60% whole wheat 20% white whole wheat 20% general purpose flour 73% hydration (going a little higher) 20 grams salt 10 grams yeast 40 grams extra virgin olive oil 30 grams honey 110 grams chopped walnuts (I will use more next time) Mix everything in a stand mixer and knead for 10 minutes on low (the two setting on a KitchenAid mixer). Then a bulk fermentation for about an hour,... Read More
“Guide: Where to find daily food trucks lots” in the Orange County Register leads me to a Forno Bravo oven on a wood-fired catering trailer. Sunday: Where: OC Great Park Farmers Market, IrvineTime: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.Trucks: Crepes Bonaparte, Calbi, Barcelona on the Go, TJ’s Woodfire Pizza, Chomp Chomp, Rolling Sushi + 1-2 rotating trucks Check out TJ’s Woodfire Pizza. That’s our oven! Their Margherita Pizza was voted in... Read More
Writing about seasoned wood got me thinking about the Italian and English words for aging, or seasoning. Italian uses stagionato for cheeses—seasoned. A quattro stagioni pizza is a four season pizza, with olives, artichokes, mushrooms and ham. This list of toppings comes from our friend in Florence, Kyle Phillips, the Italian food editor for About.com. Photo from The Italian Dish Blog. On the other hand, in English, we use aged... Read More
I wrote this article in 2005 for consideration by one of the Restaurant trade magazines. They decided to not run my article, but looking back at it seven years later, I think the points that I made were true then, and are still true today. There are more wood-fired pizzerias in the U.S than there were in 2005, but still not nearly enough. We need to fix that. James Authentic... Read More
