Half-Baked

As my wife and a few select friends know, I'm a serial obsessionalist. My latest obsession is baking good bread and making good pizza. Turns out it's harder than you might think. I had a bread breakthrough today, so I'm writing to gloat. I made a 100 percent whole-wheat loaf that turned out light, tender, and tasty. All my previous attempts at 100 percent whole-wheat had been what Laurel Robertson (Laurel's Kitchen, Laurel's Bread Book) has smirkingly called "bricks."

I'm not entirely sure what variable or variables are responsible for the tremendous improvement, but I can nominate a few likely candidates. I used an organic high-protein whole-wheat flour that may have had higher gluten content than the previous Safeway-bought commercial flour I'd used in earlier loaves. I kneaded today's dough longer as well, and checked for gluten development several times until I was pretty sure that the dough was as elastic as it was going to get before I turned off the Kitchenaid for good. This recipe contained both honey and oil, ingriedients that were missing from earlier loaves and theoretically should contribute tenderness to the finished loaf. The honey's sugars allowed the yeast to work much more effectively. At least that's the conclusion I came to after noting the tremendous volume gain in the bulk fermentation and proofing. Unlike some of the lean (read: no oil, no sugar/honey, no egg) recipes I'd made in the past, however, today's whole-wheat didn't spring much in the oven. I do not know what to attribute this to, unless it was because the dough had already risen as much as it could rise in the proofing stage. The lack of ovenspring may also be related to the significantly lower baking temperature of the whole-wheat loaf as compared to the high heat of the hearth-baked artisan breads.

Moving on to pizza...My wife and I celebrated our second anniverary tonight at a new-to-us restaurant in our neighborhood that features a wood-fired brick pizza oven. Of course I was eager to try their offering and compare their pizzaiolo's work with my own. They served up a great pizza, particularly excellent were the toppings. I had BBQ chicken with carmelized onions, several varieties of cheese, and slivers of blistered jalapeno. Definitely not a traditional pizza, and not something I would have considered ordering a year ago. It was unarguably a tasty pizza. The crust, while very good, was not equal to some of my best efforts at home, despite the restaurant's much-touted high-temperature pizza oven. It's true that a really hot oven makes better crust. It's the only way I know to create a crust that is both crisp and chewy, properly browned and done at the same time the cheese is beginning to blister. I'm lucky for a home cook in that my oven is old school (circa 1920) and, though tiny, features a huge bottom broiler/burner that can heat a pizza stone on the bottom shelf to around 700 degrees (I don't know for sure it gets this hot, because my oven thermometer only goes up to 550!). Many electrics and newer gas ovens will only heat to 500 or 550 which is not hot enough to make first-rate pizza.

Tomorrow's project is my latest attempt at a Chicago stuffed pizza. I've got the sausage, the 6-in-1 tomatoes, and the sliced provolone ready to go. The dough is cold-fermenting as I write. If all goes well, you'll find me here tomorrow night with more gloating to do.