Keeping it Simple

[barney]

There are a lot of fancy dough recipes out there, this is from the horse's mouth in the shape of an Italian pizza cookbook and is as simple as they come.

The basic recipe is:
Strong white flour 100%
Water 50% +5ml per pizza
1/4 tsp salt per pizza
1 tbsp olive oil per pizza
5g fresh yeast per pizza

So for three pizzas (200g per pizza) this would work out as:

400g Strong white flour
3/4 tsp salt
215ml water
3 tbsp olive oil
15g fresh yeast (7-8g dried)

Mix flour and salt together in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Add the yeast to the water and mix to disperse, then add to the well in the flour
Add the oil to the mixture and stir together, working the flour in slowly from the sides
Knead on a clean surface for at least 5 minutes then divide into balls of 200g each and place in a oiled bowl/box
Cover and leave to rise for 2-3hrs or until more than doubled in size.
Flatten in a dish full of flour and stretch on a well floured work surface to 30cm diameter
Add toppings and transfer to the hot oven
Eat.

[PizzaZona]

Thanks for sharing, Simple is always good.

That's the beauty of making pizza dough there is no wrong way; just lots of different ways. You nearly always end up with good pizza. In fact, I always say that I have never met a pizza I didn't like.

P.s. where abouts in Cambridge are you from - I used to live in Peterborough.

Have you tried Gastons? Peter Boizot (founder of Pizza Express) runs it and it was always fab when I lived there.

Cheers
Lawrence

[barney]

Hi Lawrence,

I was born in Cambridge and then moved about the county a bit, spent plenty of time in Pete-bog-horror as a lad. You're a long way from home now then... I haven't tried Gastons, but the Red Cow used to be the only decent place to eat pizza in Cambridge. That is changing now as more restaurants come round to the idea that a WFO is the way to go for the best pizza.

I'm afraid I don't agree with you entirely, I've eaten some pretty poor pizzas in my time! My wife is Italian and laments the quality of pizzas here, it's always something she is keen to eat as soon as she gets back to Italy. I'm hoping to change that.

Indeed there are lots of ways to make a pizza and, if it is done well, any one of those could create a very enjoyable pizza. I like simplicity because I think that is true to the origins of this amazing dish.

Great site by the way, I'll be popping back there from time to time.

[spinal]

You really have never found a pizza you didn't like? Wow... take it you haven't been to pizza hut, or any of the high street pizza places in the UK?

That was the reason I built my oven, having moved here, I was tired of having to take the tube into London to get a proper pizza...

Like Barney's wife, I too miss the pizza's from home... guess it's an Italian thing

The other thing I miss are proper Italian sausages... next on my list will be that

Thanks for the recipe - that's almost identical to the one I use, but add a little milk in with the water to help feed the yeast I'm planning to try sourdough this summer.... when/if the sun finally comes!

[PizzaZona]

I'm not a pizza snob (and i'm not saying anyone else is either) and don't get me wrong I enjoy quality pizza more than most but I try and see the best in each pizza.

I cook pizza at least once a week and usually as close to a proper Neoplitan as possible given that I only have a mid-level electric pizza oven at the moment. I am hoping to get Terry over to help with WFO build (if anyone in Ireland is interested attending the training session please let me know).

Having said this I would heat a frozen pizza for a quick meal if I had no time or got in late. I know, I know it's terrible but even bad pizza is better than no pizza.

Yes I have had pizza hut, loved the old cheese feasts and deep pans. Having said that the I wouldn't step foot through the door these days the quality and service have gone to hell.

Mind you I am older, and more discerning these days. When I was younger I would probably have eaten the door mat too if they melted cheese on it. ;D

I think barney got what I was saying:

"[...] there are lots of ways to make a pizza and, if it is done well, any one of those could create a very enjoyable pizza."

... that's what I was getting at.

Cheers
Lawrence

[barney]

Uh-oh, this could run and run...

Spinal, good to find a kindred spirit, I've made lots of sourdough bread in my time (some details on my website), but I've found the yeasts can be really, really slow. Not sure how well that would work with pizza, but perhaps it is a matter of using much more starter than I am used to, to get the concentration up a bit. I'll be interested to hear your results on this board, the taste of the bread is something special. Don't wait for the sun though, you'll never get anything done!

