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Poolish Pizza - Ken Forkish FWS for WBDay - Fig cookies yumm
I fired up the WFO oven today. The lovely weather has put me in the mood to do a little cooking outdoors.
I have been wanting to bake Ken Forkish FWS pizza formula using a poolish ferment.
Friday night I mixed up the poolish for his pizza with the intent of baking them in my wfo oven Sunday. That's one of the good things about making pizza's 'pizze' :) You can put it off a day or two and still hopefully have some decent dough to work with. That's just what happened. Pizza plans were canceled and we went out Sunday and Monday for the evening.
I followed the formula pretty much to the tee.
The Poolish was mixed at 9pm and placed in my very cool laundry room with window open. The nights have been very cool and just in range of the suggested temperature and time for the poolish to ferment. 12 to 14 hours. 10am Saturday the next morning I mixed and bulk fermented until 3pm..it could have went a little longer but 3pm worked good for me. The balls were divided and shaped and placed into the refrigerator with the intent that they would be baked at about 4:30 Sunday for Monday.
Instead they were baked Tuesday for our early weekday dinner's at 3:30.
This is a highly hydrated pizza dough and one thing I won't do again is proof the dough as was suggested in the book. Spray oiled, floured and placed into a container. Big mistake, especially since my dough was going to be kept until tuesday.
The best thing that works for me with a high hydration pizza dough is to place each dough ball into one of those plastic disposable/reusable bowls w/lids. Sprayed with oil and NO flour. Especially with a tender dough like this that you don't want to over handle or degas. These bowls work better for me rather than oiled plastic bags. This way I just dump the dough onto the floured counter for shaping into a pizza without over handling the dough.
Well this dough was rough handled more than I wanted just trying to get it out of the pans. As far as the spraying and flour dusting well that just makes raw flour clumps stick to the dough. Not what you want.
Here's my dough in the pans proofing...next go I will use the oiled lid/plastic container bowls for each pizza. I had 5 dough balls. I should have picked some up because I used up the ones I had for other things. Sometimes I use oiled outdoor plastic bowls and layer them with the sandwich plates that came with them.
I used the full hydration suggested in the formula. With caputoo 00 flour that makes for a pretty slack dough with the extra day fermenting they were also highly extensible.
Keeping your dough like this I think is fine for same day ferment and use. But, not any longer. I usually do this for transporting or when you want guests to make their own pizza's. Then this way comes in handy...but don't spray oil the balls and then flour them...just flour only.
Ready for the oven. Very extensible and still very lively dough. You might like to lower the hydration as suggested in the formula if you are not used to handling a high hydration pizza dough. I think it's about 80% hydration and I may have pushed that even a little more with the wet hand mixing.
Things were happening pretty fast for me at this point, I did manage to get some pics and eat too..pizza's baked in about 2-3 minutes in the very hot wfo.
The pizza was delicious. Mike took one over to a neighbor and photos to take to his Italian ex-baker co-worker. He said they were 'The Perfect Storm' our saying around here lately, when things go good : )
Crispy crust, tender creamy crumb, melt in your mouth goodness with that special flavor you only get from a WFO baked pizza.
: ) Good heat on the floor. The bottom and top cooked and finished together just the way I like it.
Now here's a fun shape. I said this was a very extensible dough.
Look what happened when I picked this dough up a bit carelessly. S t r e t c h...well this is certainly not going to make it into a round pizza. I made a plank pizza instead.
Now here's the biggest problem I run into when making a pizza like this.
How do I rotate it around in the oven so both sides get baked.
I found that my long handled poker with the little fork end works perfect not only for rotating this yard long pizza but also has many other uses. Problem solved : )
One plank pizza
Here is a wonderful Fig Newton type cookie. Oh, these are so very delicious and easy to make. Just make the dough dough up the day before, refrigerate and bake the next day.
These are so delicious. Mike loves fig cookies and I think he's hooked on these.
None of that hydrogenated oils and high-frutose corn syrup..yucky stuff in many store bought cookies.
This is a recipe by Alison Needham from a copycat recipe I found on a yahoo shine site. The only thing I've changed is using some of my homemade organic black mission fig preserves for the filling.
These are delicious. I'm think next batch I will try a berry preserve for the center and I still have several jars of fig jam. Get use for figs from my tree. These will make a nice holiday cookie gift.
Bet you can't eat just one.
I had some delicious Sweet Apple Cider. So tasty and it also made a very delicious Sweet Apple Cider Jelly.
So easy in my new jam/jelly making machine : )
Happy World Bread Day...Oct. 16th
Sylvia
ps I guess you know now what my favorite bread is
ADDED...what was I thinking... Ken Forkish...how could I have called him Sam...did anyone else notice? Took me a while but I caught it 'lol'.
Comments
Wonderful looking pizzas!
Thank you, Floyd : )
Sylvia
I feel like such a dummy - I didn't even know it was World Bread Day again! I'm just now making a levain for Friday'sbake and will have to come up with something for WBD - a little belated as usual :-( I went to get figs from my secret neighborhood source and they had moved - new owners and no figs from now on. They thought I was a little crazy for asking. Oh well, great while it lasted.
I've got to get the jam machine before the citrus gets ripe and it is time for mega marmalad.
Not that your regular WFO pizzas aren't terrific but that the plank pizza is killer. Imagine a pide that big!
Thanks for the great post and reminding me of WBD too.
Happy baking
So glad you liked the pizza's.
You make me smile with pide : ) I do love Pide with lot's of filling's of green's and cheese sooo yummy.
