First batch of AIN5 - Olive Oil

[kfred]

I figure if it screws up it'll still make the pizza crust for tomorrow.

I did cut back on the salt, and only used 6 cups of flour. We're pretty dry here, so by feel of the dough it didn't need the last half cup. We'll see. It's sitting on the counter and no I don't have a camera for pix. The pizza'll be fresh tomato (storebought), fresh basil and mozzarella.

If it works, I could get addicted to this process. My hands just can't take the kneading and the Kitchen Aide is a pain in the rear to get out of the lower cupboard.

Kitchen revamp will have one of those lifty outy things.

See what you did to me?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now - how to use up that 5 lbs of Corn Masa Flour, the 1 lb bag of rye and the 2lbs of graham. Granola anyone?

The poker boys are coming in two weeks so maybe I'll master homeade tacos.

[hippywife]

1. It is an addictingly easy process.

Hope it turns out for you. It really does practically make itself. And even though I have a small kitchen with not much counter space, I keep the counter monster up there anyway. I can't imagine dragging that booger out from underneath every time I need it. As a matter of fact, that's why the girl who sold it to me off of craigslist sold it to me practically new for only $80.

As far as pizza crust goes, I was just getting ready to post a little tale of lesson learned with the Ain5 this week. As most everyone knows, I store mine in a plastic picnic-type pitcher. It always develops a soft crust on the top which I just mix back into the dough when I use it and it's fine. I thought I would try an experiment and put a piece of saran wrap on top of the dough to prevent it fronm forming that skin, just like you would do a pudding. Well, it caused my dough to deflate. I left it in the fridge all week figuring I would still use it for Friday night pizza dough.

When I opened it, not only had it not developed a skin, it had fermented quite nicely through the week and had a nice sour smell. I made a pizza sans sauce with just a layer of gruyere cheese, shredded finely on the dough and topped it with pepperoni, mushrooms, and banana peppers. I then finally shredded a bunch of fontina cheese (the creamy Danish style) on top of the whole thing and baked it at 450 for about 20 minutes. That was one of the best tasting pizzas and the dough was incredible!

So, yes, do make pizza dough with it after it's fermented in the fridge for about a week. You will definitely not be sorry.

Check back in and let us know how it goes for you. :hi:

[kfred]

6. Pizza dough was marvelous

Used half the dough to make it because I didn't think a grapefruit sized ball was big enough. So guess who has cold leftover pizza in the frig?! That's all to the good - it'll get munched up. I'll make a salmon salad or something tonite and serve it with freshly baked bread or rolls and start over with a new batch tomorrow. Making pretzels for the poker boys in a couple of weeks sounds like a cool idea. My "boys" raved about the pizza crust.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

2. Anadama?

Now - how to use up that 5 lbs of Corn Masa Flour, the 1 lb bag of rye and the 2lbs of graham. Granola anyone?

First thing I think of when I see corn and WW. I would think rye would work as a small portion of the total, and caraway would make a good variation.

[kfred]

3. Same thinking

1/3 cup here and there, etc. I wanted to start with the basic recipe first (other than less salt).

I keep thinking that pizza dough with corn flour'd be a choice, corn pancakes are possible - of course. Tortillas seem so futzy.

A bit of that rye flour in the recipe also could be a good addition.

I learned at the age of 9 to make homemade bread, so this isn't exactly foreign to me, so that is 45+ years ago. OH - I'm good for quantity cooking and canning BTW. More organic than naught.

OOOOOLLLLLLLDDDDDD cooking hand here. A typical kfred feed is 25+ folks of various ages. Biggest was 75 in my house. At least I had warning that time. That is not always the case. I'm not counting graduation open houses or the like.

[kfred]

4. BTW

That loaf of bread in your link looks like it's sticking it's tongue out at us.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

5. Hm. Maybe not a tongue. . .

. . . but definitely female. :eyes: When I first looked at those pix, I wondered why they stuck it in a pan that was obviously too big. Would have made a nice, tall loaf in a smaller one.