Honey in your dough?

[JoeyVelderrain]

My brother went to Culinary Institute Of America in New York so I know hoe prestigious it is and how well regarded it is as a school. But when I saw this chef from there add honey to his pizza dough mix I began to rethink my admiration of this school...
Anyone use honey in their dough recipe?
part 1
YouTube - Italy: Pizza Margherita Part 1

in part to he shapes the pizza and states that "you want to pus all the gas out" of the dough???? isn't that opposite of what we want?
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XszDb...eature=related

[texassourdough]

Re: Honey in your dough?

He's using regular active yeast and that is often fed sugar to get it going faster so he used honey. Not really a big deal for most of the sugar will be eaten by the yeast and it helps the dough rise fast. (He is clearly not into SLOW DOUGH!). Honey is IMO preferable to sugar for it at least adds more flavor. Not classic and NOT VPN but...it's not a giant sin IMO.

His dough was painfully low hydration by most of our standards based on the hard ball it made though it seemed to soften up fairly well.

With respect to push the gas out I didn't hear him say ALL. And he didn't. His fingertip technique was well demonstrated and leaves the dough about right IMO. His stretching after that was mediocre.

If you are concerned about "pushing all the gas out" try rolling out a pizza with a rolling pin. The cornicione will still puff if the dough is not badly overproofed for the alcohols and CO2 in the dough will come out of the dough and vaporize to puff the dough.

My take is that that is his preferred "quick" approach to making pizza. And what he gets is probably better than most but not to my (or most of our) WFO standards.

He probably shouldn't have demoed Pizza Margherita since it is the gold standard!
Jay

[scottz]

Re: Honey in your dough?

Im not sure if i would like honey in my dough for normal pizzas, but for sweet or desert pizzas I think it would be fantastic. For normal pizzas, I use the dough recipe on this site, but I always add Italian Mixed Herbs to the dough before I start to mix everything together. We think this gives the base a really nice taste and look. You get the oragano, basil and the other herbs coming through the whole pizza and another plus is the herbs dont burn!!

[texassourdough]

Re: Honey in your dough?

I doubt that the pizza recipe shown leaves much sweetness in the dough because he only added a little honey (about 1 T.) and a LOT of yeast. At low yeast levels you are requiring enzymes to break down the starch to make sugar for the yeast to feed on (and the byproducts add flavor). That takes time. At high levels (like he added) there would be a sugar shortage. The honey/sugar simply accelerates activating the yeast and the rising process. It's not for me - I prefer slow, retarded straight dough (no sugar, or oil) but I see nothing disturbing. Lots of breads and bread recipes using dried yeast use a bit of sugar to get the yeast going. It's just a way to make the dough faster and less flavorful.
Jay

[Fairview WFO]

Re: Honey in your dough?

We used a Honey Whole Wheat dough recipe the other night and it was very good. Not a lot of mixing and kneeding and I do remember you had to punch it after it rose. Turned out very good but not sweet. I'll try to find the recipe and post it. I've got some pics of the pies on my album somewhere.

[waitingtocook]

Re: Honey in your dough?

I have a friend who worked in an Italian restaurant that used STRAWBERRY JAM in it's dough. They claimed the sugar was there to feed the yeast. Ok in principle, but come on, STRAWBERRY-FREAKING-JAM?!!!!! Yuck