Pizza... Testing long, real long and very long fermentation of my dough. 😉

[Breadhead]

I made up some pizza dough using sourdough instead of dry yeast. My intent was to add the flavor of tangy sourdough to my pizza crust.

It took me 2 weeks to manipulate my starter into a real tangy state. By storing it in the refrigerator instead of on kitchen counter at room temperature, you can change the chemistry in your starter doing that. 1 of the bacteria types goes dormant and the other thrives in cold weather. The one that thrives is the one that adds that tasty tanginess like in San Francisco sourdough bread.

This is the recipe I used...
560 grams - bread Flour (100%)
330 grams - Water, Cold (59%) of the weight of the flour.
12 grams. - sugar (2%) of the weight of the flour
12 grams - Salt (2%) of the weight of the flour.
12 grams. - Olive Oil (2%) of the weight of the flour
1 tablespoon of sourdough starter.

I mixed that up and when I had developed the gluten structure to the proper point I portioned it into 3-300 gram dough balls. Placed them on a sheet pan lined with silicone baking sheet and covered the sheet pan with plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator to slow down, delay, the fermentation process. That builds flavor in your pizza crust.

After 48 hours I fired up the BGE and heat soaked the shell, the heat deflector and the pizza stone to 650° for and hour and a half. I took one of the 3 dough balls out of the fridge 2 hours before I wanted to bake it to bring it to room temperature and to give it it's final rise. Just before I was going to put it in the BGE to bake, I stretched and final shaped the dough into a 12" pizza crust. Applied the sauce, cheese and toppings and put it on a silicone baking mat that I trimmed to fit on my pizza stone. Then I slide it onto my pizza peel to carry out to the BGE.

I baked it for 5 minutes at 650° watching the browning process of my crust through the top vent of my cooker. Half way through the cook I could see the crust was browning faster in the back of the pizza stone so I opened the dome, pinched the silicone baking mat with my fingers and spun it 180°.

This pizza, 1 of 3 turned out really nice. I put on a special cheese combination I bought at Smart & Final that had 5 different Italian cheeses that are made for pizza making. I put on a layer of pepperoni, added some andouille sausage, bell pepper, mini sweet yellow & orange peppers and sprinkled a little more cheese over the top.😆 I like cheese.👍

Tonight's pizza was my 48 hour fermented dough. Tomorrow I'm going to do my 72 hour fermented dough and then Thursday I'm going to do my 96 hour fermented dough.

I've never had the patience to do this test before but I thought I should. Many famous pizza dough makers claim long, long fermentation of your dough makes a BIG difference in the flavor of your pizza crust. I'm going to find that out over the next few days.👍

[Potkettleblack]

Questions:
How did the crust compare to the usual crust that you make? Was it tangier, better texture, certain je ne sais quoi of improved flavor/mouthfeel?
Do you think that you might be better served with fewer toppings in judging the crust or are you okay with so many flavors?

[DeusDingo]

pizza every day! yeah! did scary mary get any?

[HawkerXP]

pizza.....................yum

[Breadhead]

pizza every day! yeah! did scary mary get any?

Yes... I gave half of it to Scary Mary. She said the crust was excellent. She said the sourdough crinkle was fun and different. She liked it. The main part of the test is how is today's crust going to compare to yesterday's and how will it compare to the last one. Fermenting that long changes the flavor of the crust. I'll have my answer Thursday night.👍

[DeusDingo]

so is she an every day tester, too?

[Breadhead]

Yes... She's going to be my official taste tester on this experiment. A baker needs others input to verify their own findings. Scary Mary is a very picky eater compared to my garbage gut acceptance of food.😆

[Breadhead]

Questions:
How did the crust compare to the usual crust that you make? Was it tangier, better texture, certain je ne sais quoi of improved flavor/mouthfeel?
Do you think that you might be better served with fewer toppings in judging the crust or are you okay with so many flavors?

The only difference in the crust from my normal crust was eliminating the instant yeast and using just a pinch of sourdough starter instead. I normally make same day dough which will naturally have less flavor. Giving this first crust 2 days to ferment slowly in a cold environment added flavor. The crust was more open and airy. The mouth feel was exceptional. There was very little crispness to the outside of the crust. I really liked everything about this crust. I can't wait to see if I can notice the difference of the 3 day crust over the 2 day crust.

Lots of toppings...😆 I like that combination of toppings, especially the andouille sausage.👍 For the purpose of my test I left room around the outer edge so I could taste just the crust with no topping on it at all.👍

[MBMorgan]

Well, this is coming along very nicely indeed! Can't wait for the next installment ...

[Breadhead]

You're a lucky man to have a wife that likes to bake bread too. When I first started learning to make bread EVERYONE I know thought I was crazy.🙈 It just seemed really odd to them a retired 60 old business man had an interest in making bread. Now they want me to teach them how to do it.

[Breadhead]

MBMorgan ... "That said, she's very interested in the sourdough approach and I'm thinking she'll happily join the party."

