Home Pizza Baking Guide

The secret to our pizza dough is the yeast; we use a wild yeast culture (grown in our bakery) which creates the complexity of flavors that brings out the most desirable qualities for your pizza toppings. So our dough is excellent without adding sugar, fat, or oil; just flour, water, barley malt (sprouted barley), yeast and salt


Here are some hints to making a great pizza and feel free to write us with questions or comments; or leave a comment here.

Dough Preparation. Store the dough in the refrigerator up to two days before use; the dough is ready to use (but thaw overnight in a refrigerator if it has been frozen); no need to let it sit out or “rise.” Just cut the dough ball to the size you want and roll it out to your desired thickness. Generally, one pound of dough makes two eight inch pizzas. Place the rolled out dough directly on an oiled flat sheet pan (or you can use parchment which tends to burn in a hot oven but makes it easier to move/slide the pizza around before baking if needed).

Top as desired. Plain canned tomato sauce works great; a small 6 oz. can is just the right size for 1 pound of dough. There really is no need for cooked sauce or specialty pizza sauce; but they work great. Just check the ingredients on the can; add salt if none is listed. The dough is rugged and can hold a lot, but be sure not to overload the pizza with items that will shed moisture while baking and cause the dough to fall apart.

Bake at high heat.   Ideally, pizza is baked between 700 and 800 degrees; this is why you will often see a fire burning inside authentic brick pizza ovens. But you can successfully bake in your kitchen oven or, even better, on your outside grill at lower temperatures. Turn the oven/grill to the highest heat it can go and heat oven for at least 15 minutes, 25 minutes if using stones. Baking stones are ideal as they help keep the oven hot after opening and closing; the stones hold retained heat and release it when the oven temperature goes down thus keeping the highest possible heat. Consumer “pizza stones” are troublesome because they tend to break if they get hot and wet; and their size and shape sometimes don’t work well. We recommend unglazed quarry tile which you can buy cheaply at any hardware store that sells floor tiles; they come in 6 inch squares which you can piece together in your oven/grill as desired and easily remove and store away when cool. For best results bake one pizza at a time and give the oven/grill time to reheat between bakes; this helps keep the oven hot. You can always put a baked-but-cooled-down pizza back in the oven/grill to heat up again. Each pizza should take about 10-15 minutes to bake completely.

The Going Rate to Sell a Loaf of Bread in Philly

What can be more basic and simple than baking a loaf of bread and selling it to a neighbor? That is what I have set out to do; open a small neighborhood storefront bakery. I found a local developer willing to give me a renovated space for a reasonable rent. All I had to do was put in a floor, oven, front steps, add some sinks and some electrical connections; and supply and other machines I needed. Easy enough!

My naivety is my greatest weakness and also my greatest asset. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I walked into the Philadelphia offices of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) with my home made, and fully to-scale, drawings and they laughed at me:

“You need professional drawings.” The plan reviewer told me.

“But the building is built; I’m just adding some sinks and equipment, and some front stairs. The City is clear that professional plans are not needed for such a thing.” I argued back remembering reading that somewhere on the City web pages.

“You need professional drawings.” He repeated, this time flipping through a rolled up pile 5 inches thick of drawings from some project he was reviewing. “Like these.”

“But this is a waste. The architect plans will say the same thing as in these drawings; where all my equipment is going. What more information do you need that is not in these drawings?”

“You need professional drawings.” The mantra at L&I.

“But….” I gave up at this moment; time to find an architect.

Four weeks later and $1000 poorer (only because of rough economic times for architects; I found a bargain), I show up with my “professional” plans, which had almost the same information as my home made drawings and was told to wait for 40 days to find out if I am approved or not.

Almost forty days later, I get a letter from L&I saying my plans have been approved. But when I pick up my permit, there is a sheet of paper that says they did not review my plans for ADA accessibility, electrical, plumbing, or venting; I would need separate permits for all these things. But these were the only things I needed anyway. I wondered what the point was in getting the “building permit” if I needed separate permits for everything else. I suspected nobody even looked at these plans in any detail.

