Sourdough Pizza

Time for an update to my pizza post. I will make this more complete when I have more time. Here are the essentials:

Two days ahead: Feed the starter:
2 c all purpose flour (9 5/8 oz)
2 c water
1/2 c starter (approximate)

Whisk together flour and water until smooth. Mix in the starter. Leave out at room temp in a non-reactive (i.e. not metal) bowl, loosely covered, for about 24 hrs. The sourdough should be very bubbly, smell strongly yeasty, and have a fair amount of clear liquid on top. I measured about 1/2 cup liquid on top of mine. Stir it all back together, measure out 24 oz for the pizza dough, and put the remainder back into your sourdough jar in the fridge.

Dough, one day ahead:
24 oz  (1 1/2 lb) sourdough starter
16 oz bread flour (3 1/4 c)
3 Tbsp honey (about 1/6 c)
1/3 c  olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp malt powder

Combine ingredients in a mixing bowl or bread machine. For machine, run on dough cycle, and pull the dough out after kneading is complete. For mixer, combine withal regular beater for about a minute, then switch to dough hook; knead for 7 min. Dough should be sticky. Mine took about three mints to start pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Let rest for about 20 min, then proceed the same as the previous recipe as if you had just pulled the dough out of the fridge, and begin shaping into balls.

Sourdough Starter

I'm playing with sourdough starter again. I had one years ago, and used it regularly for a while, then eventually stopped and lost it. I picked up a start again recently, and made a loaf. It was good, but it does take more planning to use, and I don't make it that often. My starter was again in mortal danger.

Then I decided to try making sandwich buns at home, so I can make my own "Texan" sandwich, like at that sandwich shop with the funny-zsky name. Tried a recipe I found online, but it was missing something... oh, sourdough! I'm converting that recipe to use sourdough, and will post it once I have it working right. Meanwhile, I'll post some info I have about sourdough starter.

This is a photo of my starter after sitting out for 24 hours, instead of the usual 8-10 or so. I was going for extra sourness.

This starter was "fed" with half water, half flour by volume, making it wetter than the proper feeding of half water, half flour by weight.

Here it is with the bowl tilted. Note the clear liquid pooling at the bottom, and all the bubbly texture in the thick "batter".

This is the same bowl as above, tilted to show the fermented liquid.

I have seen references to the "water separating out on top" of a starter. This is quite a silly notion. That is not water, and it is not separated like a broken sauce or mayonaise. The liquid is a by-product of the wild yeast consuming (fermenting) the sugars in the flour. This is partly alcohol, and is the "sour" part. More liquid = more sour. Other by-products are carbon dioxide gas, and protein.

You can get a starter from a friend or a store, either wet or dried into flakes. You can also catch one from the air.

Catch a Wild Yeast:
Mix 1 c flour and 1 c water in a bowl until smooth. Leave it sitting out, uncovered, in a spot where things won't easily fall into it, and check on it every day. One day it will either A: Stink and/or look putrid, or B: Have little bubbles in it, and have no change of smell, or begin to have a yeasty smell. If A, throw it out and start over. If B, congratulations! You have caught a wild yeast.

Storing a Starter:
Store starter in the fridge in a glass or ceramic container. The cold retards the yeast growth. Metal is a bad idea, as some of the metal may be leached into the starter. Do not seal the container air-tight. The starter actually needs to breathe. Don't fill the container more than half-way; it might rise and bubble out all over your fridge otherwise. I use a mason jar with the lid screwed on part-way.

For longer-term, or as insurance, drip some onto a piece of plastic wrap and let it dry. Wrap the dried flakes air-tight, and freeze. It will last a long time that way. To revive, use the feeding instructions below, but allow more time for it to get active.

My two starters. The one on the right has been fed more recently, and looks like it rose half-way up the jar while in the fridge. The one on the left has more liquid on top.


Starter Feeding:
1/4 to 1/2 c starter
2 oz flour
2 oz water

Starter has different names depending on the flour/water ratio, such as Biga, Levain, and Poolish. I had been using 1/2 flour, 1/2 water by volume, and then discovered it was supposed to be by weight. The only difference seems to be that it is harder to mix the thicker starter, and the bread recipe needs more water added now. The photos here are from the half-n-half by volume mixture.

Whisk together until smooth, and let sit out overnight, then cover loosely and put back in the fridge. Yes, I use a metal whisk, and nothing horrible happens; just don't leave it sitting in the bowl. The starter will be "active" and ready to use for about 3 days. If you wait longer than that, feed it again before using or it will be extra sour and sluggish. Don't use all of your starter in a recipe; always save out a cup or so to feed and use again later.