Have her give you her exact recipe and eliminate the dry yeast and replace it with 1 tablespoon of your sourdough starter. I bet it would blow her mind.

[MBMorgan]

Breadhead - You're reading my mind . Baby steps ...

[l'inferno]

Your posts are really awesome, thank you. My significant is a professional chef with a master's in bread. She traveled to Italy to research and develop an authentic Neopolitan recipe for my friend's restaurant and specifically designed for the oven. She actually met with Antonio Caputo your probably know is the "god of 00 flour." I believe hers is a 48 hour production schedule. What you are doing sounds right on point. Her recipe includes both a biga and a levain. Biga for flavor and levain for texture (I believe). She treats her levain like her baby. I think it gets more TLC than I do.
I'm curious what the 96 hour will be like to work with. Thanks for all of the info.

[l'inferno]

I'm not familiar with the cats from "Modernist Cuisine" but did you see this? http://modernistcuisine.com/2016/04/modernist-bread/
I never heard of a cookbook that had a press kit and was announced a year ahead of time. Looks like the "real-deal" though.

[RonB]

I don't care for the sour taste of sourdough, so this would not work for me. However, I do leave the dough in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days before I freeze it. Hmmm - now I'm thinking pizza for tonight.

[RonB]

Thanx Breadhead, but I have been there and done that and have never been satisfied with the taste of the sourdough. I really don't like even a hint of sour in my bread.

[Breadhead]

I read you Ron... Your tongue NEVER lies to you. Use instant yeast. It's better, easier than Dried Yeast because you don't need to proof it.👍

[RonB]

I always do...

[l'inferno]

The term "sourdough" is a bit nebulous. I learned this from the GF. Sourdough is indeed a bread but colloquially often means making a bread with a starter (as opposed to dry yeast) like Breadman does and describes so meticulously. The resulting flavor is not sour just much more rich and complex. Basically it ain't' DOMINOs.

[Breadhead]

Your posts are really awesome, thank you. My significant is a professional chef with a master's in bread. She traveled to Italy to research and develop an authentic Neopolitan recipe for my friend's restaurant and specifically designed for the oven. She actually met with Antonio Caputo your probably know is the "god of 00 flour." I believe hers is a 48 hour production schedule. What you are doing sounds right on point. Her recipe includes both a biga and a levain. Biga for flavor and levain for texture (I believe). She treats her levain like her baby. I think it gets more TLC than I do.
I'm curious what the 96 hour will be like to work with. Thanks for all of the info.

Your wife is a Breadhead. I bet she is a very happy and fulfilled professional baker. Good for her!

I studied bread science intensely for 3 years, just because I found it very interesting. I love talking with other Breadhead's but unfortunately there are more people that own bread machines and have no clue how or why it works. Unfortunately I don't know anyone that studies bread like I do, except online. My bread making mentor is the most informed bread man I've ever come across, anywhere. Have your wife visit his website... StellaCulinary.com. He and she would be on the same level.

Mr Caputo engineered an awesome flour for pizza. He figured out how to reduce the natural sugar that all flour has with the intent to ba able to bake the crust at 800° or over without burning the crust. Less sugar reduces caramelization of the crust, brilliant! Pizzaria owners worship him because they can crank out pizzas in 90 seconds or less.😆

Most Pizzaria's use delayed fermentation for their dough but most of those use them after only 24 hours. Give the dough longer to ferment and the dough will improve and give you a better tasting crust. Many claim that 3 and 4 day dough is the best. Those discussions on bread sites is why I decided to do this test.👌

[Breadhead]

The term "sourdough" is a bit nebulous. I learned this from the GF. Sourdough is indeed a bread but colloquially often means making a bread with a starter (as opposed to dry yeast) like Breadman does and describes so meticulously. The resulting flavor is not sour just much more rich and complex. Basically it ain't' DOMINOs.

"The resulting flavor is not sour just much more rich and complex"

That depends on how you've engineered your starter.🤔 If you make your pizza dough with a starter that is stored at room temperature and fed daily it will produce very mild tasting dough, bearly a hint of the sourdough tang.

However if you keep 1 of your starters in the refrigerator all of the time and only take it out when you want to make a very tangy loaf of bread or pizza dough it will have that intense tang like San Francisco style sourdough bread is famous for.

[Yours in BBQ]

Wow Breadhead...Awesome thread and experiment! Going to have to try sourdough pizza myself. I usually get 2 doughs at the local pizza place and get creative...

Very informative!

Thanks.

Yours in BBQ,

Cliff

[Breadhead]

The great part of making your own dough is you do it only when you've got nothing else to do. Then you portion it into dough balls and put it in the fridge and it can stay there for days. You bake it when you feel like it.👍

[l'inferno]

Yes she is very talented and passionate as a lot of serious breadmakers that I have met are (like yourself). The science behind bread is amazing to me but I would describe her as more of an artist. I think it's the 10,000 hour rule.

Here is product in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cvZtjMHKQw&feature=youtu.be

[Breadhead]

Thanks for the link... I loved watching that dude work. He is good!👍