Sunday Poolish Pizza

It has been a while since we made pizza and this is a shame after having it again on Sunday.  We have made Giant Strides in making pizza the past couple of years.  Once we had Biaco’s pizza. the best in the USA, we knew exactly what to do take ours to another level that more than rivals Chris Boaco’s masterpieces.

We had additional firepower in that we used the last of our home grown, heirloom cherry tomatoes to make the sauce this time to go along with the home smoked smoked sausage, onions and crimini mushrooms.  The very thin pepperoni was smoked but done elsewhere half a good as we would have smoked it.   The dough had our usual sundried tomatoes, fresh garlic and fresh rosemary in it.

The 10% pre-fermented flour, Albertsons bread flour, at 100% hydration with a pinch of Instant yeast made for the 4 hour poolish.  We added half Lafama AP and half Albertson’s flour for the dough and brought the hydration down to 70% with 2% sea salt, olive oil and sugar.  The EVOO and sugar are there to get the dough to brown properly in the 8 minutes it is in the 550 F oven.

The gluten is developed with 3 sets of slap and folds on 30 minute intervals and 2 sets of stretch and folds. The slops were 50, 20 and 10 and the stretches were from the major compass points.  The add ins went in on the least set of slap and folds

 As some as the gluten development as done, we oiled a bowl and put the dough in it to retard for 24 hours.  Do not forget this step if you want a dough that is flavorful and extensible but strong enough not to tear when making the pie.

We took the dough out fo the fridge 3 hours before we wanted to stretch it out.  1 hour after warming up we divided it into (3) 250 g pieces for 3 pies and let it proof on the counter for 2 more hours.  This dough stretched easily but we rolled it because we love our alligator rolling pin that is perfect for this. 

The only fresh topping was some fresh mozzarella and the red and orange peppers.  We had a blend of Parm, smoked provolone, asiago, Romano and mozzarella for the base cheese with fresh grated Romano and basil for garnish.

This pizza was thin, crisp and killer - as good as you can get anywhere on the planet.  We have cut down on the topping thickness and increased the flavor dramatically,  Now Chris Bianco has something to shoot for:-)  The next step is to make it on our temporary WFO brick oven so stay tuned.

It's not all about pizza.  Gumbo and cheesecake are OK too