Category archives: Advice

How To Make Yeast At Home

How To Make Yeast At Home

How To Make Yeast At Home. Every time I decide to make bread or pizza at home, I realize that I don't have any yeast available. Who knows how many times it has happened to you too.

Today we will see how to prepare yeast at home to always have it available and in large quantities.

How To Make Yeast At Home

We will prepare it as that gentleman did many years ago, who has not heard of the multiplication of bread and fish?

Let's prepare the ingredients: For the success of this "Miracle" we will need:

25 grams of water

25 grams of fresh yeast (8 grams of the dry one)

50 grams of flour zero.

How To Make Yeast At Home
How To Make Yeast At Home

The Preparation Of The Yeast

Heat the water with a saucepan a 28/30 degrees, not more, because it would kill the yeast. Once heated, dissolve the yeast cube in it and stir until it has dissolved completely.

At this point, add the water and yeast a little at a time i 50 grams of flour by kneading it with your hands or a spatula.

What to do now

After forming a ball with the mixture obtained, place it in a plastic container with an airtight cap and place it in the refrigerator to 3 days.

After i 3 days resume the dough, take it out of the container and make a sausage. Cut it into many pieces from 12 about grams and place them in freezer.

Ready and Always Available Yeast

Your cubes from 12 grams will be "Pure Yeast" that you can use whenever you need it.

To stay up to date on our recipes, follow my website. To consult the 300 video pizza recipes prepared by the students of our pizza school visit my youtube channel

 
Conclusions

If you want more information about our school of pizza chefs and our professional practical courses to become a pizza chef, follow this link.

Here you will find the calendar of the next courses scheduled in our pizza school.

If you haven't already, it is already possible to download my latest book which is called: NOT ONLY PIZZA - What should have all the pizzerias in your menu. All information here.

See you soon

Silvio Cicchi

 

Cosa Fare Se L'Impasto Non Lievita

What To Do If The Dough Does Not Yeast

What To Do If The Dough Does Not Yeast. It is certainly not the first time this has happened, on the contrary, one of the frequently asked questions I am asked is: Because my dough does not rise.

It is clear that we have made some mistakes. The causes can be manifold, let's see how to solve the problem of the dough that does not rise together.

What To Do If The Dough Does Not Yeast

Pizzas, savory pies, focaccia and sweets have leavening in common. Let's see what to do when the dough does not rise.

Flour. Each type of flour has different rising times, The "wholemeal" flours rise very little, very slowly and sometimes they don't rise at all. Never use dough made exclusively with wholemeal flours, always mix them with weaker zero-type flours.

What To Do If The Dough Does Not Yeast
What To Do If The Dough Does Not Yeast

What to do if the dough does not rise

The salt: Salt is one of the fundamental ingredients for the preparation of a good dough. In addition to taste, it provides our dough with the right elasticity. Too much salt kills the yeast, this explains why salt should never be mixed with yeast but must always be added at the end of the dough.

The yeast: it is the basis of everything, always check the quantity and expiry date, especially if you are using fresh brewer's yeast which is a product that spoils easily.

Let's see the possible other causes

The temperature: Water directly affects leavening, always uses at room temperature. If it is irremediably cold it would block your leavening, if it is too hot it will kill the yeast bacteria. Always keep your dough away from drafts, cover it with a dry cloth.

The dexterity: You have used too much flour and the dough is too hard? This is also one of the common causes that prevent our dough from rising.

So what to do

If you have followed all my advice and the dough still does not rise, you can use the old grandmother's method: put it in your home oven turned off but with the light on, also add a saucepan of boiling water and close the door. After half an hour, check if it is rising.

Se neanche questo suggerimento funziona…ahimè vi siete dimenticati di aggiungere il lievito 🙂 quindi prendete un bicchiere di acqua tiepida scioglieteci dentro la dose di lievito suggerita dalla vostra ricetta, once melted, add it to the dough that does not rise. If the dough becomes too soft, add a small amount of flour and place it again to rise.

Conclusion

These things often happen to you? Sign up for one of our professional practical courses that we run weekly in our school. For more information about our courses click here.

