Morgan, Pizza, and Bread

I had pizza dough getting happy in the fridge. You know what that means...

I opened up a bottle of wine and made pizza. I was not so happy with how the dough was responding. It didn't brown as fast or as much as I would have liked. Perhaps the fridge was too cool for the three day ferment, or the oven was not hot enough, or I was too timid to let it cook long enough. All part of learning to work with a living thing.

I formed the balls of dough and let them rest for an hour before I started making pies. The first balls are always the most difficult to stretch, as they have the least amount of time to relax. Unfortunately, my oven has difficulty maintaining heat, so when the oven is at it's prime, I'm stretching the most difficult dough to work with and by the time I get to the last dough ball, the oven has cooled. Oh, well. If only I had a pizza oven...

I wanted to try something different for one of the pizzas. I made a white pizza with smoked mozzarella, lemon, basil, and olive oil. I liked the combination, but the smoked cheese I used was only lightly smoked, so it's flavour was covered by the lemon. Next time I'll either top it with more cheese or look for one with more flavour.

This morning I played with the dog for a bit before baking.

100g unbleached, organic, stone ground white flour, 464g High Grade white flour, 2% salt, 0.25% active dry yeast, 75% hydration, 24 hour bulk ferment, 70 minute proof, 30 minutes in a covered cast iron cloche @ 250C and 24 minutes uncovered @ 225C.

This time I remembered to score the dough before I put it in the oven.

Tonight I'm going to try making a leaven from my new wild yeast culture and try baking a boule tomorrow, if I'm lucky...