Covid Pizza Dough after initial rise and punch-down.
Covid Pizza Dough won’t give you Covid, nor will it cure Covid as far as I know. The title reflects the stultifying new normal when the days run together and you are too lazy to go upstairs where you keep your baking notes. It is an easy to remember formula following Jon in Albany’s precept that a pizza dough should be at 62% hydration, and as a bonus you will end up with a clean kitchen when you are done. Makes ~2 pounds of dough, enough for 2 medium or 3 individual pies.
Ingredients:
310 g water, warmed to body temperature
1 t active dry yeast
Scant 2 t Kosher salt
500 g all purpose flour (or 00 flour if you have it)
Method: bloom the yeast in the warm water for a few minutes in a bowl, then add flour and salt. Mix roughly with a spoon and autolyze for 15 minutes or more. Turn out onto a floured bench and knead with your hands for at least 7 minutes. As you go, incorporate the flour left in the bowl and the flour that sticks to the bench. (Scrape it up with the edge of a chef’s knife.) At the end of the knead, your goal is to have a virtually clean counter and bowl because all the flour has gone into the dough.
Covid pizza dough in the bag after 24 hours, looking good
Put the dough back in the bowl, cover, and rise an hour or two till it starts to expand significantly. Transfer to a ziploc®™ bag and toss in the refrigerator. Leave it at least 24 hours and as long as 4 or 5 days. When you are ready to make pizza, bring it out and divide into sections of equal weight. Make pizzas according to your usual process and if there is any dough left over toss it back into the refrigerator for another day.
We will be using this dough to try to correct the many mistakes in our previous attempt at making a Frank Pepe’s-style pie. Stay tuned.
Jon has a wfo. Do not try OO in a home oven.
By WFO you mean “super hot oven” yes? I got my pizza stone (bought the cordierite one you recommended, thank you) and got it up to 775 in my BlueStar and could go higher. That should work, yes? But for ovens that max out at 500, this article would seem to concur plus there is some other useful info on 00 flour: https://www.mashed.com/172698/what-is-00-flour-and-how-is-it-different-than-bread-flour/
Also, Jon’s WFO (wood fired oven) is maybe 3 years old. What did you do before, Jon
Been using King Arthur’s bread flour lately (in 50 pound bags it is called Special Patent, same flour). I wouldn’t use 00 unless I was going with high temps if the wood oven and shooting for under 2 minute bakes. You’re oven goes much hotter than most. My current kitchen oven tops out at 500 which is disappointing. In terms of heat, before the wood oven was a Blackstone Oven that runs on propane. It is basically is a little dome with a circular pizza stone that rotates and a powerful burner on the right side. I ran the stone around 620 degrees. Before that, I had a pizza steel in a different oven that went to 550. Before I knew what I was doing, I made some ghostly pale 00 pizzas on that stone. Not much after those pizzas, I found the pizza forum and the deep pizza dive really started. I like 62-63% hydration if you are mixing by hand. It makes it easier for the dough to come together and isn’t so wet that it becomes hard to stretch. If you are using a mixer or food processor and are looking for a true NY slice, it is probably less water, more 55-60%.
Some time ago there was a NYT Roberta’s recipe that used a blend of 00 and all purpose. AOA Greg had some success and enjoyed that recipe. I’ve never tried it. The last few times I have tried to go Neapolitan, I used an unmalted all purpose flour I found at Whole Foods. I don’t have much Neapolitan pizza experience, both making or eating. The best I’ve had is the Margherita at Jay’s Artisan outside Buffalo.
I didn’t realize KA Special Patent and Bread Flour were the same! I’ve got about 5 pounds of SP I picked up when it was on sale at Honest Weight awhile back so I will give it a try on a future bake.