Petro's Pizza Dough


 

Steve Petrone

TVWBB Diamond Member
Petro's Pizza Dough

4 3/4 cup unbleached bread flour or 1lb. 8.5 oz
1/2 cup whole wheat flour or 2.8 oz
1 T kosher salt rounded or 0.8 oz
1 t instant yeast

1 1/2 T olive oil
1 T sugar (or honey)
2 cups water

Notes:

I prefer unbleached bread flour (White Lily or Gold Medal).

Mix the dry ingredients in a 4-quart bowl. Add the liquid ingredients. I prefer to mix with a large fork. Once the ingredients come together (most all the dry ingredients are incorporated), cover and rest for 5 minutes. Next, kneed the dough by hand 5-10 min. adding flour or water as needed until the dough is "tacky, soft and supple".

Divide the dough into 4 or 5 equal portions and place in individual zip bags that have been sprayed with olive oil. Place in fridge overnight or two or three. My best results have been 2 or 3 nights cold ferment.

30 minutes-2 hours before baking pizzas, remove the dough from the fridge to rest and warm to room temp.

Preheat oven to 550F for at least 30 minutes with a pizza stone or equivalent to cook on.

I prefer to stretch each pie by hand leaving a thicker lip on the edge. Place on a piece of parchment on a peel.

Top the pizza.

My simple easy topping goes like this. Add about 2 T Prego tomato sauce (Purists will make their own...and it is better to do so...this is quick and very serviceable however). Sprinkle a grated hard cheese (romano) and fresh herbs (oregano).

I have posted a Pizza Spice Blend for those who use dried herbs and want a blend of spice ready to go....

Next, I like thin slices of roma tomatoes (dried between papertowels), fresh garlic slices, thin slices of sweet onion, anything else that comes to mind and, finally, top with slices of provolone cheese or mozzarella.

Use 1/2 as much of all toppings as you think you'll need. This dough makes a wonderful crust which is the star-not the toppings. I repeat use 1/2 the toppings you are tempted to use.

With the peel slide the pizza into preheated oven for 7 minutes and allow to cool on a rack before cutting.

Thanks to Rita and all the others here who have contributed to the pizza threads. We now have a home for the recipes-thanks Chris.

Finally, a huge thanks to Peter Reinhart whose book American Pie got me started on my pizza and bread baking journey. His simple advice,"To do that which you have a passion for"...works for me.

Edits on 8.17.09
 
Steve,

Looks like a good recipe. I too have been experimenting with pizzas, but have been struggling with the dough. Finally I switched to AP flour and used my bread machine to knead the dough; it helped a lot. I'm probably going to do another this weekend. I have no desire to 'order out' anymore.

Paul
 
Steve, how big a pizza does each on of the sections make? I like mine 16-18". Also, do you use cold or warm water??
 
My stone is about 14" and I can cover most of it with a thin crust.

Room temp to slightly warm water.

Part of the therapy is kneading the dough...but I can understand wanting to do it the easiest way.
 
Originally posted by Paul K:
Steve,

I have no desire to 'order out' anymore.

Paul

Paul,

I hear you. The only decent pizza I can find around me is $17 for a large. I have been at the pizza making thing for 6 months now, and for approximately $6 for a really good pizza there is now reason to order out.

For your dough you might want to try as higher protein flour, and check your ratio of water to flour (make sure the ratio of water to flour is correct for what ever flower you use). I use one from king arthur call sir lancelot.

Q'n, Golf'n and Grill'n.... too many choices.
Gary
 
Gary, I have been measuring using a 2 cup measuring cup. I have not started using the more precise procedure of using weight. I usually add 1 3/4 cups plus 2 T water. More times than not I add more water. Thus the 2 cups of water.

Those who are more experienced please add your comments or suggestions.

For those who are interested, Reinhart's American Pie is a great read about his world wide journey to find the best....the other half of the book teaches us how to make the best pizza of a variety of types.
 
Steve,

The following is a basic dough formulation by volume that I started with:


1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
1 1/4 cups water
1 1/4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons oil
Flour – about 3 to 3 1/2 cups to make a stiff dough

My first few attempts came out a bit doughy, until I resisted the urge to dump all the flour it to the mixer and went by how the dough felt (not as stiff). Putting the dough ball in the fridge for a few days makes a big difference.

The website posted above is very good, and packed with everything pizza.

