I made my first loaves of bread from scratch last week. A simple no knead mild sourdough. Flour, water, salt, yeast. Bam!

It was awesome!!!

I guess I will move on to other types of bread including pizza dough.

Letting the dough rest will let the glutens calm down. They get activated with water and kneading. The trick is to mix and minimal as possible, let rest, then knead as little as possible to form the loaf or pizza dough. Too much action and the dough is harder to stretch and much more chewy.

Leaving it overnight lets the dough really relax and is much softer. The trick to a fast mix/rise/throw/bake is to mix/knead is as little as possible.

Yeah I had an 88 300CE Lorenzor. Loved it to pieces. But, over time the insulation on the wiring harness started to crack etc. Ran up a fortune in repairs, finally sold it to a guy who restored it. Miss that beast!

The 69 280si is one of my favorite MB's.


But back to the original post--- a lot of these sites have the usual cast of characters!

You guys have enough spare time to bake bread and make pizzas???

Clearly I'm doing something wrong !

Hey, I'm going to Italy in a few months, starting in Rome. Do you have any pizza place tips for Rome?

^^^^^^^^this....a far better response than my .02 cents....as far as why make your own dough/bread...they should be a few simple ingredients...a few years ago I realized our modern day food system (since the 1940s) is killing us all and is likely the reason we see so many medical issues ( cancer for example)....so for me, and my family if I cannot read and understand the ingredients on the package I don't buy it, so that has lead me to making most of our food from scratch with organic ingredients.. And we all feel better for it...i have not had a soda or fast food in years...i recommend trying it, you just might feel better too....just another .02 cents worth...

You're on the right track with the known ingredients, at least if you actually know if any of them are bad for you! The "organic" folks need to remember that hemlock is organic and that's what they used to kill Socrates.

I was rereading one of the Freakonomics books the other night. They're incredibly interesting, the writing is entertaining, and they can help most anyone think a bit more clearly.

They pointed out that heart problems used to be the major killer of Americans, but treatments before and after such problems have drastically reduced the number of such deaths, leaving more of the population -- and they used italics, too -- to live long enough to die of cancer.

It's pretty scary when we see a disease become more prevalent, but there are so many possibilities as to why that we usually cannot see clearly through to the actual cause. More people have cancer now because earlier they would not have lived long enough to get it.  Wow.

How is this related to this forum?

The fact that there is another forum with other crazies debating hydration levels of pizza dough....

Fins, you are being baited! See how he went back to the hook? lol.

I'm leaving this whole thread alone. Bunch of guys talking about kitchen tips...


pass

We use Caputo Pizzaria flour. It is different than the more common Tipo 00 and is the one of the most popular pizza flours in Naples Italy. It comes in 55 lb bags, but this place repacks it to 5 lb bags. Glutton content really is important and this gets it right.

[Link: pennmac.com]

[Link: molinocaputo.it]

The same store has some great pepperoni

[Link: pennmac.com]

The crust is a handle. Yes, I have my preferences. I like the large, thin (NEVER crispy), floppy NY style...fold it and eat it...crust. I also like a good deep dish crust baked in butter and oil so that the crust is essentially fried.....crispy on the outside...Pizza Hut Pan crust comes to mind, from all my childhood memories (thank goodness schools still do Book It! My kindergartener has been reading and getting the freebies). But my fav is Old Chicago's deep crust. Health food it is not. But rarely does anything remotely healthy taste nearly as good. :)

But it is the sauce that makes or breaks a pie IMHO. Most of the sauces I have explicitly disliked, were too bitter/acidic. Not enough salt and/or sugar. And once you notice it, it is in every damn bite. The sauce needs the right balance between sweet/salty, herbs/spices, and the right consistency. And if you use garlic, cook it first....roast it or just sautee it a bit to knock the bitterness down before tossing it in the sauce. It does not take much, but makes a big difference. I generally buy a premade basic sauce and then modify it to my liking. I get more consistent results vs. starting with fresh tomatoes. The time savings is a bonus as well.

I use a pizza stone. It stays in my oven permanently. I just got a new cast iron skillet for Christmas, so I will start experimenting with some deep crust pies.

I just found this in my inbox...

[Link: kingarthurflour.com]

I use KA flour all the time, mostly for sourdough bread. The best price on it around here is at Walmart. Shipping cost kills the Penn Mac deal for me otherwise I would try it!