Alternatively, for those who do not have the time or resources to come to our school, I suggest a fantastic "Pizzaiolo Online Course”Available here on our site. You can download it comfortably on your PC or mobile phone and follow it from the sofa at home during your free time. You'll find it here.

Before leaving I remember it is already possible to download my latest book is called: NOT ONLY PIZZA that you find at this link.

See you soon

Silvio Cicchi

 


USB PIZZA

How Not To Sprout Potatoes

How Not To Sprout Potatoes

How Not To Sprout Potatoes. Today we see together to solve a problem known to many people, who buys potatoes in retinas, he often faces a problem, after a few days our potatoes begin to sprout.

The specialists who work in the countryside during the harvest of this tuber take very precise measures to keep them perfect. Let's find out what they are:

How Not To Sprout Potatoes

The first step will be to understand what we absolutely must not do. Never wash them. Humidity is the biggest enemy of potatoes, therefore, for correct storage, clean them with a dry cloth. Never store them in the refrigerator, water and humidity cause them to rot.

How to store them. Store them in a dark box in a dry but not hot place, the perfect temperature would be 12 – 15 degrees.

How Not To Sprout Potatoes
How Not To Sprout Potatoes

What Happens To Potatoes

They belong to the Solanaceae family with peppers and tomatoes, if they turn green or sprout they can develop a poison called "solanine”If the tuber is green it means that it is rich in solanine, so it must be thrown away. In the case of the sprouts, we can remove them with a pointed knife, taking care to remove the root. Once peeled it can be consumed.

The second reason why it is better not to let them sprout, is that solanine causes the potato to become bitter.

A tip to avoid sprouting

Just arrange the potatoes on a plane, close together but not in contact. Insert a few apples between one and the other and you will see as if by magic that the potatoes will not sprout. Apples produce a gas called ethylene which prevents potatoes from sprouting. By following this trick we will always have sweet potatoes available and delicious and without solanine.

Always keep following our valuable suggestions. If you are a pizza lover, I remind you that in our pizza school professional practical courses are available weekly to become professional pizza chefs. If you want more information on our practical pizza chef courses, click here.

Conclusions

For all those who do not have the time to attend a practical course, I remember that here on our site there is an excellent "Online Pizza Maker Course" that you can download on your PC or phone and follow from the comfort of your home during your free time. Clicca who.

It is already possible to download my latest book which is called: NOT ONLY PIZZA, to make sure follow this link.

See you soon

Silvio Cicchi

 


USB PIZZA

 

Always keep the bread soft and fragrant

Always keep the bread soft and fragrant

Always keep the bread soft and fragrant. Reading here and there in the newspapers, I found that each of us in theory throws in the garbage can about 35 kilos of food every year.

That's a lot and we need to pay attention. Among the much food we throw away there is also bread. Let's see how not to waste this food.

Always keep the bread soft and fragrant

Many years ago, families made bread once a week, and the product remained edible for many days. Today things have changed, or rather the products have changed.

The refined flours, unfortunately they are beautiful to look at, but they have this ugly flaw: the next day the bread becomes hard as a stone. We should all buy wholemeal bread, but alas it is brown and looks ugly.

Always keep the bread soft and fragrant

So let's see how to store bread

Today we see how to store bread to have it always fresh and fragrant.

Freeze the bread. We consume it all day, breakfast lunch and dinner. It would be handy to be able to buy it once every week, cut it into single portion slices and put it in the freezer.

How to defrost bread

It would be enough to take it out of the freezer early and we would have solved the problem by now, but my suggestion to give fragrance and perfume to our bread again, is to put it in the toaster for a minute. Then, frozen slices in the toaster and product ready in one minute.

Absolutely avoid the microwave which is not good for bread or for the beloved pizza, seeing is believing.

Conclusion

The toaster trick will allow us not to waste food further.

I also end today with a brief summary of the most visited links that you will find here on my site.

Our school pizza

The calendar of the next practical courses in programming

Our fantastic "Online Pizza Chef Course"

300 pizza recipes

As you all know by now, my latest recipe book called. is already available for download: NOT ONLY PIZZA - What should have all the pizzerias in your menu. You can download it at this link.