“Oh well, I have the permit,” I thought to myself. “Time to get to work.”

So the ADA requires that I have a ramp to get into the 15” rise from the sidewalk to the bottom of the front door. Sounds reasonable, except that it is practically impossible to put a 15 foot (each inch requires a foot of ramp) ramp on this property. The ramp would have to switch back with a landing large enough for a wheelchair to turn on; then there would not be any sidewalk left for people to walk on. Streets department wouldn’t allow it. A mechanical lift would be $40,000; not feasible. So what do I do?

Turns out I can apply for a “variance.” But the City can’t give them, L&I just forces people to comply. I have to go to Harrisburg (the other L&I, Labor and Industry) to apply for a variance. This again requires additional architectural drawings and work by the architect explaining the layout and why the ramp is impractical. Another $800 for professional fees (again, a bargain due to dragging economy).

OK, I got the variance a month after applying. It’s slow but I we are moving. I scramble to revamp my budget with all these unanticipated expenses and I have to look to borrow some additional funds.

I need a sign so people can walk or drive by and know there is a baker here. But to put a sign, I need a sign zoning permit. One trip to apply for the zoning permit was pretty laughable; again, L&I requires professional drawings, my sign design work with the original drawings for the build out are not sufficient; another $1000 in architectural fees to me, and approval from Street Department and Art Commission, whatever that is. On the second trip I am told my professional drawings were not competent, lacking some needed written measurements that are easily calculated if measured. So I complain to my architect and he makes me some new ones at no charge. I am shocked by the price of a zoning permit to put up a sign, over $400 and 20 days to review even after the intake reviewer thoroughly reviewed the plans.

Then I need another building permit, for the sign. Not a tough process, but they need professional drawings and some fees; and 20 days; but only after the zoning is approved.

So the bottom line is that to put in some sinks, electrical upgrades, and and an oven, I’m out $7267 plus about a dozen trips to Center City to wait in line for my turn to more deeply understand what Kafka was writing about. This is just to follow City requirements; the actual work is additional. Oh well… could have been much worse, I guess.

I dare not calculate how many loaves of bread I have to bake to recoup this investment. All I know is that some dreams are worth the price. Wish me luck with my final inspections.

The breakdown:

Zoning application and permit $100

Health Department Plan Review $1445

Tenant Fit Out, Application for Building Permit $125

Tenant Fit Out, Building Permit $261

Sign Zoning application fee $100

Sign Zoning permit fee $ 325

Sign building application fee $100

Sign building permit fee $61

ADA variance application fee (State) $100

Plumbing Permit & inspection $600 (estimated)

Electrical Permit inspection and Certification $650

Venting (for the oven) Permit & inspection $500 (estimated)

Architectural fees required for these permits $3000

Total $7267

Some images from the new bakery fit-out

The new floor; slip resistant abrasive quarry tile. Very strong. That section to the right of the picture is where the new walk-in refrigerator went in. The oven will be facing the camera way back along the far back wall.


The reconditioned bagel former from Empire Baking Machines.



The 1,000 pound Rondo/VMI dough mixer; can mix about 140 pounds of dough at once. We had to enlist the help of the forklift operator at Woodland Building Supply to get in the front door...too heavy to lift.



Misselaneous pieces for the oven; I'm hoping the pro oven installer knows what to do with all this stuff.


The steel base (back right) and two large pices of the oven core. All the grill-like images are pipes that move the hot water throughout the oven; the state of the art Vapor Tube technology.


More pieces of the oven core and stack work. Those bags in the back are insulation that will be stuffed tightly inside the oven to maintain it's amazing efficiency. These natural gas ovens are so efficient, many bakers don't even turn off their ovens; they just leave them on when not using them.

