of fire, but some early did spill over on a turn and ignited right away. It was like having a handle in the back of the stove as it burned off the stone. I just kept the pizza away from it and all was good. Think I'm going to make the Artisan dough this week and maybe mess around with Caputo Flour with their Neapolitan recipe. This Tokyo Marinara used the Biga dough I made, but I let it go one day too long in the fridge. Didn't rise anywhere near as much as it should, so I may try a Biga dough again.

Tokyo Marinara This. Was. Great.