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Pizza dough recipe

"Allen Cohn" <allen@cohnzone.com>
Sun, 23 Jul 2006 08:15:45 -0700
v106.n030.7
Here's my formula...I'm sorry it's "old school," i.e., in ounces not 
grams (and you can convert 1 ounce approximately equals 28 grams). 
But bakers' percentages are included. This is how much I use to make 
one pizza...I scale it up to make multiples.

Note: Yeast proportions in both Poolish and Final Dough recipes are 
for ACTIVE DRY yeast.

Total Formula
-------------
AP Flour 10.0  oz  100.0%
Water     6.0  oz   60.0%
Salt      0.15 oz    1.5%
Yeast     0.08 oz    0.8%
Olive Oil 0.20 oz    1.5%

Poolish
-------
AP Flour  5.0 oz   100.0%
Water     5.0 oz   100.0%
Yeast                0.1%  0.03 tsp
  [[ Editor's note: 0.03 tsp = 1/4 of 1/8 tsp = 0.15 ml ]]

Final Dough
-----------
AP Flour  5.0  oz  100.0%
Water     1.0  oz   20.0%
Salt      0.15 oz    3.0%  0.626 tsp = 1/2 + 1/8 tsp
Yeast     0.08 oz    1.5%  0.469 tsp
Olive Oil 0.15 oz    3.0%  0.9   tsp
Poolish  10.0  oz  200.0%
   [[ Editor's note: volume of oil based on density of 0.9 ]]

A few things to note about this formula:

a.. It uses AP flour, not high protein bread flour. Bread flour is 
typically so strong it doesn't roll out well. Some gourmet's use 
bread flour, but their process usually has the dough sitting around 1 
or 2 days during which the proteins are degraded to the point that 
the dough is extensible

b.. It adds a bit of olive oil...this seems to be a common theme in 
most recipes I've seen.

c.. It uses a 12-15 hour room temperature poolish. Very wet 
pre-ferments like this make doughs more extensible...which is great 
for pizza dough (and baguettes, etc.).

d.. It uses active dry yeast instead of instant. This is one of the 
very few instances I use active dry instead of instant. Active dry 
yeast has live yeast cells surrounded by dead. Instant doesn't have 
th dead cells. The dead cells have glutithione...and this chemical 
promotes extensibility. If you want to use instant yeast instead, 
just decrease the yeast amounts by 20%.

Note that my bakers' percentage calculation for yeast is a bit 
confusing...the % and weight is based on cake yeast--since that seems 
the most common rule of thumb--and then converts the teaspoons to 
active dry yeast on the assumption that 1 oz. cake yeast works like 
0.5 oz. active dry yeast.

Dough Preparation

For poolish, mix water and yeast, then mix in flour. Cover and let 
sit at room temperature (70F) for 12 ­ 15 hours.

For final dough, activate yeast in remaining water (110F); mix 
poolish, yeast, oil, and water in bowl of standing mixer. Add 
remaining flour and mix for one minute at low speed. Let rest 20 minutes.

Mix for one minute at low speed, add salt, mix to "improved mix" 
stage, approximately for four more minutes. Target final temperature 
is 74 ­ 76F.

Transfer dough to large oiled bowl and cover. (Now is a good time to 
adjust your oven rack to the upper position, put a pizza stone on it, 
and crank the oven up to its highest temperature, typically 550F.) 
Let dough ferment one hour at 75F.

Shaping

If making multiples of this recipe, scale dough into 16 oz. pieces. 
Shape each into a loose boule.

Let boules rest 20 minutes. Then gently flatten and stretch each into 
a 14" disc. (You may have to do the stretching in multiple stages 
with short rest periods in between.

Dust pizza peel with flour, corn meal, or semolina. Place dough on 
peel. Dress dough as desired: typically a thin coat of tomato sauce 
(the "6-in-1" brand is fantastic!), 1/2 lbs. of cheese, and a few 
vegetables and/or meats.

Double check that pizza is still sliding on peel. Then deftly slide 
pizza onto stone. Bake  approximately 8 minutes.

Remove pizza using peel. (Now is a good time to throw on a few 
slivers of basil.) Let cool a few minutes before eating.

Hope this helps

Allen
San Francisco