MarkPReynolds.com http://markpreynolds.com ... an Archive of My Miscellaneum Fri, 11 May 2012 13:48:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Perfect Pizza Dough http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/perfect-pizza-dough http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/perfect-pizza-dough#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:20:45 +0000 Mark http://markpreynolds.com/?p=2013 This page is a hybrid between my notes notes on recipes and my favorite authors.  if you are interested in making great pizza and willing to put in the time, you should probably just skip my notes and check out the links that follow.

Great Resources on baking pizza:

 

Still reading?  Ok then.  Here are my notes, recipes, and results:

Artisan Dough, single small pie

  • 1/2 Cup warm water (110 F)
  • 1 TSP Dry yeast
  • 1 TSP Salt
  • 1 1/4 cup flour (3 parts bread flour, 1 part white flour, trace wheat/rye flour)
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  1. Add all ingredients to bread machine on dough cycle.  Add small amounts of water or flour as needed to form soft, non-sticky dough.
  2. Preheat oven  to 450.  Allow pizza stone to warm, ~ 20 minutes.
  3. Press out dough, leaving edge thicker and place on cornmeal-dusted pizza peel.
  4. Add toppings, and bake for about 10 minutes or until cheese begins to brown.
  5. Take entire stone out of of oven and let crisp 2 more minutes, serve.
Makes 1 pie, approx 12 inches
Results:  Pretty great crust.  I’ve also tried with less moisture in the sauce which seems to avoid the dough getting soggy during baking.  In one variation, I used no sauce, put cheese on first, toms on top.

Artisan Dough Pizza, vented pan

  • 3 oz warm water (110 F)
  • 1/2 TSP Dry yeast
  • 1/2 TSP Salt
  • 1 cup flour (3 parts bread flour, 1 part white flour)
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  1. Add all ingredients to bread machine on dough cycle.  Add small amounts of water or flour as needed to form soft, non-sticky dough.
  2. Preheat oven  to 450.  ~ 20 minutes.
  3. Press out dough with only hands, leave edge thicker to form crust. Do not fold, just turn and knead.
  4. Place dough on oiled, vented pan
  5. Add toppings, and bake for about 10 minutes.
Makes 1 medium (12 inch thin crust)
Results:  The vented pan did nothing to improve crisping the crust.  It came out soggy.  Back to pizza stone.

Artisan Sourdough Pizza

  • 1 TSP Dry yeast
  • 1 TSP Salt
  • 1/4 Cup water
  • 1/2 Cup soughdough starter
  • 1 Cup flour (mostly bread flour, some white, rye, and wheat flours)
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  1. Add all ingredients to bread machine on dough cycle.  Add small amounts of water or flour as needed to form soft, non-sticky dough.
  2. Preheat oven  to 450.  Allow pizza stone to warm, ~ 20 minutes.
  3. Press out dough with only hands, leave edge thicker to form crust.
  4. Dust pizza peel and stone with cornmeal.
  5. Place dough on peel, add toppings, and bake for about 10 minutes.
Makes 1 small (8 to 12 inches depending on thickness desired)
Results:  The dough was crisp and tasty but did not rise much.  I think the sourdough starter interferes to much with the rise to be worth the flavor.  I’ll try this same recipe next with the extra flours, no starter.

Artisan Dough Pizza

  • 7 oz warm water (110 F)
  • 1 TSP Dry yeast
  • 1 TSP Salt
  • 2 1/4 cup flour (3 parts bread flour, 1 part white flour)
  • 1/8 Cup olive oil
  1. Add all ingredients to bread machine on dough cycle.  Add small amounts of water or flour as needed to form soft, non-sticky dough.
  2. Preheat oven  to 450.  Allow pizza stone to warm, ~ 20 minutes.
  3. Press out dough with only hands, leave edge thicker to form crust.
  4. Dust pizza peel and stone with cornmeal.
  5. Place dough on peel, add toppings, and bake for about 10 minutes.
Makes 1 large (12 to 16 inches depending on thickness desired)
Results:  Dough came out great.  I kept the pie on the pizza stone after baking to allow it to continue to crisp without over cooking the toppings.  Note there is no sugar in this recipe.

