Potato & Caramelized Onion Pizza with Feta

I had a similar pizza at a local Pizzeria , so I thought I would reproduce it except try it with feta.

The dough is 65% hydration with about 3-5% whole wheat for a rustic addition.
1. Make the dough at least 1 day before.
2. Caramelize sweet onions
3. Par boil ,then fry sliced potatoes seasoned well ( I used garlic, S&P,  Chili flakes)
4. Assemble pizza: Layer with the onions ,then potato slices, then a combination of Feta and fresh Mozzarella
5. Drizzle with olive oil
6. Cook in highest temp possible ( My oven was 800F cooked in 90 sec)

 Oh yes - I forgot , my secret ingredient was that I caramelized the onions in Duck Fat !

 Went well with this California full bodied blend

Eight Grain Cereal Bread

This bread used an Eight-Grain cereal mix & seeds to create an great healthy bread with a reasonably open crumb, considering the density of the grains.

I used 10% whole wheat sourdough starter, with 25% of the total flour being whole wheat. I used less whole wheat because I already had the eight grain cereal mix. The hydration is ~75%.  The overall formula is below 

Process:

• Autolyse the flour and water overnight
• Make a soaker with grain and boiling water - soak overnight
• Make the levain from mature 50gm of starter - overnight 
• Next morning mix flour, salt , yeast , levain 3-4 min speed 1 add 1tbs malt syrup
• After some gluten development then add in Soaker and mix for 3-4 min speed 1
• empty on counter and a few stretch and folds
• Ferment ~ 2hours with stretch and folds at 30min and again at 1hr.
• Shape into two large or three smaller loafs - roll in seed mix ( optional) - I used sunflower, flax, and pumpkin mix.
• Proof  ~ 1 hour
• Bake covered 475F 20 min then uncovered ~ 30min 

 

This is pasted in from my bread recipe create spreadsheet

Bread Recipe Creator		gm	OZ
Total desired Bread Weight (gm) -->	1500.0		52.8
Desired Bread Hydration %	75.00%
Desired % of Starter you want in the dough	10.00%	150.0	5.3
What is the Hydration of the Starter, biga, or poolish you are using	100.00%
To build the levain to desired % Flour to add		75.0	2.6
Water to Add		75.0	2.6
Total Flour to add at desired % hydration Minus Flour already in Starter		782.1	27.5
Total Water to add at desired % hydration minus Water already in Starter		567.9	20.0
Desired Flour Mix - (Must add to 100%)	100.0%
% AP or bread	75.00%	586.6	20.7
% WW	25.00%	195.5	6.9
% spelt	0%	0.0	0.0
% Rye	0.00%	0.0	0.0
	C8 Sum check	782.1	27.5
Dry yeast varies from 1-3%	0.50%	4.3	0.15
Don't forget the Salt (2% is common)	2.00%	17.1	0.6
If using a grain/seed soaker mix add:	% of total wt	gm
Soaker Dry weight	15.00%	225.0	7.9
total weight with water	30.00%	450.0	15.8
H20 content		202.5	7.1

Christmas present Breads

Orange Honey Polenta bread made a nice breakfast treat for my neighbors

I made four 700gm loafs which were nice gift size .  This bread makes a great morning toast with jam. The formula is below.

I used my excel spreadsheet to come up with the proportions

		gm	OZ
Total desired Bread Weight (gm) -->	2800.0		98.6
Desired Bread  Hydration %	65.00%
Desired  % of Starter you want in the dough	20.00%	560.0	19.7
What is the Hydration of the Starter, biga, or poolish you are using	65.00%
Your starter hydration contains : Flour		339.4	12.0
Water		220.6	7.8
Total Flour to add at desired % hydration Minus Flour already in Starter		1357.6	47.8
Total Water to add at desired % hydration minus Water already in Starter		882.4	31.1
Desired Flour Mix - (Must add to 100%)	100.0%
% AP or bread	65.00%	882.4	31.1
Spelt	20.00%	271.5	9.6
semolina	5%	67.9	2.4
polenta	10.00%	135.8	4.8
Orange juice	15.00%	203.6	7.2
Honey	7.50%	101.8	3.6
Vanilla	1t%	#VALUE!
Dry yeast varies from 1-3%	0.50%	8.5	0.30
Don't forget the Salt (2% is common)	2.00%	33.9	1.2

Even old dough makes a good pizza

I made this pizza with dough that was in my Fridge for almost 7 days !  So don't listen to the naysayers that say you can only keep fresh dough for 2-3 days.

Start with a Super hot oven

 Fresh Mozzarella and sharp cheddar with uncurred pepperoni 

 90 Second cook

Hum Bow : Amazing around the world for different doughs yet how similar . She even does a window pane test. the interesting part is the cooked starter paste

Make up your own bread recipes

When I make bread , I rarely follow a recipe  . I do look at lots of them but then I always change something or don't have some particular ingredient so have to substitute.  I ask myself five basic questions :  1. How much bread do I want to make? 2.  At what Hydration? 3.  How much of the total dough do I want to be from a starter/levain/poolish?  4. What combinations of flours do I want ? and 5. What type of soaker might I want to add. So I created a Excel workbook with three sheets to help me. Which you can download here I also use it for experimenting with various pizza dough formulations Click to download the workbook Sheet 1 is to create a recipe Next There are times when you need to convert a polish or 100% starter into a stiffer preferment or biga, depending on the type of recipe you might be trying to emulate. Or for example, a more sour sourdough can be created with a stiffer starter because the acidic acid prefers a less hydrated environment.  So the second sheet in the excel workbook is a starter hydration changer The third sheet in the workbook is for those times when you find a recipe in cups and oz and want to convert to grams and figure out the total amount of bread it will make and see what the hydration % is of the recipe .   Recipe converter: The input cells are in yellow.  Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Weekend bread experiment

Potpourri of breads

Carmelized fennel and orange.

Small loafs are Ciabatta buns

Multigrain sourdough with flax, sunflower, cracked faro. (lower round)

Large middle loaf is Jewish rye Ala Rose Levy ( upper large round)

I used the Ciabatta buns with pulled chicken in a rich awesome home made adobo sauce my wife made served with sharp Welch Cheddar