amir

The main reason to allow dough to rise is to develop the gluten. Gluten is what makes dough stretch. It's present in flour but needs mechanical forces to develop. Some of the development occurs as you knead the dough, but a lot more develops with the micro action of the yeast. That's why recipes ask you to flatten a risen dough; it's not the air you want, it's the developed gluten. It's important to knead the dough to develop some of the gluten first. Without this kneading action the yeast would simply create air that would scape without being trapped within the dough and allowing further expansion and further development of the gluten. I'm not sure if there is any way to skip this and still get a good crust. If u find it, let us know.

Looks awesome. How can you tell if the pork is done? Small cubes like that - assume it's by sight/experience rather than a temp probe???

Thanks all. dstr8: A few years ago, I got the book American Pie by Peter Reinhart. A great book which has a lot of dough recipes. I have tried most of them and I like them all - but this is by far my favorite. Here's the recipe: 22.5 oz all purpose flour (i use typo 00 but i've tried with the others and works fine, typo 00 stretches better) 1 oz semolina flour 1.75 teasp salt 1 teasp instant yeast 15.3 oz room temp water Mix at low for 4 min, then let sit for 10 min, then mix on med for about 8-10 min. Take it out, fold into a ball. At this point, I let it sit out in room temp for about 1 hour; turning it (stretching, folding, making into ball) 3 times, each 20 min apart. If you want to use it same day, keep it out for another 30 min. Place in fridge for 2 hours, then take out and let come to room temp for 2 hours before using. If using next day, put in fridge overnight and let come to room temp for 2 hours out of the fridge before using. Dough will stretch nicely if you are patient and give it time to relax between stretches. It is sticky so I just stretch it on parchment paper and put the pie and paper in the oven/KK. Doesn't transfer well from a peel. Re the potato pizza - I just thinly slice it with a mandolin and put it on raw. It cooks nicely in the hot oven. Don't over crowd it. Good luck and can't wait to see your pics. CeramicChef: Thanks for the kudos. I came up with the scallion/asparagus pizza when trying to get rid of left over stuff from another cook. As they say, necessity is the mother of creativity. The truffle oil is the key to this.

Tried my tested pizza recipe on the KK today. I have been making pizza like this for years. Ultra thin crust, minimal toppings. Crust comes out chewy and firm but not like a cracker. It does not flake or break yet has a nice crunch to it, like the exterior of a hot-off-the-oil french fry. I used to make this in the oven at 550 with a pizza stone. It was a hit with everyone. Today was the first time I made it on the KK. Dough is a roman dough recipe that uses typo 00 flour and a small bit (1 oz) of semolina flour. The semolina is the key that gives it that special texture and allows it to be stretched ultrathin without tearing. It requires a lot of kneading in the kitchenaid and a long rest time to allow full development of gluten. For those interested, happy to share the recipe. Started the KK with a full charcoal basket and let it heat soak around 500 for about 2 hours and then slowly ramped to 550. Put my old pizza stone in it and after heat soaking, baked each pizza in the KK for 6 minutes. My stone is thinner than the one that Dennis offers. I thought it would sub well, but now I'm thinking it's thinness is probably suboptimal as it imparts a bit more direct heat. Overall though, these pizza's were much better on the KK. The dough turned out better than my oven and the pizza's cooked faster - not surprised as the entire KK is a giant pizza stone. Made 4 pizzas: 1) Plain ol' mushroom (for the kids) 2) wild mushroom (chantrelle and a few others) 3) shaved asparagus and scallion - this is my best pizza - shave the asparagus and thinly slice the scallions lengthwise and let them marinade with a tablespoon of white truffle oil for a couple hours. dough, guyere cheese, and toppings - no pizza sauce. 4) potato - this is my second best pizza - dough, guyere cheese, rosemary, potatoes thinly sliced. when finished out of the oven, drizzle balsamic glaze (concentrated balsamic vinegar). Brush the edge of the crust with a little bit of olive oil before baking. The edge of the crust ends up being awesome. Because these are thin and light, you can eat a lot without noticing. There's only 4 of us, but we made a big dent in these. Onto the pics. These are some of the ingredients: The KK, heat soaked: The plain mushroom pizza: The wild mushroom pizza: This is soooo thin, you can see the light through it - but it holds its shape and doesn't flop: Here's a pic of the asparagus/scallion pizza on the KK: Here's another after a few slices disappeared: Ultra thin - holds is shape but can see light thru it: Potato pizza just about to come off the KK: Potato pizza with the balsamic glaze drizzled on:

I'm doing this cook over the weekend. Got the brisket and ready to roll. I'll take some pics.

