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Italian 00 Flour A recipe and a source

"Marcy Goldman" <editors@betterbaking.com>
Sun, 6 Mar 2005 06:42:14 -0500
v105.n011.9
OO" Italian Flour Pizza Dough From Better Baking.Com and a website link to 
Molini Pizzuti Flour.

Say Bis. Say..bravissimo for this flour. Because I received so much demand 
for it and about it at my website, I finally ordered two cases to work 
with. Called "OO" Flour, from Italy, it is now one of my first choices when 
I make pizza dough in the BetterBaking.com Test Kitchen. This recipe makes 
a '10' of a pizza dough. This flour is available in gourmet stores online 
(or email <http://www.molinipizzuti.it/public_html/index.html>. That is the 
company we ordered from directly from Italty. they were incredibly 
responsive - esp. if you tell them I sent you and can direct you to some 
retailers or wholesales in the U.S. and Canada. (They are also great baking 
fans themselves.

The 00 flour makes the most supple, sumptuous, rustic, gourmet pizza dough 
ever. Add a topping of drained, crushed plum tomatoes, garlic and fresh 
herbs, fresh mozzarella slices and you are smokin'. The baked dough 
features those nice blisters and is crisp withou being dried out. A long 
rise with little yeast is the way to go or at least, my preference. You 
could use more yeast for a breadier pizza (I make an Italian Bakery Pizza 
as well and that is a big square pizza, with tomato sauce and herbs, and 
about 1 inch thick). The dough made with this flour does not get as 'bucky' 
as bread flour-based pizzas or even all-purpose and it has a supple, 
different flavor. The consistency in the bag is almost like cake flour.

When I am out of OO flour, I do indeed make pizza with all-purpose flour or 
often, one third bread flour to two thirds all-purpose flour. In the 
BetterBaking.com Test Kitchen, we never serve pizza on plates by the way. 
The tables are covered with parchment paper, pizza cutting wheels, hot 
sauce and fresh herbs and cheese are laid out and it is each paesan.

On a personal/professional note, and inasmuch as I like this flour, I 
continue experimenting with flours, recipes, and baking methods when it 
comes to pizza. There are a multitude of roads that lead to Rome, in pizza 
terms and that is the fun of it.

By the way, fresh yeast takes this up a notch - make that - four notches 
but Fermipan or Saf is superb and allows (if you use a tiny bit) a long 
rise and less risk of over fermentation. If I am out of fresh yeast or my 
preferences in instant, Fleischmans bread machine or instant is fine.

This recipe makes great pizza on the grill pizza dough but most often, I 
pan dough is panned on out parchment paper lined baking sheets, which also 
have a bit of olive oil on them, and some fine semolina. Alternatively, I 
make pizzas in cast iron skillets, prepared the same way. Leftover scraps 
of this dough are rolled almost as thin as strudel, left to rise, and then 
fried up in hot olive oil. Then cut in wedges and tossed in herbs, salt, 
and a touch of garlic powder and served with marinara sauce as a little 
pizza 'chaser'.

Enjoy - and experiment yourself,
Marcy Goldman

00 Italian Flour Pizza Dough From BetterBaking.Com,

1 3/4 cups warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast or 3/4 ounce fresh yeast
1/4 cup fine semolina
1 1/2  teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 1/2 - 4 cups "OO" Italian Flour, preferably Molini Pizzuti *

*If you do not have this flour, use unbleached all-purpose flour.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the water and yeast together. Then add in 
salt, sugar, oil and most of flour. Mix a bit and let stand 20 minutes. Add 
in remaining flour to make a really slack dough that holds together but is 
rather soft, about 5-8 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and 
let rise 1-4 hours, until it rises, blisters up and just barely starts to 
deflate.

Turn dough out on to a floured board and do not deflate - just gently work 
with it.

Divide and form into rounds for pizzas (about 3-4 9 inch). If/when dough 
retracts, let it rest a bit and then coax to the right diameter. Transfer 
pizzas on a doubled up baking sheet lined with parchment, that has been 
drizzled with olive oil and a dusting of semolina of fine cornmeal.

Dress pizzas as you like (I recommend crushed plum tomatoes on each pizza, 
a drizzle of olive oil, crush garlic, fresh herbs like basil and oregano, 
slivers of parmasan and some slivers of fresh mozerella and chevre). Let 
rise 30-60 minutes, lightly covered with a plastic sheet.

Preheat oven to 475 F - 500 F. Let it preheat a good 30 minutes (so, that 
is mid way through pizzas rising

Bake pizzas on middle rack, until done, about 8-12 minutes.

Drizzle with hot sauce (I recommend Red Devil by Trappeys - it is 
salty/vinegary and only moderate heat), fresh pepper and minced basil 
leaves as pizza comes out of the oven.


Serves 3-4.

(c) This is a Marcy Goldman/BetterBaking.com original recipe

This recipe is for sole, personal use of visitors of BetterBaking.Com 
Online Magazine. Marcy Goldman/ BetterBaking.com recipes are for your 
enjoyment but not to be posted or reprinted without express permission of 
the author/baker. Thank you kindly for respecting my copyright and happy 
baking.

BetterBaking.Com/Baker Boulanger est. 1997 - 2005