Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

[mrgweeto]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

The rolling pin is questionable here. Try not using that and you may find you get an airy crust with some bubbles as long as you don't spread your sauce out to the very edge. I use 1 tsp of salt and 5/8 tsp yeast. 5 cups AP flour and 1 3/4 cups of water. Our doughs are 18" - 20" thin and to us, just right. We do get nice bubbles depending on the floor temp. Try forming your dough by hand and I think you will see a difference. Less touching is better.
G

[stonylake]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

that's a lot of salt... i use
4 cups flour
14oz water
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp instant yeast

[jecrab]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

James, I need some guidance and help please regardign this recipe.
Here is the recipe I have used:

4 cups 00 flour
1 1/2 C water plus 2-3 Tbs
4 teaspoons sea salt
1 packet yeast

I have followed this recipe perfectly including the autolyse technique of allowing the flour to absorb the water. After the autolyse period, my dough is not a "sticky mess" as shown and described as it should be. My crust is not chewy and does not have any of the wonderful bubbles of crust or corniche as described in the Frono Bravo pdf book.

I am using a baking stone in an oven. I also roll the dough with a rolling pin to achieve the shape I want.

What possibly am I doing incorrectly or wrong?

Thanks Jason

[flyfisherx]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

and we started thinking about a reuben pizza. thousand island is basically egg oil and tomato, corned beef , sauerkraut, and shredded provolone... gotta give it a try.

At first I cringed with the thought but the more I thought about it? That sounds good! I bet it would be awesome.

Last week I visited a small WFO pizza joint and ordered a "Buff Chic" Buffalo Chicken with a very nice sauce topped with goganzola cheese and roasted red peppers. It was one of the best pies I have ever had!

Once my oven is up, I will try to experiment with the Rueben!

Thanks

[Les]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

reuben pizza. thousand island is basically egg oil and tomato, corned beef , sauerkraut, and shredded provolone... gotta give it a try.

I fear it! If you survive the intestinal challenge - let us know

[stonylake]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

i posted this in favorite pizza's too, but here goes... has anyone made a rye pizza dough? or should i just add caraway to my regular recipe? one of my co-workers gave me a jar of sauerkraut that his Dad makes, and we started thinking about a reuben pizza. thousand island is basically egg oil and tomato, corned beef , sauerkraut, and shredded provolone... gotta give it a try.

[kendunn]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

You should email James about this. He may not catch it in the threads.

info@fornobravo.com

Done, thanks

[dmun]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

You should email James about this. He may not catch it in the threads.

info@fornobravo.com

[kendunn]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Did anyone else catch the mistake in the ebook about the salt conversion from grams to tsp? Maybe I missed the memo, but I wanted to try the dough and weighed my water and dough but figured my scale wasn't sensitive enough to measure smaller units and just added the converted amount and it was over 2x the salt needed and it was terrible!

[mrgweeto]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Thanks for the input. The one thing that my brother and I have learned after having made approx 300 pizzas is that making dough could drive you crazy if you start thinking about it too much. I even went out and bought a digital scale (primarily for baking). The dough we produce for the pizzas from all purpose flour is very soft and easy to work with. A friend that has worked in his families pizza parlor for years has been over several times and he loves working with the dough. He's been out of that business for years but thinks that the dough made from the all purpose is easily as good if not better than what was made in the restaurant. We get it pretty thin but there is a point of no return if you try to overdo it. The restaurants are using a high gluten flour that is more elastic and a little tougher. I guess what it amounts to is that all of us that have put our sweat and love into building our ovens are always searching to improve on the foods we make in the oven. All I know is that people that taste the pies out of the WFO are thoroughly impressed and hinting at the next invite. We are having our Sunday Football and pizza with the boys this weekend so I may try your recipe for one of the doughs. Thanks again for the response.
G

[carloswlkr]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

I know this is a pretty old thread by now, but thought I'd add my two cents.

I usually make James' FB recipe by weight, but with regular all purpose flour (can't get Caputo 00 here in Costa Rica). After the kneading, I let it rise for six or eight hours in the fridge before forming the balls about an hour before cooking the pizzas.

After several years of cooking with this recipe, I definitely concur that the longer the dough can autolyze, the better the consistency for shaping.

