Gus's experiments in making pizza with very hot ovens.
From Andrew Janjigian's Bread Basket Newsletter (which you should really subscribe to ): This week's basket holds three items related to one of my favorite flour millers, Washington State's Cairnspring Mills, which has made appearances in a few different venues recently, including two in the past month alone. It’s a quick little read , and links to three other stores about Cairnspring. The timing…
User "euxleon" on Reddit: I spent 8 months testing every brand of canned tomato with a controlled pasta sauce recipe. Full rankings inside : Early 2025 (around NYE), I got into an argument with my brother-in-law about whether San Marzano tomatoes are worth it and I said "I'll prove it" and then I became a person who owns a refractometer. Here, I tested 24 brands of canned whole peeled tomatoes,…
New Oven Alert: It looks like the folks at Gozney are coming out with even bigger ovens sometime soon:"Dome (Gen 2)" and "Dome XL (Gen 2)". You can watch Chris Bianco cook 2 pizzas in the Dome XL on YouTube. Watch Tom Gozney (now a sock influencer?) introduce the two ovens as well. Other Random Bits NYTimes: Italian Mobster, 16 Years on the Lam, Is Found Working at a Pizzeria : After the arrest of…
BBC on Italy's undercover pizza detectives : But just as there are strict criteria for determining "authentic" Champagne or Parmigiano cheese, this group of culinary custodians has set out to ensure that the delectable dish stays true to its Neapolitan roots – at least if you're going to call it "real" pizza. "There is a big connection between this kind of food and the soul of Naples," says…
New Pizza Oven Alert The Gozney Tread is a new $500 portable pizza oven, using the design language of their existing ovens ( Dome & Arc ). It looks pretty damn cool, and it's got a great stand (extra $). I want one, and it looks perfect for pizza pop-ups. Adamn Atkins (aka Peddling Pizza) has a YouTube video up showing it in real-world use. Videos Au Pétrin Moissagais, This baker bakes his bread…
Seattle Pizza News Friend of the blog and Omni Group alum, Derek Reiff, is moving his amazing take out pizza to a more permanent location: Cult favorite Seattle pizza pop-up will open permanent restaurant | The Seattle Times Heads up, Seattle pizza fans: If you never scored one of the hard-to-get pizzas from My Friend Derek’s, fret not — that Detroit-style pop-up will soon have a brick-and-mortar…
Astute readers might notice that I've jumped from "Part 10" to "Part 13". I've had some bad bakes. One I just kind of f'd up, and another one I used mystery flower (which I do from time to time because I'm not good at labeling things) and it turned out very over proofed. Two loaves went to the compost, but the other four were decent enough to give away. I guess. People always seem happy to receive…
I knew as soon as I woke up and saw it that the dough wasn't going to be ready in time for what my day allowed. It was a very nice day yesterday and I opened the doors and turned off the heat. I also neglected to turn the heat back on when the sun went down so the house was cooler than usual. I obviously need to build a proofing chamber now. And for the bakes, well they'd just have to be under…
First up, some videos Adam Atkins goes over how to do the Neapolitan slap & bake on YouTube : For about the last 7 years the Napoli slap method has been my go to for quick and consistent opening of bases. It takes a while to get the hang of it but it's definitely worth the effort. I've never been able to use this method. I probably need to actually practice it though. … I found this " Amazing…
A post written a day late is better than nothing. Especially when it seems to validate my theory. This bake was a success. I got similar results to the awesome results the other day , making sure that my oven didn't stop heating (instead of reducing the heat like it's supposed to). The trick, and what I've used in the past but neglected to do on the previous bake, is to turn the oven off and then…
I'm still feeling really good about yesterday's bake. But I'm upset at today's bake. Everything was great until I turned down the oven from 550°F to 510°F. There's been times in the past when I turn down the heat with my (Wolf) oven and it says "OK, so you wanted it off then…" which is not what I wanted. But that's what happened today as far as I can tell. There was some initial spring from the…
Success. Six great dark chocolate sourdough loves. Here's the baker's percentages for today's bake. What was different this time? Well for one, I lowered the hydration by three points to 70%, and I also brought down the starter percentage to 8%. I also didn't over ferment the loaves this time, thankfully. I changed the salt, but I don't think that actually made a difference (though maybe I'll play…
I had notes on these bakes, but I just upgraded to MacOS Sequoia 15.1 b5, and somehow opening Notes on my Mac erased what I had on my iPhone. For two bakes! Wonderful. I wonder what else was deleted. I do have pics and the dough recipe however. October 3rd: I raised the shelves in oven and added two firebricks on the floor in the hopes to maintain heat. I needed to raise the shelves to make room…
Still going at it. This bake was better though. I also Brought the hydration up a bit to 73%. Starting temp was 550°F with the convection fan on. I turned it down to 510°F as soon as the dough was put in the oven. The idea being that there would be enough heat to jump start everything and then turning the oven down would keep the outside of the dough from hardening up so quick. I'm also wondering,…
This one kind of sucked and I'm bummed. Was my scoring of the dough too shallow, or was it the lower hydration that caused crappy spring? There's too many variables! Starting temp, 515°F. Convection on. 0m: Six loaves, four ice cubes, and a spray of the oven. 5m: Spray the oven a bit with water. The top stone temp is at 450°F, bottom is at 425°F according to the laser. Internal thermometer says…
It was colder last night, and the heat wasn’t on. It wasn’t until I started dividing up the dough that I realized it hadn't fermented as much as usual overnight. I guess that's fine. I'll just have to do an extended raise while they're balled up. I also realized yesterday when mixing the dough that I had ben hydrating it a bit too much. The flour I usually use ( Cairnspring Mills ) will take more…
I recently bought a new dough mixer (I'll talk about it in another post), and it’s awesome because I can now make way more dough at once without burning out the motor. But I still can't bake as much at once — or can I? What follows are my notes as I attempt to find the optimal setup for my oven to bake at least six loaves of bread in one go. I'll start with a lower temp than I usually use (450°F)…
Gozney's YouTube channel has a nice profile on Tom Vincent of Vincenzo's Pizzeria . I love that Vincent has put so much custom work (even woodworking!) into his restaurant. I'm jealous. He also goes quite a bit into his dough management, with lots of great advice. It's worth watching. While Vincent doesn't use Gozney ovens in his shop, he does do an amazing job of cooking a 16" pizza in an Arc at…
Here's some random pizza related links I've gathered for you. First up, I've updated my dough calculator to take up to three different flours now, instead of just two. I've also tweaked the layout a bit, but it's still 100% mobile friendly and meant to be used from your pocket computer. And it still has the a great "share this recipie" links so you can pass along your dough creation to friends and…
King Arthur Baking: How long does a grain revolution take? Tucked away in the fertile Skagit Valley of Washington state, something special has been growing for over a decade. There, Dr. Stephen Jones has led the Breadlab at Washington State University, pioneering grain innovation and bringing better bread to all. Over the years, King Arthur has worked closely with Jones and the Breadlab — from…