See you soon

Silvio Cicchi


USB PIZZA

 

How to Dry and Reactivate Mother Yeast

How to Dry and Reactivate Mother Yeast

How to Dry and Reactivate Mother Yeast. I could start from 1960, when there were no refrigerators, or there were very few who owned one, mother yeast was an indispensable thing for all those who prepared bread, pizza, savory and sweet cakes, then came the cold chain and with it the brewer's yeast. Problem solved!

I'm going too fast? Ok, slow down. Brewer's yeast used today for bread making, the one in cubes to understand better, it is composed of mushrooms which, added to water and flour, produce gases that give rise to leavening.

How to Dry and Reactivate Mother Yeast

The mother yeast is composed of lactic microorganisms which during fermentation produce carbon dioxide giving rise to leavening. It is generally composed of flour, water and a sugar used as an activator, usually honey.

Yeast, or if you prefer to call it sourdough it can be produced from scratch, or it can be bequeathed by someone who already "cultivated" it previously.

Same result but obtained with two different products.

Honestly, it's a lot of work to keep him at home, twice a week it should be washed, refreshed and we have to feed him otherwise he dies.

All is well until we have to leave home for a few days, for holidays or other commitments. So what happens? Our mother yeast dies, or as I suggest in this article we can dry it.

How to Dry and Reactivate Mother Yeast
How to Dry and Reactivate Mother Yeast

How to dry it

Just spread it over the parchment paper in a thin layer at room temperature until it is possible to crumble it into flakes or powder. You can store the flakes in an airtight glass jar and done.

This operation can take more or less time, depending on the season. Once crumbled and stored, our mother yeast will not need any maintenance or refreshments. It can be stored for many months.

And now how do you use it again?

By doing this in a couple of days it should be ready to use again for your next dough:

Rehydrate the yeast and then refresh it, as soon as you notice the classic fermentation bubbles it is ready to be used again. If you notice that the reboot is long and difficult, add a little honey and the problem will be solved.

Conclusion

All these leavening processes, which flours to use and how they should be used are the basis of our professional pizza chef courses that we carry out weekly at our pizza school. If you want more information about our workshops, click here.

If you have a busy life, full of commitments and you don't have time to come to our pizza school to personally attend a course, we recommend the fantastic "Corso Di Pizzaiolo Online" available here on our website. Just download it on your phone or PC and you can follow it from your home comfortably seated on the sofa. Find out more, click here.

See you soon

Silvio Cicchi

 

 

How To Store Flour Correctly

How To Store Flour Correctly

How To Store Flour Correctly. It has certainly happened to everyone to find the harmless butterflies in some old bag of flour (Wheat calenders), do not worry, it is a sign that the flour you are using is good and of quality.

Flour butterflies cannot reproduce in chemically treated flours. It can happen simply because you put the flour back in the wrong place, perhaps near a heat source, or in a place where there is light.

How To Store Flour Correctly
How To Store Flour Correctly

How To Store Flour Correctly

The deterioration of the flour, or the presence of small insects is more likely to occur in organic products, or that they simply contain wheat germ, or because you have purchased a product that has not been chemically treated.

So what to do to preserve it correctly? All flours have an expiration date, respect it. A valid help can be to store it in airtight containers, this will protect the flour from drafts or humidity and prevent it from absorbing unpleasant odors, Another solution is to place it in food bags in the refrigerator. I've found people who even freeze it.

The best way to store flour

Use natural anti repellents, the best I know is laurel. Wash a few bay leaves well and leave them in your closet next to the flour.

But the most used method that always works is to buy a few at a time, only the one we're going to use, avoiding the leftovers of half bags in the cupboard.

But it's still good?

Eyes and nose are the only tools I know of to check if the previously stored flour has gone bad, so pay attention to color and perfume.

What do I do, I throw it?

Recycling imperfect flour can be a good opportunity to give space to your creativity. Here are some suggestions:

The salt dough, guaranteed fun for children and adults.

Glue: A part of flour mixed with 4 parts of water and you will get an excellent glue.

Biscuits for your pets

My grandparents used it as a fertilizer by mixing it with the soil.

Reuse bad flour

During our professional practical courses that we carry out in our Italian pizza school, we learn about many types of flours and prepare different doughs every day. You would like to participate in one of our professional practical courses? To know more follow this link.

