Pizza on the Brain- Part 2
Despite my love for ordering pizza to go, my absolute favorite pizza is made in my kitchen. While I don't have a wood-burning oven, (yet) I do make my own dough. I have a ton of cookbooks with dough recipes from reputable sources, not some fucking "Betty Crocker" who says you can save a few pennies by making it yourself, but from real chefs who make dough, pun intended, off of their pizza.
My favorite is out of a cookbook from famed San Francisco restaurant A16. The A16 pizza is a thin crust Neopolitan-style with a minimal amount of toppings. [Side note: I hate the word "topping". I don't know why, but it just sounds ultra dorky yet I've used twice in this piece, the first was in Part 1.] Since the crust is so thin, too much stuff tend to make it soggy. Leave the Meatlovers Supreme Deep Dish to the thick crust chain joints. To me this is the perfect crust. No disrespect to a Chicago pie, but even they have to admit it's more of a casserole than a pizza. (I'll probably get a bunch of shit for that one. Luckily, only about 4 people read this and none that I'm aware of in the Chicagoland area.)
While I'm still not sure of all the legalities of reprinting published recipes, I'll just paraphrase loosely, without the exact measurements because 1. I don't want to get in trouble, and 2. if you like to cook you should own this book. For the most part, pizza crust is flour, water, and yeast. A little salt and olive oil too, but that's it. The flour I like to use is "00". The "00" refers to how fine the flour is ground. In this case it's super fine. I have to go to an Italian market to get it, but I'm guessing it can be found in bigger grocery stores in bigger cities. All purpose flour will work just fine.
"Proofing" the yeast is the next step. Proofing is the term used for activating yeast. Temperature is key to successful proofing, the water MUST be heated between 100-105 degrees for the yeast to bloom. Pour a packet (1/4 ounce) of yeast into the warm water with a touch of sugar and wait about 10 minutes until it's foamy. No foam? Chuck it and start over. Once proofed, add a little salt and olive oil, then add this to the flour in the bowl of a stand up mixer. For this recipe you must use a mixer with a dough hook because it takes a total of about 20 minutes of kneading which is a bitch to do by hand. Now put a little olive oil in a big bowl, add the dough and cover it with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight. If you have ever baked bread before, this may sound strange because many bread recipes say to have the dough rise in a warm place. Not in this case, pizza is different. I asked a friend who owns an Italian restaurant why this is and he said it's because if the dough doesn't rise slowly the glutens in the flour can create a bitter taste. Sound good to me.
After a night in the refrigerator, punch down the dough to get the air out and put it back in the 'frig for another 4 hours to rise again. Once this is done, I divide the dough into 4 pieces, one per pizza. I then I roll each dough into a ball and wrap all but one individually in plastic wrap and put in the 'frig until I want to use them. Turn on your oven to the highest setting. My oven goes to 550. If you have a pizza stone, make sure it's on the middle rack. If you don't have a stone I recommend the rectangular one from William-Sonoma. My pizzas are never perfectly round so a round pizza stone will never work for me.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to the size you want. I usually roll them to about 12 inches in diameter. Once rolled out, I transfer the dough to a wooden pizza peel dusted with cornmeal, but you can use a rimless cookie sheet if you don't have the peel. Now you can add your toppings (damn, that word again!), but work fast because the longer the dough sits on the peel, the harder it will be to get it off. As I've stated before, less is more when using this dough. Don't overload your pizza!
Once you are ready for the oven, carefully slide it in. With the oven set to the highest temp (Again, mine is 550), the pizza will cook in 5 minutes. When it's done, I have a metal pizza peel that I use to get it out. Again, if no peel is available, use a cookie sheet and a spatula, but be careful because the oven is hot. Let the pizza rest a couple of minutes so it can set up then you can cut it up. Really easy.
It takes a bit of planning making the dough, but once you've done it a couple of times it's really easy, plus it saves a bunch of cash. Making pizza is also fun to do for casual dinner parties to get everyone involved. It's also a perfect way to introduce kids to cooking.