Just a week ago, my starter had been neglected in the fridge for about three months. The liquid on top was very dark, and the smell was very strong, almost bringing tears to your eyes. And yet, it did not smell spoiled. I tossed out the liquid, scooped out 1/2 cup of the batter, fed it, and it was good to go. However long your starter has been neglected, if it doesn't smell putrid, give it a good feeding and it should revive.


"Oops, I used ALL of my starter in my recipe..."
Do you still have the jar or bowl that it was in? Even 1/4 teaspoon of starter is enough to build it back up again. Follow the feeding instructions, except let it sit out as long as necessary to become bubbly and active again.

Awesome Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I stopped looking for chocolate cookie recipes after this one. I found it at KingArthurFlour.com many years ago. They are amazing. Equal amounts flour and cocoa powder, and four times as many add-ins as flour. I think they're more than half chocolate, and yet they are cookies.

The black cocoa makes the cookies darker and richer. You can get it from KingArthurFlour.com. Or, just use regular or dutched cocoa instead.

You put in four cups of chips and/or nuts of your choice. Below is a favorite combo of mine.

Makes 21 large cookies.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c (1 1/2 sticks) butter
• 2 c sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 c All-Purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c dutched or natural cocoa powder
• 1/2 c black cocoa powder
• 1 c mini M&M's
• 1 c chocolat chips
• 1 c chocolate chunks
• 1 c white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 for one tray at a time, or 325 on convection bake for 2-3 trays at a time.

Cream butter and sugar. In this photo, it isn't creamed enough yet. Compare with the next photo, where the sugar/butter mixture is fully creamed and fluffy. The texture is lighter because there is more air beaten into it. This makes a difference in the texture of the cookie.

Once creamy and fluffy, as below, add in the eggs one at a time and beat until fluffy.

Once the eggs are in, the dough is even fluffier. You can beat as long as you want before the flour is added, with no fear of making the cookies tough. Mix in the vanilla.

Measure the dry ingredients on wax paper or a flexible cutting board. Note: there is no leavener; this is not a mistake. Look how much darker the black cocoa is than the Hershey's.

Dump the dry into the sugar/butter/egg mixture, all at once.

Mix in slowly, or the cocoa will puff everywhere. Cocoa resists wetting.

Stop as soon as it is mixed. It will look rich and shiny.

Measure the chips... Remember, those are "mini" M&M's...

Dump them in...

And mix until just combined.

Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment. The heavy sheet helps the cookies bake more evenly. The parchment lets you bake the most gooey of cookies without fear of sticking to the pan, makes it easy to transfer to the cooling rack, and sometimes keeps the pan clean enough to put away without washing when you're done. Dip out six cookies; a 1/4 c scoop is handy for this.

Bake for 15-17 min, or until they smell good through the cloesd oven door. This is the hardest part, because they will look a little shiny, like they are molten under the surface, and like they aren't done. Freshly out of the oven, they fall apart if you try to pick them up, and seem hopelessly gooey. They do firm up as they cool. If they over-bake, they become dry, crunchy, and a little tough, but still good for dipping into milk or coffee.

Still shiny, but done...

Gooey goodness...

Parchment makes it really easy to slide the cookies off the pan onto a cooling rack.

Once they're cool, store them in an air-tight container, and hide them if you want them to last more than a day or two. The cooled cookie is still bendable, but not raw-seeming. One of these goes a long way.

Pizza

What is the perfect pizza crust to you? There are lots of opinions out there, from cracker thin to extremely thick, crunchy, foldy, chewy. When ordering take-out my kids like deep dish, but we prefer the "Brooklyn" type crust.

This pizza is small, with a medium thickness crust. The bottom crunches when you bite, all the way to the center of the pizza, but isn't tough. The inside of the crust is light and soft, not dry or doughy. A slice is sturdy enough to support itself to the tip, when held by the edge. I had been experimenting with technique and recipe, and this one was a real home run. Everyone loved it.

The dough needs to be started at least two, preferably three days before making pizza. I did a comparison once of same-day dough vs. aged dough, and the pizzas looked the same. But taste.... all the difference in the world! Once we tasted the aged dough, the fresh one was simply flavorless. The aged dough had a wonderful, well, yeasty flavor, but unlike using a lot of yeast packs to make it with.

I've started weighing my flour. I find it easier than measuring, and I like my two-pan scales.

Pizza Dough- start at least two days early

Ingredients:

• 25 oz ( 5 1/4 cup) bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsp malt powder (optional)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp instant active yeast
• 2 c cold water
• 1/3 c oil (I like regular olive)
• 3 Tbsp (~1/6 c) honey

Put dry ingredients into mixer bowl, and mix together with paddle on low speed. Add about half the water, then all the oil and honey.

- Tip: measure the honey in an oily cup, and it slips out cleanly. I filled my 1/3 c roughly halfway to get the 1/6 c.

Mix the dough slowly, adding most of the rest of the water gradually.

