WFO baking, bargain shipment on Antimo Caputo tipo 00 flour, vacation, new cute family member!
I've been back from a week's vacation in lovely cool Aspen and just getting things caught up.
The day before I left. I got a sudden urge to bake in my wfo. I don't know what brings on these urges, I'm sure there is some disfunctional reason, maybe fear of not being able to bake for a whole long week.
I did manage some soda bread, upon request. First baking I've done at such a high altitude. A few minor adjustments and other than not turning the heat up a little higher on the oven, which I found out later about, it turned out wonderful and everyone was pleased. Sylvia's 'mom's' Irish Soda Bread is one of my most family requested breakfast breads.
I order my Italian Antimo Caputo Tipo '00' flour from 'Taylor's Market' on Amazon.com. I just love it..the flour and the Market. They ship me 10 small bags for $37.95 plus $7.25 shp. The price is market fair and the shipping is well worth my time and gas money and it's delivered to my door...I love it.
I baked and roasted chicken.
As the oven fired up, good and hot I roasted a chicken, one of my favorite things to do. A lovely little organic chicken flavored with organic lemon, lemon juice, fresh rosemary, garlic, O.Oil, salt and pepper.
Mike say's this is my very tastiest pizza crust and his favorite. It's very thin, super crispy, flavor like no other flour and does bake up best in a very hot wfo...I like about 750+F and 500+F floor, seems to work best in my wfo.
I made 4 pizza balls and stretched them out to make nice sized Margherita pizza's.
This flour is very extensible and makes stretching the dough thinly a pleasure.
This is a pretty standard recipe for the Pizza Margherita Dough comes from the 'Forno Bravo.com'. you can add a little more hydration depending on your on personal preference.
500g Tipo '00' Italian Flour
325g Water 65% hydration
10g salt
3g ADY I used IADY and reduced a little for overnight fermentation
Stand Mixer, add all ingredients, mix slowly for 2 minutes, faster 5 minutes, slow 2 minutes.
I use my own judgement hand or machine mixing to get a good gluten formation to shape the dough balls.
Form into 3 dough balls - I made 4 and stretched the dough thinly to make 10 to 12 inch pizza's.
Refrigerated overnight and warmed up the 4 dough balls 2 hours before shaping and baking.
Organic Lemon Rosemary Chicken and Pizza Margherita with EVOO and garden basil
Pizza Margherita
This is my Sourdough Semolina Country Bread I posted on my blog earlier and also made some rolls with same formula. Sorry no crumb shot. This was bread to leave home in the freezer.
Only single shot..sorry not very good!
Aspen site seeing at over 11,000ft.
Bottoms up!
OMG I almost forgot..our traveling companion and new addition to the family.. A mini Pom her name is 'Lolly Pop' and the adored little hamster 'Fluff'.
Fluff and Lolly. Lolly is nearly 3 mos.
Sylvia
Comments
Hi Sylvia,
Glad to hear you enjoyed your stay here in Co. You timing was good - you missed the worst of our summer heat this summer and the fires as well.
Loved the photos of your WFO bakes BUT the final ones are a show stopper. Just too cute. Do the hamster and the dog get along or was that just 'for the camera'? Your hamster looks quite relaxed and it appears as though your dog doesn't think of it as a meal....In my house it would be gone within seconds of stepping out of it's cage.....
Janet
Thank you! We had a great time.
Normally the skys in the photos would be bright clear blue. The haze is from fires. We were told there were as many as 60 fires from surrounding states. A neighbor said it was the least snow she had seen this last winter in the 40 years she has lived in Aspen. The tour bus driver that drove us up to the Maroon Bells and lake in the photo said she was able to drive her snow mobiles in avalanch areas and there were rocks to avoid, the creeks are slow and low.
The little Fluff hamster is very tame and friendly, cautious and curious of the new puppy. That's as close as they will get. The pup will stay very small about 4 lbs when fully grown..so she will only be able to play with one of the other smallest dogs..Mooch, he's just about 5 lbs. She is fragile and has small delicate bone structure...the larger dogs would be to rough to play with her even though she is very playful and all the dogs are very social and friendly.
Sylvia
Hi Sylvia,
love the mountain scenery too; hope you had a great holiday
Best wishes
Andy
Thank you! A lot of very interesting history around those mountains.
I need to make a lot more pizza's!
Always glad to hear from you.
Sylvia
Beautiful, Sylvia! The flour performance sounds interesting. Pizza crust is excellent and so is the sd. Semolina boule. I bet the interior of the boule is spectacular, given your skills and the heat of the oven.
Bless the creator! What a breathtaking scenery! I hope you enjoyed your trip.
Wonderful flour. The smell is also wonderful.
We enjoyed the trip very much. There was also the performance of the Aspen Music Festival and School an internationally renowned classical music festival....one student compared Beethoven's music to the fine tasting of a baguette... :) I loved it!
Sylvia
A mountian holiday, new flour, pizza, bread, fired up oven and a new ' lolly pop' baking apprentice to go with Fluffy. Can't be beat! Nice baking Sylvia. You need to get some of your steam going in that oven....well maybe not.
Thank you for the very nice comments. The oven was hot and dry with just a few buns and one boule.. I always add a little steam :)
Sylvia
I'm so jealous of your WFO! What great looking pizza and semolina bread. I have used the Caputo flour for pizza as well and enjoyed its tender crumb.
My 5 cats would love your Lolly Pop....Fluff on the other hand would not fair as well I'm afraid!
Glad you had a great vacation and thanks for sharing some beautiful photos.
Regards,
ian
I enjoy the wfo very much, maybe Santa will bring you one too! How about that flour..pretty darn nice and addicting for pizza!
Sylvia
Lolly Pop would like to get at that lovely hamster Fluffy too. When my daughter was little she had a hamster named Barney, after the famous purple dino at that time. Our previous Doxie Baking Apprentice Gretchen, managed to get Barney. My daughter left the poor thing out of its cage with her bedroom door open. When my daughter went to sleep, the determined German snuck in there and snatched the poor hamster, ran down the hall when we saw her take her catch out the doggie door to the back yard. Barney was gone by the time we could get him out of the dog's mouth.
My daughter was heartbroken but thought she had just left the cage door open adn hamster ran away. Shewould have been really mad had she known that Gretchen had killed Barney for sport. We didn't tell her the truth until she was 18 years old.
and heartbreaking.
Little Fluff belongs to my oldest grand-daughter, who absolutely adores her. Fluff was her 20th birthday gift she wanted so very much to say the very least. Lauren has a very special connection with animals that's quite noticable. She's been very fortunate to have had a lot of experience with horses and tiny animals since she was very small..we all know to well how heartbreaking it is to loose any pet or see any animal wild or tame suffer.
Sylvia