Sourdough Pan Pizza

  • 1 TBSP warm water (110 F)
  • 1 TBSP sugar
  • 1 TSP Dry yeast
  • 1 TBSP non−fat dry milk
  • 1 TSP Salt
  • 1 cup flour mix (3 parts bread flour, 1 part white flour)
  • 1 cup sourdough starter
  • 2 TSP canola oil (for dough)
  • 1 TSP canola oil (for pan)
  1. Combine warmed water, sugar, and yeast.  Mix with whisk. Let sit 5 minutes.
  2. Add all ingredients to bread machine on dough cycle.
  3. Oil 12″ pan.  Add dough .  Let rise 1 hour.
  4. Preheat oven  to 450, add toppings, and bake for about 15 minutes.

Results:

  1. First run at this was perfect pan style pizza with crunchy golden crust and chewy outside.
  2. With rye flour, dough was a bit sticky and did not seem to pre rise much but turned out great.  Reducing to 1 TBSP from 1/4 Cup.
  3. With one TBSP rye flour it was still a bit sticky and thicker, less fluffy and easy to knead than I recall original dough.  Tasted and rose great though.  Looks like the flour % is too low after reducing recipe size.
  4. Reduced the oil to proportionate 1 TSP.  Good but still too hard outside.  Thinking a pan is better.

 

Next:

  • Larger, flatter, pan. (with original recipe)
  • Pizza stone
  • Use starter
  • Use honey, brown sugar
  • Add herbs

 


This is the beginning of a quest.

I’m no longer very happy with my previous pizza dough recipes.  It tastes good but not as great as I find at some of the best pizza places around and the texture does not compare at all.  I spend a lot of time working on sourdough starter and breads so I should be able to make a world-class pizza dough with a crisp and flakey outside and a soft and chewy inside.

This page will act as a repo for notes and recipes to that end.

  1. A lot of dough recipes focus on “quick” and “easy”.  I’m done with these except if by coincidence.
  2. I’m also suspending the bread machine until I’m sure it’s not interfering.
  3. Less focus on flavor (like adding herbs, garlic) until I get great texture.
  4. Toasting crust before baking.  Turned over and brushed with oil before adding toppings.  This does fix the too-doughy, uncooked issue, but cooking the pizza at 450 actually overcooks the dough.
  5. Used honey instead of sugar
  6. Rye flour and cornmeal worked well.  Need to try just the rye flour.
Next
  1. 2 stage baking (like some pizza places).  Pre-bake dough, sauce, and toppings.  Add cheese.
  2. Move cooking rack even lower in the oven.
  3. Less toppings / area.  Bigger pizza rounds for same amount of toppings.
  4. Try using part whole wheat flour
  5. Try adding a TBSP dry milk
  6. Agave nectar instead of honey
  7. Some guest have suggested that high-end pizzas have the advantage of professional ovens.  Are there any steps I could take to close that gap? Outdoor brick oven?

Results of above

  1. Add water to the tray in oven with goal of a softer, water-injected oven, french bread style crust.  This worked well.
  2. Lots of cornmeal on bottom of pie did not do much.
  3. Brushing dough with oil did not make much difference.

Previous Recipes:


Rye Flour Recipe

  • 1/4 cup warm water (110 F)
  • 1 TBSP sugar
  • 1 TSP Dry yeast
  • 1 TBSP non−fat dry milk
  • 1 TSP Salt
  • 1 TBSP Rye Flour
  • 1 cup bread flour
  • 1 TSP canola oil (for dough)
  • 1 TSP canola oil (for pan)
  1. Combine water, sugar, yeast, and dry milk.  Mix with whisk. Let sit 5 minutes.
  2. Mix in oil, salt, and flour.  Knead until soft.
  3. Oil 12″ pan.  Add dough .  Let rise 1 hour.
  4. Preheat oven  to 450, add toppings, and bake for about 15 minutes.