But for our party yesterday, I had no space in the fridge, and didn't want to leave the dough out for a long period of time. So I stirred 2/3rds of the flour with a small pinch of yeast and all of the water on Friday afternoon, left it on the counter over night. In the morning, I mixed in the remaining yeast (2 tsp per 500 gr flour), the salt, and the remaining flour, and kneaded away in the KA mixer. Let the dough rise for a couple of hours, then formed the balls, and let them rise again for about an hour before starting the pizzas.

The results of an extended, room-temperature autolyse with a super-high hydration of part of the mix (120% hydration of 65% of the flour)? Easily the best results I've gotten yet! The dough was soft but extremely pliant. I could stretch it rice-paper thin without it tearing. And the cooked pizza was superb.

Cheers!

[mrgweeto]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Glad to hear you are enjoying your pizza oven and especially the pies that are coming out of them. That's what it's all about. The trick is to make it easy and to have fun. Had 10 people over this Sunday and we made 7 large (18") pies. Each one was devoured and I should have made a couple more later in the evening but we were all sitting around my homemade wine and no one wanted to get up. One of my friends worked in his cousins pizza restaurant for 14 years when he was younger and I let him make some of the pizzas. He had a great time and said that the dough was great and that it was actually lighter than what they made in the restaurants and certainly a lot tastier. It just cooks so much different in a WFO. He was used to cooking in a 650 degree oven and waiting 5 or more minutes per pizza compared to the short cooking times in our ovens. I do let the temp get down a little lower so it take slightly longer to cook which gives the bottom a little more time to get a little more well done like we like them and also helps the toppings not to get overly done. The best time of the year is coming up in NE and I plan on pumping out a lot of pies.
Enjoy,
Guy

[bigred]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Ok its official ...I am done with experimenting with dough recipes, oven temps, etc...etc.. etc... I have determined the ultimate recipe for pizza dough and thats it. No more messing around .... no more messing up....no more bad crust...burnt crust etc.... I am no longer a slave to my oven... I am DONE. FINITO ....COMPLETO......time to simply enjoy the best pizza in the world.
Could not have done it without this web site....

Thank you
Big Red

[mrgweeto]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

I have been using Heckers All Purpose flour in place of an imported 00 pizza flour with great results. I was given imported 00 flour from an Italian importer and restaurant owner and it was indeed very light and silky. By using the dough recipe listed on the FB site and substituting the Heckers All Purpose in place of the 00 I got a dough that was equally light and velvety and also responded very well. I used 2 tsps of salt and 5/8 - 3/4 of yeast instead of the 1/2. I don't mix the dough as long as the recipe calls for and I use plastic wrap instead of a damp cloth and have found it is just as good if not better. Once the dough is proofed, cut into the portions we planned for and put aside to relax, we find that all we do is place it on a floured board and it practically forms itself. We just rotate it on the board while slightly stretching it to 16"-18", put it on our peel and then into the oven.
Like everything we eat and drink everyones tastes are different and suited for that individual. I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone that hasn't tried this already.
Enjoy,
G

[Pizza Pizza]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

I tried Caputo 00 flour for the first time last night. It eventually came out as one of my best ever crusts,... but I had a problem (sorta). Since I've never used 00 flour I thought I better I used this reciepe: http://www.fornobravo.com/PDF/Using-caputo-tipo00.pdf I've been making pizza for 4 years with all purpose flour and all purpose flour with gluten added (Bob's Red Mill), with nice results. Last night I hesitated at the "1/2 tsp/3 gram yeast" call-out. That didn't seem very much. I went ahead and used it (3 gram measurement) but when I set it aside to raise it didn't hardly raise >at all<, let alone, double in size. I was crushed! I went ahead and made my pizza anyway (salmon & goat cheese+ blah, blah, etc).

The shaping of the pizza went amazingly well. I was excited again. It had good smooth texture. I cooked the pizza and it was a very nice crust, very thin, very crisp, very nice. But the fact it didn't raise is bugging me. My yeast is good, my process is good. This is the first time I've >ever< had a dough that didn't raise,.. in 4 years! I'm wanting to put in more yeast, but I'm certainly not saying I know better than Forno Bravo. Could it be a typo? In my previous experience is to use the whole packet, 7 grams. My yeast is well within the expiration dates, and never had a problem before.

Your thoughts will be well appreciated.

Still using just a stone in my oven , but good pizza - Fred