HomePizzaChef s The Secrets of Making Great Home Pizza Let's face it, without a good crust for your pizza creations, you're simply not going to be able to make pizza pies that you can be proud of... The first thing that you must know about making good pizza crust is this... Making great pizza crust is a continual learning, testing and refining process. So view "great pizza crust" as a process... not a destination. The good news is this... You get to test it every step of the way... 8 ) Today, I'm going to begin to give you the basic concepts that you will need to start moving forward. If you don't remember anything else about creating pizza dough... please remember... Before you begin to make pizza dough, decide exactly "when" you would like to serve the "finished" pizza. This is important because this will have a major impact on when you should begin work on your pizza dough.
Selection of Your Dough Flour: BACKGROUND Back in Italy when pizza makers select flour, they use a flour classification system. Flour is classified by way of numbers. 1, 0, or 00, this refers to how finely ground the flour is and how much of the bran and germ have been removed from the final flour product. To give you a better understanding of this, 00 flour is the most highly refined flour available and is comparable to talcum-powder. Most Italian 00 flour is made from Italian grains and sometimes blends of Italian and imported grains to achieve a range of protein somewhere in the 10 12.5% range. Lucky for us, common brands of 00 flour can be found at the retail level in standard U.S. grocery stores. One such flour is a brand called King Arthur Flour, the company produces a "clone" of the 00 flour (some call it Italian-Style flour) with a protein level of approximately 8.5% which is somewhat lower than the imported Italian 00 flours. Though it s not exactly authentic Italian flour and can produce varied behavioral characteristics, it s good flour for baking pizza at home. There are primarily 2 types of flour that can be found easily... They're rather inexpensive as well... All purpose flour (usually -self rising or regular) and specialty bread flour. All flour types will create good pizza crust, but it's been my experience that bread flour tends to add more flavor to the crust as well as more texture the result is usually a somewhat chewy crust. Bread flour can usually be picked up at a baking store or even a Sam's Warehouse. There are also inexpensive brands that may be found at your local grocery store. All purpose, self rising flour can be found readily at any grocery store as well.. Self rising flour tends to be a good choice for the deeper dish pizzas because of the characteristics mentioned above... But again, try both and see which one works for you... In some cases you may want to use a blend of both. PREFERMENT: Preferment is the partial preparation of flour, water and yeast. This may or may not include the addition of salt. The mixture is then left to ferment and mature before incorporating it into the final dough. The ingredients and period of fermentation are therefore controlled to achieve the desired maturation (ripening) period before incorporating the mixture into the final dough. The preferment can be fermented at room temperature or under refrigeration, or a combination of both. Depending on its final intended use, the mixture can take on a liquid form, a semi-liquid form (like a batter) or it can be stiff, similar to the dough itself. The benefits of using a preferment include a strengthened gluten structure, a shortened overall production time, and excellent crust flavor.
Yeast... Yeast is a very important ingredient when it comes to pizza dough... Yeast for baking comes in 3 primary forms... We ll be concentrating on the 2 most common forms as these serve our purposes for making pizza at home. ADY - Active Dry Yeast and IDY - Instant Dry Yeast ACTIVE DRY YEAST (ADY): This is a dried form of yeast that when combining with other dough ingredients, is activated by re-hydration, or "proofing,". In warm water (or other liquid) and at around 105 115 F the activation process begins. Some brands of active dry yeast can also be combined with a mixture of the flour and other dry pizza dough ingredients. In these cases the temperature of the water or liquid used can be as high as 120 130 F (typically this temperature can be obtained straight from your kitchen sink). The advantages of active dry yeast include convenience of use and long storage life, especially when sealed and frozen in an airtight container. INSTANT DRY YEAST (IDY): This is a very finely-divided strain of dry yeast. Because of its particular strain and its smaller particle size this form of yeast needs no re-hydration, or "proofing", in water or other liquid to activate it. These characteristics allow for the yeast to be added directly to the flour and other dry ingredients. It s also important to understand that instant dry yeast contains more live cells than active dry yeast which further facilitating its activation. Once in the flour, the instant dry yeast can tolerate liquid temperatures of 120 130 F. Because of all these factors, the instant dry yeast will start to work faster than active dry yeast. Like active dry yeast, advantages of instant dry yeast include convenience of use and long storage life, especially when sealed and frozen in an airtight container. PROOF Pronunciation: pruf * (noun) Also Known As Let rise A term proof often is used in bread baking to describe the final rise of the bread dough while it is in the pan just prior to baking. The term can be confusing when used in the context of pizza doughs to describe the process of fermentation. It is more correctly applied to the process by which specific doughs, such as deepdish doughs or Sicilian-style doughs are allowed to rise, or "proof". Proofing is typically done at room temperature however occasionally in a proofing unit (often with including humidity). The proofing process may also be accomplished by putting the dough in a covered bowl and placing it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Generally speaking, the longer you allow your pizza dough to proof the better the flavor of the crust. Does this mean that you can't use pizza dough that s only been sitting for a few hours? Not at all... but in most cases the reduction of proofing time reduces the final flavor of the pizza dough. You may want to experiment with shorter and longer proofing times until you are comfortable with a balance that suits your needs however remember the importance of dough proofing as it relates to flavor.
