Read Online Passionate About Pizza: Making Great Homemade Pizza by Curtis Ide - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Curtis Ide
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virtually impossible to shape, so I recommend against using it for pizza unless you mix it with other lower gluten flour.
Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way! I was making pizza for several couples at a friend’s house. They had heard about my pizza and wanted to try it. My friend only had high-gluten flour, so I used it. I spent 20 minutes fighting with the dough to get it stretched into a pizza. I never did get it stretched very thin and the pizzas were not up to my normal standards. My friend later told me that he had the same problem the previous time he made a pizza, but he thought it was he! No high-gluten flour for my pizzas; that is my rule! Whole-wheat flour has lower gluten content than all-purpose flour. This can make whole wheat dough tend to tear when being shaped. When using whole-wheat flour in dough, you can use bread flour for one third to one-half of the total amount of flour in the recipe; I call this half-wheat dough! The extra gluten content in the bread flour counteracts the lower gluten content of the whole-wheat flour thereby making the dough easier to handle. Alternatively, you can make whole-wheat dough easier to handle by adding vital wheat gluten. This directly increases the gluten content. You can find vital wheat gluten in many grocery or health food stores near the flours. I use vital wheat gluten in my whole-wheat dough.
Bread flours or high gluten flours also may require longer kneading to develop the gluten or a longer rest before they loosen to become easy to shape. Even after a longer rest period, they may retain a stronger elasticity that makes them produce stiff dough. This can be good when you want it but it can be a surprise if you do not expect it! As you develop preferences about how your pizza dough behaves, you can change your flour choices to match your preferences. You can adjust the amount of gluten in the flour you use by mixing unbleached all-purpose flour with bread flour (or even with high gluten flour) in various proportions. Given that more gluten in flour tends to make dough stronger and that adding oil to dough makes it looser, you can balance the amount of these two ingredients as you tailor your dough to meet your needs.
Semolina flour has a higher amount of gluten. It is frequently ground more coarsely than all-purpose flour. Because of this, I have not found it to work well when making pizza.
Specialty Pizza Flour
Specialty Italian-style pizza flour can be found in Italian grocery stores or specialty baking suppliers. One specific brand of Italian flour stands out due to being well suited for pizza baked at high heat in wood-fired pizza ovens. Caputo™ 00 Pizza Flour is the name of this flour. Dough made with Caputo™ flour will not burn as quickly when baked at 700 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to these properties, it will also not get brown when baked at the normal 500 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures obtainable in home ovens. As a result, pizza does not turn out well using Caputo™ 00 Flour in most of the recipes in this book.
Flavored Olive Oil
Flavored olive oil brings a nice addition of flavor to a wide variety of pizzas. I frequently use garlic-flavored oil or basil flavored oil as an ingredient for making dough to give just a little extra flavor to the dough. When used as a pizza topping flavored oil adds extra seasoning to the taste of the pizza. I typically use flavored olive oil but you can use any type of flavored cooking oil that you favor. Just make sure you choose one that neither you nor your guests are allergic to!
To make garlic flavored oil, take ten to twenty peeled garlic cloves, place them in a small saucepan, and then add enough olive oil to cover the cloves. Cook over the very lowest heat setting you have on your stove, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until just tender and golden. This will usually take about 20 – 30 minutes. By cooking the garlic very slowly, you take away the bite of
Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way! I was making pizza for several couples at a friend’s house. They had heard about my pizza and wanted to try it. My friend only had high-gluten flour, so I used it. I spent 20 minutes fighting with the dough to get it stretched into a pizza. I never did get it stretched very thin and the pizzas were not up to my normal standards. My friend later told me that he had the same problem the previous time he made a pizza, but he thought it was he! No high-gluten flour for my pizzas; that is my rule! Whole-wheat flour has lower gluten content than all-purpose flour. This can make whole wheat dough tend to tear when being shaped. When using whole-wheat flour in dough, you can use bread flour for one third to one-half of the total amount of flour in the recipe; I call this half-wheat dough! The extra gluten content in the bread flour counteracts the lower gluten content of the whole-wheat flour thereby making the dough easier to handle. Alternatively, you can make whole-wheat dough easier to handle by adding vital wheat gluten. This directly increases the gluten content. You can find vital wheat gluten in many grocery or health food stores near the flours. I use vital wheat gluten in my whole-wheat dough.
Bread flours or high gluten flours also may require longer kneading to develop the gluten or a longer rest before they loosen to become easy to shape. Even after a longer rest period, they may retain a stronger elasticity that makes them produce stiff dough. This can be good when you want it but it can be a surprise if you do not expect it! As you develop preferences about how your pizza dough behaves, you can change your flour choices to match your preferences. You can adjust the amount of gluten in the flour you use by mixing unbleached all-purpose flour with bread flour (or even with high gluten flour) in various proportions. Given that more gluten in flour tends to make dough stronger and that adding oil to dough makes it looser, you can balance the amount of these two ingredients as you tailor your dough to meet your needs.
Semolina flour has a higher amount of gluten. It is frequently ground more coarsely than all-purpose flour. Because of this, I have not found it to work well when making pizza.
Specialty Pizza Flour
Specialty Italian-style pizza flour can be found in Italian grocery stores or specialty baking suppliers. One specific brand of Italian flour stands out due to being well suited for pizza baked at high heat in wood-fired pizza ovens. Caputo™ 00 Pizza Flour is the name of this flour. Dough made with Caputo™ flour will not burn as quickly when baked at 700 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to these properties, it will also not get brown when baked at the normal 500 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures obtainable in home ovens. As a result, pizza does not turn out well using Caputo™ 00 Flour in most of the recipes in this book.
Flavored Olive Oil
Flavored olive oil brings a nice addition of flavor to a wide variety of pizzas. I frequently use garlic-flavored oil or basil flavored oil as an ingredient for making dough to give just a little extra flavor to the dough. When used as a pizza topping flavored oil adds extra seasoning to the taste of the pizza. I typically use flavored olive oil but you can use any type of flavored cooking oil that you favor. Just make sure you choose one that neither you nor your guests are allergic to!
To make garlic flavored oil, take ten to twenty peeled garlic cloves, place them in a small saucepan, and then add enough olive oil to cover the cloves. Cook over the very lowest heat setting you have on your stove, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until just tender and golden. This will usually take about 20 – 30 minutes. By cooking the garlic very slowly, you take away the bite of
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