Bob's Red Mill Pizza Mix

[aklap]

I finally had a chance to make the BRM's GF Pizza Mix I begged my store for.

Both Peg and I really like it. Peg likes it better than Chebe [yeah, it's a blasphemous statement, but don't shoot the messenger]. She also said if you were to give it to a gluten eater, they probably wouldn't know it's GF. The yeasty taste was a welcoming experience for her.

For the price and the amount of crust you get, it's a good deal. You can get 2 12" pizzas from it. I mixed up the dough. Baked the 1st 'za and then wrapped up the remaining dough to stash in the fridge. I baked the other crust and tossed it in the freezer.

I really need to try some of the other 'za recipes out here.
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[aklap]

This place has been seriously lacking some food porn. Here's last night's dinner. This was 1/2 of the second crust I made last weekend.

I thought I'd give a bit more detailed review - comparing and contrasting BRM and Chebe.

Ease of Use -

I prefer Chebe. You grab some milk, EVOO, Eggs and the Chebe - mix it up by hand in the bowl - roll it out - put it on the pan - blind bake - top it - back in the oven to finish it.

BRM uses yeast. First you have to proof the yeast. Then you mix all the ingredients together. I did it with our Kitchen Aid [perhaps next time I'll try it by hand]. Then you have to let the dough rise for 20 minutes. Then you have to "spread out" the dough. Like many bread recipes GF dough is not like a NGF dough ball were you can handle it and roll it out. This dough wet and sticky, you can't really form it into a ball.

What works best for me is an idea I stole from Colleen.

•I put the half the dough in one of my larger jelly roll pans - get it centered in the pan. I will flatten it out roughly by hand.

•Next I place piece of waxed paper over the dough. I have been known to apply a layer of EVOO on the waxed paper to help with the sticking.

•Now I get out my next smallest jelly roll pan and press it. This will force the dough out towards and into the corners and create a nice flat - even crust. You'll have to experiment with the thickness of it.


You're looking at a good hour plus before you'll be eating that BRM pizza. That's great if you've got the time. With the Chebe, it's maybe 30-40 minutes. To be fair, I've made the Chebe countless times. Perhaps I can get the time whittled down for the BRM.

I need to note - you'll get 2 pizza crusts out of this. So - you bake the 1st one and woof it down. You bake the next one and freeze it, you're that much further ahead for the next 'za.

It just depends on how much time you have to deal with it.

Texture -

I prefer the BRM. It's more NGF pizza-like than the Chebe.


Taste -

I like the seasonings add to the Chebe mix. This should be an easy problem to solve Peg [who doesn't like strong flavors] prefers the BRM because of that.

Value -

You definitely get more crust with the BRM. It'll make 2 12" or 1 16" [or so the package says]. With the Chebe you'll get 1 12-14" [I've never measured it]. With the BRM, I had two large crusts. I have the other crust, baked and waiting in the freezer.

Comments -

I like them both very well. Each one fits a specific need and allows me some variability. Another tool in my toolbox to fix that pizza craving.


_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[neesee]

delete
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Denise

Biopsy diagnosed January 1988

[canadave]

Al,

Great looking pizza Just wanted to chime in with a few thoughts:

1. Regarding proofing the yeast--you don't actually have to do that step. It'd be extremely rare to have a yeast batch that is not beyond its expiration date fail to rise when called upon; there's no need to take the time to make sure it's not dead. Just use it as called for in the recipe, no proofing needed

The only time you might want to proof yeast is if it's close to its expiration date. And at that point, instead of proofing it to see if it's still potent, you're better off just buying a fresh batch of yeast

2. Thanks for the detailed review. I really got a good sense of both BRM and Chebe.

3. In my previous NGF life, I became a home pizza-making connoisseur and expert. I grew up in NYC's Greenwich Village (heavily Italian neighbourhood with a huge pizzeria base) and lived off pizza. When I moved to Canada in 2000 and saw the pizza wasteland up here, I immediately set out on a quest to perfect the quintessential NY pizza. In the process, I learned quite a bit about everything involved in pizza baking--the science behind the baking, the best ingredients to use and what they do for taste and texture, what temperatures work best, and so on. I eventually was able to get perfect pizzas at home (with my own pizza peel, pizza stones, custom flours, and so on), which rivalled those I remembered from back home. Of course, in a cruel twist of fate, I found out I was celiac soon after perfecting all that