We will focus on Active Dry Yeast in this report because it is easily obtained and pretty easy to work with. Active dry yeast is in the form of tiny, dehydrated granules. The yeast cells are alive but dormant because of the lack of moisture. When mixed with a warm liquid (105 to 115 F), the cells once again become active. Sugar also initializes the fermentation process. The dry granules may be packaged in individual packets or in a bottle... usually 4 ounce jars... Active dry yeast is available in two forms, regular and quick-rising. Quick rising takes about half as long to leaven bread. Yeast leavening - defined... leaven Pronunciation (levin) I prefer the quick rising yeast as it does save time yet still performs well.. I use a brand called Fleischmanns" Active Dry Yeast. This brand can be found in most grocery stores and is usually packaged in a bottle or packages. When a pizza crust recipe requires "x" packages of yeast... You may convert this request to teaspoons by using the following formula... 1 package is equal to 2-1/4 teaspoons of yeast... When adding warm water to yeast you will want to use a meat / yeast thermometer to measure the temperature of the water... Ideally about 120 degrees is preferable because the water will cool by the time everything else is added...and properly dissolved... (This temperature can be reached without boiling the water, use straight from the sink but obtain the correct temperature before using) TIP: Do you need a great source for a full range of "flour" for your pizza pies? Try King Arthur Flour http://www.kingarthurflour.com/ Mixing Your Ingredients Now that we've covered 2 of the major ingredients needed to create great pizza dough, flour and yeast, let's move on... Let s examine the process of mixing these primary ingredients. Because this is a crucial part of the process I've decided to break this lesson up into 2 parts. We will start with the important basics. To get started, gather all of the ingredients needed for your dough. For purposes of this report, we'll be creating basic pizza dough". When I say "basic... Don't be fooled... The recipe is a simple starter pizza dough recipe... BUT... it yields extraordinary pizza crust IF AND ONLY IF you follow these instructions exactly as written... if you do You have your family and friends... "Down On Their Knees... Begging You To Make Another" 8-) OK... great...
Here are the ingredients for your first pizza dough recipe... (Taken directly from one of the pizza dough recipes included in HomePizzaChef's Legendary Pizza Recipes) Ingredients: * 2 packages dry yeast * 1 1/2 cup lukewarm water * 4 cups flour * 1 teaspoon salt * 1/2 teaspoon sugar * 1 tablespoon olive oil You'll need a large bowl to create your dough mixture. Also, grab a slightly smaller bowl which we'll use to mix our yeast. (After you get he hang of things, we'll combine this process and you'll only need 1 large bowl, but for now, we're going to make this very simple). The small bowl will need to hold approximately 1 1/2 cups of water. The water will need to be approximately 120 degrees. No need to boil water, water can reach this temperature straight from the tap. You can use a meat / yeast thermometer to make sure the temperature is correct. We'll start the water at 120 degrees because by the time all ingredients have been added, the water temperature will cool. It will usually drop significantly but will still remain warm. This temperature can be achieved by simply using hot water from your sink. No need to boil the water but allow the water to get hot. For this recipe, I'll use the brand of yeast mentioned in my earlier lesson, "Fleischmanns" Active Dry Yeast. This brand of yeast is sold in 4 ounce jars and contains yeast granules. You can pick it up at most grocery stores. Sometimes you will find it packaged in small packets. ADY (Active Dry Yeast) is good to use if you want the dough ready for use fairly quickly, meaning within 3-4 hours. Though you can accelerate the process, I recommend you give yourself at least 8-12 hours minimum lead time to achieve maximum pizza crust flavor and texture. Note: For some recipes we will use -IYD - Instant Dry Yeast. This form of yeast is used by many professional bakers, but for now let s starts with ADY - Active Dry Yeast. Use the formula below to convert package unit measurements (as noted in the ingredients list above) to teaspoon units of measurements: 1 package is equal to 2-1/4 teaspoons of yeast... There is one thing that you will want to consider at this point. Use the conversion formula mentioned above, that's 4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast. If the room temperature is higher, use a little less yeast. For this recipe we will take a short cut or two... Usually I would suggest that you mix your dry ingredients FIRST and gradually add these ingredients to the water. Important: Never pour water into the dry ingredients... do the exact opposite... add the dry ingredients (slowly while stirring) to the water. By far, this method tends to be the best mixing procedure.
