PIZZA
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Sourdough pizza
A tutorial for pizza. Sourdough. I’ll add a quick yeasted easy dough addendum. Also, a little wood burning oven magic.
Pizza is an easy evolution of the bread baker. When you work in dough there will undoubtedly come a time when your bread turns into flatbread and your flatbread into pizza. There are many variations on the theme of pizza and people tend to be particular about their preferences. It is sometimes a topic I fear to discuss among people that claim pizza perfection as I do not believe in perfection. As many of you know, I come to the creation of food with a less aggressive standard and find the organic nature of food discovery more up my alley. So is my pizza and the formula that evolved over time and circumstance. It is far from perfect, but found a home in my bakeshop in its variation on the theme of bread. It fact it is my bread, with a few additives for sweetness, sour and extensibility: primary, honey, rye and olive oil. So to you, I offer my adaptation of a tried and true food staple that has saturated our culture with it’s modest versatility and it’s fabulous flavor.
THE DOUGH PROCESS
Before we dive into the formula I would like to address the process. This is the dough process, not the process of topping and baking off the pizza quite yet. The dough process is identical to my process of making sourdough bread. Because of this I will not be doing a complete tutorial here on how to mix and ferment the dough. I will give you the formula and I will give a short tutorial on shaping. To find the dough process I will link you HERE to the sourdough bread page where you will find all of the mixing and fermenting information you need. All you have to do is use the formula below in place of the the bread formula and then run the dough the same way.
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THE SOURDOUGH PIZZA DOUGH FORMULA
PERCENTAGES:
THE PERCENTAGES WILL ALLOW YOU TO BULK UP YOUR DOUGH TO RUN A LARGER NUMBER OF PIZZAS: BELOW I WILL GIVE YOU THE MEASURMENTS FOR RUNNING 6-8 PIZZAS BASED ON THESE PERCENTAGES.
90% ALL PURPOSE FLOUR: You can be more specific and run with a variation of bread flours such as 35% artisan bread flour, 35% High protein flour, 20% malted artisan flour = 90%
10% Whole Wheat Flour
2.5% Rye Flour
70% Water: H2O
20% Levain: Mixed roughly 7 hours prior to mixing pizza dough: This process can be found on the sourdough bread page here
10% Honey
5% Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2.5% Salt: Sea salt preferably. I have used a beautiful French grey salt before that is lovely.
TO RUN A BATCH OF 6-8 PIZZAS FOLLOW THESE MEASUREMENTS:
ARTISAN BREAD FLOUR: 900 GRAMS: (If you are running this dough with the high protein flour and malted flour use 350g artisan bakers flour, 350g high protein bread flour, 200g malted artisan bread flour)
WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR: 100 GRAMS
WATER: 700 GRAMS: Warm water
LEVAIN: 200 GRAMS
HONEY: 100 GRAMS
OLIVE OIL: 50 GRAMS
SEA SALT: 25 GRAMS
FOLLOW THE LINK FOR A MORE THOROUGH TUTORIAL ON MIXING PROCESS. BUT HERE IS A BASIC RUN DOWN:
Mix a levain from your mother sourdough roughly 6-7 hours before you are ready to make your dough. To run a batch of 6-8 pizzas you will need to mix your levain with 200 grams water, 200 grams of your white and wheat flour mix and 1-2 tablespoons of your sourdough starter.
Once your levain passes the float test and is ready you can begin to mix your dough. Scale out the water, mix in the honey and olive oil. Mix in your levain. Finally add the flour and mix. If using a mixer, you can mix for roughly 5 minutes. If you are doing it by hand, mix until everything is significantly mixed together.
Let rest 20-30 minutes for autolyse. Then add salt.
Now begins the resting and folding period of the dough. Adding the salt is your first turn. Turn the dough every 30 minutes for five more turns. After the last turn let the dough rest for 1 hour.
Now you are ready to shape.
sourdough bread process for making pizza link here
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sourdough bread process for making pizza link here * * * * * * * *
SHAPING
Now that your dough is ready, you can shape out your pizza rounds. This involves a pre shape and final shape. Then you will retard the pizza dough overnight in a cooler or fridge. The next day you can pull the dough out and let it warm up for an hour or so before making your pizza.
Shaping tutorial below
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Shaping tutorial below 〰️
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A QUICK INTERLUDE VIDEO TO DISCUSS THE WOOD BURNING OVEN: HOW TO BUILD A FIRE AND PREP THE DECK FOR PIZZA
A VIDEO TUTORIAL:
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SHAPING, TOPPING AND BAKING PIZZA!
