Puttin' milk to work ... cappuccinos to pizza

[dstr8]

Ricotta is a regular thing I make.   Every morning we have several rounds of home-brew cappuccinos.   Although I could re-use the leftover milk, from the steaming operation for the cappuccinos, I save it.  The espresso geeks amongst us understand :D.    Sometimes the leftover milk gets used for cereal but mostly the volume each week is more than we could otherwise use.   If not for ricotta.   

Ricotta gets consumed as is, in ravioli, cheesecake, my Mom's Italian Ricotta Pie, lasagna, pasta, blintzes, pancakes, with good tart jelly on toast, etc.   Today the ricotta played atop the Neapolitan pies.   

Dough:   Jeff Varasano's Neapolitan dough recipe ... I used 50/50 Caputo "00" and KA bread flour + 5-day cold ferment.  

Other stars that showed up for their respective roles/pies:  

Garlic oil and left over cloves from the process

KK slow roasted dry farm Early Girl tomatoes from last season

Bulk Italian sausage

Shiitake mushrooms

Smoked mozzarella cheese

Pecorino romano cheese

Provolone cheese

Ricotta 

Italian Mutti tomatoes

Fresh basil (dipped in the garlic oil)

Thoroughly heat soaked the Two-Three KK (3-hours ... not the original plan but as you all know shit sometimes gets in the way :D), KK CoffeeChar and a Baking Steel.

 

Edited February 27, 2017 by dstr8

[MacKenzie]

dstr, that pie looks and sounds perfect. :) That is a hot grill, in more ways than one.

[Garvinque]

Everything you described sounds great, and man that pizza!

 

Garvin

[_Ed_]

Looks lovely. Did you set out to use a 5-day ferment, or was that just how long before you got around to using it? I've never taken the cold ferment beyond about 72 hours.

[tinyfish]

That looks so good.

[dstr8]

3 hours ago, _Ed_ said:

Looks lovely. Did you set out to use a 5-day ferment, or was that just how long before you got around to using it? I've never taken the cold ferment beyond about 72 hours.

Generally I go for 4-5 day cold ferment rest with this recipe.    The extra couple of days, at 5-days in the refrigerator, provides noticeably more depth of flavor (compared to a 3-day ferment); yet still allowing very good large air bubbles and nice cornicione.    The first two of the three pies baked at near text book perfection, given a bottom heat source oven, but by the 3rd pie the baking steel had gotten too hot ... always a fine line dance to nailing it.    

Edited February 27, 2017 by dstr8

[Shuley]

Those pies look fabulous. Is that a 23? I'm asking because it looks like you indicate that your grill was heat soaking for 3 hours. There is no way my 23 would not burn through a whole load of charcoal before that. I am usually pushing it at an hour. Then again I bake my pizzas at 550-600. What temps are you using?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dstr8]

Shuley:

Thank you!

Yes its a 23".   I normally plan for thorough heat soaking at 90-120 minutes.   Unfortunately something came up that stalled my pizza baking time so it sat there for 3-hours (at around 500-550ºF).   And usually with the Baking Steel (3/8" thick version) 550-600 works well for my Neapolitan style dough.   The first two pies baked perfectly; however the 3rd fell slight victim to overly done bottom before the top charred properly due to the temp creeping to 650º.    If I had used the KK shaped stone then 650 is a little too cool for proper development of the cornicione.    Of note:   It was cool yesterday here with ambient air temp around 45F when I had the KK fired up.

But with the additional heat soaking the dome was able to radiate more effective heat back to the top of the pie.   When I have time I might do the longer heat soaking for all things Neapolitan pie bakes.   

And I did go through a basket of Coffeechar ... but I have plenty left in the basket for a couple more quick grills for steak or fish.

Edited February 27, 2017 by dstr8

[Shuley]

Shuley:
Thank you!
Yes its a 23".   I normally plan for thorough heat soaking at 90-120 minutes.   Unfortunately something came up that stalled my pizza baking time so it sat there for 3-hours (at around 500-550ºF).   And usually with the Baking Steel (3/8" thick version) 550-600 works well for my Neapolitan style dough.   The first two pies baked perfectly; however the 3rd fell slight victim to overly done bottom before the top charred properly due to the temp creeping to 650º.    If I had used the KK shaped stone then 650 is a little too cool for proper development of the cornicione.    Of note:   It was cool yesterday here with ambient air temp around 45F when I had the KK fired up.
But with the additional heat soaking the dome was able to radiate more effective heat back to the top of the pie.   When I have time I might do the longer heat soaking for all things Neapolitan pie bakes.   
And I did go through a basket of Coffeechar ... but I have plenty left in the basket for a couple more quick grills for steak or fish.

Are you adding more charcoal during the heat soak?

[dstr8]

I didn't need to add charcoal during the heat soak phase but I did add several chunks about 15-minutes before the pie baking began.

[Paul]

Darn good looking pies! Nice job.