Q'n, Golf'n & Grill'n.... too many choices!
Gary
 
Originally posted by Gary Bramley:
Putting the dough ball in the fridge for a few days makes a big difference.
Yes it does but.......... Here's a heads up. If anybody wants to do a long cold ferment in the fridge remember you must decrease the amount of yeast used for the cold ferment doughs. If you were to add a whole pack of yeast and try to cold ferement the dough for 10-14 days it would not be good. Too much yeast and the extended stay in the fridge would yeild a gooey doughy mess because the yeast would have eaten everything up. For my NY Style pizza dough I use just 1/2-3/4 tsp of IDY for 40 oz of dough, enough for 2 - 16" pies. I mix my dough and split into two 20 oz balls, oil them and into a airtigh container they go for 5-14 days. I have found that I like the dough best at the 11 day mark. It has the best flavor and still is easy to stretch without being over fermented. Anything past 14 days and it's pretty much used up.
A decent scale is also a good thing to use when making pizza dough. This way you can get the flour and water measurements right each and every time.
icon_wink.gif
 
Bryan, you appear to go much longer in the frig than most....any reason why others recommend about half that much time?

Oh, I may have the answer now that I read your recipe...34-36*. Thats cold.
 
Originally posted by Steve Petrone:
Bryan, you appear to go much longer in the frig than most....any reason why others recommend about half that much time?

Oh, I may have the answer now that I read your recipe...34-36*. Thats cold.
Steve, Yes I do but theres pretty many over on the pizza forum that go long also. I use very little yeast, so I have to let it go long, for the flavor to develope. I have used my dough at 3 days old but found it too floury tasting. 5 days is the min I go, it's OK at 5 days but 7 days is alot better. 11 days is the best flavor IMO and you can still stretch out the dough easily. Anything after 14 days and the yeast have pretty much ate everything up and the dough goes south on you, very high in alcohol flavor and tears easily. Try it sometime and see what you think. Just remember to put it in a spare fridge if you have one, gets opened less so the temps are more stable. If no spare fridge make sure it goes in the very back and bottom of the frige, that's the coldest most stable place.
 
Tips From Peter Reinhart:

1. use Unbleached flour
2. after most of the dry and wet ingredients come together, let the dough rest 5-15 minutes, then resume kneading dough
3. wet dough=better crust, puffier edge
4. use less yeast and delay fermentation by using overnight refrigeration
5. start with small crusts, stretch by hand or use a rolling pin until you are comfortable with hand stretching

I have adapted these from Reinhart's list of ten tips.
 
Todays crust:

used unbleached AP flour+whole wheat
No sugar
No olive oil
2 days in frig

Comments:
Very good thin crust-perhaps a bit wet, sticky and a little hard to handle

May need to use less h2o
Perhaps it would be easier to handle with the olive oil in it? The dough wanted to stick to my hands-perhaps I should have used some flour?
 
Most of my pizza dough batches have been divided for 5 crusts. The last batch I divided into 4 baggies. This made not the thin crust I am used to but a 'Hand Tossed' style crust. I like it that way too. One more batch is in the fridge divided into 4 bags...we'll know soon which we prefer.
 
Verdict is in-my guys like the larger and slightly thicker crust. So now I am making 4 crusts instead of five from my dough recipe.
 
Hey Steve, here is a recipe I've used for whole wheat and regular flour combo. This makes an 18" pizza.Stretches out great after being in the frig 4-5 days.
13.25 oz of white flour
2.0 oz whole wheat
9 1/2 oz water
1/2 tsp ady
1 1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp oil
Knead for 3-4 minutes, shape into a ball and store in coated baggie in frig
 
Steve, I use a 18" pizza screen that sits on top of unglazed quarry tiles. You can cut the size back by using that Lehmann's calculator or maybe Bryan S will do the math. What size do you usually make?
 
Paul, my guess is that my stone is about 14-15 inches. I use parchment paper on the stone. Sometimes the paper will go for three bakes. Stretching the dollar....
 
Steve, I used the calculator and this is what I came up with for a 15" pizza using this recipe.

Flour (100%): 316.79 g | 11.17 oz | 0.7 lbs
Water (63%): 199.58 g | 7.04 oz | 0.44 lbs
ADY (.30%): 0.95 g | 0.03 oz | 0 lbs | 0.25 tsp | 0.08 tbsp
Salt (1.75%): 5.54 g | 0.2 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.99 tsp | 0.33 tbsp
Oil (1%): 3.17 g | 0.11 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.7 tsp | 0.23 tbsp
Total (166.05%): 526.04 g | 18.56 oz | 1.16 lbs | TF = 0.105
On the total flour total, I used 25% wheat flour.In this recipe it is about 2 3/4 oz of wheat flour and the balance white. The finished dough should weigh about 18 1/2 oz. I've got one in the frig right now that I made yesterday. Will use it tomorrow night.
 

 

Back
Top