The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Pizzaaah! Take six.

Skibum's picture
Skibum

Pizzaaah! Take six.

Well I now have baked through a bag of 00 flour and absolutely love the pizza crust it makes! Of course the two grocery stores in my small mountain town no longer carry 00 flour. Fortunately I found an on-line source here in Canada to mail order 00 flour: gourmetwarehouse.ca.  Whew!

The dough for this pizza had been refrigerated for at least 5 days and still made an excellent result. I have taken a page out of Ken Forkish's book and finish baking the pizza under the 500F broiler which chars parts of the crust and finishes things off nicely.

I start rolling the crust out with a rolling pin, then shape the crust edge by hand, working the dough on baker's parchment. I start with extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil, followed by home made tomato gravy, prosciutto, Hungarian salami, cooked and diced bacon, chunks of fresh mozzarella and grated Reggiano parmigiana. Bella!!!

The bad thing is that there is a pizza joint in my neighbourhood making pizza I really liked.  Sadly with the results I have been getting, they won't see much of me again. 

I am frankly amazed at the difference 00 flour makes in pizza dough and crust!

Happy baking! Ski

Comments

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

Your description about the toppings made me hungry! Is this pizza sourdough? 5 days in the fridge and still looks airy and crisp!

Skibum's picture
Skibum

. . . I did use my liquid levain, which I use for almost everything.  This was longer than I would normally keep dough in the fridge, but it still made a dynamite pizza crust.

Thanks and happy baking! Ski

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Another beauty!  Welcome to the 00 flour club!  No turning back now!

Skibum's picture
Skibum

the 00 flour club is a great one to be in. I am actually staggered at how good the pizza crust and pizza is with this flour. I understand why you will only use this for pizza.

Happy pizza baking! Ski

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

flip it when it chars up on both sides then take it off, top it and then finish it unber the broiler to brown the top only - the method also makes fine pizza.

Yours looks really nice and I love the toppings!  Pizza places around here are losing a lot of business too!

Well done and happy baking SKI-  the snow must be getting oretty deeo where you are by now - and we are in the high 70's too!

Skibum's picture
Skibum

I have really fallen in love with this particular pizza.. It helps to have a local Swiss deli with absolutely the best cold cuts you can buy, good fresh mozzarella, tomato gravy made with San Marzano tomatoes, great EVOO and Reggiano parma and it is hard to go wrong. The guys at Red Rock pizza are wondering what happened to one of their best customers. Maybe I should tell them . . .

Your idea of doing the crust on the grill is one I will definitely try.

Only one ski day so far this past Friday as our season has suffered a late start due to unseasonably warm conditions. I will ski tomorrow though.

Loving life having found 00 flour! Happy baking! Ski

Arjon's picture
Arjon

If they deal with wholesalers who carry it, they might be able to special order a manageable amount. Could be worth asking. 

Skibum's picture
Skibum

. . . thanks for the thought! They had some for a while and I guess it didn't sell through fast enough so they discontinued it. The on-line source I found works fine and I just received 5 kg ln today in the mail.

Happy baking! Ski

Skibum's picture
Skibum

Now that I have baked pizza with 00, I understand the fuss! A wood fired oven would be awesome to try, but is not in this old ski bum's budget. The Forkish method of finishing under the broiler produces a good result and it kind of sort of replicates a wood oven.

I just received 5 kg of 00 today in the mail and I can't wait to try it. I found it interesting that it has an expiry date of 2/17/2017, so storing most in the freezer.

 

Happy baking, from a very happy Ski!