After the dough comes together and is looking somewhat stretchy or is sticking on the beater (about a minute), switch to the dough hook.

This is very important: Knead on medium speed for about 7 min, adjusting the flour and water as needed to make a smooth, fairly sticky dough. The sides of the bowl should be clean right away; at first the dough will stick to the bottom quite a bit.

Towards the end, the bottom of the bowl will be almost entirely clean. The dough should be quite soft and a bit more wet and sticky than a typical bread dough.

Look at the bottom of the bowl in this video. Note that the dough is not sticking to it, the bowl is clean.

Put the dough straight into the fridge, cold. The night before you make pizza, pull it out of the fridge and let it warm up about an hour if you have time, or just continue with it still cold.

Throw a half cup or so of flour on a large cutting board or countertop. Spread the flour out some, and mist the top with a little cooking spray. Dump the dough onto the flour, and cut it into four or six chunks. Form each chunk into a ball by tucking the sticky side in, stretching the floured side out, like turning socks inside out (I saw someone on TV shaping fresh mozzarella balls, and it looked about the same as shaping the pizza dough balls). Dip your hands in the flour if it sticks too much, but try not to add much flour to the dough. Keep doing that until the outer surface stretches fairly tight, but don't tear it.

Roll the ball lightly in the flour, then set into a greased pan.

Spray the dough with cooking spray, then put the pan into a large food-grade bag like the bread bags at King Arthur Flour, or cover with plastic wrap. Put back into the fridge.

The next day, pull the pan out of the fridge and let it warm up for about an hour in a warm place. Get the oven hot and pizza toppings prepped while waiting.

Set the oven as hot as it will go, with a pizza stone on the lowest rack, and optionally a second one on a higher rack. This adds thermal mass to your oven, and lets you cook more pizzas at a time. I set mine on "true convection", 550 deg; it should work fine without convection too. Preferably allow the oven to heat for at least 45 minutes, to let it really heat up the oven walls and the stones. 

Hot is important. This plus the moistness of the dough are what create the soft-crunchy pizza, and makes the dough be puffy. We also found out another important affect of a really hot stone: It makes the crust turn brown on the bottom, and taste heavenly. This fact alluded us for weeks. It is the combination of .leaving the dough in the fridge for several days, and slapping the pizza onto a blazing hot stone, that gives you a pizza to remember. Let the stone recover heat for a while (maybe 15 min) before putting another pizza on it. We've also been using the convection feature in our oven to get the cheese bubbly on top at the same time the crust is done.

Shaping: Get parchment sheets and pizza peel ready. The light flouring of the dough balls prevented them from sticking together, even though they are touching.

Flour your hands, and gently start stretching a dough ball on the knuckles of both hands. The dough will have bubbles in it. With careful handling, only a few will break during shaping. Toss it if you're brave enough. Another method is to hold it gently at one edge, allowing the weight of the dough to stretch it out, shifting where you hold to make it round and of even thickness. Make about an 8" round. Be careful not to stretch it too thin in the center. Lay it down on a parchment sheet.

I didn't intentionally make it thicker at the edges. That is due mostly to the bubbles that are still trapped in the dough.

Brush the top with olive oil, cover with thin slices of Provolone, and spread a good sauce on it (I like Bertoli's Tomato Basil sauce mixed with some tomato paste). Add pepperoni, sauteed onions, etc, and top with a little Mozzarella and Parmesan. We think that putting the cheese on before the sauce helps protect the dough from getting too wet; we'll test this notion next time.

These were actually a bit too cheesy. Next time, thinner Provolone, and a finer shred of mozzarella.

Crush a little dried oregano and basil on the very top.

Slide pizza, parchment and all, onto the stone.

Bake for about 6 min, until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is crunchy and golden brown, with a few dark brown spots.

They really poof in the oven. Some of the bubbles are now permanent.

The bottom of the crust is golden brown and crunchy, but not tough.

See? The slice isn't drooping, and he gets to concentrate on the hot, stringy cheese!

New favorite book

I've been reading "The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread". I've been pleased to find that it is enjoyable to read, because of the author's enthusiasm. He's actually inspired me to try an artisan loaf, not using the bread machine at all. I've had fun throwing flour around, using my hefty mixer, and making steam in my oven. The bread turned out good too! It's my first bread that actually makes a crackling crunch when you tear off a piece.

I would definitely recommend this book, but it would be intimidating to an inexperienced baker. None of the techniques are difficult alone, but it's quite a lot to keep up with, all put together. If you already know the "feel" of a good dough, and have shaped some bread to bake in the oven successfully, then give it a try. I'm working on how to come home after work and have kaiser buns done in time for dinner. My first try was ok, but they overproofed. I've got batteries in my camera again, and will post when I get it worked out.

My Italian bread on the left, one from Fresh Market on the right. I do like this book. The rosmary potato bread is better (and different) than Macaroni Grill. Forgot to take a picture of it. Maybe my husband got one.

