Kneading Conference West 2012
I just finished attending the amazing Kneading Conference West 2012 here in the Northwest. It was the second annual Kneading Conference West and was held on September 13, 14 and 15 at the WSU Research and Extension Center in Mt. Vernon, WA. I was fortunate to be able to attend the class, “Pizza in the Wood – Fired Oven,” given by Mike Dash of www.rollingfire.com. He had his trailered Forno Bravo oven on site. Mike’s class was very informative and I think I learned more about pizza baking and wood fired ovens than I ever imagined I would. Some of the information available at the class was:
Heating the wood fired oven:
There are three kinds of heat used to bake a wood fired pizza: bottom heat, convection heat and broiler heat. Mike had a fire going in the oven when the class arrived. Once we started the class and began to shape the pizza dough, Mike moved the fire to the other side of the oven and we placed the pizzas right on the floor of the oven where the initial fire had been. The fire was right next to the pizza on the right hand side and was the source of the “broiler” heat which, with the bottom heat and convection of the all-around heat, very quickly baked the pizza to perfection. It was astonishing how quickly the pizza was done. A wood fired pizza bakes at temperatures from 700 – 900F, those kinds of temperatures are not obtainable for a home baker with a standard oven. Mike said some of the best wood to use for a pizza oven fire are oak and apple wood, and to stay away from soft wood and wood with a lot of resin.
The pizza dough:
Mike had containers filled with pizza dough rounds which had sat overnight proofing. He highly recommends the “Caputo” flour, which is available from Forno Bravo here: http://www.fornobravo.com/pizza-ingredients/index.html .
(Note from Peter: Caputo truly is wonderful flour but you might also want to try the Central Milling “00” Classico Flour, an American, organically grown version inspired by the Italian brands, that I totally love (and, of course, Central Milling is one of our Pizza Quest sponsors too!). Click through to their site on the banner ad at the top of the page — it rotates in periodically — or click *HERE for more details.)
The “hands on“ feel of the dough is incentive enough for me to try the Caputo flour. I think the dough was the one thing that surprised me more than anything else; it stretched easily and flowed like something alive… which of course it was. The handouts for the class included recipes for Neapolitan dough available on the Forno Bravo site and New York Style dough, available from Peter Reinhart’s book, “American Pie.” Mike did a great job explaining how to stretch and shape the dough, it was a really fun part of the class, especially when the participants had a go at trying it on their own.
Every participant who wished to, not only had the chance to stretch out their own pizza dough, they then topped it and baked it themselves. Mike stood by to give advice, answer questions and offer a helping hand when necessary. The pizzas produced by Mike’s method and the Forno Bravo wood fired oven were superb! I really had a wonderful time being able to take the class, make my own pizza and enjoy the dinner pizzas made by Mike’s staff the evening before. If you wish to set up classes in your area, you can visit Mike online at http://www.rollingfire.com. Hopefully Mike will be available next year at the third annual Kneading Conference West for more Pizza in a Wood Fired Oven classes. If you want more information about the Kneading conference visit: http://www.kneadingconferencewest.com . If you want to learn how to bake your own pizza, well, you are already at the best site!
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I was able to get a video posted to youtube showing Mike’s method of stretching pizza dough. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=mRHQGl_rjm8
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