Pequod Posted April 29, 2017 Report Share Posted April 29, 2017 (edited) @Garvinque-I'll show you mine if you show me yours! I'll go first. Sourdough is by far my favorite pizza crust. You can 48 or 72 all you want. I'll take sourdough. Changing a few things up today. First, the position of the steel. In previous cooks I've been putting the steel on top of the KK baking stone. This gives me the benefit of the quick conductivity of steel backed by the slower conductivity of the stone. Thought I'd try the steel alone, but wanted the radiation buffer of the deflector. First time I've used that deflector. Thought it might heat soak quicker this way, but my IR gun tells me otherwise. Also, once heat soaked, the dome therm was reading 100 degrees hotter than the steel and the surface of the dome, so had to run a bit hotter on the dome therm to get equivalent steel temps. Also changed up the sourdough a bit. I've done Forkish style 70% hydration sourdough with 00 flour and with 25% flour from the levain. And I've done 65% Hydration sourdough with high protein flour (All Trumps or KA Pizza Blend) with 10% flour from levain. Today I did the Forkish version, but with KA Pizza Blend. It's been my experience that All Trumps is easier to work with than KA, and today was no different. Running 625 on the dome, here's my wife's pizza with spinach. And the bottom. This is why I love the steel. Gives the bottom a terrific, crisp texture and a bit of a spotted char. And my pizza. Artichoke hearts, mushrooms and prosciutto. And of course some of my cold smoked mozzarella. Gotta have that. Some conclusions from these experiments: Putting the steel directly on the stone works well. Stick with that. 70% Hydration with 25% of total flour from levain is the best tasting crust to date, but stick with All Trumps. Alright Garvin! Your turn! Edited April 29, 2017 by HalfSmoke 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvinque Posted April 29, 2017 Report Share Posted April 29, 2017 @HalfSmoke Some things got in the way so my cook is tomorrow and I will be using KA all purpose flour! I have a 14 inch baking steel along with a 14 baking stone much to big for my Akorn so this cook will be inside or on the Weber kettle. Garvin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stile88 Posted April 29, 2017 Report Share Posted April 29, 2017 That looks excellent Halfsmoke the crust is perfect i might have to get the baking steel i have been eyeing the griddle though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pequod Posted April 29, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2017 18 minutes ago, Stile88 said: That looks excellent Halfsmoke the crust is perfect i might have to get the baking steel i have been eyeing the griddle though My steel is the griddle. Just flip it over. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syzygies Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 2 hours ago, HalfSmoke said: 70% Hydration with 25% of total flour from levain is the best tasting crust to date, but stick with All Trumps. Is this what you use? General Mills All Trumps High Gluten Flour - Unbleached, Unbromated We grind our own flour, which comes out very different, but we could start using sourdough, and figure a way to up the protein. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pequod Posted April 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 12 minutes ago, Syzygies said: Is this what you use? General Mills All Trumps High Gluten Flour - Unbleached, Unbromated We grind our own flour, which comes out very different, but we could start using sourdough, and figure a way to up the protein. Yes, that's it. Great stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 Great looking pies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckreef Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 Great looking pizzas. A few days ago I bought 3 different bags of flour from KA (should arrive early next week.) Each bag is 3 lbs. KA pizza blend, KA 00, KA high gluten. I love the taste of the pizza blend, the 00 makes it silky smooth but low protein and that's where the KA high protein flour comes in to play. Going to try equal parts of all three next weekend and see what I get. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pequod Posted April 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 6 hours ago, ckreef said: Great looking pizzas. A few days ago I bought 3 different bags of flour from KA (should arrive early next week.) Each bag is 3 lbs. KA pizza blend, KA 00, KA high gluten. I love the taste of the pizza blend, the 00 makes it silky smooth but low protein and that's where the KA high protein flour comes in to play. Going to try equal parts of all three next weekend and see what I get. Definitely be interested to hear how that turns out. I've been wanting to try KA Sir Lancelot. It's on list of recommended flours in "The Pizza Bible", which is where I also got the tip on All Trumps. Pizza Blend tastes good, but doesn't stretch as well as All Trumps. Hey! I thought your pizza experimenting days were over! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstr8 Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 At my past home in Monterey I had three different sourdough starter cultures going: San Francisco, Italian and French. I made quite a few pizzas using each of the three and finally settled on the Italian; d'oh :). I found the SF to be too sour for what I was after for Neapolitan pie dough and the French was just too "light". But now with a smaller refrigerator and a slightly different life style I've made my peace with a 5-7 day cold ferment. But you are correct HalfSmoke, nothing quite gets the flavor boost for pizza pie dough like a solid sourdough starter culture! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckreef Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 2 hours ago, HalfSmoke said: Hey! I thought your pizza experimenting days were over! Me too but with all the pizza cooks going on in the Guru I figured I needed to work on a few things. Will post the start of my weekly pizza thread over here later today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stile88 Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 15 hours ago, HalfSmoke said: My steel is the griddle. Just flip it over. interesting i didnt know they made a circle griddle i only saw the skinny one and the bigger version you got the best of both worlds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pequod Posted April 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 18 minutes ago, Stile88 said: interesting i didnt know they made a circle griddle i only saw the skinny one and the bigger version you got the best of both worlds This is what I have. Can definitely recommend. https://shop.bakingsteel.com/collections/griddles/products/15-round-griddle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvinque Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 Thanks @HalfSmoke for your input on this sourdough journey, here is a photo of three dough balls starting their final proof before pizza time will post more photos as things march along! Garvin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pequod Posted April 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 32 minutes ago, Garvinque said: Thanks @HalfSmoke for your input on this sourdough journey, here is a photo of three dough balls starting their final proof before pizza time will post more photos as things march along! Garvin Looking good! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvinque Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 I now have two sourdough starter's one whole wheat and the other started from whole wheat but fed all purpose flour so now it's more traditional style sourdough. For pancakes, waffles, and white loaf bread I will use the all purpose flour fed starter and for my next project whole wheat sourdough bread I will utilize the WW starter. I wish now that I paid more attention to my mom when comes to baking but I am enjoying learning from you guys too! Garvin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvinque Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 Ok so I made two pies and I really have to get my stretching technique down could not get the 12inch round I was going for the crust was better than good but not great. My sourdough starter is three weeks old but the tang was there so I will do this again, next up is whole wheat sourdough bread coming this weekend. Garvin 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeramicChef Posted April 30, 2017 Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacKenzie Posted May 1, 2017 Report Share Posted May 1, 2017 Looking forward to your bread cook. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pequod Posted May 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 On 4/30/2017 at 5:52 PM, Garvinque said: Ok so I made two pies and I really have to get my stretching technique down could not get the 12inch round I was going for the crust was better than good but not great. My sourdough starter is three weeks old but the tang was there so I will do this again, next up is whole wheat sourdough bread coming this weekend. Garvin So Garvin - what did you like about the crust and what didn't you like? Maybe we can help with some pointers for the next go. You'll be acing pizza in no time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
