Monday, November 01, 2004


woman in need of a mixogram

and why do i need a mixogram? to perfect my pizza recipes, of course!

steady readers know i am never satisfied with my pizza dough -- i always strive to make it more and more like that in naples. this often means i'm experimenting with different amounts of water, different flours, all that.

those who are familiar with my standard pizza crust recipe know that i use a very wet or "slack" dough. in baker's formula terms, my recipe is 76% hydration: quite high, practically ciabatta, considering most pizza recipes are only about 60-63%.

i keep this dough from being a complete mess resembling nothing so much as a pile of library paste by using a very high protein (14.5%) flour to soak up all that water and by letting blanche, my beloved kitchen aid stand mixer, just knead the heck out of it for 30 mins, as well as giving it a very long slow rise.

but in my endless search for a better result, i recently switched to a much lower protein all-purpose organic flour (11.3%), since the pizzaioli in naples seem to use italian 00 flour, which is well below 11% protein.

what's interesting about this at first you might think, oh, well the flour switch wouldn't affect the recipe that much, maybe make it a little easier to roll out, or a little more crispy. . but it does so much more than that, yes it does!

why? because lower-protein flours don't absorb nearly as much water as higher-protein ones do.

for example, in general, a 14% protein bread flour will absorb up to 64% of the water. it's basically bounty. in contrast, the 11.3% all-purpose flour might take up just 60% of the water.

this means by changing the flour in my recipe, my dough suddenly feels functionally much wetter in the handling. and the result is an amazingly different bake. . .

as posted previously, i made some adjustments to my recipe -- while sticking with the basic technique -- based on some suggestions from suzanne dunaway's famous book, no need to knead. she uses a medium-protein all-purpose flour for her pizza and also a huge amount of oil: 15%!

the result last night was unusual: a sort-of-flaky, almost biscuit-like pizza dough that rose incredibly in the oven and baked exceptionally light and crispy. with so little protein, the dough just stretched from here to kansas; the pizzas were so huge i could barely fit them on my baking stone.

the crust had a fantastic flavor (extra-virgin olive oil tastes good!) but the flakiness was too odd. all that oil rather made the dough into some kind of savory southern-type pie crust.

peculiar. with this experience behind me, i'm going try a twist on an older flour mix: half durum (usually 13% protein), half first clear (usually 14.8%). however, i'm going to substitute this new 11.3% flour for the durum -- maybe change the ratio from half/half to one-third/two-thirds.

this should give me about a 13% flour, which might be a tad easier to roll out and still have a nice chew. and i'm going to lower my hydration to just 61%.

and for next week's experiment, i'll also try keeping that absurd percentage of oil, because the taste was good. but i'm hoping that with the higher-protein flour that strange "aunt emily's beaten biscuit" texture can be avoided.

also, of course, first-clear flour has a high ash (mineral) content; this adds extra yummy flavor too. . .plus its darker beige when mixed with the yellow of the durum gives the baked pizza a slightly more appetizing color, i think.

i know a lot of people raise their eyebrows when i say i use first clear, because it's usually a cheaper flour, used by commercial bakers to save money, or to lighten jewish-style rye breads and bagels.

but with its protein percentage for great chewiness, its color, and its tasty mineral content, i think it's a winner for neapolitan-type pizza, if unconventional!

posted by fortune | 7:04 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments