Why I Oughta...

Via Adam Kuban on his Instagram handle (story) For years, I've been poking around this thread (and the various sub-threads ) on PizzaMaking.com that focus on Chicago-style thin crust (aka Tavern pizza) and in various places, posters have occasionally mentioned using diastatic malt powder - or sometimes non-diastatic - in their dough formulations.  And while I've been intrigued, I've never gone out and procured the stuff, let alone find out where I could buy it locally.  But then, this happened over the weekend on Instagram.  Slice (RIP) Head Honcho and "pizza influencer" Adam Kuban posted this upskirt and description in his recent stories .  I screenshot it above.  ( You can follow Adam here on Instagram .  Or you can learn more about his pop-up Margot's Pizza here .) He called out that he added diastatic malt powder for oven spring and color.  Color, people?!?!  That's one of the things that I've been working on over the years is a consisten

We were in Williams Sonoma yesterday and came across these Brookster Pans.  I consider myself to be someone who somewhat keeps up with baking blogs and the like and I had never heard of these things.  A quick search on the web and it looks like everyone is pointing to the same place that I am - Williams Sonoma where they sell a Brookster mix and - as you can see above - a Brookster pan. So, did W-S create the Brookster?  Are they trying to build something of their own like the Whoopie Pie?  Pretty neat idea, if that's the way this shook out.

After suffering through a few weeks of trial and error with my Detroit-style pizza recipe, I finally decided to get serious and order *REAL* Detroit-style Blue Steel pans - directly from Michigan.  Actually...turns out they're made in Mexico, but sold from a restaurant supply shop *in* Michigan ! So, why special pans?  Well, the lore around Detroit-style pizza is that these pans were originally intended for the automotive world:  they're pans that auto repair/assembly works put the various pieces/parts that they're working on.  Detroit being an Auto-Town, the transition to using them in a pizza joint seems quite fitting.  They have a higher lip than standard pans and are even a bit taller than my deep-dish pans. They are Blue Steel 10" x 14" pans and come with a weird grease on them - that I'm assuming is food grade?  I seasoned them as best as I could by coating them with corn oil (olive oil won't work for this because it has too low of a burning/sm

Look what the Easter Bunny brought me:  Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson the owner of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco .  My brother-in-law has the caught the bread bug (more than I have) and has tried (at least) one of the recipes from this place and said it was spectacular.  Can't wait to wake the starter later this week and give some of these a shot. Of course, I couldn't help myself and I immediately thumbed to the index and looked up the "p's".  Found a few listings for pizza.  Interesting that he kind of mocks the pizza craze and that it seems his dough recipe for pizza skins is just his country bread recipe. Of course, I loved everything I got (more haul posts later), but I have to note: the most thoughtful gift the Easter Bunny gave me was a set of paint brushes and paints as well as a notebook.  We were just talking the other week about painting and how I enjoyed it back in my early 20's.  She was paying attention - as great friends do!

See that grey-ish liquid on the top of my starter?  This is what they call hooch .  I'd heard of it, but never had it on my culture before.  When I took my jars out of the fridge ( earlier this week ) after a long slumber, the hooch was thick.  I dumped it out, then got started on the feedings.  As I mentioned earlier this week, the culture snapped right back to life.

At least that's what I *think* happened.  Unless we have a ghost who comes in and drops my culture jars on their edges just for fun. Earlier this week, I grabbed my sourdough culture jars out of the fridge and I tried to wake them up.  I wanted to bake some bread for Easter this weekend, and figured it was going to take a few cycles of feeding them to fully get them activated because it'd been about 2 months since I touched them.  The good news?  They woke right up.  A few feedings in, I had a fully alive culture and a bubbling jar. The bad news?  I forgot to open the jars and dump out a bunch of the culture one evening.  We went to bed and woke up to the strong stink of yeast in our kitchen.  And one of my jars was surprisingly low in terms of contents.   When I picked it up, it dripped.  Turns out, the bottom busted out.  I can only guess that this was a weak spot in the jar and the pressure was too great.  In the photo above, I laid the glass glass chip that busted ou

I received a pair of these 'Ove' Gloves from my mom back at Christmas and I scoffed at the idea.  My mom persisted and said that they came highly recommended and in fact, the woman at Walgreens (yeah...that's where she bought them!) told her she HAD to buy 2 of them! Guess what?  These have become my go-to oven mitt and I don't even reach for anything else.  For breads, this thing works perfectly as I can pick up the loaf directly.  Same with pizza skins. I know what you're thinking...my oven mitts are fine.  That's what I thought, too!  This is one of those "As Seen on TV" products and, surprisingly to me(!), this one really works well.  Can't recommend it more.  Sounds silly, I know! Go buy it here with the link below:

After a successful first attempt in baking bread (Pane Cafone) from my starter, I opted to take on bigger challenge:  sourdough baguettes. Using this recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini as inspiration , I undertook the two-day process.  For a first-time baguette shaper and baker, I think they turned out pretty good (aside from that one bent one!). And...they tasted, good, too!  I also took another shot at the round Pane Cafone and that baked a bit better the second time, too! Sourdough Baguettes (nets 4 demi-loaves) 200 grams (7 ounces) ripe starter 600 grams (21 ounces) flour(s) 400 grams (14 ounces) water 10 grams (2 teaspoons) salt 1. In stand mixer, combine flours, water, and starter - let stand for 20 minutes. Then, add salt and knead dough on low for 5 minutes. 2. Cover with a towel and let the dough rest at room temperature for 1 hour. After an hour, fold dough on itself. Wait an hour. Then fold it over on itself again. After those 2 hours, stick a piece of plastic wr

With a healthy sourdough starter, I figured I should dive right in and bake some bread.  My first attempt was one of the more simple breads:  Pane Cafone.  Turned out pretty good for a first attempt.  Pane Cafone (Country Man's bread) - Produces One Round Loaf 1 Cup Starter 3.5 Cups 00 Flour 1 Cup Water 2 teaspoons salt 1.  Knead starter, flour and water for 5 minutes and let autolyse (have flour absorb water before salt has time to draw it in).  Mix in salt and knead for 2 more minutes.  2.  Cover bowl and proof for 8-12 hours at room temperature.  3.  Punch down and form round loaf without slashing the top.  Proof for 2-4 hours.  4.  Pre-heat your baking stone at 450 for 30-45 minutes. 5.  Bake on pre-heated stone at 450 for 15 minutes. 6.  Reduce temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 45 minutes.  Turning once or twice.  7.  Cool on wire rack. Here's my round dough loaf after it rose and just ahead of baking.  Right after I pulled it out.  Great cru

During the run-up to Christmas, we HORDE both Peppermint and Chocolate-Covered Peppermint Joe-Joe's from Trader Joe's.  They made my 2009 Favorite (Holiday) Things List , and should be on there every year.  Starting at Thanksgiving, every 10 days or so, when Nat (and sometimes I) head to TJ's, we grab at least one box of the cookies and usually two.  To be clear...we eat a lot of these, but so do our guests and most specifically our nieces and nephews.  But...still...we *do* probably eat too many cookies from the end of November to January 1 each year.  I'll admit that! Well...this year, there was a run on peppermint Joe-Joe's.  Our TJ's ran short and was out on two different occasions we went.  My sister went one day and they, too' were out.  Bummer.  But...on a random trip to the Park Ridge TJ's, we ran into this mysterious beast:  The Astounding Multi-Flavor Joe-Joe's package.  Inside, there were four flavors: Peppermint (which they have normal

It's alive! Look at all those bubbles!  That's a wide-mouth quart mason jar and the starter is all the way up to the top lip.  That's a lot of growth.  Right after I feed the jar, I split it into 2.  If all goes well, I'll have 2 starters to work from for those occasions when I'm doing a lot of baking.  Just a few more feedings (and thin-ings) and we're on our way to dough.  Lots and lots of dough. Sourdough Starter:  Day One Sourdough Starter:  Day Two

For Christmas, my mother-in-law bought me a sourdough starter from Sourdo.com .   Yes.  Finally.  Some of you might remember that I was asking for one back in June for Father's Day.  This particular culture is of the Italian variety and comes from Ischia - right in the northern end of the Gulf of Naples . The starter takes a few days of work to get started and requires some specific steps.    The first of which includes getting the starter in a jar and bringing the temperature up while it proofs.  This is my kitchen hack of a proofing box - a plastic tub with an Illini nightlight rigged inside.  So far, so good.   It is like a thick pancake batter. 24 hours from now, I get to move on to step two - if this goes as predicted.  We *should* have bubbles and a bit of fermentation action.  My fingers are crossed.  I hope yours are, too!

I hadn't spied a flour machine in any grocery store I've been in before, so I had to try it while in Charleston.  Out came warm, freshly ground wheat flour. Can't find a lot on the web about the company, so I'm not sure how widely available something like this is currently.  Can't say that I noticed a big difference in the pizza skins, but glad I gave it a shot.

Up in Michigan, at the local Hardings grocery store, they sell 2 kinds of sugar.  First comes the Spartan Brand of generic sugar.  And....then they sell something called  Pioneer Sugar . Turns out, it is locally grown in Michigan for over 100 years from Sugar beets. I'm certain that there are some characteristics of cane sugar that outweigh anything you can squeeze out of a beet, but eating something local - that helps the Michigan economy - is a nice counter to any shortcomings recipe-wise.   The sugar beet industry in Michigan has the loggers to thank.  According to the history books , as the logging companies began to clear pine forests, they left behind land that was unusable for farming because of the stumps.  Some crazy farmer decided to experiment with beets and the rest - as they say - is history.  As best as I can tell, growing local sugar in the upper Midwest is unique to this part of Michigan.  We might have had some sugar beets back in the day in parts of Illinois ,

We bought all the necessary tools and ingredients.  Candy thermometer, cheese cloths, etc.  We're ready to make cheese!  In honor of our nation's independence, we're going to cook up a specatuclar Mexican feast featuring carne asada and housemade queso blanco. If I move quickly enough, I'll be able to take photos.  I still have to make a home-brewed cheese press, but that won't stop me from starting the process!

My week has been too busy to get to the Jewel to see if Elmhurst has any of this stuff, but it sounds interesting:   Pizza-specific yeast .  It has dough relaxers and (this is nice!) there isn't any proof time.  If I don't get that sourdough culture that I wanted, this might be a good Plan B.  We don't make a lot of last minute pizzas around our house - but for this product to succeed - there must be plenty of folks who do just that.  Pizza at the Parrillo house tends to be an event - one that is planned well in advance. Anyone try this stuff yet?  Results?

Last week, a friend asked a group of us what she should be thinking about getting for her husband for Father's Day.  I gave her one suggestion, but I'm not sure she took it, so I won't share it with you quite yet. But...for those Mom's out there looking for a great Father's Day gift for 2010, I'm going to throw out some ideas and see if I can help a Dad or two out. To begin with - for Dad's of all ages - I would look no further than Williams Sonoma and their latest cookie cutters.  These are the Father's Day gift that keeps on giving:   Star Wars Cookie Cutters .  I'm not so much talking about giving the cutters as a gift as I am about making Storm Trooper cookies for your Dad/Husband on Father's Day. Your husband/Dad will be eating Darth Vadar cookies for Father's Day and his birthday, and maybe even Christmas!

For the most part, the pizza making season in the Parrillo household is winding down.  Sure...we'll grill pizza pies a few times this summer, but on average fall and winter are our prime pizza making seasons.  Each year, I try to add an element to our pizza making routine.  In the past it was using Scamorza Cheese (more on this later) or 6 in 1 tomatoes for sauce.  They were nice improvements that lead to better tasting pies. This year, I decided to make the move to "00" flour - which is an Italian-style very "fine" flour .  While I didn't notice a HUGE difference, I believe that was because I have continued to tinker with the flour recipe - both in ingredients and proofing time/method/containers.   I'll be watching this stuff go on sale at Angelo Caputo's Market this year (it is a bit pricey - about 4X the price of normal flour), and see if I can finally settle on a crust recipe by this fall.   If you want to know more about Caputo, check out this

A few weekends back, Nat hosted a "Sprinkle" for my sister (not a "Shower", people....a "Sprinkle"!)  Anyway...we were over at Nat's folks place on Friday night and Nat was in charge of making some sort of "coffee cake" -she had one in mind,  but she didn't have the More From Magnolia  Book with her. She remembered that the recipe was the first one in the book, so I dug into the Amazon preview and viola! The preview pages go far enough to catch this one!  Unfortunately for us, this recipe, too, called for a Tube Pan.  Some of you may recall that we don't have one of those (see my post about cream cheese coffee cake here .)! Nat rectified that situation and picked one up at Target ensuring that our coffee cakes no longer have to be impostors. When I went to print that screen grab, the text came through really gray.  So...I quickly typed it out and created a public Google Doc.  I've included the recipe below. I really liked t

As I've mentioned before, I'm not the baker in the house - Nat (when she has time) enjoys it more than I do.  Her mom shared a recipe for "Red Velvet" cupcakes late last year and much to our chagrin - it called for numerous bottles of red food coloring.  We walked down to the Jewels (yes...I said "Jewels".) and plunked down $4 a piece for the little bottle of McCormick's coloring and went on our way - knowing that had to be a better way. Fast forward a few weeks and we found ourselves in Schweppe's on North Avenue near our house.  Schweppe's is a kitchen-supply shop featuring industrial supplies for commercial applications.  They allow the public in - and charge us a bit more than their restaurant customers - but it is still very cheap! They have everything there from spatulas to snow-cone machines to industrial-sized containers of ketchup.  They also happen to have big bottles of Evon's "Red Color" syrup.  It's about $4 for