So the next time you are in the PI area, swing by the PIT or Frank's for some take out pizza or just give me a call, chances are I have some dough on hand.
Ciao down,
Penn
My favorite is out of a cookbook from famed San Francisco restaurant A16. The A16 pizza is a thin crust Neopolitan-style with a minimal amount of toppings. [Side note: I hate the word "topping". I don't know why, but it just sounds ultra dorky yet I've used twice in this piece, the first was in Part 1.] Since the crust is so thin, too much stuff tend to make it soggy. Leave the Meatlovers Supreme Deep Dish to the thick crust chain joints. To me this is the perfect crust. No disrespect to a Chicago pie, but even they have to admit it's more of a casserole than a pizza. (I'll probably get a bunch of shit for that one. Luckily, only about 4 people read this and none that I'm aware of in the Chicagoland area.)
While I'm still not sure of all the legalities of reprinting published recipes, I'll just paraphrase loosely, without the exact measurements because 1. I don't want to get in trouble, and 2. if you like to cook you should own this book. For the most part, pizza crust is flour, water, and yeast. A little salt and olive oil too, but that's it. The flour I like to use is "00". The "00" refers to how fine the flour is ground. In this case it's super fine. I have to go to an Italian market to get it, but I'm guessing it can be found in bigger grocery stores in bigger cities. All purpose flour will work just fine.
"Proofing" the yeast is the next step. Proofing is the term used for activating yeast. Temperature is key to successful proofing, the water MUST be heated between 100-105 degrees for the yeast to bloom. Pour a packet (1/4 ounce) of yeast into the warm water with a touch of sugar and wait about 10 minutes until it's foamy. No foam? Chuck it and start over. Once proofed, add a little salt and olive oil, then add this to the flour in the bowl of a stand up mixer. For this recipe you must use a mixer with a dough hook because it takes a total of about 20 minutes of kneading which is a bitch to do by hand. Now put a little olive oil in a big bowl, add the dough and cover it with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight. If you have ever baked bread before, this may sound strange because many bread recipes say to have the dough rise in a warm place. Not in this case, pizza is different. I asked a friend who owns an Italian restaurant why this is and he said it's because if the dough doesn't rise slowly the glutens in the flour can create a bitter taste. Sound good to me.
After a night in the refrigerator, punch down the dough to get the air out and put it back in the 'frig for another 4 hours to rise again. Once this is done, I divide the dough into 4 pieces, one per pizza. I then I roll each dough into a ball and wrap all but one individually in plastic wrap and put in the 'frig until I want to use them. Turn on your oven to the highest setting. My oven goes to 550. If you have a pizza stone, make sure it's on the middle rack. If you don't have a stone I recommend the rectangular one from William-Sonoma. My pizzas are never perfectly round so a round pizza stone will never work for me.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to the size you want. I usually roll them to about 12 inches in diameter. Once rolled out, I transfer the dough to a wooden pizza peel dusted with cornmeal, but you can use a rimless cookie sheet if you don't have the peel. Now you can add your toppings (damn, that word again!), but work fast because the longer the dough sits on the peel, the harder it will be to get it off. As I've stated before, less is more when using this dough. Don't overload your pizza!
Once you are ready for the oven, carefully slide it in. With the oven set to the highest temp (Again, mine is 550), the pizza will cook in 5 minutes. When it's done, I have a metal pizza peel that I use to get it out. Again, if no peel is available, use a cookie sheet and a spatula, but be careful because the oven is hot. Let the pizza rest a couple of minutes so it can set up then you can cut it up. Really easy.
It takes a bit of planning making the dough, but once you've done it a couple of times it's really easy, plus it saves a bunch of cash. Making pizza is also fun to do for casual dinner parties to get everyone involved. It's also a perfect way to introduce kids to cooking.
So the next time you are in the PI area, swing by the PIT or Frank's for some take out pizza or just give me a call, chances are I have some dough on hand.
Ciao down,
Penn
Comments
Post a Comment