Peter Reinhart has a new book coming out in October! Woo hoo!

Peanut Brittle, with Spirit and Spice

This is an old recipe, which I have started playing with recently. Turns out you can substitute other things, like beer or wine, for the water, and it still turns out great. Also, adding the amount of "heat" I have listed gives it a nice mouth feel without really being hot at all. In fact, if you add it and don't tell anybody, they'll like it better and have a hard time figuring out what you did different. Any hot-heads out there will want to put in a lot more than that.

Find the abbreviated Peanut Brittle Recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup clear corn syrup (aka Karo)
• 1/2 cup water or Guinness or Chardonnay
  
• 3/4 cup (6 oz, 1 & 1/2 stick) butter
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 3 shakes Tabasco sauce (optional)
• 1 lb salted cocktail peanuts
• 1 tsp baking soda
• kosher salt

Equipment:

• 1 large bowl of ice water
• 3 -4 qt pot
• candy thermometer
• wooden spoon
• greased heat-resistant surface, such as pans, sil pats, or my favorite non-stick rolling mat from King Arthur Flour, which is heat tolerant even though it doesn't mention it on the website.
  
• Note: the countertop underneath the pan or mat will get hot, so make sure it isn't too sensitive either.

A helper with a strong arm is also nice.



Keep the bowl of ice water nearby, in case you get hot candy on you. Candy will really burn your skin, and once it's on you, plunging into the icy water is the best way to prevent a bad burn.



1. Measure the baking soda into a small bowl, and keep handy for later.
2. Mix the sugar, corn syrup, liquid of choice, and butter in the pan over medium heat. Also stir in the cayenne and tobasco, if you want the extra kick.



3. Stir until melted and blended.



4. Increase heat to med-high, and heat until it reaches 320 deg F. The candy will bubble and even foam a bit at first, especially if you used beer. It will then thicken, and smooth out, with fewer but deeper thick bubble holes. As the temperature climbs, it will begin to change to a more golden color. The temperature tends to rise, then hold, then rise again several times.



5. When it reaches 320, slide the pan off of the heat, and stir in the peanuts.



6. The temperature will drop, and the candy will become very thick, making it hard to stir. This is where the strong arm is handy. Once mixed, return to heat, and stir constantly until the temperature reaches 305 deg F.

7. Remove from heat, and immediately stir in the baking soda, mixing well.



8. Pour the candy onto the greased surface, allowing it to spread on its own. In the middle, the candy will be thicker than the peanuts are wide, and thinner at the edges, with many bubbles throughout. This creates a light candy that crushes to the bite. Manual spreading will deflate the bubbles without actually spreading the candy significantly. Sprinkle the top with kosher salt. If the cooling surface is in direct contact with a countertop, moving the candy, pan and all, a couple of times will cool it faster.



9. When it has cooled completely, lift and drop the brittle from an inch or two over the counter, to break it. Store in an air-tight tin or container to keep moisture out and keep it crunchy.

New Oven Review: Bosch 800 is great!

We've moved into our new place, and are now back online. This means I'm now a first-time owner of a pair of convection ovens, and I really really love them. Bosch 800 Series; here’s the link. They make me happy.

They work better than I could have imagined, and not just for bread. We use them at almost every meal, and My husband likes and uses them too, and we’ve used both at once a few times. He made beef jerky the other day (dehydrate mode), and a pork tenderloin roast last night.

The Bosch has three elements in each oven, making them "European Convection". The third element is in the back oven wall, around the convection fan. That works better than the "American Convection", which lacks the element that is around the fan. My parents have an "American" style JennAir, and it cooks so unevenly that they never use convection.

I'm very glad I chose the Bosch over the Trivection ovens from GE. The Trivection was tempting because it is supposed to cook things quickly, especially casseroles. It has a low-level microwave in it, but just the "American Convection". I haven't tried a Trivection, but the Bosch ovens are faster than my old oven, and faster than the microwave if you’re fixing something from the freezer for the whole family. Speed Convection; they really mean that.

The Electrolux Icon also looked nice, but will not hold a 16" pizza stone. The stone fits into the Bosch just fine. There's a proof mode, which works nicely. Breads cook faster and rise more. If you get one, be sure to read the instructions, look at the guides, try out the programmed recipes, and expect your food to be done faster than a conventional oven.

Updadte:

I still love these ovens, but there is one fault: the display gets confusing sometimes, when both ovens are on. On a few occasions, I've had an oven be off, and I couldn't tell until later. On others, when trying to heat the lower oven to 550 for pizza, I ended up setting the upper oven. This was especially bad because the upper was supposed to be proofing some dough. I had to throw part of it away, even though I figured out what I'd done fairly quickly. It works great when I get the correct oven doing the job I want.