Anyway, my point I wanted to make is that I'm collecting lots of info on GF pizza making, and my aim is to become a GF pizza making expert. Once I've had a chance to experiment with lots of flours and baking techniques, I'll see if I can't post some info here to help everybody out with what will hopefully be a truly delicious step forward in GF pizzas

Cheers!
Dave

[luvscowznh]

[canadave]

Manda--great hearing from you, and nice to know there are others out there who are similar pizza connoisseurs I think what I'm going to do is start a separate thread in a more appropriate forum called "Quest for the Ultimate Homemade Pizza" and use that as a home base for sharing as much info as I already have...then maybe if others share some info too, we can get the ball rolling and really tackle this once and for all. I'm optimistic; I think if we all put our heads together we can come up with something even better than a pizza made from a good mix like BRM or Chebe.

Giving up pizza making at home for your one true love....now that IS true love!!!! Kudos to you both.....

--Dave

[luvscowznh]

I made my pizzas tonight with BRM mix. I made the dough on the dough setting for my breadmaker. It was more like a batter than a dough, but I expected that after reading Al's review. I made two pizzas - one in a baking stone and one in a non-stick pan. They came out pretty good. My husband tried a piece and thought it was good - for GF pizza.

Here is a picture of the round pizza:


And the rectangle pizza:


I think I have a new favorite pizza dough. I'm so excited I can make pizza at home again using a fresh dough. I've really missed that. I usually use Gillian's frozen dough, which is pretty good - provided you remember to bake the crust a little before you top it. If you forget (like I usually do), the crust is a little gooey. If you remember, it is nice and crunchy. I prefer the BRM dough over the Gillian's for taste. AS for ease of use, it's a toss-up. Gillian's just has to be taken it out of the freezer the night before and thawed. The breadmaker did all the work making the BRM dough.

Thanks for the info, Al!

--Manda

**Edited to fix image size...2/28/2009**
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[aklap]

Since the dough is really hard to roll out I decided to cheat. After placing it in my largest jelly roll pan, I EVOO'ed a sheet of waxed paper and placed it over the top of the dough. At that point I rolled out the dough. Since my french style rolling pin is too wide, I used a glass...only cuz that's all I had. Over all it, worked pretty slick!

Since then, I've picked up a new tip...use a piece of PVC pipe cut to length.
_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[luvscowznh]

I used a scraper and my pastry roller. The scraper worked much better - the dough kept sticking to my greased pastry roller. The dough was pretty lumpy and uneven, but once I put the toppings on, you really couldn't tell the difference. Maybe next time I will use your tip of oiling down waxed paper and use my pastry roller on top of that.
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[sa2asl]

I tried BRM a few weeks ago and liked it too! (I think it tastes a lot better than Chebe brand, not so fake) The dough was a little tricky for me because, like others had said, it was a bit hard to roll out. The directions do say to get your hands wet to pat it into the pan, so I kept running my hands under water and then spreading it out and that worked much better.

My test for a good GF pizza is if you can stand to eat it cold the next day and this one was pretty good! I packed some in my bag for a Badger game when I knew the bar food would not cut it. It was still really good cold! Yeah! But I still think the crusts from the Silly Yak in Madison, WI are the best, especially when Bunky's tops them. They are the real deal, real pizza! (if only they were a little closer... but you can order from the Silly Yak online for the crusts only)

Ok, I'm done. I could go on and on about pizza all day!

[aklap]

bump for Os
_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[ostrich]

Thanks Al! I'd forgotten about this. I think I'm going to try sa2asl's trick with the cold water. I don't have another large, circular pan to smoosh the bread.

Protip: Those newfangled pizza pans with holes in them? Yeah, totally don't work with GF pizza dough. The dough sinks through all those holes and you end up washing the thing forever then donating it to a coworker.
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Ostrich :>--O==={

Time falls away, but these small hours
These little wonders still remain

[cruelshoes]

Those holey pans would probably work if you par-baked the dough on another pan first. Otherwise the dough would just sqeeeze through the holes when you spread it out over the pan. Kinda like a Fuzzy Pumper, my favorite toy from childhood.



Good luck on the pizza, Os. Let us know how it turns out.
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-Colleen

Where are we going, and what am I doing in this handcart?

[aklap]

[nancw]