Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Homemade pizza

Quick and easy recipe for homemade pizza (no special oven needed).

Homemade pizza

Dough (following Jeff Varasano's quick yeast culture recipe)
2 parts Caputo "00" flour
1 part Unbleached flour
Regular baking yeast (proofed in warm water)
Salt

Sauce
Canned peeled plum (Italian) tomatoes
Garlic
Extra-virgin olive oil
Fresh basil
White or yellow onion (optional)
Crushed red pepper (optional)

Autolyse and wet-knead (see link above) your dough ingredients. Let rest 20 min in mixer then knead again with more flour. Let rest a few hours in the fridge, remove, and let warm to room temperature.

Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Drain canned tomatoes and add when garlic is golden brown. If you burn the garlic, throw it away and start over (it's not worth trying to salvage!). Reduce heat and simmer (can cook for 30 min or a few hours, depending on your preferred consistency). During cooking, tomatoes can be broken up with a spoon or, if you want fewer chunks, you can puree the sauce in a blender after cooking.

Knead out thin and top your dough with a little sauce, cheese of choice, and any other creative topping you can think of. We tried a few different types of pizza: mozzarella and basil, white pizza with garlic and parmesan, and chicken and basil. Thow it in the oven (broil or as hot as you can get it), with a pizza stone if possible. Cook until bubbly and delicious!

Don't mind our square-shaped pizzas below!


Monday, February 1, 2010

Palalia Pale Ale

Palalia Pale Ale (IPA) - 5 gal (19 L)
Slightly modified from Charlie Papazian's recipe.

Ingredients:
3 lbs sparking amber dried malt extract
3 lbs golden light dried malt extract
1 lb crystal malt
0.5 lbs malted barley

2 tsp gypsum
2 oz Northern Brewer hops (boiling)
0.75 oz Cascade hops (finishing)
1 pkg American-type ale yeast
0.75 c priming sugar (bottling)

Toast malted barley at 350 °F for 10 min. Steep at 140-160 °F for 30 min.

Boil schedule:
60 min Malt extract, boiling hops, gypsum
1 min Finishing hops













1/3/10 Boiled. Pitched yeast. S.G.=1.053
1/8/10 Major fermentation activity stopped. Racked to secondary fermenter. S.G.=1.015
1/17/10 Bottled. S.G.=1.015
1/29/10 Tasted first bottle (bottled for 2 weeks). Tastes good! A little more turbid than I wanted it to be, but the copper color is good. Taste is fairly well balanced, bitter, and assertive. The roasted malts come through well on the finish. The lower ABV of this beer is more in line with an English IPA than an American or West Coast IPA.
1/7/10 Tasted again (bottled for 3 weeks). Keeps getting better and better! Flavor is more refined, drier, and more balanced. Clarity improved (better pour?).

O.G. = 1.053
F.G. = 1.015

(OG - FG) x 105 = 3.99 = ABW
ABW * 1.25 = 4.99 = ABV