[aaronatthedoublef]

Just made pizza for the whole family last night for the first time all summer. It's the first time everyone has been home since mid-June. I probably make pizza about 45 weeks a year. What I do has been customized specifically to my family's tastes.

I have definite, discreet tasks and they do not (and actually should not) need to be done the day off.

I make a big batch of dough every couple of weeks - about 3.5 pounds. I let the dough rise for about 36 hours. I let it go longer if the rise is chilled and less if the rise is on the counter and less still if it rises on the counter in the summer. I took a cooking class in Italy years ago and the instructor said in Naples the dough rises for three days before it is used so I started trying that. I gone as long as five days and as short as a few hours and found what my family likes best. I mix the dough by hand as my KitchenAid cannot handle near that much dough and I've done it enough now that it takes me about 10 minutes so I'm not sure the mixer would be any faster.

My dough is a mixture of KAF white whole wheat which is about 14% protein according to the label mixed with a lower gluten flour. I've used KAF pastry flour and a variety of cake flours. I started with the Queen until she was banished from the realm and then went to Bob's which is also no longer available. Now I use Soft as Silk. I also use flax meal and chickpea flour when I have it, both of which are gluten free. I use flax because I don't use any oil in my dough and it adds a fullness to the flavor that was otherwise missing. I use chickpea to add some nutritional protein for my six year old who does not eat a lot of proteins in her diet. I use Bob's flax and chickpea flours. I use these because they are (or were) readily available at reasonable prices in local markets. I supposed I could use the oo Italian flour but it's more esoteric AND must be ordered from KAF. I use 50% cake flour, 40% WWW, and 10% other.

After I divide these up into 5.5 ounce rounds and wrap them individually and either put them in the refrigerator or freezer depending on when I will need them. Usually half go in the freezer and half in the refrigerator. I wrap each round in plastic and then put them in Ziplock bags. They last a few days in the fridge and a few months in the freezer. I use a rolling pin because it allows me to make a very thin, even crust that is between 11 and 12 inches. My dough is not very stretchy because of the low gluten flours. I could hand stretch it but it would not be as flat and would have a big crust edge that my family does not prefer. Tossing dough, while entertaining, is messy and sends flour all over the kitchen so I stopped that a while ago. The Giordano's in my neighborhood in Chicago used a sheeter but they were making hundreds of crusts a day. They used it for thin crust and stuffed.

My wife used to make sauce but she doesn't since she found a jarred sauce she likes. I was starting to make it because the sauce she likes is crazy expensive at the grocery stores but then Costco started carrying it for a little more reasonable price. But it's still on my list to start making my own sauce. Again, while this can be done day of, it can also be done way ahead. We used to have frozen sauce and dough waiting to be used.

The stuff I always do day off is grate the cheese - I could use shredded cheese but haven't found one my family likes yet - and prepare any of the toppings. Of these two tasks I could actually grate the cheese a couple of days a head of time if I thought about it.

My wife usually cuts up the vegetables but I did that last night since she was out with two of our kids.

I let the ovens heat for about 45 minutes before I start to bake so I turned them on when I started grating cheese and cutting vegetables.

I did the day-of prep, made six pizzas, and cleaned up and it took me under two hours.

Making pizza is like anything else, the more you do it the more practiced you will become and it will be faster and more routine. Also by breaking things down into discreet tasks and figuring out what can be done ahead to make day-of prep easier.

[aaronatthedoublef]

We have a kitchen that sounds similar to Mike's. We have a kitchen with an island that we use for prep and also for eating/entertaining. My wife also currently uses it for her office. Our daughter likes to eat there to sit next to her mom.

We have an informal dining area off the kitchen which connects to the family room. Then we also have a formal dining room off the kitchen. What I don't like about our kitchen is that I cannot seal off the noise of the kitchen from the rest of the house. So if the kids are playing or watching television in the family room and we're using a blender or mixer it's very loud in the family room and even on the second floor where we have bed rooms.

My wife is like BA's husband and likes everything put out of sight. I like what we use all the time at hand. Plus, we do not have a pantry or enough storage so we compromise some.

How much do people really cook and really bake. We have a huge Walmart that used to have a massive amount of ingredients. Lots of different flours and meals from KAF, Bob's, Pillsbury, etc. It's been mostly replaced with mixes and in fact the sign does not even mention flour any more - sugar, spices, and mixes.

We were at KAF last weekend and their shop was mostly mixes.

At the same time there are blogs and shows like Great British/American Baking Shows (if the American version ever comes back). And most of the Food TV baking competitions have some number of home bakers. So where are these folks buying their ingredients?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Need article. Wonder if they will use it to make Egyptian beer too.

And they should use some of the honey discovered and rehydrated at Pompeii!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. Callebaut is finally putting up some information this which is good! They have recipes but I still cannot blocks or chips to work with.

We're in Spain now and it is definitely "chocolate" here. I'll look in a grocery store for some raw product to bring home.

Just checked Mike's link and there appears to be a place in North Haven CT (about 45 minutes) so I'll check that out when I am home.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My doc just told me to stop taking Omega 3s because the latest science is they don't do anything for cardio vascular health.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. Do you think I could use a food processor to grind it up?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA!

[aaronatthedoublef]

My mom would be so proud! My high school chemistry teacher would be surprised.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. The restaurant kitchen has a couple of ranges but those ovens are mostly used for finishing things that have been on the cook top.

The main oven where bread and desserts are baked is a big, Blodgett convection oven but will cook with or without convection on. Not sure how rye bread will bake in a non-deck oven like that. Only made it in bread ovens and my home range with a stone.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Wow. Fewer than I thought. Yay blueberries!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. In the past, yes, I've used steam pouring water into an empty pan in the oven to. I want a chewy loaf with a little snap to crust but not a crunch if that makes sense.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made more whoopie pies, pizzas, and scones.

This time I added a little espresso powder to the whoopie pie cakes. Not sure if it made a difference. I think I need to make two batches at the same time and test them head-to-head.

This is my first pizza dough since running out of Bob's Red Mill cake flour. I need to make some adjustments. I'm off to the wholesale store today to see what kind of cake flour they have. Maybe I can buy the Queen!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Len.

They've written blog pieces about contracting with the farmers and going to the Midwest to look at wheat crops. There is some small amount of wheat production here in New England but nothing on the scale of the middle of the country.

But the recall is in association with ADM Milling (Archer, Daniels, Midland?) so are they contracting that too?

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made KAF chocolate whoopie pies yesterday. It's interesting. The cakes were okay on their own without a lot of depth of flavor but were pretty good when mixed with the filling. My kids loved them. My wife cut one in half and ate half and went back for the other which is a good sign.

I brought some over to my "whoopie pie connoisseur" neighbors and I am still waiting for feedback. One of them is completely lacking in tact so she will be brutally honest. She, like my wife, was only going to eat half of one before she went to the gym. I said that if she could eat half and walk away I had failed.

Fun to bake something new.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm with Mike. If they're not hot and fresh they are not worth the calories. That was also the problem with the initial Krispy Kreme expansion when they started selling them outside their stores. Their main marketing differentiation was that they were hot and fresh. Once you sell them of a super market shelf that goes away and they are not very different from any of the other doughnuts there.

We have a doughnut shop here and we've went to a couple in Portland OR last year including Voodoo Doughnuts. I am not a fan of the current trend of plopping everything onto a doughnut. If you make a good, simple doughnut it should be able to stand on its own.

It is surprisingly hard to find a good doughnut here.

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