Great thin crust-but not crispy
I decided to experiment with making a quick,very thin crust pizza today. I did a little research,decided on the formula and threw the dough together this morning. It would sit in a warm spot til supper needed to be made (about 8 hrs).I just wanted a small pizza. Surprisingly, 100g flour made a13 inch pizza. The crust was almost paper thin! The formula is easy to scale up,also.
My formula :
100g AP flour
75g water
2g salt
hearty pinch of yeast (my scale doesn't measure that low-it was supposed to be .5g)
Mix dough until it has a windowpane. Easy with such a little amount of dough! Place the dough in an oiled plastic bag and let it sit in a warm place for 8-24 hrs. The dough can be frozen for future use but it was a little unclear in the discussion if the dough should be frozen immediately after kneading or after it rose for at least a few hours. No matter, I used it after it sat for 8hrs. I was surprised by how much fermentation took place with just that small amount of yeast. The bag blew up like a balloon!
The dough was very moist and slack so I handled it with oiled hands. I placed it on an oiled parchment and spread it out by just lifting and pressing.It was pretty fragile. When I was satisfied with how thinly it had spread (almost see thru in some places!), I inverted it onto a cornmeal dusted cookie sheet. I do not have a pizza stone or peel and I wasn't even sure when I started that my oven would get above 450. Nevertheless,I preheated to 500F and put the pizza in for 7 minutes.
It turned out nice! Definitely worth a repeat.The only issue I have is that , while it was a very thin crust, it was not crackly crisp. It was a great New York folding style crust. Was the lack of a stone the reason it was not crisp? There is no way this dough would have been able to be put on a perforated pizza pan. The dough was too slack.
Actually, there is another comment I would have and that is a bland taste that is simply from a lack of fermentation. The dough tasted very bland. I would increase the salt a bit next time but I can definitely see the benefit of a cold retard on the flavor. That will be the next experiment-a little more yeast (or even natural leaven) and an overnight,cold retard.
What delicious fun!
Have you considered par-baking the crust before applying the toppings?
I found an excellent formula on the PizzaMaking forum.
That formula calls for a much drier dough than yours.
Danny
I think I may reduce the hydration from 75% to 70% next time as a start and see if the dough is more form-able.
Docking and parbaking are easy enough to do and may really help crisp it up even without a stone or steel. Thanks for the ideas!
cl: Lodge has a newer cast iron pizza pan out. It has 3 differences from their original:
1. No lip, or raised edge.
2. Smoother surface. It's still just a little bit textured, not as smooth as a baking steel, but not as bumpy as the earlier model. The smoothness makes for better crisping as there is more surface in contact with the dough, ie, less air-space created by the small bumpy texture.
3. Cheaper.
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Here's the link at amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-BW15PP-Seasoned-Pizza-Black/dp/B0971MC534
I got mine at Kroger for about $28, but haven't used it yet.
Your local major-chain grocery may have it at a similar price. Amazon and Walmart are higher. So I suspect that Kroger just hasn't responded yet to a manufacturer price increase.
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I've also seen good prices on slight-blemish Lodge cast iron at Tuesday Morning. Not the pizza pan, but rectangular griddles and 10" and 12" skillets.
Bland flavor = not enough salt.
Lots of modifications for you:
- use Caputo Tipo 00 flour, it has less protein and is finely milled. I use a 50/50 mix of Tipo 00 and semolina rimacinata. The key is low protein and fine milling.
- add 3% flour weight of olive oil and about 10% of flour weight milk powder. This makes the crust tender and crunchier.
- bake at the highest temperature possible. 500 degrees F is not hot enough. NY pizza coal fired ovens approach 800 deg F. While 800 deg F is not possible for a home electric oven, high temperature is a must.
- use a stone or a heavy mass to retain oven heat. I use a heavy sautoir inverted on the bottom rack. I put the pizza on a pizza screen on top of the sautoir. Heat from the bottom directly in contact with the pizza (pan or screen) is a must.
I'm surprised my oven made it to 500F so 800F is definitely NOT do-able.
Interesting about milk powder contributing to tenderness and crunchiness. I almost added olive oil but decided to try a purist ingredient list first.
This hydration of dough would have oozed into a pizza screen and I'd never get a slice off of it. I have to adjust the hydration before I use any perforated pan. I also think pre-baking for a few minutes may help the crispiness.
I have given up on stones. I've had several over the years but they don't last. I have had several spontaneously crack-and not from abuse or mis-use. I finally decided they are too expensive to replace every year. That is the longest use I had on one. Maybe I ought to look for a steel or iron griddle to put on the bottom shelf.
The blandness was not lack of salt . I did taste that immediately. What I was referring to is the lack of fermentation flavor-like a subtle wine/yeast flavor of a properly fermented baguette. This crust did not have any yeasty flavor. I am used to using a natural levain in most of my breads. Maybe that would be the taste I am used to.
Thank you for all the ideas. So many experiments-so little time!
Use the highest temperature your oven can manage. No one suggested using 800deg F in a home consumer oven, right?
A pizza screen will work wonderfully for your application. Soft crust mostly means the bottom crust is undercooked which means heat did not get to the bottom. You need heat to reach the bottom of the crust. Paint the screen with olive oil before placing the crust on the screen. No oozing, no sticking. Just good well cooked and tasty pizza that releases easily from the screen.
If you are looking for baguette flavor in a pizza crust you are probably barking up the wrong tree. Pizza is far thinner than nearly any bread form - it's a flatbread. Baguette is a loaf, completely different.
If you don't like stones you need the largest thermal mass you can manage inside the oven. There is no choice. Cooking pizza in a home oven is a far cry from a pizzeria deck oven or WFO. Pizzeria pizza gets very high heat delivered from very high thermal mass from all directions. A home oven does not deliver this, so the home baker needs to make due with what he/she has.
I use a heavy bottomed sautoir inverted on the bottom oven rack as a "stone". It is the largest thermal mass I can put in my oven besides a stone. You need thermal mass and you need heat into the bottom of the crust.