Finally, we are here. Dough is made, oven is hot and now we get to make pizza! This can be done in a residential oven too. I realize that very few people have access to a wood burning oven but the process and technique is the same no matter how you bake it. What I would suggest is a baking stone in your home oven. This will mimic the hot deck of a wood fired oven. It is easier to maneuver pizzas as well if you are throwing it directly onto a stone. If you do not have a hot stone then take a baking sheet and flip it upside down in your oven. Get it hot before dusting with cornmeal and baking off your pizza.
Once you have your dough prepped and oven ready, it is time to gather toppings. This is where you get to be so creative! The basics of course: A sauce base of either tomato or white, olive oil, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, herbs, preferably basil and flaky salt.
From there you can spread your wings. Think seasonal vegetables, meats, pestos, more decadent cheeses, honey or Chile oil. I will drop a list below:
OLIVE OIL, HEAVY CREAM, TOMATO SUACE, PESTO WITH BASIL OR MAKE YOUR PESTO WITH FRILLY PURPLE MUSTARD, GARLIC, MOZZARELLA, PARMESAN, RICOTTA, COTIJA, FETA OR ANOTHER SOFT CHEESE SUCH AT MT TAM, RED ONION, GREEN ONION, BALSAMIC BRAISED SHALLOTS, MUSHROOMS, SWEET AND SPICY PEPPERS, PEPPERONI, ITALIAN SAUSAGE, PROSCIUTTO, CALABRESE, BACON, KALE, SPINACH, BROCCOLINI, KALAMATA OILVES, SUNGOLD CHERRY TOMATOES, OTHER CHERRY TOMATOES, DRIED TOMATOES, ARTICHOKE HEARTS, KIMCHI, MEATBALLS, CORN, SHISHITO PEPPER, BASIL, THYME, OREGANO, ROSEMARY, CHILE FLAKE, SALT, PEPPER, HONEY, CHILE OIL. TOP WITH ARUGULA OR SPROUTS FRESH FROM THE OVEN. DIP IN HONEY, DIP IN VINAIGRETTE, DIP IN RANCH. THE IDEAS ARE ENDLESS!
SIMPLE RED SAUCE: SAUTE ONIONS AND GARLIC WITH OLIVE OIL. ADD CAN OF DICED OR CRUSHED TOMATOES: ADD A BUNCH OF BASIL: ADD SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE: LET COOK DOWN A BIT
Pesto
Make a basic pesto: Put in a food processor: two handfuls of basil, clove or two of garlic, salt and pepper, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese or more if you prefer, toasted pine nuts if you want, and enough olive oil to make a chunky basil paste. I prefer less puree and more garden fresh leafy pesto with a bit of texture. Sometimes people process things so much in the kitchen it’s easy to forget that it just came from the garden.
This recipe can also be made with a beautiful winter purple frilly mustard instead of basil. It has a sharp and spicy flavor and perfect for a winter pizza pie with depth.
PIZZA VIDEO TUTORIAL: SHAPING, TOPPING AND BAKING IN A WOOD FIRED OVEN:
Once you have pulled the pizzas from the oven you can drizzle oil or honey around the crust and I like to freshly grate a hard parmesan around the edge. Throw some arugula or sprouts on top if you want a spicy fresh flavor. Enjoy!
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This dough can be used as a flatbread as well. Or focaccia. You can also use a baguette or bagel as your base to make pizza. And below I will give you a quick pizza dough recipe for the days you don’t want to make sourdough.
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QUICK DOUGH PIZZA: FOR EASE, FOR TIME, FOR KIDS
THIS IS THE QUICK PIZZA DOUGH MADE WITH CHEESE AND HERBS AND TOPPED WITH BRUSCHETTA. FOR THE BRUSCHETTA I CHOP TOMATOES, ONIONS, HERBS,, MIX WITH OLIVE OIL AND BALSAMIC VINEGAR. ADD SOME SALT FOR TASTE.
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/3 CUP WARM WATER, 1 TABLESPOON OF DRY ACTIVE YEAST, 3-4 CUPS ALL PURPOSE FLOUR, 2 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL, 2 TEASPOONS SALT
PROCESS:
In a bowl combine the 1/3 warm water with the tablespoon of yeast. Let stand 5 minutes. Add 2 cups of the flour, the olive oil, 1 cup of water and the salt. Mix. Slowly add the remaining flour. Incorporating it in gradually until it is still enough to start kneading. Transfer to a table and knead for 10 minutes. Put in an oiled bowl covered. When the dough has doubled in bulk it is ready to use. This can be between 20-30 minutes. Scale out your pieces and stretch freely into pizza. Top and bake at around 400 degrees F in the oven.