u/ikuragames

Through one thing or another, it’s been way too long since I had a yakitori night. Decided to break the hiatus with an easy night for me and Okusan. Planned to fire up the outdoor grill, but just as I was about to light my binchotan the weather changed - despite a ‘0% chance of rain’ according to my phone this morning 😩

Thankfully just cooking for two meant an easy change of plan to use my ‘winter’ electric yakitori grill instead. All went smoothly, my Tare is two years old this month, and I’m very happy to be back on the wagon! Hopefully will get a binchotan session on the books very soon!

My last post was about my first time making poolish - it sorta kinda worked, but wasn’t as active as it should be. Still made great ‘zza - but I was curious. So I picked up a fresh pot of Active Dry (which is now in the fridge, unlike my previous stocks) and had another go - and wow, what a difference it made! The poolish was perfectly active as it should be, and the resulting dough balls rose better, and the final pizzas were even better, light chewy but crispy crusts, strong but thin bases. Perfect!

I also used the opportunity to try something from the Serious Eats/Jim Lahey pizza video - bechamel sauce, fresh ginger/garlic/thai chilli, mozzarella & Parmesan, blanched broccolini, and some whole coriander seeds. Amazing flavor - will definitely make again!

I’ve made pizzas with no-knead dough and a Weber kettle for a while, but recently acquired a Koda 12 which has revamped my desire to make good ‘zzas!
Second time using the Ooni and decided to try a Poolish recipe. Made the Poolish ~11:30am the day before (300ml water, 300g AP flour, 5g yeast, 5g honey) - 1 hour at room temp and then 23 hours in the fridge. Then used 60% Poolish to make dough for 8 pizzas (added 500ml water, 40g salt, 860g 00 Flour), kneaded, rested 20 minutes, smoothed into a large ball, rested 30 minutes, balled into 250g balls, rested 5 hours at room temp, and then stretched topped and baked.

Very happy with how it came out in the end. My Poolish didn’t seem to develop enough, it was still pretty ‘thick’ after 24 hours in the fridge, and i think that’s why the balled dough balls took a decent amount of time to rise. My active dried yeast is quite old, so that may be the root cause? Room temp is about 71-72°F (22°C)