I am. How’s this weekend sound? (July 31, August 1st & 2nd)
Some guidelines should make it more interesting this time around though: we need photos when you post. Everyone I have ever seen at a party has a camera of some sort, so excuses should be non-existent.
You should post under one of two sub-themes, traditional, (dough, tomato & cheese) or non-traditional (Only dough and whatever else you can think up).
…And lastly, please tell us the recipe and mode of cooking with all the details you can muster.
I’m game. I’ve got some new techniques that I’m interested to try, plus I’m fermenting a seed culture right now to get my own wild yeast mother going. It’ll probably be Sunday before I can get to it, and Monday before I can get pictures up, but I’ll do my best to participate.
Sounds interesting. The only problem we have is time. We would have to start with a Boboli and make the topping interesting. Carrie does a BBQ chicken pizza thats mighty good. Good excuse to have her make one this weekend.
I probably can’t participate, this weekend looks cyclonic between the Clos Pepe bbq and another pass of spraying in the vineyards. My spare minutes goal is to plant and work another strip of ground in my garden for some late fall & winter veggies. (Not as hard as it sounds, my garden is tractor accessible.) Time to plant radicchio. I froze some crawfish tail meat to make a crawfish pizza. I’m thinking butter garlic sauce and a little bit of blue cheese?
I’m tentatively in, but it’s supposedly 106° in Portland right now with no sign of a <90° day in the near future. This may end up being a gazpacho week for us if we can’t bear the thought of an oven cranked to its limits.
OK, I am getting geared up for dough making right now. It’s going to be a bit experimental this time around, so here goes.
I’ve spent the week building my own seed culture (Reinhart pineapple juice solution) to create a wild yeast mother. I did it with whole wheat flour, since wild yeast starters are most useful for whole grain and rye bread baking, which I’m trying to get into. But when I finished the seed culture, I used half of it to start a white flour mother. So at the moment, that mother is 25% wheat flour and 75% bread flour. I understand that a wild yeast starter can basically be used in place of a poolish, so that’s the idea I’m going with to make pizza dough.
I took 1/2 cup of the starter, 1 1/4 cup bread flour, and about 1 cup of water and mixed it briefly to begin the autolyse. The starter had a really strong gluten development, so it was a little difficult to get it integrated into the bread flour, but I think I got it. The dough looks like thick, lumpy pancake batter at the moment. When the 20 min. autolyse is finished, I’ll add salt and a bit of oil, then begin mixing with a dough hook, adding flour at about the 5 min. mark until I get a smooth dough with the amount of moisture I’m looking for (clearing sides of bowl but sticking to bottom). Then I’ll flour the outside of the dough, divide it in two, and move into large tupperware containers (lightly oiled), which will go into the fridge for overnight fermentation. The starter has a lot of leavening power right now (obvious from the texture and huge bubbles), so I’m going to skip commercial yeast altogether.
Not entirely sure what pizzas will get made on Saturday. One will definitely be margherita, the other is still up for debate. Possibly a variant on the roasted poblano and corn that Tony posted about, possibly one featuring stone fruits. We’ll see…
My dough actually took an additional 3/8 cup of flour and I ended up with more dough than I usually do, so I’ve got 3 ~8oz. pieces to work with now. I might need to find some friends.
Mike,
I wish my camera weren’t busted, so I could get some pictures up. I might try to get some with the phone on my camera, but, truth be told, I don’t really know how to use it or how to get the pictures off there. I’m sure it’s not difficult though.
In any case, my pizzas for tonight are decided. It’s going to be:
margherita
roasted red pepper and roasted garlic
sungold tomatoes and thyme
All will have mozzarella, the first two will have tomato sauce, the last one just olive oil.
4 successful pies. 2 with my doughs, and 2 with my favorite purchased. My dough was a hit. I did a one week ferment and I’ve gotta say the dough took on a sweetness I really enjoyed. The bubbles were big and full on the crowns— just the way I like it. My new dough recipe can be found on this site as well.
The first 2 pies were traditional. The third was a square and the finale was a proscuitto, arugula with a balsamic reduction on a white pie of dry mozzerrella, all on my dough. Wow. I have photos but can’t post until tonight.
The hit of the party: Proscuitto di Parma, arugula with a balsamic reduction on a white pie of dry mozzerrella, all on my new dough recipe. 9 minutes @515