[spinal]

My oven currently has a tarp over the top, it's waiting for a roof... until I get a proper roof on it, I only fire it on nice warm days

As for sourdough pizza, I've seen it work... just not sure how as they wouldn't share their recipe with me (yes, I'm that nosy. I will ask a chef in a restaurant how he does things... ). A quick good brings up a few places in the UK doing sourdough pizza... so I may try another one and see if I can convince their cook to share a secret or two...

This guy seems to go on a bit about the dough and sourdough fermentation times...

Sadly, it's an advert for a consultancy from a pizza chef...

Will keep digging, watching a Dr. Who rerun
M.

EDIT: Here's someone using a very dry sourdough starter -


From looking online, the method is to get the dough to ferment beforehand then add just enough to work with it and fiddle with it as little as possible afterwards...
M.

[rockrocky]

Here is a link for a Sourdough starter and pizza recipe:
mixnbeat.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/sourdough-pizza/

[adm]

I have a 100% hydration sourdough starter that I ffed on wholemeal flour.

A couple of weeks ago I made dough using Jeff Verasano's process and 10% starter. I followed his process quite closely, and did a 24 hour ferment for the dough balls in the fridge. They hadn't risen particularly much by the time I cooked the, but did puff nicely when cooked. Taste was great - much better than a typical 3 hour dough. Really good Neapolitan style crust.

Next time, I will leave them to ferment for 48 hours.

My starter is pretty active - I can get a good well risen sourdough loaf with about 3 hours primary and 3 hours secondary fermentation at room temperature.

Will definitely experiment more with sourdough pizza crust....

[spinal]

adm - may be worth trying to use a bit more starter if you don't want to wait 2 days for it to rise...

[barney]

May 21, 2013 5:20:59 GMT spinal said:

adm - may be worth trying to use a bit more starter if you don't want to wait 2 days for it to rise...

More than a bit... I only worry it could get a bit too yeasty with large quantities of starter. That said another post on this board used 40% starter, so perhaps there is room for increasing the ratio.

Thanks for the vids Spinal, I hadn't thought about doing the search in Italian, might have to get the Mrs to help me out with some of the details though.

This thread is getting a bit off topic, shall we start another one for sourdough so we can share our experiences? If an admin can move some of these later posts I think it might be useful too, but I'm not sure how that works...

[adm]

May 21, 2013 5:20:59 GMT spinal said:

adm - may be worth trying to use a bit more starter if you don't want to wait 2 days for it to rise...

I've read a fair bit where people say it gets better after 2-3 days! i think next time I try it though I will see what the rise time looks like at room temp rather than in the fridge and then go from there. Maybe ferment at room temp, leave the dough balls for a secondary ferment at room temp and then refrigerate once I have the rise I want....

[tonyb]

Without getting too picky I'm struggling to see how you can call something sourdough which has been started with commercial yeast as in the above link, though any long matured yeasted dough is likely to benefit from some fermentation.

As I've posted previously I essentially follow the method described on Jeff Varasano's website though I only use sourdough starter and no commercial yeast. I use a simple spreadsheet to calculate the various amounts based on an overall hydration of 63% (though can vary depending on the flour), 20% of 100% hydration sourdough starter and 3.5% (bakers %) salt. I usually leave this in individual portion containers in the fridge for up to 5 days, taking them out 3-4 hours before baking.

Whilst the resulting dough isn't particularly lively it does produce a great crust with requisite rise and bubbles, good texture and fantastic taste.

[matt]

May 21, 2013 8:27:24 GMT adm said:

May 21, 2013 5:20:59 GMT spinal said:

adm - may be worth trying to use a bit more starter if you don't want to wait 2 days for it to rise...

I've read a fair bit where people say it gets better after 2-3 days! i think next time I try it though I will see what the rise time looks like at room temp rather than in the fridge and then go from there. Maybe ferment at room temp, leave the dough balls for a secondary ferment at room temp and then refrigerate once I have the rise I want....

Hi Adm, you may have tried this but just to chime in to say I make my sourdough loaves (not pizza) with fridge retardation, but bulk ferm first at room temp, shape and refridgerate overnight. This way seems to give the yeast a good chance to get going to prepare for the slow down in the fridge. I bake from cold and all behaves like a normal 3hrs + 3hrs routine. I do notice slightly less rise, but they 'catch up' with good oven spring. I use 30% levain to final dough weight.

Matt

[rokdok]

use this recipe all the time - worth a bump !