After an 8 day primary, I’ve moved to the carboy for a 2 week conditioning in the secondary. Estimated to bottle time is American Thanksgiving weekend.
Some additional pizza pics taken over the last few months.
After an epic fail on my behalf in the first round because of added thermal mass (cold bricks), and a pizza peel fail (forgot to use it) we regrouped and created some mastery. Personal favorite pizza of the night was the caramelized onion and mozzarella pizza. Honourable mention to Mariko and Jeff for introducing me to mashed potato pizza! It’s delicious! Crust of the night went to Mariko with her overnight crust, with Mike a close second. Recipes links to be added.
See the following gallery for the pizza creations.
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- Mariko – First Round “Alice” – Costco Flour Dough
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- Markio – Round 1 – Alice – Costco Flour Dough
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- Markio – Round 1 – Alice – Costco Flour Dough
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- Mariko – Round 1 – “Alice” – King Arthur
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- Mike – Round 1 – Caramelized Onion and Mozzarella + Gorgonzola
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- Mariko’s Crust
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- Chris’s Margherita
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- Mariko’s No Rise
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- Mike Round 2 – Caramelized Onion
The gauntlet has been thrown down. It’s time to find out who makes the best pizza crust. The rules are simple. Anything goes. With the event looming, I decided to throw down and try something new: a wet knead. It’s an adaptation of Jeff Varasano’s technique, but without the proper yeast starter.
The recipe is rough, but works out to this.
4 cups flour
1-1.25 cups water
0.5 packet of yeast (~ 1 tsp)
1 tsp of salt
mix 75% of flour, yeast and salt for 1-2 min in kitchen aid mixer (KAM) adding water until you’re somewhere between a batter and a dough (close to a batter according to Jeff) . cover and allow the mixture to “autolyse” for 20 min. knead the resulting wet dough in the KAM on low (“2″) for 5-6 min and then gradually add remainder of flour a little at a time. it took 2 minutes to add the additional cup. mix on (“3″) for an additional minute. let dough rest for 20min. remove to floured board and knead for 30s-1min using additional flour sparingly to prevent sticking. divide dough, and place it in lightly greased containers (0.25 tsp of oil for 5 containers) and refrigerate. i’ll fill in the rest once I get to that stage…
Some pics of the process:
Took my first steps into the world of homebrew today. Brewed an IPA kit from the folks at Brewer’s Best. Mike and the helpful folks at Maryland Homebrew got me pointed in the right direction equipment wise, and the rest is history… I hope. Stay tuned for updates.
OG – 1.051
Fermentables
6.6lbs Light LME
1lb Golden DME
Specialty Grains
1lb Crystal 40L
80z Victory
Hops
3oz Cascade (60)
1oz Columbus (5)
Yeast
Nottingham (Dry)
Ambient Temperature: 24.5° C
Relative Humidity: 67%
Weather: Overcast/ Slight Drizzle
Barometer : 101.18 kPa
The design and construction of a portable pizza oven is chronicled HERE. We’ve carried out detailed computer simulations to get the temperatures right and have built a working prototype. See the document for all the deliciousness.