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Growing up in Chicago I have learned how fortunate I was as far as pizza was concerned. The further I would be from Chicagoland the worse the pizza got. Now I understand why mediocre franchised pizza can be so successful. The thing that amuses me is when you hear people talk about Chicago style pizza they automatically think about the deep dish pie. I believe most Chicagoans eat thin crust. Of course I do like a properly made deep dish pie too. My first experience with deep dish was My Pi on Sheridan Rd across the street from Loyola University.
5 styles of Chicago pizza? I can think of thin (varying degrees of thinness), stuffed and deep dish. There is thick crust sometimes called pan pizza, something I have never cared for, so that makes 4. What else am I missing?
To me the thing about pizza is, regardless of style, the crust, sauce and toppings all have to be good, if any one of those lets you down then the pizza is a failure. I strongly agree with the slow rise method for pizza dough. I have been using the America's Test Kitchen recommendation, which is to use very cold water, a bare minimum amount of yeast, ferment in the fridge and do it all at least 24 hours in advance.
Aaron, when I first started ordering rye from KAF I didn't know which one to get so I punted down the middle and got the medium rye. After a while I would use a 50/50 mix of KAF medium rye and pumpernickel, which is their whole grain rye. The past year or so I've just been using their pumpernickel. Which one to order though depends on your preference and what recipe you like to use. In Reinhart's BBA he calls for light rye for the marble rye bread. I've never used their light rye which is now called white rye nor have I used their rye blend, so I can't advise you on those.
Thanks for the info on KAF shipping, Mike, I'm low on rye flour, order placed.
If you don't care for olive oil a 50/50 blend of veg oil and butter works.
It's hard to find rye flour locally. I buy mine from King Arthur. I used to use a 50/50 mix of medium and pumpernickel but now I just use their pumpernickel.
Aaron, I made a St Louis pizza crust last week. I used honey as I don't have corn syrup. Mine was bland too, but I didn't use any salt. But it was fast. I agree, a little more olive oil won't hurt.
Thank you Joan and Aaron. I don't make loaves too often as i usually opt for sandwich buns. One of the things I have to be careful about it letting the loaf overrise as that causes the crust to blow apart.
For many years I tried making a rye bread and the results were never satisfactory. Then maybe 8 - 10 years ago I ran across a recipe on a food site for a rye that uses a starter that you make at least one day before (up to 3 days). That turned out to be the key, I finally got a rye that had the proper taste and texture. To this day I bristle at rye recipes that don't use a starter, lol. Anyway, I tweaked the recipe a bit. For example, it called for using half the rye flour and water to make the starter. I figured the key to rye bread is the starter, the rye flour needs time to fully hydrate, so why only use half the rye for the starter? In my starter I use 100% of the rye and water. This bread has become one of my staples.
Today I made a rye bread. I made the starter yesterday. I wanted to give it some color so I used fresh brewed decaf coffee as the liquid and added a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa. It just came out of the oven and looks good.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.I got a couple of beautiful red peppers so I decided to stuff them. I have not had stuffed peppers in a while. The peppers are large so I sliced them lengthwise to make 4 peppers. Unlike what most people seem to do, I make a meatball/meatloaf mixture and stuff the raw peppers with the raw meat and then roast them. Sometimes I use breadcrumbs in the meat and sometimes cooked rice, but regardless the pepper is treated the same way either way.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.I often place some pecan or walnut halves on the top. Sometime I will add up to 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the batter. I usually substitute 1/2 cup of maple syrup for all the sugars. A half cup of maple syrup will make it less sweet but that suits my taste.
On Wednesday I baked a half dozen sandwich buns. Thursday I made Oatmeal fruit bars. The Oat fruit bars were on the Quaker Oatmeal box years ago but isn't on there now. It's low fat that uses yogurt, a touch of veg oil, a little flour, oats and dried fruit. The recipe calls for granulated and brown sugars but I use maple syrup in it's place. They make a great snack or breakfast.
You're welcome Joan, I'm glad you like them. I only made them a couple of times but they are always in the back of my mind, lol. But then I don't make cookies often. I need to make them again soon.
Do you like coconut? Oatmeal coconut cookies are good.
Although the recipe calls for lard I just used shortening.
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This reply was modified 8 years ago by
RiversideLen.
I always use some semolina in my pizza dough, it makes the dough easy to work. I usually make enough dough for 3 small pizzas, one third gets used either that or the next day and the other thirds are used the following days. I find the third day on the dough is very fine. If I can't use it before 3 days I'll roll it out and freeze it.
There are two things about the KA recipe I would change. If you're making this a day ahead of time, I would use cold water, refrigerator cold. Let the dough proof at room temp for several hours and then put it in the fridge. I even do that when I'm going to use it the same day, I just make it early in the day to give it enough time to work. If the dough is being made ahead of time, I would cut the yeast by at least half. My go to recipe I use exactly one half the amount of flour the KA recipe calls for and I use only 1/4 teaspoon yeast. Pizza dough, especially thin crust, doesn't need the kind of rise a bread loaf needs.
When I have made lasagna I have mixed the cooked meat with the tomato sauce but I think you could also layer it and that could have some advantages. For example, the first layer in your pan would be the plain sauce mixture, then noodle, sauce, meat, veggies if used, cheese, noodle, etc etc. And then the final layer, noodle, sauce and parm. I think you want sauce on the final layer of noodle otherwise it could dry out.
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This reply was modified 8 years ago by
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