I realize, for many, this may be your first attempt making pizza dough, so we'll try to make this straight forward and easy... OK? Great! THE YEAST MIXTURE Add your yeast to the warm water and slowly stir. Adding small amounts to the water while stirring, stir for approximately 5-7 minutes to insure all yeast is totally dissolved in the water. OK... put the yeast off to the side and blend all other DRY ingredients in your other large bowl. We're almost there... Go back and review what we've discussed so far... I know, this all sounds so simple, but review it anyway... It's the little things that make the difference when making great pizza dough. Stay tuned... as we move forward we'll finish mixing our dry ingredients and continue with the dough creation process. You're doing great! You're on your way to great homemade pizza!
Mixing Your Ingredients - Continued By now you should have a small bowl which contains your yeast and warm water mixture and a lager bowl that contains a well blended mixed of your remaining dry ingredients. Let's recap to make sure we're together on this... Bowl #1 - Small bowl... Contains warm water and yeast mixture... Bowl #2 - Larger bowl which contains flour, salt, and sugar mixture... You should also have a small amount of olive oil off to the side... Tip: A word about your sugar content: Sugar is not only a sweetener but also a "browning agent" This means that sugar content will also contribute to the browning effect of your dough... You'll want to keep this in mind because the more sugar used in the dough mixture, the quicker the browning in most cases. This is important because you don t want the dough to brown before the toppings are cooked (or vice versa). The opposite will also hold true... the less sugar used... the slower the browning effect... (Of course oven temperature and rack selection will also affect the browning of your crust as well... also take this into consideration if you're using a pizza stone which I HIGHLY recommend) You may want to experiment with this to find a nice balance between crust that's not too sweet and crust that browns to your satisfaction. Once all dry ingredients are blended begin to "slowly" pour your dry ingredients into the yeast and warm water mixture while you stir with a spoon. (The smaller bowl) You can also add your 1 tablespoon of olive oil at this point. As you pour in the mixture gently stir with a large spoon and the water and yeast mixture will become thicker. It may even become "flaky" or "sticky" in appearance after you've added more of the flour mixture. If it does... no problem, continue your mixing that s EXACTLY what we want. Once your mixture becomes a little more solid and your small bowl can no longer hold the full contents of the flour mixture in the large bowl, simply transfer the contents of the small bowl into the larger bowl and continue blending by hand. (This hand blending method is called kneading.) Knead - Defined - To press repeatedly with the hands or knuckles, sometimes with a twisting or squeezing motion; KEY TIP: IMPORTANT 2 Distinct Ways To Add Moisture To Your Dough Mixture... A- For pizza crust that is more "bread" like... (as in a deep dish pizza) add a little more olive oil to the mixture to add moisture and manageability... (but...don't overdo this... just enough to add smoothness) -or- B- For dough that is more "cracker" like...(as in a thin crispy crust) add more water to the mixture to increase moisture... (BUT Don t Over Do This)
Getting your dough exactly like you want it will take practice... just don't give up... besides... you get to taste each "version" of your dough. Knead the dough (you can use a bread machine but I like the hand method) for at least 15-20 minutes until you've got smooth dough. Knead the dough well... the better you blend the dough the easier your work will be when you start stretching the dough to your desired pizza size. Once the dough is mixed well, create a "ball shape" with the dough, place a wet towel over the bowl, or you can cover with plastic wrap, and place the entire bowl in your refrigerator. Allow the dough ball to sit in the refrigerator and rise for at least 2-3 hours. Ideally make your dough 10-12 hours prior to your scheduled "pizza making" time to enhance the flavor and texture of your crust. If you really want to enhance the flavor wait for a FULL 24 hours before using the dough. You've created your first pizza dough ball... you should be very proud of yourself... you've come a long way... Now we'll simply wait for the dough to ferment as it sits in the refrigerator. Stay tuned... As we move forward we will be talking about forming your homemade pizza dough...
