Pizzawith Tipo 00 Flour
This past week I ordered some flour from one of our members (Stan) and am so happy with the service and the product he provided me. I ordered some of his Caputo 00 Pizza Flour to try in my little high heat pizza oven. I made a few pizzas today and I have to say this flour is amazing, the crust is crispy on the bottom and soft, tender inside and at the rim. It was one of the most supple doughs I have ever worked with, I was able to stretch it thin enough to read thru and it never tore........amazing! If you are one who loves pizza I would heartily rec you get some of this flour and give it a try, it is made for high heat and I would imagine it would be great to use in a wood burning oven. I am going to try to attach some pics. Mattie
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q314/mattie405/PizzawithTipo00Flour001.jpg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q314/mattie405/PizzawithTipo00Flour008.jpg
I've made pizza with this flour before, and still have some Italian "00" flour in my pantry. The first thing I noticed was the fragrance of the flour when I mixed it, and also the aroma from the oven as the pizza neared completion. I made my pizza with this flour using my typical recipe that is @%75 hydration. Very nice pizzas...thanks for the photos. It would be nice to use this flour all the time, but for me, it is a little pricey because of the shipping.
Years ago I also tried pizza with another (Delverde) 00 flour and had nowhere near the results I had with this. I am sold on it! Yes, it costs more with the shipping than I can get other flours for, but the way I figure it is, we are worth it! Seriously, we both work, we don't really have an active social life, we like spending quiet nights at home together and there is only the 2 of us home, preparing and enjoying great food is one of our perks to ourselves at this stage in life. I can and do order All Trumps High Gluten for my pizza thru my employer for a good price and if I still had a house full of children and their friends to feed everynight I would cut corners where I had to to feed those starving teens, but that isn't the case anymore at least around here. I am willing to pay a little more for something that we really enjoy and this, even with the shipping is one of our little perks to ourselves. Years ago I more than likely could not have afforded to indulge myself with this, so I do understand what you are saying and think we all have to do what is right for ourselves at any given point in our lives. We enjoyed the pizza made with this today so much that it will definitely become our pizza flour from now on. I have a few more dough balls made up in the fridge and an abundance of rosemary in my backyard and am going to try some rosemary, sea salt breadsticks with it and maybe a smoked mozzarella pizza with another ball of it. I am still amazed at how thin I was able to stretch it without it tearing and without an abundance of bench flour either. I am one happy camper! Have a fun bake day. Mattie
It really is amazing stuff ...
Stan Ginsberg
www.nybakers.com
Stan,
Thanks so much for doing this for us home bakers. I agree with you that this flour is really amazing stuff. It's so amazing that hubby just asked if we had anymore of last nights pizza left so I am re-heating some for him right now. I also have 2 dough balls out for some pizzas for the grandkids later, our son will stop on his way home to pick them up. I'll be ordering again in the not too distant future. Mattie
Hi Mattie405.
Just wondering what your "little high temp oven" actually is? Would you mind divulging that?
I make a lot of pizza and bread, but with summer imminent downunder, I'm thinking it will be too hot to continue doing so much when the real heat starts. If yours is a portable oven, that might be a solution...
Cheers
Ross
The little oven I use is called a Festivo Dual Deck Pizza Oven. I think the only place to get them now is on EBAY sometimes. They were originally sold by the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog here in the states. I have also heard they were sold in one of the big warehouse stores too. I love this little oven, so much so that I bought another one a few weeks ago just in case the original breaks, it gets lots of use around here. It doesn't heat up the whole kitchen, pre-heats in about 30 minutes (instead of the almost 1 1/2-2 hours for the big oven) and bakes a thin crust pizza in under 3 minutes once it is heated. It has a small 16 inch square footprint. Everyone thought I was nuts when I bought the first one........after all single use appliances aren't that popular, but after trying the pizzas this little thing turns out they are all trying to get one now......my sister did manage to find one on EBAY and I am going to meet up with her in a few weeks to teach her how to make pizza in it. I tried writing to the company (ToTo Enterprises, China) but have never had any replies to my emails, many of our friends and all our children want one of these so I wanted to know if they had any other US outlets for them. Mattie
Thanks, Mattie.
Just a couple more queries, pls: is your little oven big enough to bake breads as well, or is it intended solely for pizzas? And does it really get up to 800C? I thought that was only attainable in a commerical or wood-fired oven.
If you can get temps as high as that, it must turn out great pizzas - and with a bake time of only a couple of minutes, you'd be getting maximum spring! Sounds bloody excellent!
The little oven does indeed reach the 800F degree temp so it truly does bake a great pizza. Unfortunately, the chambers themselves are only about 3-4 inches in height so you couldn't really use it to bake breads and other high rising items. I have used it to bake low sided casseroles like potatoes au gratin and to brown up croutons or to crisp up some chicken that needed it. I know it seems very frivilous to buy what amounts to a single purpose appliance but then again we enjoy a great pizza here more than we enjoy a thick steak......just our own particular eating habits, if we did crave and enjoy steaks I would probably buy a high BTU broiler just to make them. If you click on the picture links in my original maessage you will see some 2 minute pizzas from the little oven, I normally cook them a little longer as we like them a little charred at the rim but these were the first ones I made with the new flour so really wanted to get to try them fast! Mattie
Stan Ginsberg
www.nybakers.com
Nice pizza Stan. I have dough in the fridge for pizza for tomorrow, I make a couple for my employers young son every week, the little guy loves it, says it is better than any of the local places and at 7 years old he can put away a whole 12 inch pie when I bring them to him, he's thin and wiry with abundant energy so I guess he runs the calories off better than we would if we ate as much as he does. Either that or mine are lo-cal because they aren't loaded up as most are with heavy toppings......lately our favorite has become and light topping of fresh mozzarella with some roasted marinated tomatoes....talk about good. Guess we'll have pizza tomorrow night too, thinking about it has made me want one. mattie
is margherita ... fresh bufalo mozzarella, san marzano tomatoes, a little salt, a little olive oil, a light sprinkling of parmesan, and then fresh basil leaves laid on top right after it comes out of the oven. mmmmmmm