Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

[dmun]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

10 per 500, 20 per 1000

[DimTex]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Wild yeast starters? What are they, where do you find them?

[tomtom]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Just made pizza earlier in the week with a wild starter for the first time. I got the starter from a friend who uses it for bread baking. Wild starters are essentially sourdough cultures. She made hers (or captured the naturally occuring yeast) in her kitchen. Pizza turned out good. Had a slight sourdoughish taste to it. You can buy reliable good cultures, which I will do at some point. Im sure someone here can tell you a good one to buy.
Tom



LEVAIN: A French term for a natural preferment that is essentially synonymous (in the U.S.) with sourdough. It is a culture of a naturally-occurring (wild) yeast and bacteria that can leaven and flavor a bread or pizza crust. It is refreshed periodically by replacement of a part of the culture by new flour and water, and a portion of the refreshed culture is allowed to ferment and mature (ripen) before incorporating into the final dough. The remainder of the culture is used to begin the next batch of dough. A levain, or "sourdough," can be perpetuated for many years, even centuries for certain highly-stable strains.

[echopark]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

I use a natural levain, too. Like tomtom, I got it from someone via a pizza & bread making class. The quality and flavor of the bread & pizza I've made with this far surpass anything that I've ever made with yeast. I highly recommend it.

One of the coolest things about a natural levain is that regardless where it originally came from, eventually, as you use and feed your levain, the yeasts that colonize your levain will be the local cultures found in your region making your bread locally unique!

[wayno1]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Has anyone tried extending the cold ferment (using Caputo Flour) more than one day? And cooking in the WFO.

I am accustomed to extending 3 or 4 days (bottom shelf of fridge) with my regular Sir Lancelot high gluten flour to develop max flavor in the crust. It really does make a huge difference. You do have to reduce the amount of yeast for these longer cold proofs. I use the Sir Lancelot for baking in my regular oven (550 degrees).

[Dutchoven]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Wayno
I believe it is possible to do so but, the yeast is slowed by the cold but the enzymes that develop the flavor you refer to are not daunted by it. Therefore if the dough goes to long you really would not have much flour left and the resulting crust would not have much structure. I would suggest that the dough be used not later than the 3rd day. You could however mix the dough as you suggest and then add it to a fresher dough. You would get the same taste differences and not have the structure issues.
Best
Dutch

Has anyone tried extending the cold ferment (using Caputo Flour) more than one day? And cooking in the WFO.

I am accustomed to extending 3 or 4 days (bottom shelf of fridge) with my regular Sir Lancelot high gluten flour to develop max flavor in the crust. It really does make a huge difference. You do have to reduce the amount of yeast for these longer cold proofs. I use the Sir Lancelot for baking in my regular oven (550 degrees).

[elecco]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

James,

Just wondering...what water temp do you use? Also, you add Active Dry Yeast after the initial mixing of the flour and water. Most recipes I've seen tell you to add the ADY to warm water for about 5 minutes before using it. With your recipe you forego that step but still get good results (I assume yes)?

FYI - just bought a Primavera 60 today and plan on trying your dough recipe next week.

~Ed

[echopark]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

I calculate water temperature based on the standard bakers' calculation which for dry yeast (in degrees F) is something like: (target dough temp * 3) - (air temp. + flour temp + friction factor) = water temperature. Where friction factor is about 10-12 for hand mix, as much as 20 for an electric mixer, and target dough temperature is 76?.

for levain doughs, multiply target temp by 4, and add levain temp to the sum that gets subracted.

[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

[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

[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

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

[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

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

[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!