Category Archives: Cooperation

Pizza dough though

One of my kids read the recipe.
“Now we need salt. So I take the Baker’s Salt.”
And I had to switch gears: Baker’s Salt?!

For a starter …

On my days at home my wife hands all the cooking stuff over to me and I have to figure how to cook, grill, or bake. In my family weekend starts on Wednesday. My wife and I puzzle about the meals.
One of the no brainer recipes is pizza. I thought.

My wife was still collecting recipes. It basically meant, that I had to sift all kinds of papers. I already used the pizza dough recipe a few times, so I could tell the basic characteristics: white paper with a eightsome steps.

I browsed through the recipe folder: nothing.
I opened the Baking Bible: niente.
My kid was thinking all along the way.
“Let me have a look at the folder.”
Again: nope.
Then I remembered a book written by a national known baker. My kid had enough information and retrieved the book with half centimeter stack of recipes: bingo.

The next course is …

Next step to the dough was machine assembly. I put the machine on a comfortable place and picked the K-beater. Yep, that thing in the picture.  I still remember my first impression of this part. there is a K in it. When my wife mentioned the K-beater …

All parts were fixed. Now I needed the ingredients. My kid helped me measure the water and the flour:
“We need to use the patent flour”.
I agreed.
I was proud to remember to put the water first into the bowl. My wife had stressed that several times.

Then Baker’s Salt had to be weighted. A special spoon with a built in scale was used for this purpose.
“That is little.” I heard.
Before I could help: “It was 0.3 gram.”
I heard nothing more, so the accuracy problem was handled.

Then I wanted to add the Baker’s Salt to the water and the flour. But my kid was determined: it had to be added later on. OK. But we still needed the yeast.

My kid picked a small plastic cap out of the drawer.
“The salt and the yeast must not be mixed.”
The cap was placed in the spoon and the scale was reset.. Then the yeast in the cap was measured and added. Oil was also added.

Then it was time for me to start mixing. After a minute the salt was added. The K-beater had a heavy time, so I switched it after a small consult with my kid. Imagine a dancing kitchen machine. Not funny. So I used a new part. It looked like the left hand (?) of Captain Hook.

After 18 minutes I got the dough out of the bowl. My kid made a circle in the air with two hands:
“Mom always does this.”
“Can you show it again?”
The movement was a few times repeated. So I gently moved my thumbs over the ball of dough. My kid was not content. The ball was pcked out of my hands and placed on a kitchen cupboard. Then the ball was firmly cupped with two hands. The shape looked familiar to me. Nice touch.

I then let the dough swell.

For dessert …

“The pizza bottom is crispy.”, my wife remarked.
I bit and agreed.

Some people might have noticed that I did not use any computer related word. Except the bolded one. Let me continue.

My point is of course related to my profession. It was not about looking beyond the instructions neither about using knowledge in practice. This story is all about cooperation.