Further battles

[johnpalmer]

The spirits of despair surrounded me. "You still live in an apartment!" they screeched, mockingly. "You will never be able to raise bread dough, much less pizza dough, in an apartment!"

But as I'm sure you all know from the old song, you don't bet your money 'gainst a long-haired weirdo. I had inventiveness that was as yet untapped, and equipment that could easily withstand the forces of despair.

For I had an oven, cast iron frying pans, and... tea lights. A single tea light on the floor of the oven, a cast iron pan above it, and then the rising bowl on a rack above that. The candle flame would warm the cast iron and keep a nice, constant, warm temperature. People used to do this with the pilot light of their gas stoves.

This time, I decided I would add more water to the mix, until I had some stickiness to the flour on initial working. I added more flour as I worked, but still found myself fighting against an inability to obtain true elasticity. I kneaded for 20 minutes - twice what the recipe called for. I set it aside (poured a bit of oil in a bowl, dropped the dough in, turned it to get a light coating of oil, and placed it in my oven-turned-rising chamber.

Two hours of rising doubled the dough; punching it down, and thank heavens - it was nice and stretchy.

Results: after baking on a perforated pizza pan for 10 minutes at 425, I slid it into a cast iron pan for another 10 minutes. This made the bottom of the crust have a bit of crispiness to it, but it was a lot softer/breadier - it needed to be thin, or it'd be too much like "just" bread. Yesterday's was cracklier even without the cast iron.

Comments

[essaying.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem here, but the people who sent me the packet of sourdough starter on eBay gave me another solution. You buy one of those cheap styrofoam coolers at the supermarket, and run a 15w bulb into it. It's the best, most reliable bread-proofing system I've ever tried.

Yesterday I did a *great* batch of overnight sourdough, riffing on the King Arthur recipe. That recipe calls for four hours at room temp and 12 in the fridge, but I got started late and didn't have time for the room-temp rising. So I compromised and just set the sponge out in the garage, which was probably about 45 degrees, overnight. It worked perfectly. Only problem: we're not going to have many more 45-degree nights in the garage. Unless we buy a place with a cold cellar, I'll have to figure out something else. (And another system for cooling the baked loaves -- Kay stole one of them off the counter when my back was turned, damn her eyes.)

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Why didn't you just stick it in the fridge overnight?

[essaying.livejournal.com]

Two reasons: one, because I didn't think it would rise enough (given that the recipe called for four hours at room temp first); two, because there wasn't enough room in the fridge.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Ah. I've done it just in the fridge and can't tell the difference in the finished product. But you do have to have room--that's insurmountable.

(Non sequitur: I am catching up on "Damages", and dang, that Martin Short is a better dramatic actor than he is a comedian!)

[essaying.livejournal.com]

Well, normally I'd have room. But I did a pot of chicken soup and another of red beans so E would have soft nutritious food to eat while I'm out of town for the next few days, so things are kind of crowded in there.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

The bread-baking way to make a crispy crust is to put a cookie sheet or large pan in the oven, and then when you put the loaf in, you throw a cup of water on it--the steam creates the crust. That might work for pizza, too. (Though I haven't made pizza by hand in a long time--however, bad experiences with the place I usually order from has made me decide that I see it in my future.)

[beaq.livejournal.com]

I'm a little lost on the apartment thing. Why can't you make bread in an apartment?

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

It's pretty rare to have a draft-free, warm space for bread rising in an apartment. (I'm not sure I'll have one in the house, if I get it - but apartments have even fewer options.)

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Oh, ah. Yes, I always did mine in the oven, but I suppose there are apartments that don't even have that.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Well, my apartment does have an oven... but the best ovens were gas, and had a pilot that kept them warm. Now, even gas ovens don't have a pilot light. But tea lights are cheap, and I really liked the temperature I got with them and the cast iron.