Well, after spending more on mail order flour than I have on pizzeria pizza this year, I finally had three wonderful dough balls ready to be stretched, topped and baked after a 24 hour rise in the refrigerator. It was time to bake pizzas using the dough made from King Aurthur Sir Lancelot flour rather than the hi-gluten Pillsbury flour that I have been using for almost three years.

The dough blanks looked great out of the containers and still felt like they had a very high water content. In fact, when I began stretching them, it was apparent that they were quite soft. I carefully avoided the crust ring and stretched by hand from the center. When they had reached 16 inches, I placed them on pizza screens.

The oven was pre-heated to 485 degrees. I had placed two pizza stones on the bottom two racks, forming a heat chamber between them. I topped the first pie with sauce and cheese only. The bake took around 10 minutes, which I think was longer than normal because of the two stones. It baked quite well and looked great when it came out. The tiny crust blisters that I love were present and the aroma was wonderful.

The second pizza was topped with extra pepperoni and allowed to bake for the same amount of time.

Both pizzas were cut and served to my hungry family. I have to say that I could tell the flavor difference with the first bite. The crust had a wonderfully soft texture with a crisp outer edge and slightly charred bottom. A friend who was visiting said that it tasted more authentic than other pizzas I’d made for him. I have to agree - the flour brings it’s own unique flavor which adds a great deal to the overall experience.

Now that I know that King Aurthur Sir Lancelot flour has lived up to the hype, it’s time to find a cheaper way to get it. I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve for that, so stay tuned and enjoy the pics…

After much hype from my friends at PizzaMaking.com, I’d decided to bite the bullet and order King Aurthur Sir Lancelot flour directly from their web site and pay what amounts to $5 per bag in order to do a test. Among other home pizza bakers, this is by far one of the most popular flour brands being used. Despite King Aurthur flour being common in my local supermarkets, I had never seen this particular high gluten mix on the shelves. My only choice was to order from the King Aurthur online store.

The flour arrived today with plenty of fanfare. I unpacked the box and noticed all of the auxillary junk mail that they send along (it appears from the marketing that they think I am a retiring woman who bakes constantly when not buying country furniture). The flour bags are small, containing about 7 cups of flour per bag and costing $3.50 each (plus lots of shipping) online.

I couldn’t wait to give this flour a try, so I tore open a bag and got to making a double batch of Bill’s Traditional dough. The aroma of the flour was immediately apparent. It has a very rich smell which made me quite hungry. The mixing process went well. The mix seemed overly wet which I blamed on my use of measuring cups rather than weight measuring the flour. Once it had mixed for 4 minutes I removed the dough and made two 20 and one 13 ounce ball. I placed the balls into the refrigerator for the 24 hour rise. The dough had a great smell while working with it as well.

I have high hopes for this flour based on the opinions of so many of my friends. It will be hard to justify the cost of this flour if we like it though. I am used to getting 50 pounds of the Pillsbury flour for $14 at the local bakery supply store. Stay tuned for the resulting taste test!

My family and I spent a few days in a rental cabin last week. Since no trip is complete without pizza, I packed my gear and ingredients. As I began preparing to bake, I noticed that the oven was a gas powered one. I hadn’t baked pizza in a gas oven before, but I didn’t think it would be much different. I was wrong! Being lazy while packing, I did not take a pizza stone, so the baking took place on pizza screens. I placed them on the bottom rack at 475 degrees for 8 minutes each. The bottom of the crust cooked much faster than normal and one almost burned (gulp)! The top crust edge remained very light and the cheese hadn’t completely cooked by minute 8. I learned a hard lesson about gas ovens that I won’t soon forget. If you use a gas oven, let me know if your experience is similar. I’ll be taking my stones next time for sure.

We still enjoyed the pies, one cheese, one pepperoni and one buffalo chicken. Yum.

For a long time I’d been wanting to recreate the original style pizza in all of it’s classic glory. One of the experiments I did during my break from blogging was this beauty, the Margherita Pizza! As the story goes, famous “pizzaiolo” Raffaele Esposito was asked by Queen Margherita to present his flatbread delicacy. He created a pizza to represent the colors of the Italian flag, red sauce, green basil leaves and white cheese. It was a great combination then and it still rocks now.

For my variant, I stuck with what I know for the crust - a nice batch of fresh traditional. However, on top I spread blended roma tomatoes very lightly salted and teased with oregano, slices of mozzarella cheese and large fresh basil leaves. After sprinkling the pie with romano cheese, I baked it at 480 degrees for 8 minutes. The result was a quite refreshing change. The simple combination of the fundamental ingredients made for a terrific treat. I will be doing this pizza again - squisito!

I know it is lame to stop posting like I did and I’m sorry about that. Things have been somewhat hectic for me. The good news is that we are still baking a lot of pizza so let’s see if we can get some posts going here…

I may go back and write about some of the pies that I made in past months, but for tonight I thought I would just post this lovely photo of the Chicago style pie that we enjoyed. The recipe has not changed much, but this time I doubled the recipe. When I did that, I doubled the yeast amount as well. I think that was a bad idea as the dough really seemed to rise more than normal overnight.

The other thing I tried was to press the dough into the pan a bit more to make the crust thin. I tried for about 1/4 inch throughout. I pressed it in and trimmed the edge that hung over the pan sides. I topped her with sliced mozz, sliced provy, pepperoni, Neapolitan sauce and mushrooms on my side. The pizza baked for about 22 minutes at 450 degrees. This photo was taken just before cutting it. Yum.