Sunday, April 04, 2004


death to pizza dough

long-time bccy readers know that every sunday here is pizza day. i make my dough according to a "baker's percentage," that is with strict %s of flour, water, salt, yeast, etc. i do it all by weight for accuracy and consistency.

except of course when nature conspires otherwise. today began with actual sunshine, a rarity this week.

and it was so warm i opened my kitchen windows that look out over the water to catch a spring breeze. . . only half-way into kneading the dough did the huge rain clouds roll in off new york harbor.

ouch! the humidity level in the air changed dramatically as the downpour suddenly broke. and my dough just drank it all in. in the course of maybe 2 minutes my pizza turned into a sticky mass.

i rushed to slam the window shut, nearly decapitating the cat, who loves to drowse inside the window frame where he can catch a closer view of the pigeons strutting along the fire escape.

but here's the connundrum: if i add more flour, the recipe is off, and the dough might not perform correctly in the roll-out. what to do?

a common trick here is to increase the kneading speed on the kitchen-aide stand mixer a notch or two to boost the gluten creation and absorb the extra water.

this can be a good trick, as it can also make the pizza crust chewier, usually a good thing. however, i use about 50% first clear flour in my recipe for its high ash (mineral) content, which gives the crust extra flavor.

first clear is pretty chewy stuff in its own right. it's the flour usually used to make bagels and jewish rye bread. to bump up the kneading might give me an all-out rubbery crust

my solution: close the window, finish the kneading normally, cover the dough with plastic wrap and just let it sit for 25 mins.

this allows the dough to naturally form more supple gluten links and slowly absorb the water. then the dough can be dusted with extra flour after division and before it's set to rise.

some of this extra-thick flour dusting will be absorbed by the dough during the rise and of course helps keep the dough from sticking to the half-sheet pan.

now it's easy to understand why artisan bread culture flourishs in the bay area, seattle, and france. in those places, the weather and humidity are very stable.

bakers don't usually face drastic changes mid-knead -- the fog after all rolls in and out like clockwork in beautiful san francisco. . .

posted by fortune | 10:22 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments