Easter - April 2010

We made our way to Mema’s and Pop’s this year for Easter.

Clearwater, Florida - July 2010

Brilliant Retail - Expression Engine E-Commerce Solution

I am very much looking forward to getting my hands on this for an upcoming project…

Brilliant Retail for Expression Engine

Unsorted - December 2010

This is a random assortment of photos that we have taken throughout the year.

Brandon’s 1st Birthday - May 2010

Photos from Brandon’s first birthday.  Christie made the Elmo cake and everybody loved it.  She did a great job.  We actually bought the large Tonka truck for Brandon before he was even born.

Washington Farm - October 2010

We started a new Pancake family tradition in 2009.  Our annual trip to Washington Farm in Watkinsville, Georgia helps kick off the holiday season.  They have a ton of activities for the kids and we’re always sure to pick up a pumpkin or two for carving.

Merryville Brothers

I always record SNL so that I can fast forward through it in the following days.  This skit with Jim Carrey is one of the better sketches over the last few years.

SnowJam - January 2011

It hasn’t been two weeks since our first White Christmas in 130 years and we had another 5 inches of snow dumped on us.  Since it was in the twenties the night before the snow began accumulating immediately.  With temperatures not expected to get above freezing until Friday we are expecting to have snow and icy roads for the next 4 days.

Pizza Night

One of the Christmas gifts to myself this year was a Bosch Universal Plus counter-top mixer.  Although it’s labeled as a mixer, I didn’t get it for its mixing ability.  Rather, I was more interested in finding a kitchen appliance that I could use to mix and knead different doughs for pizza, bagels, bread, etc.  It just so happens that the Bosch was the one mixer that was up to the challenge of handling large amounts of dough so I ordered one from Amazon.

Once I got the mixer it was time to put it to the test.  Pizza is one my favorite foods to make at home and the Bosch Universal Plus has made making pizza as enjoyable as eating pizza, if that’s possible. 

The key to a great pizza is a great dough.  If you can get the dough right you’re halfway to a great pizza.  Before I bought the mixer I would attempt to make and knead my dough by hand.  I say “attempt” because I was never comfortable with the technique of hand kneading.  I always felt that I was incorporating way too much flour during the kneading process resulting in a dry, tough dough.  This resulted in a pizza with a dense, bready crumb which is not very desirable in a great pizza.  I knew there had to be a better way.

The passionate pizza folks over at www.pizzamaking.com have proved to be an invaluable resource in the quest for the perfect pie.  After quite a bit of lurking, learning, and investigating I came across a video that demonstrated the success that one of the posters had using the Bosch Universal Plus for making pizza dough…

The poster included his recipe and so I set out to replicate his success using the new 16” pizza screen and 16” round baking stone that I had purchased.

Recipe
564g King Arthur Sir Lancelot High-Gluten Flour
356g filtered water
3/16 tsp instant yeast
14.5g kosher salt
6g olive oil

Technique
Put water, salt and oil in mixer.
Put flour and yeast into mixer.
Ran for 20 - 30 seconds on 1 to just bring ingredients together.
Let rest for 20 minutes.
Mixed on 1 for 6 minutes.
Let rest for 20 minutes.

After the dough was done resting I divided the dough into two balls, 570g for the pizza and 340g for some bread sticks.  I greased two separate containers and placed the dough in the refrigerator for cold fermentation for five days.  Yes, five days.

On the day we were ready to bake the pizza I took the dough out of the refrigerator about 2 hours prior to baking.  When it was time to bake I placed the baking stone on the bottom rack of the oven and pre-heated at 550 for 30 - 45 minutes.

When the oven and stone were heated thoroughly, I opened the dough out onto a 16” pizza screen which I had dusted liberally with flour.  I used approximately 8 ounces of 6 in 1 brand tomatoes straight from the can for the sauce and about 10 ounces of diced Polly-O brand whole-milk mozzarella.  We topped it off with turkey pepperoni.

When the pizza was dressed I placed the screen in the oven on the second rack from the top.  After five minutes, I moved the pizza off of the screen and onto the baking stone on the bottom rack for another five minutes.  Five minutes of cooling and we were ready to eat.  I think the results speak for themselves.  Without a doubt, this is the best homemade pizza I’ve ever made.  I’m looking forward to experimenting with other ingredients, styles, and types of pizza.

Christmas - December 2010

Photos from Christmas 2010.