Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
@Dingo I guess you could use no oil, though almost every bread (except maybe baguettes/crispy breadsticks) uses some kind of fat.
I would try a two-pronged approach: hotter oven (if it can, push it to 500), and/or preheat the oven for 1 hour BEFORE putting it in. IE, not just when it dings. #2 is crust that errs on the thin side, and use a touch of sugar (could be honey, sugar, syrup, etc...) 5-10 grams should do. The more you use, the slower the dough will rise for the same amount of yeast, and the faster/more the crust will brown.
I was having trouble getting the middle of the pizza 'done' (crisp/not soggy) until I made some tweaks to the recipe. For convenience, I've reproduced it here:
Tipo 00 (half of the little bag...something like 3 cups. Maybe a little more.)
62.5% water (~1-1/3 to 1-1/2 cups)
5% olive oil (1 Tablespoon, plus more for 'greased' bowl/ball stage)
3% salt (roughly 2 teaspoons Kosher salt, little less (1-1/2) if you use table salt)
2% sugar (Little less than 2 teaspoons. You can add more, maybe up to a Tablespoon for a crisper crust)
2% wheat gluten (<---magic ingredient. Stretches for days. I've increased mine a bit, roughly equivalent to a heaping tablespoon.)
2 teaspoons of yeast (Less for a slower rise, BUT...)
My thoughts, as they vomit forth from my brain:
Wheat gluten is a game changer. Yes, extra fine milled flour has more protein available due to the grind, but not like this. Bob's Red Mill makes a...1 pound(?) bag of Vital Wheat Gluten. Most Shoprites carry it, and my local Acme, at least, has added it to their staple of Bob's Red Mill products. I guess word has gotten out that gluten is a good thing for bread? Either mix it into the flour before you add it in, or add it into the mixing bowl after the other dry ingredients. It soaks up water/forms aggressive gluten bonds, so it doesn't mix nicely if you dump it into water/dump water on it.
More sugar makes the crust brown more. Lots of sugar=lots of brown. Brown crust is gonna be crispier.
Sugar is junk food, even for yeast. If you use to much, the dough takes longer to rise. The longer it takes to rise with lots of sugar, the more 'beery' it is going to taste. Some people don't care--I can't stand the smell or taste, personally. The more yeast you use, the more the problem compounds.
Yesterday was hands down my most successful dough--stretchy, but not overly difficult to stretch. My thoughts can be summed up pretty much as, "This dough is way too firm, and it's going to be a bear to stretch. Hey, this isn't bad. This is going to tear, it's definitely going to tear, wow--it didn't tear. It's HUGE!" So, last night, I got home. I wanted to cook, because I didn't ride, but I didn't want to be up until all hours of the night, so I modified the recipe a bit. I removed the sugar (sugar inhibits yeast growth, even in smaller amounts, as I have since learned after earlier posts), accidentally added a LIIIIIIIITLE too much oil, accidentally added a LIIIIIIITLE too much salt, and a LIIIIIIITLE too much gluten...proportions reflected above. The slightly-more-than-half-a-bag of flour that I used made three jumbo pizzas. At least 12x18", the largest 14x20 (and I probably could have stretched the other ones out).
Now, my oven can just squeak out 550 F (really more like 530-40ish). I'm sure that 50 degrees makes a difference, because it sure as hell did when I took the pans away and threw the pizzas directly on the stone. The hotter you can get your cooking space, the less time it takes to cook the bread, and the less the stuff on the top of the pizza is charred to death.
Last thought: since I switched to using a scale instead of measuring cups, EVERYTHING I've made has become more consistent. Also, scaling recipes is super easy. I think I picked up an Escali San Jamar. It was something like $25, and worth every penny.
I would try a two-pronged approach: hotter oven (if it can, push it to 500), and/or preheat the oven for 1 hour BEFORE putting it in. IE, not just when it dings. #2 is crust that errs on the thin side, and use a touch of sugar (could be honey, sugar, syrup, etc...) 5-10 grams should do. The more you use, the slower the dough will rise for the same amount of yeast, and the faster/more the crust will brown.
I was having trouble getting the middle of the pizza 'done' (crisp/not soggy) until I made some tweaks to the recipe. For convenience, I've reproduced it here:
Tipo 00 (half of the little bag...something like 3 cups. Maybe a little more.)
62.5% water (~1-1/3 to 1-1/2 cups)
5% olive oil (1 Tablespoon, plus more for 'greased' bowl/ball stage)
3% salt (roughly 2 teaspoons Kosher salt, little less (1-1/2) if you use table salt)
2% sugar (Little less than 2 teaspoons. You can add more, maybe up to a Tablespoon for a crisper crust)
2% wheat gluten (<---magic ingredient. Stretches for days. I've increased mine a bit, roughly equivalent to a heaping tablespoon.)
2 teaspoons of yeast (Less for a slower rise, BUT...)
My thoughts, as they vomit forth from my brain:
Wheat gluten is a game changer. Yes, extra fine milled flour has more protein available due to the grind, but not like this. Bob's Red Mill makes a...1 pound(?) bag of Vital Wheat Gluten. Most Shoprites carry it, and my local Acme, at least, has added it to their staple of Bob's Red Mill products. I guess word has gotten out that gluten is a good thing for bread? Either mix it into the flour before you add it in, or add it into the mixing bowl after the other dry ingredients. It soaks up water/forms aggressive gluten bonds, so it doesn't mix nicely if you dump it into water/dump water on it.
More sugar makes the crust brown more. Lots of sugar=lots of brown. Brown crust is gonna be crispier.
Sugar is junk food, even for yeast. If you use to much, the dough takes longer to rise. The longer it takes to rise with lots of sugar, the more 'beery' it is going to taste. Some people don't care--I can't stand the smell or taste, personally. The more yeast you use, the more the problem compounds.
Yesterday was hands down my most successful dough--stretchy, but not overly difficult to stretch. My thoughts can be summed up pretty much as, "This dough is way too firm, and it's going to be a bear to stretch. Hey, this isn't bad. This is going to tear, it's definitely going to tear, wow--it didn't tear. It's HUGE!" So, last night, I got home. I wanted to cook, because I didn't ride, but I didn't want to be up until all hours of the night, so I modified the recipe a bit. I removed the sugar (sugar inhibits yeast growth, even in smaller amounts, as I have since learned after earlier posts), accidentally added a LIIIIIIIITLE too much oil, accidentally added a LIIIIIIITLE too much salt, and a LIIIIIIITLE too much gluten...proportions reflected above. The slightly-more-than-half-a-bag of flour that I used made three jumbo pizzas. At least 12x18", the largest 14x20 (and I probably could have stretched the other ones out).
Now, my oven can just squeak out 550 F (really more like 530-40ish). I'm sure that 50 degrees makes a difference, because it sure as hell did when I took the pans away and threw the pizzas directly on the stone. The hotter you can get your cooking space, the less time it takes to cook the bread, and the less the stuff on the top of the pizza is charred to death.
Last thought: since I switched to using a scale instead of measuring cups, EVERYTHING I've made has become more consistent. Also, scaling recipes is super easy. I think I picked up an Escali San Jamar. It was something like $25, and worth every penny.