I'm going to have a try at pizza tomorrow, and was hoping to identify how a pizza dough differs from a bread dough, so that I could tweak my white sourdough bread recipe that is working well.
From what I can gather after studying recipes like:
http://sourdough.com/forum/topic/481
it seems like a common difference is the addition of extra salt, and olive oil. I also suspect that the proving/shaping timings are different; perhaps punch down the dough more aggressively, and don't let it rise so much after shaping?
Does this sound about right?
Thanks for any tips, Jason.
From what I can gather after studying recipes like:
http://sourdough.com/forum/topic/481
it seems like a common difference is the addition of extra salt, and olive oil. I also suspect that the proving/shaping timings are different; perhaps punch down the dough more aggressively, and don't let it rise so much after shaping?
Does this sound about right?
Thanks for any tips, Jason.
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Replies
I rekon there's 3 important tweaks to a good pizza (dough) :
1) Using a pre-ferment/poolish method/recipe. It gives a huge boost to texture and flavour, that is far superior to anything done in one mix on the day.
2) Use the highest hydration recipe that you are comfortable with. Its gonna be harder to handle, but will leave you with a blistery, holey/open crumby and crsipy base.
3) Heaps of bottom heat - use a [url=www.everten.com.au/product/mario-batali-pizza-pan-persimmon.html]pizza pan[/url]. You'll never get the bottom heat required for a good base with a baking stone as your oven wont get hot enough. Using these pans - on the burner then with your grill (or hot oven) - is the best method i've come across. You can get these suckers to about 400-450 in about 5mins on a gas burner - chuck on your base and top your pizza while the base cooks...and into the over or under the hot grill to finish.
Here's my fav high hydration/2stage pizza recipe anyhows...
Pizza dough
biga (day1)
535 g lukewarm water
385 g high protein flour
30g (100% hyd) ripe starter
dough (day2)
600 g high protein flour
125 g water
1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
Cheers,
Sam
This is pretty much what I did this morn, although my bread dough is already 68% so I bumped it up to 72% to see what happens. Also threw in a little diastatic malt for a boost, and put in some olive oil because it seems to be a common addition.
J.
Cooked a little too long, but otherwise... yum. I think I will be doing home-made pizza sourdough quite a bit now.
65% hydration is spot on for authentic pizza dough,
I'm a purist, and never add anything except salt. no milk, oil or anything like that - seriously you don't need it.
You'll also get a much better result if you shape the dough by hand - never (ever!) use a rolling pin.
If you have a baking stone - great, turn your oven up as high as it will go and let the stone heat for a generous 20 mins ont he bottom shelf.
it should cook in about 6 mins.
In my wood fired oven, pizza takes somewhere between 90 seconds and 120 seconds to cook, depending on temp.