Thursday, September 24, 2009

Homemade Pizza from Scratch Part One

I've been making pizza at home for over 20 years. One of the best perks of learning the baking trade was knowing how to make bread dough. Pizza dough is pretty close to bread dough with a couple of differences. It's not hard to do if you have a grasp on the basics of baking.

The best tasting breads ( or pizza doughs) are the ones that take time to make. By allowing the dough to rise and be knocked down and rise again a lot of flavor develops from the carbon dioxide given off by the yeast. This is why sourdough breads taste so good. That sourness equals flavor.

I start with about a cup of luke-warm water and add about a teaspoon or so of instant yeast. By the way I never measure when I bake unless I'm writing down the recipe as I go so bear with me. Add a pinch of sugar and mix this up to activate the yeast. Sugar is like rocket fuel for yeast; it makes those little single cells very excited so they multiply rapidly.



    let's get this party started!

After about 10 minutes add about a cup or cup and a half of flour. You can use bread flour ( high gluten) or  what I have been using lately, "00" flour, which is very fine and makes an extra crispy crust. Stir this in and you have... a sponge! Sometimes bakers refer to sponges as a "biga". I think that's French or something. The French think they invented baking but they didn't. They did go a long way toward perfecting it though.  Set the sponge on a warm place like on top of your stove to let it rise. Keep an eye on it and don't let come out of the bowl. The sponge will burble and bubble like THE BLOB. It's also giving off lots of CO2 that will flavor the dough. If you have time let it go for 30-45 minutes. If you're in a hurry this is a way to "cheat" a bit and get some of that sour flavor. Add a dash or two of vinegar before you mix up the dough. But remember, that's cheating. This is a good time to open a beer.


Sponge! Muh hahaha!  


Once your sponge has risen and been knocked down and risen again you're probably ready to actually mix up the dough. You'll need to add some salt... probably about a teaspoon. Salt is like a brake for yeast; it controls the growth. You also need it for taste. I also like to add some olive oil to my dough... probably about a 1/4-1/3 cup. You can use all flour if you want to but I like to use a 2/3 flour to 1/3 semolina mix. Instead of semolina some folks like to use cornmeal, which makes and especially crispy crust but I'm not crazy about the texture.

A few words about the relationship between liquid and flour. The wetter the dough, the crispier your crust is going to be. This means if you can manage to work with a wetter, stickier dough you will be rewarded with a great crispy crust. The more flour you add, the more "bread-like" the dough will be. Personally I like crispy.

I mix the dough together in a bowl with a fork. You can take it out and knead it a bit by hand if you want, but I wouldn't knead it too much. You don't want to develop a whole lot of gluten; it's a pizza dough not a loaf of bread so take it easy on the kneading.



                                                the dough is coming together

Once you have your dough mixed, coat it with a bit of olive oil, being sure to have oil underneath it in the bowl so you can get it out when it's  ready. Cover the bowl with a dishrag and the waiting begins again. Remember: the longer you spend letting the dough rise and rise again the better the crust will taste.  So relax, open a beer and let that sucker rise. 

In the meantime, you may want to start thinking about the sauce.  Use whatever sauce you like. Some people use pesto. Some people use Alfredo sauce. Some folks just use olive oil. I like a traditional marinara style sauce that is pretty easy to make from scratch. If you want to save time you can use any canned pasta sauce or even canned pizza sauce. 


For my sauce I just saute'  some onions in olive oil, add some Italian dried herbs  ( oregano,  rosemary, thyme) some fresh chopped garlic and a can of either tomato sauce or diced tomatoes and let it simmer while the dough rises. You may want to knock that dough down again, form it into a ball and let it rise again. 


In the next post we'll put this pizza together, bake it and eat it!

3 comments:

  1. Yes I do and thanks for the suggestion! I think it makes a superior crispy crust.

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  2. I've lost my pizza dough mojo. I think I'm gonna try yer sponge ider, some weekend when I don't have to do anything but punch down dough and crack open brewskis.

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