New neighbor's..well they probably didn't have any figs left on the tree. Maybe bribe them with some of your delicious bakes and that includes smoked meats..I bet they will gladly hand some figs over next season.
So many uses for jams and jellies like basting, salad dressing, cookies, cakes, pies, tarts, you name it and jam it 'lol'.
Sylvia
Sylvia that is one magnificent pizza! Completely gorgeous, love the plank shape and how you embraced the long form the dough seemed to want to stretch out into. So inspiring :)
for the very kind comments : )
Sylvia
Hi Sylvia,
Wow, you make the most delicious-looking pizzas (the plank pizza such a great shape)!
Your fig cookies and apple cider jelly are lovely.
It is such a pleasure to see all of the good things coming out of your kitchen and WFO -
it's always inspiring to see all of the beautiful things you make.
:^) breadsong
It's always a pleasure to have your opinion on what I bake. I'm happy to know you enjoyed the my post and have been an inspiration to bake.
BTW, I have been doing a little reading in the new book you suggested 'From the Wood - Fired Oven' by
Richard Miscovich. Thank you for the suggesting the book. It's very well written and of a very nice quality to add to my growing wfo books.
Sylvia
Hi Sylvia,
You make the most delicious-looking things - I always do enjoy your posts :^)
I'm so glad you are liking Richard's book! (I just placed my order for it & looking forward to some good reading when it arrives).
:^) breadsong
Sylvia,
What a lovely tribute to WBD. That's great looking pizza. I really like the plank shape. As always you did a fine job on everything. Thanks for the tip on storing high-hydration pizza dough. Also, your fig cookies look truly delicious, as well as the cider jelly.
Howard
This plank shape is great for easy fast slicing and was fun to do. I'm so pleased you liked it. I hope to do a
better one next go..at least it will be planned.
This was one very extensible dough and the way I had it stored didn't make it easy to handle gently. Funny, I
did things the way the book instructed knowing pretty much what my result was going to be and I went ahead
and did it anyway. I just had to see if what I thought would happen 'did happen' to me.
I don't think I will ever by F Newton's again..Mike likes them as a snack. I never really enjoyed them that
much. Just something about store bought cookies. I can taste the additive in them. I just can't even enjoy
those bakery cookies. If I'm going to indulge, it has to be worth it.
I had picked up a very large jug of sweet apple cider. It was so delicious. I had to make jelly. Glad I did and
will make some more very soon.
Sylvia
I always use the low sugar for jam/jelly as directed for the machine. Works and tastes great.
I'm going to get a machine. I really want to start making my own jams and jellies. Charlene and I sometimes buy jams from a local store that stocks a variety of jams from Eastern Europe, which are very good. In the past, when I had a garden, I did a some canning. Once in a while our local supermarket has fresh figs but they usually only get one shipment and that's it for the year. Last time they had them I bought 4 baskets and made fig jam sans machine. I ended up with a couple of quarts, which turned out good. Hopefully, I'll have time to do some canning again in the not too distant future. By the way, that was an excellent post. I always thoroughly enjoy seeing your photos and reading about your baking adventures.
Take care,
Howard
makes pizza like you do Sylvia, especially when you break out your oven. A treat for the eyes. -Varda
for the kind words, Varda!
Break it out I did. The weather has been cooling and I didn't want to have to be to careful firing it up to such a high heat.
Sylvia
WOW! Awesome looking pizza. Now my dilemma is do I have sourdough pancakes for breakfast or pizza? Decisions, decisions . . .
I always enjoy your posts! I do say! The thought of some sourdough pancakes sounds awfully good. I think, no I know, Mike would trade in some pizza for sourdough pancakes. He's a real pancake lover. I have to save them for special breakfasts...days he's not going out for his bike training and I can indulge myself. Not very often. Oh, we love SDP just as much as pizza.
Mike really raved about this pizza. Said it was his very favorite.
He just loved it for his late after work snack. It does warm up very nicely in a toaster oven.
Sylvia
Hi Sylvia,
Great post, but then any time you you fire up the WFO it's a great post in my book, especially when you're making pizza. :^) There used to be a place in Vancouver that sold plank style pizza like yours in 4,8,12 inch increments that was pretty good but it sure didn't look as good as yours. Love your Fig Newtons as well and can't recall ever having seen this cookie made from scratch. Was this a first time for you or have you made these before? They look delicious!
Franko
I'm so pleased you enjoyed the post.
I love those 7ft. long pizza's pictures of the ones they make in Italy.
This one was just right, any longer I don't think I would have had enough room to turn it. It worked out pretty good and I was pleased. Although, it could have had the dough handled more gently and the crust would have bloomed up higher around the edges. Making a very attractive spotted, high blown crown. Next go will be better planned.
These cookies are so delicious. I just couldn't get the link to work to the recipe.
This was my first go at them and will be a favorite from now on. I have next years plans for all this growing crop of figs from my tree.
The original recipe calls for using dried figs cooked down with some sugar. My fig preserves worked great. When you use dried figs. They have a different flavor. A lot of the natural sweetness is lost.
I folded them completely wrong knowing something wasn't right. I thought I was making filled ropes 'lol'.
Just picture. Filling down the center. I folded one side over to the next, rolled seam over to be on the center bottom and pushed gently down to form the shape and then sliced. So silly, what was I thinking, baguettes or what! Next time they will be prettier. Filling down the center. Fold both sides to center and turn over to slice. Much prettier fig cookies :)
Sylvia