Four Worlds Bakery and the Proposed 42nd and Woodland Starbucks at USP

Summary: Four Worlds Bakery is opposed to the proposed Starbucks at University of the Sciences (USP) on 42nd and Woodland. Although the direct economic impact on Four Worlds is unknown, the presence of the Starbucks alone will likely have a minimal impact on the financial success of the new bakery location 4634 Woodland. As part of the exploding local food scene, Four Worlds would rather see a locally owned and operated business in that space. Four Worlds Bakery encourages residents to attend the upcoming community meeting at Spruce Hill Community Association to be heard on the subject. But to be fair, we don't think USP should be denied a zoning variance; we just think it's a bad idea to put a Starbucks on 42nd and Woodland and hope USP officials will change their minds after they hear community feedback. Four Worlds Bakery remains an ally with USP regarding the development of the Woodland retail corridor irrespective of the proposed Starbucks plan.

The following is our detailed response to the proposed Starbucks at University of the Sciences at 42nd and Woodland.

Background

Four Worlds Bakery is moving to 4634 Woodland; probably by June 1. These plans have been in the works for awhile and we are at the tail end of the necessary renovations; about ready to start moving in equipment.

The plans are a realized dream for most any baker. We will have 1000 square feet of kitchen space, including a retail storefront; a bakery counter where customer can walk in and buy morning croissant, baguettes, bagels, loaves of bread, freshly roasted and brewed coffee and espresso, cupcakes, granola, canela, and other made from scratch products. Everything is take out, we don’t have the space for seating.

Multiple businesses will be run in the bakery space including a coffee roaster (we are installing a new $25,000 coffee roaster), cupcake baker, and canela baker; all established vendors. All the individuals working in this space share a common story: we all have climbed over many obstacles to do the work we love. Many of our products will be sold to area retailers and some will be sold by us in the store.

While exciting, the venture is full of challenges. Our mission is to bring back the neighborhood scratch bakery, make a positive impact on our community, and make a decent living doing the work we love. The economics are tight; the profit potential extremely limited. This is not a bakery that will be fully stocked with hundreds of different bakery products all day long. We will bake to sell out; and likely offer fresh products early in the morning and later in the afternoon; but probably won’t be open all day long.

We chose Woodland Avenue for many reasons. This corridor, between 43rd (Clark Park & the University of the Sciences) and 49th, is screaming potential. A local investor, Guy Laren, has been buying decaying building and renovating them in an effort to rehab the neighborhood. Bottom line is that we got a mostly renovated space for half the rent of a comparable space on Baltimore Avenue. With a relatively low (but still six digits) start up cost and low monthly overhead, the neighborhood bakery is feasible. Also, a new Mexican food restaurant is
slated to open in June a block away at 46th & Woodland.

Of course, we need to attract our customers to the area; Woodland Ave does not have established retail traffic to accommodate Four Worlds. And we hope to attract students from University of the Sciences (USP).

USP has been amazingly hospitable. Early in the project, USP contacted me and expressed overwhelming excitement and support. USP officials helped me plan a way to safely secure the building and offered to promote Four Worlds to faculty, staff and students. And plans are in the works to offer students subsidized coupons for neighboring businesses and other incentives to patronize Four Worlds Bakery.

Enter Starbucks Plan

Through a benign administrative oversight, USP did not inform Four Worlds Bakery about the proposed Starbucks. We happened to get an email by an area activist last week, the night before a Spruce Hill community zoning meeting on the subject. We didn’t know any specifics about the plans, but felt extremely threatened by the prospects. Generating storefront traffic is challenging enough; but a Starbucks on campus would make it even more difficult to attract students and USP staff 3 blocks away to the bakery. Without time to gather information, we sent out some emails to gather support in opposing the Starbucks plans.

Through lightning speed social media outlets, our message quickly went viral and USP was flooded by emails and calls regarding the proposal; completely overwhelming at least one office at the University. Community list servers and comment boards hosted many debates on the subject, some in support of Starbucks and some passionately opposed. In conversations, Four Worlds supporters cited the bakery as one of the most likely victims of the USP plans.

Many residents changed their plans for the evening to attend the community zoning meeting. The meeting is ostensibly a community forum where residents are given a voice in how the City zoning officials will rule on the necessary zoning variances USP needs to build the Starbucks. Starbucks officials will not be at the meeting; this is USP requested a zoning variance for their building, to put in the Starbucks café.