For the less fortunate who don't have the time or resources, I remember that here on our site there is a Fantastic ONLINE PIZZAIOLO COURSE. You will find all the information here.

See you soon

Silvio Cicchi

 

Rising Temperature Of The Pizza

Rising Temperature Of The Pizza

Rising Temperature Of The Pizza. In our previous article, we have explained everything about the various types of yeast. Today we spend a few words on the process of rising.

The leavening process is formed by the effect of gases produced within our dough from live products, the mushrooms of our yeast. The bread or pizza will form a honeycomb structure (the famous air bubbles) that will make our product easy to eat and very pleasant to taste.

Rising Temperature Of The Pizza

Brewer's yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae) it feeds on carbohydrates and produces gas in the form of carbon dioxide and ethanol. Our carbon dioxide is responsible for the swelling of the dough (air bubbles) while ethanol which is a type of alcohol, evaporates during cooking.

The temperature is very important to obtain an excellent leavening.

At the temperature of 2/6 degrees the yeast metabolism is blocked, in fact at these temperatures we ripen in the refrigerator. The yeast stick can also be kept in the fridge 3 the 4 weeks, but beware, because old cells lose their leavening strength.

If stored at temperatures above 38 degrees its cells slowly die and its leavening strength will be drastically reduced.

Rising Temperature Of The Pizza

At what temperature the leavening?

Above the 7 /8 degrees the yeast begins its work, the production of carbon dioxide occurs, even if the optimal temperature is between 24 degrees and 30 degrees.

Professionals use leavening cells set to 28/30 degrees and suitably humidified. And, because humidity is very important, without it a crust would form on bread or pizza balls and prevent them from increasing in volume (rising).

Final Annotations

Don't be intimidated by this process, it is much more difficult to say than to make it happen. In any case, you can always enroll in one of our professional practical courses and become a perfect pizza chef. Find out all about our courses. Visit this link.

If you do not have free time or resources to come to our school, I remind you that here on our site there is a fantastic "Pizzaiolo Online Course" available for everyone that you can download on your PC or phone and follow from the comfort of your home during your free time. For all information on the online pizza chef course click here.

We got to the greetings, but before doing that I wanted to remind you to download my book which is called: NOT ONLY PIZZA and that you can find at this link.

See you soon

Silvio Cicchi

 

Reheat the French Fries

Reheat the French Fries

Reheat the French Fries. French fries represent "street food" Junk Food for excellence, everyone loves them, young and old. Every time I prepare them I exaggerate and there are many left over. I am for non-waste, so I often have to heat them later.

How do you heat French fries in your home? Almost everyone will answer to use the microwave or oven at home. Let's see together what seems to be the best solution.

Reheat the French Fries

Use of the microwave oven: I've tried dozens and dozens of times, but always with bad results. Irremediably they become soggy and if you overdo it with time, they harden on the outside.

An alternative could be to put them in the previously heated oven, but there is a great risk of drying them too much on the outside, losing their tasty crunchiness.

Reheat the French Fries
Reheat the French Fries

Reheat the French Fries

Like it or not, the best solution is always to fry them again for a few minutes. Seeing is believing.

It is definitely the right choice, seed oil in a large pan and after bringing the oil to temperature, pour in the chips to be heated. You will see that the seed oil will bring back the lost crunchiness to our chips as if by magic.

Reheat the French Fries

This fantastic solution can be used for all fried foods, even cutlets to reheat the next day.

There is a method of preserving french fries? unfortunately no, Dear friends, it is always advisable to dry them well with absorbent paper from excessive frying oil, but there is no way to preserve its fragrance.

This is why I always suggest to prepare only the necessary quantity.

Reheat the French Fries

We have also reached the greetings today, before doing it, I would like to remind you of some of the useful links that you can find here on my website entirely dedicated to pizza.

All information on the Practical Courses of Pizzaiolo that we regularly carry out here at our school. Follow this link.

For those who do not have the time or resources necessary to personally attend our practical course, I remember that an excellent one is available here on my site Pizzaiolo Online Course that you can follow directly from your home, maybe sitting comfortably on the sofa. Just download it to your PC or mobile phone and ready to go.

If you remain 5 minutes available, visit my youtube channel, you will find hundreds of video pizza recipes available.