Forming Your Pizza Dough... Moving on we re getting there... By now you should have a small bowl which contains your dough ball. It should have been allowed to sit, covered in our refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours (preferably 10-24 hours to maximize dough flavor). Here are a couple of tips for creating and shaping your dough... Tip #1: Want a thinner crust? Use half of the dough that you created, form your dough and further stretch your dough by using a roller pin. IMPORTANT TIP: Flatten the dough with your rolling pin, sprinkle a little flour on the dough, flatten the dough some more Keep repeating this process (sprinkling a little flour on the dough) until your dough is the desired thickness. Remember the dough will somewhat rise once it is placed on the oven You can always tell if you've stretched your dough to the desired width by simply placing the pizza pan that you plan to use over the out stretched dough to insure your dough covers the entire pan... or if you re using a pizza stone you can measure the dough to insure it covers the diameter of the pizza stone. Use a pan or a pizza stone one OR the other A PIZZA STONE TYPICALLY WORKS BEST! Tip #2: Want a thicker crust? Use the entire dough ball that you created, form your dough as described in the above video and stretch your dough by using a roller pin or by hand. Stretch your dough until it is adequate to cover the desired pizza pan. If you use all of the dough that you created you won't have to stretch the dough to a thin shell to achieve the desired diameter of the pan. Using more olive oil during the mixing process creates more of a bread texture whereas using more water during the mixing process creates more of a "cracker like" crust. Tip # 3: Want to stuff the edges of your crust with cheese? Stretch your dough until it is about 2-3 inches beyond the width of your pizza pan. Line the extra crust (the crust that extends beyond the diameter of the pan) with cheese and roll the crust back toward the pan and fold the edges of the crust to match the diameter of the pizza pan. When the pie begins to bake, the cheese will melt and the crust will seal itself. You may want to experiment with these tips to find the exact thickness or thinness of your pizza crust. Remember - KEY TIP- IMPORTANT Getting your dough exactly like you want it will take practice... just don't give up... besides... you get to taste each "version" of your dough. You've created your first pizza dough... you should be very proud of yourself... you've come a long way... Now you'll simply want to dress your pizza with your favorite toppings.
Dressing Your Pizza & Review Well... you're almost ready to shove your special pizza creation into your own oven. Better yet, you're just minutes away from pulling it out and sinking your teeth into it. 8-) By now your basic crust is created. Here's the basic sequence for dressing your pie. Before dressing your dough with toppings use a ford to SLIGHTLY dimple the dough. Dimple the ENTIRE surface of the dough BUT DO NOT PUNCTURE the crust, we only want DIMPLES NOT holes. (For crispy crust - Slightly sprinkle "corn meal" on your pizza dough at this stage - It helps absorb moisture...) 1- Spread your pizza sauce evenly over the crust (You may want to sprinkle cornmeal on your pizza stone as well.) 2- Evenly spread your cheese across the stretched dough and sauce... (WARNING) - Common HOME PIZZA MAKING mistake... Don't overdo it with the cheese... Adding to much cheese can hinder the browning of your pizza crust. Make sure you use enough cheese to cover the sauce but not so much cheese that you can't see the sauce. Once you've added your cheese, then add your ingredients. I suggest that initially you use a few toppings (no more than 3-4) and add more as you feel more comfortable with your pizza crust. Ok... the time has come... Once you've added your toppings... WAIT- - SUPER IMPORTANT PRE-HEAT YOUR OVEN MAKE SURE IT IS VERY HOT 450 DEGREES for conventional ovens.. if you re using a brick oven, consider yourself lucky.. (I m Jealous!) This is very important, especially if you use a pizza stone. If using a pizza stone your goal is to have the crust brown about the same time the ingredients appear fully cooked. For goodness sake DO NOT slide that PIZZA masterpiece into a COLD oven... I suggest 425-450 degrees... PREHEAT your oven for at least 20-30 minutes... Home oven temperatures generally do not compare to commercial oven temperatures so it is extremely important that you allow your oven to reach proper temperatures. Now you can slide in your masterpiece... Depending on your toppings... bake 7-10 minutes and you're in for a treat... Warning - When removing your HOT pie use extreme caution... REMEMBER -THE PAN IS INCREDIBLY HOT! ENJOY YOUR FIRST HOMEMADE PIZZA PIE! Congratulations... Be sure to send me an email and let me know how your first pie turns out. Pictures are welcome!