Another Pizza Dough Conversion
It has been a while since I have posted. I am trying to get back into learning again.
I have been debating on posting, for quite a while, because I was hoping I could figure it out on my own, but I don't understand the science behind it.
I do feel better after seeing all the other requests for conversions.
The all-purpose flour (not 00) and semolina used was always North Dakota Mills' Dakota Maid. The honey was Ed's Honey (a local guy here) and the yeast was Red Star in the foil vac packed bag. The oven used was a very large gas fired brick oven, the pizza's normally took about 9 minutes to bake. The oven was usually set at 550 when I started, but I got more adventurous and set it at 750. When we felt like it, we would burn wood at the back of the oven for a smoke flavor.
Making this dough became an every day robotic process. I used an old large hobart floor mixer with a carbon steel hook and bowl. The bowl and hook was always oiled with olive oil.
At home I have a 7qt KitchenAid Commercial Mixer with stainless bowl and dough hook. I am trying to get the recipe down to something that will fit that mixer. Ovens that I would be using this for would be a Bluestar French Door oven with the built-in stone, a 30" Miele M-Touch oven and a Large Big Green Egg.
These are the notes I remember and scratched down one time trying to explain it to a helper.
Here is the recipe:
How to make Dough:
Single Batch
Make sure your bowl and hook are cleaned and oiled
2” full pan:
Tare out pan first
4.2 lbs Miller Lite Cans (5.5 cans, squeeze foam out (66oz)), Tare
1.4 lbs Honey, Tare
1 Lb Olive Oil, Tare
Set on heat window
4” full pan:
Tare out pan first
13.7 lbs Flour (6 or 7 scoops)
Shake around to level out
Tare
3.2 lbs Semolina (Spread it out)
1/2 Cup Kosher Salt
Mix dry ingredients twice around pan
Water/wet yeast:
4 Coffee Spoons (tsp) of yeast (rounded)
Tare out pitcher
4.2 lbs of water up to 110of
3.8 - 4 will fill small pitcher
Rest of the 4.2 for yeast (NOT ABOVE 110of or below 100of)
Pour 3.8lbs of water into the honey mixture and place pan in oven for roughly 2 minutes until it is up to temp (100-110of).
Add .4 lbs to bowl for yeast (make sure not above 110 or below 100) and whisk while mixture is in oven.
Use slotted spoon to stir mixture around and get honey from bottom. Use spatula to mix honey up make sure no honey left on bottom.
Pour yeast mixture into small pan but in the middle, not on the sides, the side will kill yeast.
Pour dry ingredients into mix bowl
Pour wet into mix bowl
Raise bowl
Start in gear one
Gear one for 15 Minutes
Gear two for 30 Minutes
let dough raise for 10 - 20 minutes
1.1lbs for large, .6 for medium
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. It is a very resilient crust, I miss the flavor. Nothing like it since the owner shut down (he was a young guy with great ideas, bad addictions though).
To a different amount of dough or are you wanting ideas on the recipe itself?
Trying to break it down from the large recipe to something I can make in a 7qt mixer. Preferably 6qt or smaller I guess.
I work in grams so I'll show you my method and hopefully you can apply it to your more complicated recipe...
500g flour
300g water
10g salt
5g dried yeast
Total = 815g
Now if you wanted half of that you'd simply half every ingredient. But what if you want a 750g dough?
Well the formula is simple.
New dough weight / old dough weight then multiply every ingredient by that answer. So...
750g / 815 = 0.9202 (4 decimal places is fine). Now multiply each ingredient by 0.9202...
500g flour x 0.9202 = 460g
300g water x 0.9202 = 276g
10g salt x 0.9202 = 9g
5g dried yeast x 0.9202 = 4.6g
And this gives you your new recipe. Just round up or down to the nearest decimal point with the rest of the ingredients but be more accurate with the yeast if you can.
Thank you!
When I get a chance, I will weigh out the full measurements on the yeast and salt (container measurements, not weight). I remember the scale I used had 4 decimal places on the display, so the weights were pretty accurate. Not as accurate as what grams would be, but for pounds it was ok lol. Would the mixing / resting times change?
Helps with the conversion! Once you have converted and you have, for example, 205.15g water then 205g will be fine. Because the flour, water and salt (to some extent) are in larger quantities then rounding to the nearest decimal point will be fine. But because the yeast is measured out in very small quantities anyway then go for more accuracy with the dried yeast which will be more important.
If everything is in the same ratio then times should be almost exactly the same too. There won't be much difference between a 900g dough or a 750g dough. If the recipe makes a lot (and I'm talking bakers quantities) and you scale down to one loaf sized dough then times will differ more so due to internal temperature of the dough. But as always watch the dough and not the clock.
what kind of dough you like, what kind f flour you are using and how much water to use for it and then retarding the dough for 1-3 days if making pizza. Some folks like their dough more extensible and lean toward AP flour and others want it elastic and use high gluten flour. I'm sort of in the middle and use bread flour. Abe is in the UK where the flour is very weak compared to us in North America. So he can get by with 60% hydration but I shoot for around 70% using bread flour, a bit more for HG and a bit less for AP. If usuing a mixer then HG might be better suited if mixing for a long time.
The honey helps the crust to brown in a hot oven when baked for a short time and give the dough the wanted bit of sweetness. The olive oil makes the dough more extensible, adds some flavor and helps the crust brown so sweetener and oil are in my dough. I put semilona in there too but remill it to get it finer. Some folks swear by 00 but I find it not a requirement unless you are shooting for being authentic Italian or prefer it.
The most important thing is to retard the dough. Longer for HG and less for AP depending on what flour you are using but at least 24 hours.
I usually shoot for 250 g for a decent sized very thin crust pizza and make 3 at a time for the 3 of us so 750 g total weight works well. I see no need to use a mixer at home for this amount of dough. If you are making twice that amount at a crack or more. then the mixer is a plus.
I usually put some sourdough in there for better flavor and dough characteristics. We also put some fresh garlic, rosemary and sun dried tomato in the crust too because it just makes the pizza better suited for our particular tastes.
Nothing like making pizza at home.