 

See you soon

Silvio Cicchi

How To Prepare Pesto

How To Prepare Pesto

How To Prepare Pesto. After the tomato pasta, is the pasta al pesto the second most used sauce in the world, each country has its variations and additions of ingredients. It represents the real Made in Italy.

Although when we say pesto, almost everyone thinks that we are talking about the classic Genoese sauce made with basil, Pine nuts, garlic, parmesan, pecorino, extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt, this is not always the case.

How To Prepare Pesto

Indeed, pesto is a technique, not a recipe. A marble mortar and a wooden pestle and… everything makes pesto. Vegetables, herbs, nights, ricotta, dried tomatoes and so on.

Those who do not have a mortar can use a modern blender, being careful not to let the ingredients overheat. Creamy and very quick to prepare, ready in 10 minutes.

How To Prepare Pesto

There are many variations, I will mention only a few:

Rocket pesto: Rocket salad, pecorino, nights, fresh ricotta and extra virgin olive oil.

Sicilian pesto: Tomatoes, ricotta, Pine nuts, basil and extra virgin olive oil.

Avocado pesto: is nothing more than a revisited version of guacamole, with cashews, mint, chili pepper.

Zucchini pesto, of beets, of black cabbage, of green beans, of spinach.

I often prepare one with the leftover vegetables that I find in the refrigerator.

How To Prepare Pesto

In our School pizzaioli joined our practical course to become a pizza chef, Mr. Leo from Argentina. In his area they prepare pesto but with a variation: In place of pine nuts impossible to find, they use nuts. Even so great.

You got hungry? You just have to prepare a good pesto with the ingredients you have in the pantry. Before moving on to greetings, as usual, I remind you of some useful links that you can find here on my site.

Here you can download my latest book which is called: NOT ONLY PIZZA, just follow this link.

Here you will find instead over 300 pizza recipes freely available, add it to your favorite sites, it will surely be useful next time you prepare pizza at home.

Visit my youtube channel, hundreds of pizza video recipes are available.

 

Appointment in a few days for more news about pizza.

Ciao

Silvio Cicchi

 

How To Make Natural Food Colors

How To Make Natural Food Colors

How To Make Natural Food Colors. It has happened to everyone at least once in their life to want to give an artistic touch with color to our foods, but if the choice falls to make use of artificial colors we immediately gave up.

Just look at the labels and immediately we realize that they contain a large number of chemical additives which I don't think are very good for our health.

How To Make Natural Food Colors

Just look around to understand that we are surrounded by colors that nature itself makes available to us, with what surrounds us it is possible to easily create healthy natural dyes.

How To Make Natural Food Colors
How To Make Natural Food Colors

Natural Food Colors

Let's see together how to create natural colors in our home in a simple way:

ROSA: Beets, Red Cabbage + Lemon

ROSSO: Tomatoes, Strawberries or Cranberries, Red Cabbage, Blueberries + Vinegar

ORANGE: Curcuma or Curry, Carrots

YELLOW: Saffron, Peppers

VERDE: Spinach, Kiwi, Mint syrup

BLU: Blueberries, Red Cabbage + Bicarbonate

VIOLA: Blackberries or Berries

BROWN: Cacao, Chocolate, Soluble coffee

NERO: Charcoal

WHITE: Coconut flour, Grated Parmesan cheese, White chocolate

Prepare Food Coloring

Easy no? On our site entirely dedicated to pizza you will find many curiosities like this as well as more than 300 pizza recipes available at this link.

If you are real pizza lovers, I remind you that here on our site there is a great "Of Pizzaiolo Online Course”, you can follow it comfortably seated from the sofa of your home, just download it on your mobile or on your PC. Follow this link.

How To Prepare Dyes

If you want to become a professional Pizzaioli instead, sign up for one of our practical courses at our pizza school. You will find all information at this link.

For those who have not yet done so, I remember that it is possible to download my latest book which is called: NOT ONLY PIZZA, Lots of recipes and photos of classics of Italian cuisine. For more information click this link.

Before saying goodbye, I wanted to remind you to take a look at my youtube channel, there you will find hundreds of video pizza recipes, subscribe, you will be inspired next weekend when you make pizza at home.

 

Ciao

Silvio Cicchi