Window pane for pizza dough?

I make 300 gr dough balls, 

I make 300 gr dough balls,  fairly straight forward,  I usually use:

175 gr flour,  mostly 00 but I usually add about 15 gr of either rye or whole wheat for some extra flavour

125 gr of water

3.5 gr salt

I would usually use maybe 100 gr of starter so I would reduce the flour and water by 50 gr each,

3 stretch and folds,  leave it for maybe an hour then ball it up and into the fridge.  I leave it for a couple of days or more if you want,  keep an eye on it,  after a day or two it should be doing well,  if it gets to much air in it just re-ball it.  

Warm it up for an hour or two before making the pie and enjoy.   I have great luck with this recipie.

So, for my thin crust NY pizza, ( notice I did not say NY style) I like to think, mine is true to form, NYC pizza. The quintessential street slice if you will. 

Enough of blowing my own horn. Let's get down to the brass tacks.

First the composition. 

1. High gluten flour (All Trump's/ King Arthur Sir Lacealot) I am not sure of the gluten in the fancy Italian style pizza flours, because I don't use them. I also add a small percentage of semolina.

2. Commercial yeast. I save the natural yeast for other endeavors. 

3. Low hydration. I use 65%. This can be even lower or higher depending on the pizziolo. 

4. Even though my American flour is already malted I add a tiny bit of diastatic barley malt. 

5. Salt is a normal 2%

6 2% olive 🫒 oil 

6. The street slice pie is large. A minimum of 18" - 20". While I would love to make 20" pies, my home oven limits me to 18". For an 18" pie my dough balls are 560g.

The modus operandi 

I start with a one hour water& flour autolysis. After which all the other ingredients, save the oil are mixed in. Once the dough clears the sides of the bowl the oil is added slowly. From here the dough is mixed on Bosch Universal speed #2 just until the oil is incorporated. I am not looking to build a lot of strength up front. The extendability will come from a long cold ferment. By the end of which the pizza dough will definitely stretch to a window pane. Since I make large freezer batches, this is my procedure.

1. Straight out of the mixer the dough is weighted and portioned.

2. The dough balls are wrapped and placed directly into the freezer.

3. The dough is defrosted/ fermented cold for 48 hours. On pizza day the dough balls is allowed to riise to room temperature for about an hour, give or take. 

4. By this time I am able to easy  hand stretch a translucent thin skin.

In conclusion, Let me repete, It is neither necessary or recommend to build the dough strength up front. This step is accomplished by time and temperature.

Best regards,

Will F

The Roadside Pie King 

Also known as:

The Brooklyn Maltese 

I am not expert and have had many more frustrations than successes with pizza (I think more to do with how to use a home oven for pizza), but IMHO, what is crucial with pizza is to have a very active dough. As you don't have a proving stage as such, the dough must be super active before baking. 

So don't get too caught up with kneading up-front. Mix the flour and water and yeast (or SD starter) and after about 40min rest, just start with regular stretch and folds every half an hour or so and then some letter folds as the dough takes shape more and you should be OK. When the dough is at the right level of activity, it will almost bubble up as you are trying to do the letter folds.

No window pane for me. 

I have made many pizzas and enjoy them.  I use a tender dough recipe and the flavor and texture are great.  Not the same as NY thin crust.  It's not my goal. 

150g Caputo 00

150g Caputo Semolina Rimacinata

180g water

25g-30g olive oil

1/8 cup nonfat milk powder

6g salt

1 envelope commercial yeast

Mix, knead, form into a ball, place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, let ferment in the fridge overnight.  Form into a 14" thin round, add toppings, bake for ~12-15 minutes at 500F. 

As others have mentioned it isn’t necessary to have your pizza dough window pane. Generally I mix (by hand) let autolyse for 20 minutes, knead/stretch and folds until the dough is able to create a smooth skin when balled taut. About an hour total. Portioned, then into an oiled container and refrigerated.

Since you’re using Caputo 00, for me, how well it performs depends a lot on how you’re baking. I use Caputo 00 when doing Neapolitan style at high heat in my WFO @ 63% hydration. These cook in 60-90 seconds. For lower temps I use KABF or KAAP @ 66% hydration. These are baked at 550° in my home oven with a steel and take 5 minutes. A couple of recent examples: Margherita - Caputo 00 in WFO, NH style White Clam in home oven.

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As others have mentioned it isn’t necessary to have your pizza dough window pane. Generally I mix (by hand) let autolyse for 20 minutes, knead/stretch and folds until the dough is able to create a smooth skin when balled taut. About an hour total. Portioned, then into an oiled container and refrigerated.

Since you’re using Caputo 00, for me, how well it performs depends a lot on how you’re baking. I use Caputo 00 when doing Neapolitan style at high heat in my WFO @ 63% hydration. These cook in 60-90 seconds. For lower temps I use KABF or KAAP @ 66% hydration. These are baked at 550° in my home oven with a steel and take 5 minutes. A couple of recent examples: Margherita - Caputo 00 in WFO, NH style White Clam in home oven.

IMG_0715.jpeg

IMG_0582.jpeg