I'm gonna make smoked salmon candy for the fourth time in 4 weeks. Still getting the hang of it but I absolutely love smoked fish. 1st time, temp got away from me (I'm new to KK and ceramics) and got a bit too overdone and was way too salty 2nd time, temp and brine were good but not sweet enough 3rd time, temp, brine, sweetness awesome BUT very little smoke flavor - had made ribs the night before and they were way too smokey and no one liked them so went w less smoke. Having a tough time getting just the right amount of smoke flavor. Been reading a lot about the blue and white smoke and finding that need more oxygen and a real flame to get the thin smoke. Not sure possible on KK at low temps. When oxygen deprived, some volatiles will not burn off and u get the whiter smoke. It can be thin if there's not much wood smoking but still is white smoke. Trick of getting the smoke thru the hot coals doesn't work because still need oxygen to burn off the volatiles... Am experimenting with this now. Trying to build a very small but hot fire with more oxygen - been challenging cuz of efficiency of KK.

I use the kitchenAid grinder as well. The newer version is much better than the older one. The newer version has a little rubber ring next to the area which attaches to the motor and prevents any meat from going back there. In the past, the meat would go there and would get a nasty grease stain from the motor oil. New one much better. If you are ever in the mood to really "make a meal" out of burgers, you gotta try the heston blumenthal way: He goes to all kinds of lengths to get the right mixture of meat and grind and to orient the fibers along the lines in which one bites into the burger. He also talks about the size, condiments, etc. Worth a watch. Of course, he didn't use a KK to grill his burgers so he's missing out on the "icing on the cake".

Well said! Agree 100%.

Tony, There are lots of advantages to using the splitter for low and slow cooks (especially ones of shorter duration). If you use the stainless steel block, the airflow is effectively doubled. So you have a lot more control over the air flow and can tweek it better. Second, you can assure that the food item is not at all under direct heat by putting it on the other side - so there is essentially no risk of direct heat. I smoked salmon at 180-200 last week and it was very easy to control the heat. Only about 1/3 of the coconut charcoal was used. I think that if you limit the charcoal and be very careful with the airflow, you can probably even keep heat around 150 for lower temp smoking, but have not tried it myself yet. How do you smoke almonds now?

Thank you all. Makes a lot of sense. Will consider getting another basket with splitter. The splitter really did help keep temps well controlled under 200.

Hello all, I smoked salmon today in a 3 hour cook at 200 degrees. Given a few hour cook and desiring very low temps, I used the charcoal splitter and fractured the coco char into 1/2 or 1/3 pieces so they would all fit nicely. With the splitter, I could get more airflow control on one side of the basket and could keep the temp between 180 and 200 very nicely. After it was done, over half of the coconut charcoal was left behind and looked completely normal and unburned. I shut down all the vents and waited about 4-5 hours for things to cool. When the temp had dropped to about 100 degrees, I tried to remove the whole coco char logs to preserve them for the next slow cook... but as I grabbed two of them, they literally disintegrated into black char powder - poof. It was actually kind of cool - like something out of a magic show. The other 2-3 were completely fine. Weird because these were all nice and sturdy before the cook. Is this something that you see typically? Should I not manipulate these after they have been heated?

Thanks all. Lesson for next one.

Thanks Dennis. Tony b, thanks. I have read all the charcoal reviews on nakedwhiz - many of them are older though. The Wicked Good charcoal Jake's blend is relatively new. It's quite dense so harder to light. It has a nice aroma and gives off very little smoke (the off gas in the first 30 min of being lit). I used it for low and slow twice now and worked out well. Will chime in with more info as I cook more.

thanks tony and wilbur. i think my other problem was that the TOP vent was open too much... it was open 2 turns, and i think that (along with the wind) was probably the contributing factor. i'll try a few more lo and slo's with the top vent less open and see how it goes.

Great idea! I made enchilada's a few days ago as well. Had left over chicken from a cook. But putting them back on the beast? Pure genius.