I tried to make my first ever pizza dough today using the No Knead Roman Pizza Crust recipe from the free side.
Well as the topic suggests I will not be posting pictures although they looked good.
The toppings were great but cant say the same for the base.
I did get to run my kettle for a first pizza cook.
That went well.
Now I need to have another attempt at the crust and another if necessary.
They still were ingested.
I have never tried the no knead. We travel to Portland frequently, and Ken's Artisan Pizza (Ken Forkish) is one of my favorites. I have his first book, Flour, Water, Salt and Yeast, and his pizza only book, The Elements of Pizza. These are most definitely not knead free, but I have it down now. Forkish insists that in addition to the four ingredients in the title, two more are time and temperature. He offers recipes ranging from 'It's noon on Saturday and I want pizza tonight', to a 48-72 hour Biga recipe. With the exception of the very shortened time frame, they all involve a shorter warm fermentation and longer cold fermentations for the development of flavors in the crust.
IMO, Forkish's book is THE bible for home pizza makers. Once I started turning out excellent pies (per his advice) from our home oven, I was able to let go of my thoughts for building/buying a dedicated pizza oven--MCS defeated!
So, before I download this book.. does it have adjustments for high altitude? At 9100ft things just don't bake the same and often it is even more water and flour than what the recipe calls for..
LSG Adjustable Grill/Smoker, MAK Pellet Grill, Large BGE with Several Attachments from the Ceramic Grill Store, Weber Gasser, Cast Iron Pans & Griddle, Grill Grates, Mostly Thermoworks Thermometers, Avova SV Stick, BBQ Guru Controller and Fan
This is Kenji Lopez-Alt New York pizza Dough made in a Food Processor with Bread Flour. Several people on The Pit have liked this recipe. I have frozen this several times with success too. It's one of my favorites.
Willy, It took me about 4 pizza bakes to realize that the hydration ratios in Forkish's book were intended for use in home ovens, with max temps of 550รยบ. (I had to go back and carefully reread page 52.) Since that requires a longer bake, there is more water in the recipe to prevent the crust from drying out during the 7-8 minutes needed for the bake. If you use that recipe in an 800 oven, the dough is too soft in the center, even for a Napolese pizza.
My go-to recipe is the 24-48 hour dough, with the overnight or two day cold fermentation. The book calls for 350 gm water for 500 gms flour (70%) hydration, whereas he references Naples pizzerias with 905รยบ ovens, 60 sec cook times, and a dough hydration of 55-58% (that would be about 280-290 Gm water for 500 gm flour). I adjusted my water down, now using a hydration of about 62% (310-320 gm H2O for 500 gm King Arthur all purpose flour). My cook times are about 2 minutes. Sometimes the Forno Bravo is hot enough for me to get a 90 sec cook time.
So, I guess the point of this rambling post is that the hydration ratio should rise as the oven temp decreases. A longer cook time drives more water out of the dough.
Daniel
Last edited by Dr. Pepper; January 13, 2019, 12:34 PM.
EdF: No, Jewish, but we grew up in an Italian, Polish, Bohemian suburb. I thought the whole world was Catholic! Remember Big Fat Greek Wedding? The Greeks also covered their furniture in vinyl. I agree that it was generational: Post depression era, you want things to last. My mother was scandalized that out in Seattle we would sit directly on the fabric of the sofa. We would wear it out! She had a silk fabric sofa that was about 50 years old, looked like new. New plastic every 10 years.
Working on upping my crust game. Did some experimentation with using sourdough starter tonight. Turned out real well. Will have to adjust hydration level to match temps of my oven. That is genius.
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