Results:

  1. First run at this was perfect pan style pizza with crunchy golden crust and chewy outside.
  2. With rye flour, dough was a bit sticky and did not seem to pre rise much but turned out great.  Reducing to 1 TBSP from 1/4 Cup.
  3. With one TBSP rye flour it was still a bit sticky and thicker, less fluffy and easy to knead than I recall original dough.  Tasted and rose great though.  Looks like the flour % is too low after reducing recipe size.
  4. Reduced the oil to proportionate 1 TSP.  Good but still too hard outside.  Thinking a pan is better.

Adding Steam When baking

  • Same ingredients as previous
  1. Combine starter, honey, and a splash of water.
  2. Mix with whisk. Let sit 5 minutes.
  3. Mix in oil, salt, and flour.
  4. Knead until soft.  Brush with oil.  Let rise 1 hour.
  5. Preheat oven  to 450. (and then pizza stone for 10 minutes).
  6. Form dough into (2) 12″ rounds.  Add toppings.
  7. Put pizza in oven and add water to steam pan.

Results:  It was very good.  The dough was almost perfect.  The top still browned a little too early so possibly more or more frequent water needed.  Or  lower temp to 425 for baking.

Reducing Oven Heat When baking

  • 1 .25 cups bread flour
  • .25 cups rye flour
  • 1 cup sourdough starter (or equal parts flour and water)
  • 1 TBSP honey
  • 1 TSP sea salt
  • 2 TBSP olive oil
  1. Combine starter, honey, and a splash of water.
  2. Mix with whisk. Let sit 5 minutes.
  3. Mix in oil, salt, and flour.
  4. Knead until soft.  Brush with oil.  Let rise 1 hour.
  5. Preheat oven  to 450. (and then pizza stone for 10 minutes).
  6. Form dough into (2) 12″ rounds.  Add toppings.
  7. Put pizza in oven and reduce heat to 400F.

Results:  It was quite good.  Still seems like the cool toppings on raw dough stop the top half of the dough from cooking enough.  Brushing edge / crust with olive oil did nothing.  Putting doug back in the

Best Online Recipe

  • 1 and 2/3 cups bread flour
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 1.5 TSP active yeast
  • 2 TSP honey
  • 1/2 TSP sea salt
  • 1.5 TBSP olive oil

Combine water, yeast, honey, and 1/2 cup of flour.  Mix with whisk. Let sit 5 minutes.   Mix in oil and salt then flour.  Knead until soft.  Separate into 2.  Brush with oil.  Let rise 1 hour, or 1 day in fridge, or one month in freezer.

Form into 12″ rounds.  Bake on pizza stone in 425? degree oven for 3? minutes.   Remove, turn over, brush with oil, add toppings, bake pizza according to recipe.

This came out better than previous efforts.  It’s more spongy and the outside seemed to cook more golden brown like a french loaf than the usual often dark brown bread crust.

Sourdough Starter Experimental Recipe

  • 1 .5 cups bread flour
  • 1 cup sourdough starter (or equal parts flour and water)
  • 1 TBSP honey
  • 1/2 TSP sea salt
  • 1.5 TBSP olive oil

Combine starter, honey, and 1/4 cup of flour.  Mix with whisk. Let sit 5 minutes.   Mix in oil, salt, then flour.  Knead until soft.  Separate into 2.  Brush with oil.  Let rise 1 hour, or 1 day in fridge, or one month in freezer.

Form into 12″ rounds.  Bake on pizza stone in 450 degree oven for 3 minutes.   Remove, turn over, brush with oil, add toppings, bake pizza according to recipe.

Results:  The issue with no commercial yeast is the rise is too slow.  If you want to role out the dough into rounds just before baking, the dough will still rise with huge, wonderful bubbles, but leave an unrisen, thick, doughy, center.  Blech.  If you rise the dough after rolling it it out into rounds and pre-toast, they come out perfect.  I’m just not sure how practical pre-rising rounds is.  It’s probably makes sense to just add yeast to the starter-based recipe to gain the rise and retain the starter flavor.

Rye Flour Recipe

  • 1 .25 cups bread flour
  • .25 cups rye flour
  • 1 TBSP cornmeal
  • 1 cup sourdough starter (or equal parts flour and water)
  • 1 TBSP honey
  • 1/2 TSP sea salt
  • 2 TBSP olive oil

Combine starter, honey, and 1/4 cup of flour.  Mix with whisk. Let sit 5 minutes.   Mix in oil, salt, then flour.  Knead until soft.  Separate into 2.  Brush with oil.  Let rise 1 hour, or 1 day in fridge, or one month in freezer.

Form into 12″ rounds.  Bake on pizza stone in 450 degree oven for 2 minutes.   Remove, turn over, brush with oil, add toppings, bake pizza at 450.

Results:  This tasted great.  I’ll keep the rye and possibly the cornmeal.  It was too crisp though.  After toasting perfectly, I needed to keep it in the oven for too long in order for the toppings to finish cooking, so the crust dried out like a cookie.  This is the opposite problem than before when the dough would not finish cooking before the top burned.  So I’m thinking oven at 425 for one or both of the toasting/baking steps.  Another option would be keeping the 450 temp and not pre-toasting.

Bake at 425 Degrees Recipe

Same as previous, minus the cornmeal and oven at 425 for 2 minute toasting and baking.
Results:

No Pre-Toast, Bake at 450 Degrees Recipe

Same as previous, minus the cornmeal and oven at 425 for toasting and baking.
Results:



]]> http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/perfect-pizza-dough/feed 0 Naan http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/naan http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/naan#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:43:43 +0000 Mark http://markpreynolds.com/?p=1992 Great naan recipe.  I’m also about to replace my pizza dough recipe with this.

Ingredients from:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/naan/detail.aspx

Ingredients

  • 1 cus starter
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 TBSP  white sugar
  • 1 TBSP brown sugar
  • 1 TBSP drypmilk
  • 1 TSP salt
  • 2 cups bread flour
  • 1 TBSP minced garlic (optional)
  • 1 TBSP and 2-1/4 teaspoons butter, melted
  • 1 TSP active dry yeast (optional if you are using starter)

Directions

  1. Use bread machine dough cycle
  2. Separate into 3″ balls
  3. Roll flat into 8″ circles
  4. Brush with the melted butter
  5. Cook on grill or skillet until browned and puffy, about 3 minutes.

Original Directions

  1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
  2. Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
  3. During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.
  4. At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.
]]> http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/naan/feed 0 Herbed French Bread http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/herbed-french-bread http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/herbed-french-bread#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:58:36 +0000 Mark http://markpreynolds.com/?p=1903 This recipes uses a higher ratio of starter which I’m finding imparts more flavor and helps rise:

Makes two loaves

* 1 cup bread flour
* 2 TBSP brown sugar
* 2 TSP salt
* 2 TBSP dry milk
* 1 TBSP herbs de provence
* 1 TBSP rosemary
* 2 TBSP olive oil
* 1 cup sourdough starter
* baker’s yeast (optional, depending on the strength of your starter)

Bread machine dough cycle
Rise in warm, moist oven
Bake at 350 convection

]]> http://markpreynolds.com/food-and-wine/herbed-french-bread/feed 0 Film Queue http://markpreynolds.com/movies/film-queue http://markpreynolds.com/movies/film-queue#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 06:45:11 +0000 Mark http://markpreynolds.com/?p=1890 These are the movies in my must see list.  Many will move to my favorite or suspension of belief films posts.

Some sites these are pulled from:

  1. Focus Features
  2. Wikipedia
  3. IMDB
  4. 100-movies-to-see-before-you-die
  5. Empire’s top 500
I would include the AFI list but I believe I’ve seen almost all:  American Film Institute Top 100

 

Here we go:
  1. Rashomon
  2. Army Of Shadows
  3. The Long Goodbye
  4. Sunshine
  5. Out Of Sight
  6. The Lives Of Others
  7. The Last Seduction
  8. American History X
  9. Transformers
  10. Together
  11. Love And Death
  12. Brick
  13. Flesh
  14. Rebel Without A Cause
  15. Into The Wild
  16. Le Doulos
  17. Dead Man’s Shoes
  18. Ten
  19. Atonement
  20. Danger: Diabolik
  21. Electra Glide In Blue
  22. To Have And Have Not
  23. A Man Escaped
  24. Days Of Heave
  25. The Double Life Of Véronique
  26. The Battleship Potemkin
  27. Cross of Iron
  28. Raise the Red Lantern
  29. Spirited Away
  30. My Neighbor Totoro
  31. Tale of Tales
  32. Hedgehog in the Fog
  33. Some Like It Hot
  34. City Lights
  35. Persepolis
  36. Lawrence of Arabi
  37. Triumph of the Will
  38. The Searchers
  39. Once Upon a Time in the West
  40. Picnic at Hanging Rock
  41. Wavelength
  42. Infernal Affairs
  43. The Third Man
  44. Lawrence of Arabia
  45. Brief Encounter
  46. Get Carter
  47. Spirit Of The Beehive
  48. The King Of Comedy
  49. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
  50. The Night Of The Hunter
  51. Three Colours Red
  52. Come And See
  53. La Dolce Vita
  54. On The Waterfront
  55. Kind Hearts And Coronets
  56. The 400 Blows
  57. Andrei Rublev
  58. Heat
  59. Some Like It Hot
  60. Chinatown
  61. The Apartment
  62. Paths Of Glory
  63. Le Samourai
  64. La Haine
  65. Being There
  66. Betty Blue
  67. Badlands
  68. The Innocents
  69. The Red Shoes
  70. Sophie’s Choice
  71. Z
  72. Notorious
  73. Cyrano De Bergerac
  74. The Man Who Would Be King
  75. Harvey
  76. Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid
  77. A Bout De Souffle
  78. Los Olvidados
  79. Withnail And I
  80. Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
  81. Fitzcarraldo
  82. The Rules Of The Game
  83. Touch Of Evil
  84. La Maman Et La Putain
  85. La Belle Et La Bête
  86. Rocco And His Brothers
  87. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
  88. L’Avventura
  89. Solaris
  90. Ran
  91. The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
  92. The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu
  93. The Lady Vanishes
  94. Das Boot
  95. Roman Holiday
  96. M
  97. The Addiction
  98. The Killer
  99. 2 Days In Paris
  100. Cabaret
  101. …

 

]]> http://markpreynolds.com/movies/film-queue/feed 0 Favorite Christmas Films http://markpreynolds.com/movies/favorite-christmas-films http://markpreynolds.com/movies/favorite-christmas-films#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:17:10 +0000 Mark http://markpreynolds.com/?p=1886 My all-time favorite holiday movies.  I know I’m missing some classics.  I need to see Miracle and maybe rescreen A Christmas Carol.  These are my current picks.

  1. It’s a Wonderful Life
  2. The Grinch That Stole Christmas
  3. Elf
  4. Love Actually
  5. Christmas Vacation
  6. A Christmas Story
  7. Trading Places
  8. Scrooged
  9. Die Hard
  10. Bad Santa
  11. The Nightmare Before Christmas
]]> http://markpreynolds.com/movies/favorite-christmas-films/feed 0