So.... I've built my Brick Oven, cooked pizza for my family and now want to make the move to the big time and throw a pizza party. The Standard Recipie I use for my Pizza Crust is loosely based on Reinhart's French Bread Recipie as follows:
48oz Flour (usually a 60/40 mix of High Gluten and White whole wheat lately)
32 oz Water
1oz salt
1.5t Instant yeast
I will often add 6 oz of "old dough" at the same hydration % (66% If I'm calculating correctly). My questions are twofold:
1. I'm scaling up this recipie significantly and want to use a starter I'm currently maintaining at 100% hydration. I think I will keep the % of starter by total weight the same and adjust my water to maintain the final dough at 66% hydration (accounting for the flour and water in the starter). Is this correct?
2. On what schedule should I scale my sourdough from it's current 8oz size to ~48oz (big party, lots of pizzas)? Is there a standard accepted way to do this, or do I need to just double it for the 3 days preceeding usage. (i.e. 8, 16, 32,64 and use 48oz on the last day)?
Thanks for the help!
John P
Replies
Hello John P,
I think the answer to your first question is yes though I'm a bit confused by your mix of terminologies. Does 'old dough' equate to 'starter'? And are you scaling up the amount of starter or does it remain at 6/8 oz? But regardless, your hydration calculation should take into account the flour and water in the starter.
In terms of building up your dough, one shot would probably be best but, if you do it in one shot, you should make it at least the day before and keep it in the fridge to develop some character. The problem I see with building in stages are a couple. One is incorporating the new ingredients into what will be a reasonbly stiff dough. The other is that you will have ingredients at differing stages of development potentially ranging from over to under developed and the result might not be satisfactory. I'd have tried the technique beforehand rather than have a flop on the night (bitter experience in other fields).
Good luck with your projects and insanely jealous about the oven!
Farinam
Yes, I've previously used old dough as a starter (a stiff one, from Crust and Crumb by Reinhart), but I've picked a new starter up at Cultures for Health and am working it up for a few weeks prior to the party. As far as the scaling up of the starter goes, so you can go from 4 oz or so added to 22oz Water and 22oz flour at t-2days, let it bubble and froth on the counter, make dough the night before and retard overnight on t-1 day, then pull it out the next day to warm to room temp and rise... then top and bake?
The oven is awesome.... it took a while because I keep getting distracted by other things, but wasn't rocket science. It's a 42" pompeii dome oven (https://www.fornobravo.com/pompeii-oven/pompeii-oven-plans/) that went together over a summer (ok... two summers to finish.... but cooked pizza after one).
Thanks for the help
John
Hi John,
So you are going to make 48oz of starter at 100% hydration. That could be built up in stages as you suggested initially. I was thinking that you were proposing building at 67%.
So I assume the aim then is to end up with the 80oz of dough at 67% hydration as listed in the recipe so you would be adding 8 oz water and 24oz of flour to your 48oz of starter.
Definitely nothing less than overnight in the fridge. In terms of letting come to room temperature, probably not critical as, once you divide it and start shaping your rounds, it will get there quickly anyway.
Hope the pizzas go gangbusters.
Farinam