USP contacted us and sincerely apologized for not informing us of the plans and extended a formal invitation to come to the community meeting. A few hours later, they called back to inform us the community meeting was postponed due to the unexpected response from the community.

USP officials quickly set up a meeting with us to discuss the plans to give us an opportunity to formulate our own opinions about the project. This meeting was very cordial and informative and helped us formulate our opinions which appear below.

The Plans

USP entered a contract with Sodexo, their corporate food service provider, to put in a Starbucks at the university. This is not a franchise Starbucks; but a license to use the Starbucks image and products…all the employees will be working for the food service company. The Starbucks café is part of their Barnes & Noble text-book-only bookstore. The plans include sidewalk seating along both 42nd Street and Woodland Ave.

I spent time listening to USP officials, trying to understand why they wanted a Starbucks on campus. USP is making great efforts to connect with and move toward integrating with the neighborhood; a mission that is sincere and incredibly challenging. So I was confused as to why they would want to put a Starbucks on campus; a brand and image with the potential to further alienate USP from the West Philly community. And USP wants to develop the Woodland corridor; so why attract more traffic to center campus? Wouldn’t it be better to attract retail traffic to the area around campus instead? And why not put in a business that would attract neighbors and residents?

I discovered a very carefully balancing act by USP officials. As any business, USP must make income; and attracting qualified students is paramount to their success. Apparently, having a Starbucks on campus is good for business; part of an overall mix in attracting the kind of students they want. And while the Starbucks might incite and alienate many area residents, officials decided the Starbucks was a significant enough boost to their overall business strategy that they are willing to accept the negative impact on their community relations. And while they were hoping, I think, for a smooth and relatively quiet zoning process, the community response has been vigorous and loud.

Our Perspective

So now our community has the opportunity to have a very healthy debate. And to help clarify and focus the debate, I offer my perspective to clarify the likely impact on Four Worlds and the community.

1) Business impact on Four Worlds Bakery. The economic impact on the bakery cannot be known; but the impact is limited to only the retail storefront potential of the business which is part of the overall revenue mix. Online retail sales and wholesale sales will likely not be affected. We are hoping to attract students and staff to the bakery early in the morning, and the Starbucks will make that more difficult. If there is a negative impact, the likely outcome will be a more limited retail storefront presence, ie less hours, or worst case, no storefront at all. But the presence of the Starbucks will not alone cause us go out of business. Ironically, the community debate might actually help business within the West Philly community given the highly visible publicity and favorable comments from existing customers. But to use potential benefits like this as a justification for the project doesn’t sit well with us. With so many variables and risks involved in a business venture, and lack of reliable (and easily manipulated) statistical evidence, there is no reliable way to predict or even determine in the future the effect of the Starbucks on our bottom line.

2) The decision to build or not build the Starbucks rests with USP and Sodexo. The debate is muddied since this is not a Starbucks franchise project; the primary venture is a USP venture in association with their corporate food service company Sodexo; the Starbucks was a requirement to get the Sodexo contract to supply food service. As a neighbor to USP, Four Worlds Bakery depends on the success of USP; a successful university is symbiotic to a successful neighborhood bakery. Our overall community strategy should be to help USP, Four Worlds Bakery, and other local businesses to flourish. So USP is not the big bad corporation here; and USP will be the presenters at the planned Spruce Hill Community Association meeting. But we should tell USP that who they associate with has consequences to their community relations and the economic health of our community; and we should invite them to favor associations to local businesses.

3) Starbucks’/USP Business Practices & the Local Food Community. We leave it to others to inform the community on specific Starbucks business practices that are adverse or beneficial to the local community. I like that locally owned businesses care about the community. When the going gets rough, we can’t just pack up and leave; we live here and so do our families; decision making is made more by human beings who must consider the community interests, not removed board of directors making decisions in a multi-national context that can impact our local community. Many of the local food businesses do business with each other: like we sell croissant to Green Line, Milk & Honey, Cream&Sugar and many other businesses. Starbucks is not likely to sell our products since they distribute their own baked goods that arrive frozen.

