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Authors: Curtis Ide
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ingredients; you hold the key to your own destiny!
The amount of oil or fat in pizza dough does have an effect on the dough. Oil in the dough helps to soften the gluten somewhat and makes dough with oil slightly slacker and easier to handle.
You will see some recipes in this book that have a lot of fat and others that have very little. Feel free to reduce your fat intake by not making pizzas that you feel have too much fat. Keep in mind that you can probably reduce the fat in any pizza recipe to a level you are comfortable with by only slightly modifying the recipe. After all, recipes are only a guide, not a mandate!
Flour
You might think that flour is just flour; however, not all flours are created equal. You can use almost any type of flour to make a pizza, but the type of flour you use can make a difference. Different flours have different amounts of gluten . This is the protein in wheat that helps hold in the bubbles of gas produced by the yeast. It also allows the dough to stretch as you shape the pizza. Different flours with varying amounts of gluten will behave differently; you can see and feel the difference in the dough as you mix and knead it. You may have seen flours labeled All Purpose, Unbleached, All Purpose Unbleached, Cake Flour, Pastry Flour, Bread Flour, High Gluten Flour, etc. Manufacturers formulate each of these flours to have a different amount of gluten in the flour. Many of the recipes in this book call for All Purpose Unbleached Flour. You can use this type of flour with success in almost all types of baking, so it is widely available. You generally have a few brands to pick from in your local supermarket. Pick your favorite. Please read the rest of this section before substituting other types of flour for the type of flour specified in a recipe.
Choosing Which Flour to Use
My favorite flour to use for making pizza is a mix of half All Purpose Unbleached Flour and Bread Flour. This mix provides a good balance between the extra strength of the Bread Flour with the ease of use that comes from All Purpose Unbleached Flour. I have a flour bucket that will hold about 10 pounds of flour. When it is empty, I fill it with one package of each type of flour and mix them together. I do not worry much about how completely they are mixed. Each time I take out a cup of flour, I fluff the top layer of flour in the bucket so I get a good measuring cup of flour and this helps the mixing. Most of the recipes in the book call for All Purpose Unbleached Flour because it is less hassle and it works very well. You can substitute Bread Flour or the mix I use in the same quantity as the All Purpose Unbleached Flour listed in the recipe. The dough handling (especially stretching) will behave just a little differently but it will work just fine.
I have found that the amount of time you need to let the dough rest until it gets to the desired slackness or stretchiness depends on the brand and type of flour you use. I have found that some of the common unbleached all-purpose or bleached white flours require a fairly long rest (up to twenty minutes) before they loosen their elasticity and become easy to stretch. I have found that specialty flour brands’ unbleached all-purpose flours require a much shorter resting time (about five to ten minutes) to reach the same consistency. As a result, I prefer to use high quality, specialty brand unbleached all-purpose flour. I have not used all flour brands and the brands found in each region vary greatly. You may prefer a specific brand of flour and you can use almost any all-purpose flour successfully.
Gluten in Flour
High gluten flour or bread flour is not necessary for making pizza; in fact, it may not work as well as all-purpose flour. Too high a gluten content may cause the dough to be too springy to shape even with a long rest. Each time you stretch it or roll it out, it jumps back! High gluten flour can result in pizza dough that is
The amount of oil or fat in pizza dough does have an effect on the dough. Oil in the dough helps to soften the gluten somewhat and makes dough with oil slightly slacker and easier to handle.
You will see some recipes in this book that have a lot of fat and others that have very little. Feel free to reduce your fat intake by not making pizzas that you feel have too much fat. Keep in mind that you can probably reduce the fat in any pizza recipe to a level you are comfortable with by only slightly modifying the recipe. After all, recipes are only a guide, not a mandate!
Flour
You might think that flour is just flour; however, not all flours are created equal. You can use almost any type of flour to make a pizza, but the type of flour you use can make a difference. Different flours have different amounts of gluten . This is the protein in wheat that helps hold in the bubbles of gas produced by the yeast. It also allows the dough to stretch as you shape the pizza. Different flours with varying amounts of gluten will behave differently; you can see and feel the difference in the dough as you mix and knead it. You may have seen flours labeled All Purpose, Unbleached, All Purpose Unbleached, Cake Flour, Pastry Flour, Bread Flour, High Gluten Flour, etc. Manufacturers formulate each of these flours to have a different amount of gluten in the flour. Many of the recipes in this book call for All Purpose Unbleached Flour. You can use this type of flour with success in almost all types of baking, so it is widely available. You generally have a few brands to pick from in your local supermarket. Pick your favorite. Please read the rest of this section before substituting other types of flour for the type of flour specified in a recipe.
Choosing Which Flour to Use
My favorite flour to use for making pizza is a mix of half All Purpose Unbleached Flour and Bread Flour. This mix provides a good balance between the extra strength of the Bread Flour with the ease of use that comes from All Purpose Unbleached Flour. I have a flour bucket that will hold about 10 pounds of flour. When it is empty, I fill it with one package of each type of flour and mix them together. I do not worry much about how completely they are mixed. Each time I take out a cup of flour, I fluff the top layer of flour in the bucket so I get a good measuring cup of flour and this helps the mixing. Most of the recipes in the book call for All Purpose Unbleached Flour because it is less hassle and it works very well. You can substitute Bread Flour or the mix I use in the same quantity as the All Purpose Unbleached Flour listed in the recipe. The dough handling (especially stretching) will behave just a little differently but it will work just fine.
I have found that the amount of time you need to let the dough rest until it gets to the desired slackness or stretchiness depends on the brand and type of flour you use. I have found that some of the common unbleached all-purpose or bleached white flours require a fairly long rest (up to twenty minutes) before they loosen their elasticity and become easy to stretch. I have found that specialty flour brands’ unbleached all-purpose flours require a much shorter resting time (about five to ten minutes) to reach the same consistency. As a result, I prefer to use high quality, specialty brand unbleached all-purpose flour. I have not used all flour brands and the brands found in each region vary greatly. You may prefer a specific brand of flour and you can use almost any all-purpose flour successfully.
Gluten in Flour
High gluten flour or bread flour is not necessary for making pizza; in fact, it may not work as well as all-purpose flour. Too high a gluten content may cause the dough to be too springy to shape even with a long rest. Each time you stretch it or roll it out, it jumps back! High gluten flour can result in pizza dough that is
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