More Experiments in pizza

Lest there be any concern that I am backing off my pizza making, I am not (although I am spending more time making bread, in order to learn more about the chemistry, and because its yummy). And last night was another great round.
I have been playing with the Varasano recipe using a culture from Italy and a touch of yeast. I used KA Organic Bread flour at 65% hydration, meaning for 1 part flour I used 0.65 parts water, with about 9% culture. This was a nice soft dough that stretched out well after 5 days of cold fermenting in the fridge and about 3 hours of proofing at room temperature.

I have also been playing with toppings, inspired by what has been showing up on My Pie Monday an Slice.

I made a French onion soup inspired pie, this in part came from a new cheese I picked up at Trader Joe's that is part Gruyere and part cheddar.

I caramelized the onions with a touch of thyme. (Ok technically the onions do not caramelize, that only happens to sugar but they undergo a Maillard reaction.)



Along with the onion, I topped the pie with the Gruyere/cheddar and a touch of Parm, salt and pepper and a touch of oil.

I once again tried the cast skillet method, instead of the pizza stone. In the end, I ended up moving it back to the stone, this may have partially been because I was cooking other pies at the same time.







I also made a red pie, with a cooked tomato sauce.



And a white, with fresh garlic and lots of hot peppers.