4) This is a zoning variance process. USP is voluntarily seeking community response as part of the process of seeking a variance for use of their building at 42nd and Woodland. After they get a response from Spruce Hill, they take their case to the City Zoning Board for an official decision. Residents thus have an opportunity to be heard on the issue, which is an important part of the process of changing a zoning regulation.

Our Official Position. Four Worlds Bakery opposes the building of a Starbucks at 42nd and Woodland because there are other, more beneficial alternatives for the local community. Four Worlds Bakery is part of an exploding local foods movement, and we would much prefer to see a locally owned business go in that space that supports and nourishes the local foods movement and business community. We don’t oppose putting a café in that space; just the Starbucks brand and image which we see as polarizing to the West Philly community and misses out on potential benefits to the local community. While we think Starbucks is a bad idea here, we don't oppose the granting of a zoning variance since we support USP use of the space as a retail cafe. Our hope is that USP will change their mind and decide not to put a Starbucks there.

Four Worlds encourages resident participation at the planned (date/time/place TBA) Spruce Hill Community Association meeting when the zoning debate will take place. West Philly should tell USP, Starbucks and Sodexo what they think about the plans after they hear the full proposal by USP; and we should use the debate to further solidify the already thriving locally owned business community that is flourishing in West Philly. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness about the benefits of locally owned businesses; and we should seize on that opportunity. Four Words Bakery, however, does not see itself as a victim nor do we feel threatened from a business perspective.

We are excited for the prospects of the Woodland retail corridor between 43rd and 50th Street and Four Worlds Bakery is heavily invested in its success. New businesses are coming there and so will our residents; and Four Worlds will be an integral part of the change that is coming. USP has expressed its commitment to foster the success of Four Worlds Bakery and the Woodland retail corridor regardless of the outcome of the Starbucks project. Four Worlds views USP as an integral ally in these efforts and looks forward to working with USP officials; pooling all our resources together for the benefit of our local community.

Now, if it is OK with you, we will go back to doing what we do best. Baking bread and roasting coffee.

We invite your comments below.

Betting on the new local economies: I'm expanding my business

I own a small bread bakery in West Philadelphia. My business is expanding in a shrinking economy and consumer spending. Why? Keep reading and have a peek at the bright future that is ahead of us; even if it's a challenging road to get there.



A bit about my bakery. I started this bakery in my house with 15 people on an email list. I just sent out a weekly email and said "this is what I'm baking; pre-order and pickup your order on Friday on my front porch." Hand-made sourdough breads, locally grown organic whole grains, milled at the bakery, local ingredients mostly.

Grass roots expansion. The word spread quickly taking on a life of it's own, seemingly totally beyond my control; and the bakery operation slowly crept into my basement with the addition of more ovens, sinks, refrigerators, etc. Seeing the writing on my bare basement walls, I began to look for a real commercial kitchen and spent 1 1/2 years planning and renovating a small space in an existing local cafe to put my bakery; I moved the bakery, got all the required permits and certifications.

Since moving into my own commercial kitchen, I have kept the same business model that I started with: direct sales to people through internet order forms; slow growth with the goal of building lasting connection and loyalty with a strong customer base; high margins (revenues minus costs) and low volume.

Here is a nicely edited video of the bakery move from the basement. We moved the entire contents of the bakery with bicycles, no trucks.



Sustainable Business model. I have been convinced that the high volume, low margin business model is going to very problematic in the emerging economy. The key is flexibility. When low margins, small changes in supply costs (like the huge spike in food prices last year) puts the whole business model in turmoil. I was able to ride the spike in food costs without raising my prices, because I had high enough margins on my products to sustain the changes without changing my business model.

Instead, I got creative. I found new markets for my products and invested in sustainable packaging (reusable bags), used barter and bicycle transportation for delivery, and almost eliminated waste in the bakery. For example, I create only one home-sized trash bag of garbage a month; the rest of my "waste" in composted or recycled.

When the recession hit, I added an option on my order form to donate bread to hungry people. My customers can now donate $1 to $40, or more, to an account that use to give away bread to people. I have matched most of the donations, but essentially the program allows my customers to support the bakery in baking fresh quality bread for people who need bread. A comment from a hunger organization I am working with:

Thank you for your generosity with Intercultural Family Services. Myra and Kim told me how much the families loved the bread and sweets you provided. Oftentimes, people in need of food are used to getting the food that no one else wanted or expired foods. When you are hungry, you usually eat it, because that is all that you have. When you give someone good, wholesome food prepared with care, as you did, I feel that you are also nourishing them with dignity. Thank you again.

And now expansion. This week I am launching a daily fresh croissant and bagel delivery for area cafes and small sweet shops in a 2 mile radius in West Philly. This is a major expansion for my small bakery which will, if all goes well, double or triple my overall sales in just a few months. There is great support in my neighborhood for this venture, and I'm marketing it as a way to help fix the broken economy. Invest in your local economy; in businesses whose CEO's live in your community, send their kids to the same schools as yours, who really care about the employees and where the waste they create ends up. This is the way of the future; and I'm investing and betting on it.

I'm lucky I live in an supportive community for this venture. The local food economy here is strong and growing.

Our collective future. Any stimulus package needs to include motives for small businesses like mine to expand, hire people, and support the community that hosts them. It's the key to our long term future. I don't reject the "global" economy, as long as it's firmly rooted in a strong decentralized local economic engine that builds on the benefits of having access to international trade. We have gone into depending on the global engine as our food; but we are going back to building at our roots. Local, small businesses is the future. And there is great hope; even if the times are challenging. Thanks for listening.

Here is an effort to get you hungry; I'm just a small time baker after all is said and done:




*Update: Here is a link to my web page; many a commenter has been asking: www.fourworldsbakery.com

The most efficient bread machine is really simple...and cheap

Occasionally I get email newsletters from the baking industry. Little of what I see there is relevant to my little bakery; but occasionally I will follow some links to see what's going on out there. This article had me laughing so hard I was forced to stop myself from laughing because I wasn't getting enough air. It's certainly not meant to be funny; but it's so utterly incomprehensible, even to me as a baker, that I forgot I was reading about a bread machine. Here is a taste:

Pan bread systems have evolved in the last few years to use extrusion on a wider variety of products. “By using multiple metering pumps on the ADD Divider, AMF has been able to increase extrusion line speeds while reducing the work on the dough,” says Larry Gore, AMF Automation Technologies, Richmond, Va. “This has broadened the range of bread styles that can be made using extrusion, and further reduced the cost of production by increasing scaling accuracy and minimizing maintenance.” For those breads that still require volumetric dividing, AMF's new servotech divider and Cycone rounder package uses precise feedback from the servo controls on the ram and knife to accurately scale with minimal pressure.

In other words, they are trying to get their robotic machines to be gentle on the dough and actually scale the dough accurately; without beating up the pans so much they have to be replaced constantly. You know .... trying to replicate the most efficient and effective machine for making bread: Hands!!!

And ... oh yeah ... we could actually hire people with hands to make it.

The making of a wedding challah

I got my first order for a festive wedding challah and we had a blast baking it. Here is a picture of the happy couple (Zoe and Ken) on their wedding day yesterday, just before saying the blessing over the challah.

This loaf is 3 challah, stacked on top of each other. The tricky part is stacking them in such a way that the top braids don't fall off; and of course, we don't want the whole thing to topple over in the oven during the oven spring.

It worked. Just after they came out of the oven with the proud bakers:

We baked two of them. One we are dehydrating. After it's dried out, we are going to shellac it (to seal out moisture) and use it as a decorative display piece for the cafe. Come by the bakery at 4423 Chestnut and take a look. I will update this posting with a picture of it displayed at Kaffa Crossing when it's up.

This challah was just as delicious as all the Four Worlds Bakery challah. Here is the proof:

This was not staged. I just happened to found him all by himself communing with this challah. And I just happened to have a camera in my pocket. Really! I promise!!